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^you must not know about the history of i-level, dood
I agree. There's nothing more distracting to your skateboarding than a pedophile for a sponsor.
It takes a hell of a lot
less than that I-Level treacherousness to make people quit skating.
That is why I once started a thread in here on
longevity--longevity being the quality that truly defines a skater. Jesus, here in the Detroit area, in the nearly thirty years I have been skating (street and tranny) so many skaters have come and gone, that it is difficult for me to recall all of the different generations and cliques that I have had the good fortune to skate with.
It is ridiculous in retrospect actually, and it is a perpetual cycle that any older "lifer" in here knows about, and that is why cocky, insecure younger skaters appear so
starkly fatuous with their--ultimately self-defeating--hyper-criticalness and acute sensitivity to current trends.
It is sad to say, but once you have skated for a couple of decades, you know without a doubt that a shit load of the--currently--sickest, most talented, and most unnervingly critical skaters around you, will be gone in a couple of years (girls, drugs, school, cars, clubs, etc., and the inability to balance these things with the physical, social, familial, personal demands skating imposes on one).
I mean, a skater around here comes to mind who once skated for New Deal, and everyone was supposed to care about that, and he was a dick to all kinds of kids (and probably did his own part in discouraging plenty of other skaters), and dude went on one tour, and then was gone in a year or two--quit, and joined the marines or some such vacuousness.
Anyway, it is the lamentable side of skateboarding that wants to be football or baseball, that needs to say somebody is going to be "the next" whoever. Great, the kid is good--no doubt about it. That is the first step. I hope he keeps enjoying it, so he is still around in
even one year, let alone ten.