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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: Bobby Peru on September 11, 2011, 01:57:48 PM
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Since I started skateboarding in 2000, people have prophesied its death, when we'll revert to pressure flipping, crack smoking, underdog superheroes who get beat up for wearing big pants. But in that eleven years, I haven't seen skateboarding's media attention slow down. We have a few video game franchises, TV contests, drink sponsors (even drink team switches), and more skateparks than ever, with more on the way. My question for you old guys is, was there ever a period where skateboarding was "alive" for this long? I know the 80s had some bizarre shit
BBC Skaters From Uranus - Part #6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pak5rlMoqRw#)
which led to a Gator-sized collapse, but was that era as long? And did it have as much pervasive mainstream attention?
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This time is different now because of the skateparks, it is seen as more "normal" because there is a place where parents can drop off their kids to skate. Also a lot of the 80's skaters kids are old enough to skate and their parents are encouraging them to skate. Big companies have cashed in because skateboarding has influenced popular culture though fashion. I like skateboarding, it is fun.
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Is this history channel now? Time to shred the streets grandpas!
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This time is different now because of the skateparks, it is seen as more "normal" because there is a place where parents can drop off their kids to skate. Also a lot of the 80's skaters kids are old enough to skate and their parents are encouraging them to skate. Big companies have cashed in because skateboarding has influenced popular culture though fashion. I like skateboarding, it is fun.
yep. pretty much.
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I think skateboarding will remain close to the level it is at now. Media attention may slow slightly if the economy continues to be so poor but I wouldn't imagine the popularity of skateboarding dropping off completely as it did in previous generations. It has seemed to be fairly steady since the late 90's.
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in before some dickhead quotes jason jessee
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Skateboarding is too bigto die....it's sometimes too big to even change...
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skateboarding as an act will never die...
the business may go through slumps...
but the "community" as of now, is on some jock schit straight up...
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Skateboarding is more than just skateboarding. The kooks might drop out. But that feeling you get, that can't ever be erased.
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Where I live the # of people skating has gone way down, even as media coverage of skating and skate contests is way up.
It would be weird as hell if skating became like other sports where most of the people who watch it don't actually do it.
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Since I started skateboarding in 2000, people have prophesied its death, when we'll revert to pressure flipping, crack smoking, underdog superheroes who get beat up for wearing big pants. But in that eleven years, I haven't seen skateboarding's media attention slow down. We have a few video game franchises, TV contests, drink sponsors (even drink team switches), and more skateparks than ever, with more on the way. My question for you old guys is, was there ever a period where skateboarding was "alive" for this long? I know the 80s had some bizarre shit which led to a Gator-sized collapse, but was that era as long? And did it have as much pervasive mainstream attention?
1. It was popular in short spurts during the '60s and '70s.
2. Judging by the thickness of Thrasher over the years, I'd say '86-'90.
3. The '80s had Back to the Future, Thrashin', Gleaming the Cube, but very little T.V. coverage aside from a few music videos and commercials. I did once see an am contest on cable in '89. It was strange.
It will never die completely like it has before. Back when Nike dumped its rollerblade division and concentrated on skateboarding, they realized only a small percentage of the population is willing or able to fruitboot but they can sell skate shoes to the whole world, whether they skate or not. Today also seems like a more robust version of the '70s (though it may never be as big) with the skateparks and contests, but without the coaches and ice skating type mandatory runs (though we're getting there).
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Where I live the # of people skating has gone way down, even as media coverage of skating and skate contests is way up.
It would be weird as hell if skating became like other sports where most of the people who watch it don't actually do it.
I think that train passed when thousands of 13 year old girls started watching the dew tour so that they could catch a glimpse of ryan sheckler taking his shirt off. we're fucked.
skateboarding is cool now and it sucks so fucking hard. on the way home from the park saturday I saw a 21 year old guy carrying a skateboard (by the truck of course) as an accessory at the mall and it made me genuinly sad.
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Skateboarding is more than just skateboarding. The kooks might drop out. But that feeling you get, that can't ever be erased.
This is ultimately what it comes down to for everybody, but shit like skateparks, corporate sponsors, and whatnot makes some pretty lasting effects.
Deekay, while that dude was probably lame, I think that's a pretty narrow-minded view. One thing I thought about in making this thread was that there were a ton of kids in my middle school (in the middle of nowhere, mind you) that started skating around the same time I did, and now there might be one or two besides myself who still skate. But about four or five years ago I was skating this spot and some football/big truck/national guard kids that used to skate showed up. Maybe five of them started talking to me and asked if they could use my board. One of them could even still kickflip. You might say those guys are kooks, but when they're old, those guys will be the cops, business owners, voters, etc who might actually take it easy on skateboarders.
