What are some of the worst trends in the history of skateboarding?

[tkp]

Super saturated,zoomed in footage set to the worst midwest emo song you’ve ever heard

I think it was mentioned, but Strobecks filming techniques that make current videos completely unwatchable is probably the biggest crime now. And so many copy it. It reminds me of people in the 80s that got a VHS video camera recorder and used it at family reunions and kept tweaking the zoom in and out affects on the thing. Sickening. Make it stop.

Is there a name for this? The goon zoom comes to mind, but maybe that's a bit harsh. Trigger happy? Wayne's World just called it the extreme close up:



When it's on a shoe, I call it foot fetish. Seems like that's usually to remind you the skater is wearing a product with a logo, and you need to be force fed that logo's existence. This can also apply to shirts, bottoms of boards, socks, pants, hats...

For some reason, the way Dan Wolfe pulled it off in 1996 doesn't irk me as much:


Donny Barley in Underachievers

As for worst trends, a few off the top of my head that probably aren't all trends, just gripes:

- Everyone (ok, not everyone) starting a brand. Exceptions can always be made. Like if Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, Megan Baltimore, and Spike Jonze never started Girl, skateboarding would be in a much different place.

- Attention economy. Seems like a lot of us older kinda bitter and somewhat jaded skateboarders (who benefit from skateboarding's acceptance by the main stream) still long for the days where if you skated, you were part of some secret society. It was a way to escape normality, and getting attention was the last thing you wanted. Oh the nostalgia.

- The glorification of inebriation / live like a rockstar!!!

- Violence / being "tough" - come on now, we roll around on wooden planks with wheels.

- Overly baggy pants always made me laugh, talking about JNCOS, which seem to have made a comeback. They made sense for rollerbladers, but in terms of day to day functionality or pushing down the street, good luck. I guess when the apocalypse arrives they can double as a blanket.

- Power balance bracelets - the negative ions make me balance better bro, seriously.

- Crypto influencers - pumped and dumped

- Modular skatepark builders ripping off small towns

- Obedience to the dollar - yea we all gotta eat, but damn, this shit sure has turned hypercapitalist

[leafman4000]

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- Keys hanging from your fucking belt loop, literally never understood it. Such a wack style. Don't they get in the way? As if some rich kids saw a janitor at their school and thought "working class clothes are IN right now, how can I look even more blue collar?"

[close]

Back over the summer, I saw a mid-30s mustachioed guy I could only describe as a "Jenkem Skater" at the park with the whole high school janitor's key ring of keys just flopping from his pants while he pushed slowly around the park without landing any tricks. I mean like ~25 keys and other accoutrements just hanging from his belt loop, rattling constantly. It was like skating with a tambourine on your pants, if a tambourine were capable of disfiguring your hip.

[close]

No one cares. Everyone hates you.

Manysnakes is one of my favourite posters actually

[Vds]

Girl tigh pants was the worst ever

[jorge]

Street plants were a huge deal at one time, people looked real stupid standing still in parking lots trying to look like their favorite 80s vert pros.

[brucewillis]

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Jackass/wild Boyz/bum fights was all lame. Not sure if bum fights had anything to do with skating but forsure was inspired by jackass.

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Rip Grip was pretty bad too. Companies must have been selling a lot of it though because I’d see them on a lot of boards. Basically decals made of puffy foam that you put on the bottom of the board to help with grabs.

[close]

Some one sent me some about 5 years ago, works decent enough as a stomp pad on snowboards.

[close]

in your opinion the worst trend in skateboarding is the video series bumfights? interesting.

to add to the discussion: skating handrails

Handrail skating is cool. But huge bs or fs 50-50's on handrails as enders is whack as fuck. Switch handrail skating should become a trend, i back it.

[Pooh Drunx]

Instagram. for sure the worst.

[Uncle Flea]

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- Keys hanging from your fucking belt loop, literally never understood it. Such a wack style. Don't they get in the way? As if some rich kids saw a janitor at their school and thought "working class clothes are IN right now, how can I look even more blue collar?"

