As I am, as most SLAP posters are, an older nostalgic skate nerd who's passion for skating is continually transitioning from riding a skateboard into being a fan of skateboarding as my body breaks down, I find myself wanting more journalistic skate content and skate analysis (of videos, industry, and whatnot).
In fact, while I love all the gossip here on SLAP, it is those threads in the Photo/Video section that actually discuss and critique tricks and parts that make my day.
Blogs like chromeball, boil the ocean (when I can understand it), quartersnacks updates, village psychic, and the occasional non-puerile Jenkem article (
http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2012/04/30/what-really-happened-with-slaps-one-in-a-million-part-1/) are fantastic in that they are not beholden to advertisers and can go in whatever direction they want. I was thrilled when Chops actually brought up murder to Danny Way. Dude should get a skate-pulitzer.
Even Rad Rat, while still in a nearly unwatchable millennial youtube format, is providing some basic journalistic groundwork that would be informative to a newer skater.
I see a possible upside to the Olympic exposure is that perhaps more people will create journalistic skate content, even if not ever getting paid for it. It is hard to see skateboarding ever having the breadth of content of say, baseball journalism, where there are hundreds of paid writers analyzing every aspect of the game, but a few more outlets for intelligent thoughts, historical context, and criticism would be welcome.
While the average skateboard buyer is still a 12 year old, I do think there are enough adults interested in skating to fuel the creation some thoughtful content. I have been thinking about skateboarding in one way or another constantly for nearly 3 decades, so, yeah, I would love some more serious skate journalism.