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since the late 90's x games/ legitimize skateboarding as a "sport" movement, skate boarding has been pushed into the public's eye which has helped the industry massively. i see skateboarding as performance art and to look at it as a sport, although we/I don't like to admit it, it is on the same level as figure skating. but hell, there are even art contests these days so even art is been turned into sport.
what could be deemed as the "death of skating" as an art, is when skateboarding is forever removed from the stage of "street theater" and pushed purely into little sanctioned areas controlled by third parties. skateboarding developed into away that that people, of no real significance to society, could feel a connection with they're natural architectural environment and make a mark as a reminder that you/ they concurred something. think about how exited you get over virgin spots, your like boom im gonna pop this cherry and own it, im gonna fuck this thing in way that any by passer will be like "woah, what the fuck did i just see, that was beautiful" and every time there gonna walk past it they're gonna think of you. the spot is now tainted.
as long as we are skating pools and streets, and anything that was never designed to be skated(even if it had to modified by a skateboarder) then skating as an art will not die.
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im just glad to have been skating when movies like The search for animal chin and Wheels/streets of fire were out.
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it's turned into snowboarding but is accessible to everyone because it's cheep. just like snowboarding isn't going any where i think as long as there are good free parks that skating won't fall off. if anything, things like street league are going to make it more popular as you'll see more and more jock kids moving over.
that's said it's good to be at an age where for the most part it doesn't matter to me.
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skateboarding is what you make of it.
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This is ultimately what it comes down to for everybody, but shit like skateparks, corporate sponsors, and whatnot makes some pretty lasting effects.
this hating on skateparks or people who skate skateparks makes no sense to me. The days where you go to a perfect street spot and skate there all day are over. Most street spots where you have access to a good ledge or good set of stairs are places where you will get kicked out of right quick. But to actually skate street and progress? Thats fucking near impossible with the amount of security everywhere, and how buthurt people get about skateboarding on their property. More and more skateparks are being built as street skating becomes more and more restricted, and its not a coincidence. Sure in the 80's and 90s, even early 2000's you had the emb spots and the love parks where you could street skate all day 7 days a week without security haggling you, and every skater who reached the professional level did so skating purely street. But that is impossible now. What is possible though, is going to skateparks everyday, getting ur shit down, then going to a street spot and landing it within the 5 or so tries you have before getting kicked out, and thats what you see alot of.
But even if what i just said above wasnt the case, why do I HAVE to skate street to be a "real" skateboarder? I personally rarely skate street, but i go to the skatepark at least 6 days a week. If I want to skate a ledge, why would i ever choose a chunky concrete unwaxable piece of crap over a perfect coping ledge? I'm not trying to get sponsored, i dont like filming, i just like skateboarding, so why should i have to go through the struggles of someone whose trying to make it into the big times? I understand the hating on park footage in video, because I would feel really cheezed paying for a video that someone just sat a skatepark for a few days and filmed, but the hate against people who just go to the skatepark to skate makes no sense to me.
Skateboarding is skateboarding, whether it is done at a skatepark, on a vert ramp, in a garage, or on the streets. Saying skateboarding is dead because people are skating less street is nonsensical, because if people could skate the amazing street spots you old guys had growing up we would, but we cant. So we skateparks.
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Nicely written lemonparty, i agree with every word, especially the getting kicked out thing.
I havnt skated a spot in my hometown for more than half an hour without bieng kicked out, and im one of those guys that take all fucking day to get a trick lol
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You make some good points LemonParty, & I agree: hating on people for skating what they choose to skate - be it parks or whatever - is stupid.
I go out every weekend and skate all over sacramento. Yeah, I don't post up at one spot all day like in the Love/Embarcadero era, but there's a ton of spots out there & on weekends I rarely get hassled. If I do I just move on. My frustration is that it's gotten damn near impossible to get ANY of the kids out of the park - they think that skateboarding=skateparks, and while I get that they're having fun in a way that makes sense to them, it's also pretty hard for me not to see it as a general regression of some kind when the whole skateboarding scene here takes place almost entirely in a small fenced area.
