For some reason (probably being a parent myself) I read every last page of this thread, and what a wild ride. From Mad Dawg tatts, to knee-clapping child hucking, to TAMS, to the sick GeoCities/Angelfire Korn and Limp Bizkit internet 1.0 sites. 13 year old me was guilty of having a Limp Bizkit Angelfire fan site with stolen jpegs, corny animated gifs, and of course the obligatory hit counter and guestbook haha. What a time for the internet.
My first exposure to this Trae kid was a recent edit in the photos/video section and lately, I've tried to subscribe to the old if you have nothing positive to contribute, then say nothing at all mindset. But man it just seems like a sad case of high-pressure parent involvement in an outdated high-risk/low-reward style of skateboarding his ballplayer jock father has little idea of. I'm sure if this kid lived elsewhere he'd learn some more interesting tricks or skate some more original spots more creatively. The NKA 'big pedo vibes' Nigel videos are weird and creepy and sad. His dad having his own Thrasher interview without any input from the kid himself was embarrassing too.
I've never witnessed this kind of parenting in person around skateboarding but there was a scooter kid's dad pulling this shit once at our local park and I had to bite my tongue so hard not to step in and defend this poor little guy. He was mocking him for being a "wussy" and praising other kids in front of his son while chastising him for needing to try harder, go faster, try again etc. It was in the summer and it was hot as fuck, like 36 degrees C and this kid just wanted to go swimming and pops keeps saying shit like "5 more tries." After 10 minutes I was the only other person there, sitting under a shade tree and watching it all go down. After 20 minutes of his dad beaking off, the kid muttered angrily under his breathe "I'll show you my real self!" and aggressively pushed towards our big pyramid trying his best to clear the top (didn't even come close as it's pretty big and steep and the ground is really rough) and it broke my heart a little hearing how frustrated it was making him. It's pretty kooky but if the kid was a skater I probably would have said something since I'm a fairly confrontational guy in person. Shit sucks to see in any hobby or sport though. Kids deserve to figure things out themselves and have fun with positive reinforcement and only slight encouraging 'pushing' at best to get them to try something different if they're getting frustrated and not enjoying themselves or let them know it's okay if you don't get it, just keep trying if you're having fun and we can always come back another day.
My 6-year-old wanted to try skateboarding so I put together a complete out of old parts and told him tricks aren't important, just learn how to push and roll around and turn and tic tac a bit. Even that was too frustrating for him compared to riding his mountain bike or scooter so I just encourage those activities instead despite it also breaking my heart a little buying him a 'pro' style scooter for Christmas to replace his shitty little toy razor one but I'm not going to be a dick about it. I still bring his board out with us often or let him steal mine and practice pushing or just get some good buttboarding in. I might give another gentle nudge toward skateboarding when he's older if he still shows interest in it but I don't know how anyone could be as overbearing as some of these lunatic rad dads as you all call them.