[close]

Back over the summer, I saw a mid-30s mustachioed guy I could only describe as a "Jenkem Skater" at the park with the whole high school janitor's key ring of keys just flopping from his pants while he pushed slowly around the park without landing any tricks. I mean like ~25 keys and other accoutrements just hanging from his belt loop, rattling constantly. It was like skating with a tambourine on your pants, if a tambourine were capable of disfiguring your hip.

[close]

No one cares. Everyone hates you.

[close]

Nah, I think most people found my anecdote amusing.

I love how you write pal.

Plz keep it going

[AceBoogie]

everybody starting a youtube channel and thinking their opinions are interesting.
 or not thinking how their voices/ speech patterns make my ears feel

[Uncle Flea]

I just remembered the worlds worst skatebloarding idea

E-CLIPS equipped Trucks.

Plz tell me you remember that shit pals.

One Bearing Wheels.

These was definitely cost cutting ideas of desperation.


Bridge/ traction bolts

I can see the little circle cut into my grip job from my broken bridge bolts.

They also could cut you in that state.

I noticed some one has flipped the traction bolts idea recently into like "tunnel Nuts"

Sexyass Dan Ahhhhhh ahhhhhh fuck my brain

You know Dale's ex roommate current neighbor's channel.

I haven't eaten yet so I do not know Dans last name rn.

But yeah he put um on his bloard on channel the other day.

Who knows if they good. They definitely look cool af. Your nuts definitely ain't going to loosen so I'd probably pre set my preferred amount of base plate wobbles

Are you really skatebloarding if you're not creating ovals in your plates?

Are you really living if you're already sure you gonna make it down that big hill?

I say no. Janky set ups is the way.

That's why I'm head over heels in LOVE with that guy who bombs hills on tvs and surf bloards rip stix or whatever etc.

I'd swear undying allegiance as permanent non complaining switch hill filmer if I lived near by.

I'd follow that guy into a war zone just to see it through.


He is the hillbomb Messiah and it's obvious ass hell.

If JS is the original hill Jesus this boy is definitely the twisted second coming.


Back to Dan. Wtf happened to Haily? I hope she ended up with that cute boy from her videos.

I feel like she couldn't see that every time she looks at him he melts like a lost puppy.

That boy is head over heels clear as day.
And
I always assumed that she was with him irl but pretending to be with Dan for YouTube as a fake power couple. Because to me it was obvious other 2 boys around her was hating that shit.

I know some queer YouTubers irl who pretend to be married for the bigots who watch them on tv.

It's all obvious to me tho ...
I am a street psychiatrist. You can't hide the truth from me for long. 

She clearly is the most cute person at the park after Dale and deserves way more than what she's gotten.

I'd go as far as to say she was my favorite grrl skater on YouTube. Even if she didn't wanna leave the park much.

I could see the pain in her eyes from time to time as Dan skated by in the end and it bothered me.

But yeah she's adorable. Her dad must be super proud. I fuckin hope that they are because I would be.

Dale tho. He's the boss of YouTube in my opinion.

Have you seen Dale's back tails? He's fuckin slam dancing across the coping. Extremely amusing to watch.

Looking like he's gonna whip out a switch blade and break your radio or something.



I better take my meds. I'm back to not making good sense rn.

Tho I'm pretty happy

[yghartsyrt]

00s era of skating.
Axion type of shoes
Sex/rat bolts
Bridge bolts

[NoComply180]

Yo flips - coincided with the “swag” era in larger culture which was also awful and somehow related in my mind

Strobeck zoom

The trend recently of younger skaters not caring about ABDs at well known spots

The skating I liked from the pros who did this, but the girl jeans + puffy emericas trend in the early 00s was awful (I participated)

Instagram/TikTok skaters and obviously YouTube skaters

The lip slide combos after fully flared absolutely got fucking out of hand, also Carlos zarazua came around I feel like around that time and I got so fucking sick of his long backlips on ledges and laser flips with ghastly grizzly grip displayed prominently.

There were a bunch of bad brands in the late 00s early 10s. AYC, markisa, Omit, etc

[tuesday]

The ABEC bearing rating shill, no shield bearings, the Olympics, corpo contest series

[yghartsyrt]

Birdman doing the 900 as a phenomenon

[Cheshire Cat]

I used to DEVOUR skate videos  - Like obsessive levels of rewatching and examining clips. Memorizing which tricks were done by who, where, what time of day, what their enders were. Which obviously helped my recognition of which skaters were which, but what really made it clear was their fucking names being displayed in some way on the screen at the start of their part.