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yeah, they're good points, but he's reachin super hard to make that argument he's made in other threads, that dude didn't say anything about if you skate a park that your a kook, he said that having more skateparks has a lasting effect, giving a safe and controlled environment for tons of new comers to try it out, it encourages skateboarding and makes is super accessible, and in conjunction with things like corporate sponsors, skateboarding on tv, whatever whatever, those are playing a big part in skateboarding and its popularity today
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this hating on skateparks or people who skate skateparks makes no sense to me. The days where you go to a perfect street spot and skate there all day are over. Most street spots where you have access to a good ledge or good set of stairs are places where you will get kicked out of right quick. But to actually skate street and progress? Thats fucking near impossible with the amount of security everywhere, and how buthurt people get about skateboarding on their property. More and more skateparks are being built as street skating becomes more and more restricted, and its not a coincidence. Sure in the 80's and 90s, even early 2000's you had the emb spots and the love parks where you could street skate all day 7 days a week without security haggling you, and every skater who reached the professional level did so skating purely street. But that is impossible now. What is possible though, is going to skateparks everyday, getting ur shit down, then going to a street spot and landing it within the 5 or so tries you have before getting kicked out, and thats what you see alot of.
But even if what i just said above wasnt the case, why do I HAVE to skate street to be a "real" skateboarder? I personally rarely skate street, but i go to the skatepark at least 6 days a week. If I want to skate a ledge, why would i ever choose a chunky concrete unwaxable piece of crap over a perfect coping ledge? I'm not trying to get sponsored, i dont like filming, i just like skateboarding, so why should i have to go through the struggles of someone whose trying to make it into the big times? I understand the hating on park footage in video, because I would feel really cheezed paying for a video that someone just sat a skatepark for a few days and filmed, but the hate against people who just go to the skatepark to skate makes no sense to me.
Skateboarding is skateboarding, whether it is done at a skatepark, on a vert ramp, in a garage, or on the streets. Saying skateboarding is dead because people are skating less street is nonsensical, because if people could skate the amazing street spots you old guys had growing up we would, but we cant. So we skateparks.
Parks are great. Private property is private property, and I'm not gonna argue that one should have the right to skate on it. But when you choose to skate a park all the time instead of skating in the streets, you're basically making a statement that it's OK to be kicked out of a public space, and pushing all skateboarders further into the parks in turn. There's a whole lot more interesting shit to skate in this world than just what parks are offering, and if non-skateboarders can't handle that.. fuck 'em. There's a distinct joy to be had from bombing a hill or cruising down a sidewalk that a park will never match, and this joy certainly shouldn't be restricted to just those on foot or in a car. DIYing/building stuff is super fun, too.
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Skateboarding isn't dead and far from it right now.
Without repeating what's already been said, today's generation is the skatepark generation which believe it or not has turned skateboarding into a full on sport. This would also explain the incredible jock attitude a lot of skaters have today.
Personally I hate it, but I must take my hat off to the skaters who are pushing the envelope insofar as progression is concerned. It's almost as if I witness something groundbreaking every couple of months whereas back in the olden days it was more like every couple of years.
All I hope for is that skaters are in it for the right reason. Judging by that bizarre Puehse twins video somewhere else on here, I fear that some plank pushers are not true to the game so to speak.
I think The Illusion (of all peoiple) summed it up quite nicely: "Don't follow the kids. Keep your four wheels down and go skate."
P.s. The real rebels today are rollerbladers. At least where I live. Those fools are all but extinct. The ones you catch in the street are like wild dogs. We used to be like that...
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PPS I realised that my previous answer completely overshot the initial question about the longevity and strength of the 80s.
I don't think that era was quite like today' generation because skateboarding was still fairly new and naive. Today the teens of the 80 are skate dads taking their kids to the local skatepark. Since the late 90s skateboarding has slowly but surely made it's way into the mainstream and with several generations of skaters backing it, it's now bigger and stronger than ever. The only thing that will shake things up is the economy - something we are all witnessing today.
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since the late 90's x games/ legitimize skateboarding as a "sport" movement, skate boarding has been pushed into the public's eye which has helped the industry massively. i see skateboarding as performance art and to look at it as a sport, although we/I don't like to admit it, it is on the same level as figure skating. but hell, there are even art contests these days so even art is been turned into sport.
what could be deemed as the "death of skating" as an art, is when skateboarding is forever removed from the stage of "street theater" and pushed purely into little sanctioned areas controlled by third parties. skateboarding developed into away that that people, of no real significance to society, could feel a connection with they're natural architectural environment and make a mark as a reminder that you/ they concurred something. think about how exited you get over virgin spots, your like boom im gonna pop this cherry and own it, im gonna fuck this thing in way that any by passer will be like "woah, what the fuck did i just see, that was beautiful" and every time there gonna walk past it they're gonna think of you. the spot is now tainted.
as long as we are skating pools and streets, and anything that was never designed to be skated(even if it had to modified by a skateboarder) then skating as an art will not die.
