The keep-skating-underground-staby-vx-eurpoean-free-jazz-soundtrack-skateboarding is just as embarrassing to watch in 2020 as Southern California rail skateboarding.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s been almost 10 years since the sort of Polar/Cherry/Bronze/Palace explosion shifted the industry to be a little less California-centric and now we are definitely seeing a little bit of a glut in the other direction. Gritty/VX/no-comply type skating has become its own set of cliches.
HOWEVER I am more convinced than ever that SoCal footage is just less interesting from a visual perspective. Compare footage from a SoCal schoolyard/rail/gap against anything from NYC/Paris/London etc and there’s quite literally less going on in the frame with the California footy. Fewer pedestrians, fewer businesses, fewer awnings, less cracks in the sidewalk, fewer cobblestones, etc. Not to say one is definitively “better” than the other, but I personally get a lot more hyped when I see onlookers gawking, cars going by, etc.
I think there’s an argument to be made that the clean framing of a SoCal spot showcases the skating more fully since there are no distractions, and that’s fine. But for me I relate much more to the experience of getting out in the streets than I do to sailing across a sterile concrete desert.