street skating is a gigantic party that sadly has to end some day. The late-nighters have been run off into the fleeing outskirts of the street, clinging to once famous street spots that are now potentially knobbed or securitied out, trying to still get that NBD in under 3 tries. The rest have been scampered off into some form of afterparty, usually industrial areas or drainage ditches in this day and age. It makes street skating require more driving or missioning instead of just a fun time all day.
So now we are left with perfect plazas where kids are groomed into mike-mo esque flatground wizards until the age that their parent or caretaker allows them to spread their wings and leave that padded cell of a skate park. the task at hand to tackle street spots seems so much more difficult than it did "Back home". Hence, the board carrying begins. No need in wasting energy at the spot by skating too it.
"Pass me that smoke bro", The hip, flannel glad dragoon hands his hombre a roll of Winston's.
"Swag", the token fat kid filmer replies.
As they venture out into the streets to gain, I don't even know what; possibly fame, recognition, a video to show at school to potentially impress that voluptuous import student with poor oral hygeine. It's hard to say these days. Kids always want different stuff.
To be honest, I have come pretty full circle. I learned skating pretty much fully on the street, but I would say that a plaza is a way better place to learn and kind of a more fun way to skate in 2012. Plus they are getting better and better. I fully understand the appeal of getting street tricks but I think people are going a little crazy with this love park stuff these days. I mean does it really matter that much that this guy doesn't have to go to work in the morning so he can stay up til 1 am to get tricks on a spot that 99% of people can't get to? What if they built an exact replica of Love Park but it was in a plaza a few blocks away from the original, yet it was designed for skating? Would it still hold the same weight as it once did in the 90s? I really doubt it.