In that sense, skateboarding is already underground (I suppose there will always be "performers"). I could also see it die like it did in '79-'85 when the parks close. Although parks are mostly publicly owned, land is still a desirable commodity and cities won't hesitate to tear one down to make a parking lot if that's what the community wants or needs.
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You make some good points LemonParty, & I agree: hating on people for skating what they choose to skate - be it parks or whatever - is stupid.
I go out every weekend and skate all over sacramento. Yeah, I don't post up at one spot all day like in the Love/Embarcadero era, but there's a ton of spots out there & on weekends I rarely get hassled. If I do I just move on. My frustration is that it's gotten damn near impossible to get ANY of the kids out of the park - they think that skateboarding=skateparks, and while I get that they're having fun in a way that makes sense to them, it's also pretty hard for me not to see it as a general regression of some kind when the whole skateboarding scene here takes place almost entirely in a small fenced area.
I skate downtown Sacramento a lot at night and depending on the spot rarely get kicked out, skateparks are fun for warming up, but I want to skate everything.
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Ugh this thread is a bummer. If you try to expound on the true nature of skating, and you say anything more than "It's fun,", you're gonna sound like a grandiose, overindulgent doucher. It can't be explained. (See?? Even that extra sentence came off kind of gay)
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yeah, they're good points, but he's reachin super hard to make that argument he's made in other threads, that dude didn't say anything about if you skate a park that your a kook, he said that having more skateparks has a lasting effect, giving a safe and controlled environment for tons of new comers to try it out, it encourages skateboarding and makes is super accessible, and in conjunction with things like corporate sponsors, skateboarding on tv, whatever whatever, those are playing a big part in skateboarding and its popularity today
Yeah I really don't know where the talking shit about skateparks thing came from.
And I think some of you guys are confused about what I mean about skateboarding dying. I mean it in the sense that it stops being cool, TV and corporations drop it, whoever is left of us takes up crack and big pants, etc. I think we all know that skateboarding and skater-owned companies will survive whatever happens. I was mostly wondering if something really is bound to happen, as a lot of people think. To put it more simply, do you think Nike will ever drop their skate team? Maybe within the next 5-10 years?
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The way I see it the major difference is that in the 80's when skateboarding blew up it was a new thing, like someone already mentioned here, and companies looking in didnt really know how to approach it. Sure they saw the potential revenue to be made form a youth subculture quickly gathering pace but at that point it was so alien that all they could do was throw money at it.
Nowadays there is an older generation of skateboarders who are left without the comfort of an easy retirement, and the skateboard industry itself can only support so many who "deserve it". Therefor you have individuals who are willing to help these companies aproach skateboarding in a more educated way.
I beleive this is the reason for the continued growth of skateboarding in the mainstream media and the reason that it is not heading for another "death", although we may see a massive schism between what it presented by larger companies with there fingers in the pie and the more "core" companies. But right now other than holding the opinion that sreet leauge is gay or that berra is a kook most dont seem to care.
Just do it VS. Dont do it, who is winning?
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The way I see it the major difference is that in the 80's when skateboarding blew up it was a new thing, like someone already mentioned here, and companies looking in didnt really know how to approach it. Sure they saw the potential revenue to be made form a youth subculture quickly gathering pace but at that point it was so alien that all they could do was throw money at it.
Nowadays there is an older generation of skateboarders who are left without the comfort of an easy retirement, and the skateboard industry itself can only support so many who "deserve it". Therefor you have individuals who are willing to help these companies aproach skateboarding in a more educated way.
I beleive this is the reason for the continued growth of skateboarding in the mainstream media and the reason that it is not heading for another "death", although we may see a massive schism between what it presented by larger companies with there fingers in the pie and the more "core" companies. But right now other than holding the opinion that sreet leauge is gay or that berra is a kook most dont seem to care.
Just do it VS. Dont do it, who is winning?