[Loopy]

Rip Grip was pretty bad too. Companies must have been selling a lot of it though because I’d see them on a lot of boards. Basically decals made of puffy foam that you put on the bottom of the board to help with grabs.

I had some lying around 20 years ago, so I put on my PS1 controller. Helped with the hand sweat.

[ungzilla]

tucked in shirts

[ChuckRamone]

90s vibing/cool guying was pretty shitty in some places but the reaction to that was to become a super bubbly "positive" person who likes everything/everyone which sucks too

[TheDraught]

Graffiti on spots. Fuck that.

[brucewillis]

I used to DEVOUR skate videos  - Like obsessive levels of rewatching and examining clips. Memorizing which tricks were done by who, where, what time of day, what their enders were. Which obviously helped my recognition of which skaters were which, but what really made it clear was their fucking names being displayed in some way on the screen at the start of their part.

I like how you wrote this in three acts. Very well crafted joke my friend, have a gnar.

[TheDingus]

YouTubers talking to the camera selfie style. WORST SHIT EVER.

[GrayCellGreen]

Not sure if it was a trend, but dipped boards. I've always found them unappealing and I can't recall ever seeing one in a clip or in person and thinking "wow that is great looking board!" Aside from that, the whole being combative with security thing.

[gaunting]

-The era of skate fashion (maybe mid 00’s to early 2010’s ballpark) with kind of skinny stretch denim jeans, baggier, often all over print t-shirts, still slightly puffy skate shoes with argyle patterns and stuff on them, fitted hats, still skinnnyish boards, and lots of non-silver, weird colored trucks.

-Anything with doubleflips

-Completely unpinched crooked grinds on ledges

-Seeing footage of Shake Junt grip

every single thing you listed, I wholeheartedly agree with. them krew Reynolds jeans……😬 I had them in every horrid color.

[Cheshire Cat]

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I used to DEVOUR skate videos  - Like obsessive levels of rewatching and examining clips. Memorizing which tricks were done by who, where, what time of day, what their enders were. Which obviously helped my recognition of which skaters were which, but what really made it clear was their fucking names being displayed in some way on the screen at the start of their part.

[close]

I like how you wrote this in three acts. Very well crafted joke my friend, have a gnar.

Haha, cheers! Glad you enjoyed it.

And it really is an annoyance.

[peacepappies]

nike sb
griptape graphic brands
rollerbladewaxing
skating being socially accepted
flipping out of slides (most cases)
pro's on social media being asses
thrasher soty award being of any importance

[ziggy]

Street plants were a huge deal at one time, people looked real stupid standing still in parking lots trying to look like their favorite 80s vert pros.

hi. you are wrong

[Chavo]

Z Roller trucks also. A rolling hanger for grinds.

Already mentioned, but absolutely Bonite from Powell.

These seemed like very unfortunate purchases rather than trends.

[tuesday]

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I used to DEVOUR skate videos  - Like obsessive levels of rewatching and examining clips. Memorizing which tricks were done by who, where, what time of day, what their enders were. Which obviously helped my recognition of which skaters were which, but what really made it clear was their fucking names being displayed in some way on the screen at the start of their part.

[close]

I like how you wrote this in three acts. Very well crafted joke my friend, have a gnar.

[close]

Haha, cheers! Glad you enjoyed it.

And it really is an annoyance.

I'm with you. It fucking sucks.

[The real veganshawn]

White boy suburb gangsta
super small wheels
JNCO
super tight pants
stealing from fellow skaters
graffiti at skate spots
racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia
murder
religion
you and me

[yghartsyrt]

90s vibing/cool guying was pretty shitty in some places but the reaction to that was to become a super bubbly "positive" person who likes everything/everyone which sucks too

Totally agree.

[Marv]

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Z Roller trucks also. A rolling hanger for grinds.

Already mentioned, but absolutely Bonite from Powell.

[close]

These seemed like very unfortunate purchases rather than trends.

Tons of people had Powell Bonite decks back then. Z trucks not so much.