Skateboarding was a new thing in the mid-1960s and it was huge in the '70s (Fred Astaire famously broke his arm then). I'm sure the only reason corporations didn't pursue it was that there wasn't much money to be made. They certainly didn't want to sell hard goods (which was the industry until recently) with its low profit margins. Converse, who sponsored Hosoi and Mullen during the mid to late '80s, was one of the first I remember to try to break into skateboarding. Video games were next. Like you said, though, they were just throwing money at it. Their ad campaigns sucked. But the corporations only started to get serious when skate shoes became a big deal. As long as non-skaters buy skate shoes, skateboarding will be popular.
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This is ultimately what it comes down to for everybody, but shit like skateparks, corporate sponsors, and whatnot makes some pretty lasting effects.
this hating on skateparks or people who skate skateparks makes no sense to me. The days where you go to a perfect street spot and skate there all day are over. Most street spots where you have access to a good ledge or good set of stairs are places where you will get kicked out of right quick. But to actually skate street and progress? Thats fucking near impossible with the amount of security everywhere, and how buthurt people get about skateboarding on their property. More and more skateparks are being built as street skating becomes more and more restricted, and its not a coincidence. Sure in the 80's and 90s, even early 2000's you had the emb spots and the love parks where you could street skate all day 7 days a week without security haggling you, and every skater who reached the professional level did so skating purely street. But that is impossible now. What is possible though, is going to skateparks everyday, getting ur shit down, then going to a street spot and landing it within the 5 or so tries you have before getting kicked out, and thats what you see alot of.
But even if what i just said above wasnt the case, why do I HAVE to skate street to be a "real" skateboarder? I personally rarely skate street, but i go to the skatepark at least 6 days a week. If I want to skate a ledge, why would i ever choose a chunky concrete unwaxable piece of crap over a perfect coping ledge? I'm not trying to get sponsored, i dont like filming, i just like skateboarding, so why should i have to go through the struggles of someone whose trying to make it into the big times? I understand the hating on park footage in video, because I would feel really cheezed paying for a video that someone just sat a skatepark for a few days and filmed, but the hate against people who just go to the skatepark to skate makes no sense to me.
Skateboarding is skateboarding, whether it is done at a skatepark, on a vert ramp, in a garage, or on the streets. Saying skateboarding is dead because people are skating less street is nonsensical, because if people could skate the amazing street spots you old guys had growing up we would, but we cant. So we skateparks.
I don't believe that's true i've definitely learned more tricks at spots then at parks and nyc just got like 4/5 top notch parks in the last 3 years, somethings just can't really be learned in parks...like bump to bars and pole jams and shit like that i would agree with you on that point with pool skating though you can't just find a pool anymore...
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Skateboarding won't die again, Companies have no problem puttin on kids with nothin but park footy these days so kids don't mind spending all there time at parks an still wanna pursue it or whatever, the clothing does well the shoes sell well, boards are kinda in a decline but that probably is the economy like previously stated...It's kinda interesting now when companies have a ton of shit they cant move in shops or wherever, regular clothing stores or department stores buy em as opposed to wondering wtf that company was years ago as long as motherfuckers is relevant to the fashion world they'll be ok...im more concerned about how jaded shit is, back then you saw another skater you guys were homies now people purposefully dodge each other cause there's so many dudes everybody wants to be somebody an cool guying you is the norm, skateshops give off that just business what can you do for us vibe its no longer give an take, not all shops though...that kinda saddens me, I cant expect something to grow without change i guess, but it's got me thinkin who's more core the kid skatin the spots with a ccs board or the shop rider basically living at the skatepark....not that it really should matter as long as your skating right?
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i think it's gotten to the point where skateboarding can't die like it did in the early 90s again, there's too many people with big wallets involved. when i think of the death of skateboarding now, it means more that it's changed to be almost unrecognizable to people who have been skating for a long time. i started in 94, and it is a completely different monster than it was then. i think of it like basketball or football before there was an NBA or NFL. those dudes all had day jobs and shit like that, drove their own cars to away games, there just wasn't enough money involved to do it for a living. now everybody's a millionaire before they play their first game. that's where skateboarding is going to be very soon. it's not a sport for disaffected youth who don't fit in to all the other shit. part of it will always be that, but that part gets smaller and smaller every year. that's what the death of skateboarding is to me, anyway.
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Skating has been normalised and assimilated into our culture now, there's no going away. Back in the mid 80s to early 90s it was a newly born thing for a wider audience to be adopting, growing & dying whilst it found its feet. It never truly got integrated into peoples every day lives and accepted by society in its earlier days being lumped with more faddish pursuits like rollerskating and the like. Those days are gone. Sure, it's popularity will ebb & flow, with corporate success & support coming and going but it'll always be there, like riding bikes and snow sports. It's also got a lot to do with corporate involvement finding ways to properly monetize such 'sports'.
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Since I started skateboarding in 2000, people have prophesied its death, when we'll revert to pressure flipping, crack smoking, underdog superheroes who get beat up for wearing big pants. But in that eleven years, I haven't seen skateboarding's media attention slow down. We have a few video game franchises, TV contests, drink sponsors (even drink team switches), and more skateparks than ever, with more on the way. My question for you old guys is, was there ever a period where skateboarding was "alive" for this long? I know the 80s had some bizarre shit which led to a Gator-sized collapse, but was that era as long? And did it have as much pervasive mainstream attention?
1. It was popular in short spurts during the '60s and '70s.
2. Judging by the thickness of Thrasher over the years, I'd say '86-'90.
3. The '80s had Back to the Future, Thrashin', Gleaming the Cube, but very little T.V. coverage aside from a few music videos and commercials. I did once see an am contest on cable in '89. It was strange.
It will never die completely like it has before. Back when Nike dumped its rollerblade division and concentrated on skateboarding, they realized only a small percentage of the population is willing or able to fruitboot but they can sell skate shoes to the whole world, whether they skate or not. Today also seems like a more robust version of the '70s (though it may never be as big) with the skateparks and contests, but without the coaches and ice skating type mandatory runs (though we're getting there).
Can't leave out Skate TV, the best 1/2 hour of 80's television outside of Pee Wee's Playhouse and Alf.
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"Back when Nike dumped its rollerblade division and concentrated on skateboarding"
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I just miss when skating was more inspired by hip-hip, graffitti, just causing mischeif, or also punk rock and gnarliness and now it seems like it's like high fashion, and everything is real clean, or I don't even know what.
In a way skating right now is kind of like the early nineties. Ridiculous tech combos, crazy progression, controversial gear, but as people have been saying there's lots of money involved now, that's the difference. Instead of "big pants small wheels" it's "small pants big bucks"
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Some random thoughts this has no structure i was just brainstorming and writing.
Well skateboarding has died the way older guys knew it. Young kids are psyched with skating right now but it wasnt like this jock shit back in the day. I dont mean tricks i mean skater's attitude. Back in the day tricks mattered as much as attitude.
Skaters were the misfits, the rebels, a true underground subculture. I was lucky enough to start skating in that era and those guys were a great influence. I have million stories from back then. We were a family back then there was real solidarity because we were few and we had to defend ourselves. I mean we didnt care just about tricks we just wanted to be in the streets together and have fun NO sponsoring bullshit nor care about the fuckin industry whatsoever. Skateboarding was like something cool back then but everyone was afraid of it because of our looks and our attitude if you werent one of us, if you didnt think like us you wouldnt even think of starting skating and we liked it that way. The cool skaters back then were not the guys who would do a crazy trick oh no. The cool guys were those who would steal beer and give you one, who would pick up a fight even with cops that try to kick us out of a spot, guys who would listen to the same music as you, guys who have the same view with you in politics and society, guys who would spend time teaching you a trick, guys who are funny, guys who have that cool punk band or that did that crazy graffiti, in general guys who are interesting and that you wanted to be friends with. If they were good at skating this would add up but just that wouldnt stand a chance back then. There were some good skaters that where dicks and they would always get discouraged and then quit. NO DICKS ALLOWED was the number one rule.
Now skateboarding has become literally a sport and MOST skaters are pretty much like athletes. The attitude element is gone. Individuality is gone. The only thing that matters is tricks. The coolest guy is the one that skates better... Now skateboarding is cool because most of the skaters fit the mainstream and no one is discouraged to start skateboarding, even dicks are welcome if they could skate good. Skateboarding nowadays lacks of personalities. Almost Everyone is too clean cut, predictable, boring,marketable and pretty much the same. When i talk to kids they cant form an opinion about anything except skateboarding, because only tricks matter to them, this pisses me off.
Well skateboarding hasnt died for me i still look at it the way it was but now i am a minority back then i was a majority. I miss that. There are less interesting people in skateboarding right now. Kids that havent lived back then wont understand....
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I don't think there are less interesting characters in skateboarding. In fact I think that there are more. It's just that skating has gotten SO BIG that they're harder to see. Who those people are is a matter of opinion but they're there.
For me I just keep doing it because I love it. It's my favorite thing to do and I'm not gonna stop until my body won't let me. I don't give a shit how big skating gets. When I'm pushing down the street... it's all about me.
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I just miss when skating was more inspired by hip-hip, graffitti, just causing mischeif
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I sometimes yell at skate kids from my car, just so they know it feels like to be shunned. There was a time where you couldn't walk down the street w/o some jock yelling "skaterfag!" or something like that.
I guess I'm one of the "old guys" but I have stuck with skating through thick and thin, and my love for it has never faded even a little. I have fought extensively for skateboarding. Like a lot of us who've been around for a long time I got harassed in high school, fighting with and jumped by jocks regularly, wrestled with security guards, all that. Today's generation of young skaters haven't dealt with being the scourge of society that skaters were once perceived as. It wasn't just that we weren't accepted, in the early-mid '90's we were absolutely hated. That's why I yell shit at kids sometimes, to keep the angst going.
Much of what needs to be said on this topic has already been said, so sorry if I reiterate any points.
I've fought for skateboarding in a lot of other ways too. Arguing with city hall to get a park built, then encouraging them not approve a shitty design and to hire a decent skatepark design/build company instead of the lowest bidding cement contractor. I've volunteered my time and labor to build ramps and parks, made DIY spots, whatever. I haven't done any of this for recognition and don't want a pat on the back, I just love to skate. The skateparks are a mixed blessing to me. I've always loved skating tranny as much or more than I like traditional street skating. Any good street spot or well designed park is visually appealing in a way I can't explain. I'm not way into paintings, but I imagine the feeling being similar to and art aficionado looking at a Monet. However, they don't just do it because they like skaters, the city sponsored parks help keep skaters off the streets. I say screw them, hit the streets, tear shit up, fight with security guards and any boneheads that give you shit, don't let the city segregate you.
Will skating ever be what it was in the 90's? No. Times have changed. It makes me sad that the sense of brotherhood and community isn't what it used to be but it's still there, you just gotta deal with all of the imposters and a lot more attitude and competitiveness than before. Whether skating "dies" or not is irrelevant to me in a sense, I will still be doing it no matter what.
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Skateboarding is here to stay, its too big to die now.
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Skateboarding is here to stay, its too big to die now.
Nothing's ever to big to die
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skateboarding as an act will never die...
the business may go through slumps...
but the "community" as of now, is on some jock schit straight up...
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I don't think there are less interesting characters in skateboarding. In fact I think that there are more. It's just that skating has gotten SO BIG that they're harder to see. Who those people are is a matter of opinion but they're there.
For me I just keep doing it because I love it. It's my favorite thing to do and I'm not gonna stop until my body won't let me. I don't give a shit how big skating gets. When I'm pushing down the street... it's all about me.
I agree completely.
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I don't think there are less interesting characters in skateboarding. In fact I think that there are more. It's just that skating has gotten SO BIG that they're harder to see. Who those people are is a matter of opinion but they're there.
For me I just keep doing it because I love it. It's my favorite thing to do and I'm not gonna stop until my body won't let me. I don't give a shit how big skating gets. When I'm pushing down the street... it's all about me.
I agree completely.
to me pushing down the street or carving/cruising in regards to transition is what its all about. i know one day i wont be able to do the tricks i often take for granted - one day when im 75 i wont be doing that stuff, but i plan to still be rolling.
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fuck yeah old guys telling it like it was.
being a skater in my high school 89-93 was downright dangerous. dodging jock gestapo and corrupt small-town police left and right to an NWA and Metallica soundtrack.
adversity built the "sport." being an outcast was the "lifestyle."
now all the oldbros reap the benefits of jock-Nike-former-littleleaguer money: thousands of concrete parks whilst bitching about the old days of no parks. in Norcal we had 3 in the entire state: Derby in SC, HP dish (yeah right) and the "new school" Benicia park (so great, yet so wack). When we got licenses we would literally drive from san fran to santa barbara and la to skate 2 ft' banks to benches at elementary schools.
I just had an old dude session at Miley the other week. a 20 year anniversary for me - a magical spot - and it didn't look like many kids bother with it anymore. I used to take the bus for nearly 3 hours each way to get there on a Saturday and skate all day. And yes, we butt boarded that bumpy ass blacktop back to the parking lot after the session.
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did you ollie that gap at the top into the bumpy blacktop hill after each session at miley? first time i went there my local guide told me that everyone used to ollie that shit into that gnar hill and bomb as far as they could before bailing and running it out.. i think i did it once and pulled it, then ate serious shit after i hit a rock or chunk of blacktop haha.. after that i just figured hey i did it once thats enough lol
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with skateparks. I have learned a lot of tricks and had a lot of fun actually skateboarding in those parks (along with meeting some good people who became friends).
All the real adventure I've experienced in my life on a skateboard though was found when I left the safe confines behind and ventured into the world with everyone else in it. Random weirdos, makeshift/short lived spots, getting injured and using my skateboard as a wheelchair pushing miles to a bus stop, and other crazy happenings are the memories I carry with me from skating in the late 80's.
I'm proudest of the mileage I have traveled just taking in the scenery and making sudden discoveries I would have missed if I was just traveling to the skatepark. I chased Animal Chin around half of the world. Dude is slippery, but there's nothing more fun than trying to seek him out at every opportunity even if you fail each time.
If you stay in the skatepark, Animal Chin isn't going to come to you. Remember that.
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i remember in the late 80's and into the 90's being a skater was as bout as cool as being a paedophile
and girls would even look in your direction let alone wanna smash.
now days skaters GET pussy.
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i remember in the late 80's and into the 90's being a skater was as bout as cool as being a paedophile
and girls would even look in your direction let alone wanna smash.
now days skaters GET pussy.
As a boy in highschool in Hawaii during that time period, I was part of a dance group as my cover (it was either that or join a fucking gang). You wouldn't believe how bummed out girls would get when they found out I skateboarded.
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i remember in the late 80's and into the 90's being a skater was as bout as cool as being a paedophile
and girls would even look in your direction let alone wanna smash.
now days skaters GET pussy.
Haha! Secret agent dancer-man!
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I remember being laughed at by old ladies in the street for my XXXXL 1993 flare.
My friends and I were banned from buying the biggest sizes from Factory Outlet, because we were reducing the local fatties to nudists.
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I'm one of a ton of skatepark advocates for the south east areas of my state... we have the parks we used to dream about as kids, which is sick.
I think the weird part is when they're seen as cages by the police and local government... like the equivalent of free speech zones during a political event. Regardless, the parks are great but it's important that we teach the groms the importance of spot hunting.
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Yeah, spot-hunting... and NOT pushing mongo. There is an alarming trend toward the front-foot push.
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the key to killing mongo is to not only heckle the mongo kid, but to also get the offender's friends to heckle it out of them.
"hey, that's your buddy over there, right?'
"yeah."
"are you really gonna let your friend grow up pushing shitfoot? friends gotta look out for each other."
because they're not gonna listen to the weird old dude anyway, you gotta shame their friends into shaming the shitfoot out of them.
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i remember in the late 80's and into the 90's being a skater was as bout as cool as being a paedophile
and girls would even look in your direction let alone wanna smash.
now days skaters GET pussy.
Haha! Secret agent dancer-man!
Dammit! Blew my cover again.
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skateboarding was perfect in the 80s and 90s. normal people didnt like us, and we didnt like them. never had a problem finding chicks either. I hope it dies again. i hate all the mainstream bullshit.
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I started skating in 1995, so I don't know if I qualify to post in this thread. Skating to me seems like it has only gotten bigger and bigger since I started.
street skating > park skating
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I started skating in 1995, so I don't know if I qualify to post in this thread. Skating to me seems like it has only gotten bigger and bigger since I started.
street skating > park skating
i dont think you need to qualify to post in a thread. i started skating in 95 as well. or at least i got my first board then. thats almost 17 years. so id say that qualifies to an extent. but street skating isnt necessarily greater or better than park skating. skating for yourself, by yourself, for fun, is greater than skating for a sponsor, for the joy of others, and to gain any sort of status.. but do what you want. thats the best part about all this shit - there are no rules
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i remember in the late 80's and into the 90's being a skater was as bout as cool as being a paedophile
and girls would even look in your direction let alone wanna smash.
now days skaters GET pussy.
Too funny. I went to a super preppy college in the south during the late 90's-early 2000's. Definitely had to keep skating on the DL in you want to talk to any girls that weren't fat with piercings and dyed hair.
The thing with skating now is that the soft goods have blown up and are here to stay. Same thing with surfing back in the day. Think about the number of people who actually go surfing vs. the number that buy Billabong/QS/Roxy/Oneill/Reef gear. Now the same is true with skating. The kid across the street from me has never set foot on a skateboard, plays lacrosse and runs track, yet dresses like he's flow for Black Box.