Does skateboarding need to progress?

[SatanicPanic]

I don’t mean individually. I mean as a collective- do we really need to go any farther? Can we just all kick back and enjoy Frog videos? I feel like when there’s a guy who hits a thirty stair rail and then bombs the steepest hlll in LA maybe we’ve seen enough.

[thefriscokid]

I really dont think it does, weve hit a good place
Maybe a refinement in trick choice and style

But in terms of stair count and rail size, after a while its just not that worthwhile weve become desensitized to gnar

[skateboarder4life]

Further evolution into injecting skateboarding into other sports and arts. For example, imagine the game of polo but instead of riding a horse the players are on skateboards.

[kookdusoleil]

There will always be the thirst for bigger, faster, further. I don’t need it to enjoy skateboarding but who doesn’t love to see a stunt here and there?

[formula420]

Everything has been done so now it’s just down to how you do it. Just like how people have basically maxed out how fast a guitar can be played. Gotta learn how to do more with less. Or come from a different perspective.

[okdokeydirtbite]

No it doesn't.

There a lot of people happy with how skateboarding was in the mid 90s. Chilling, skating low key, being creative, art and music, doing things yourself. Cool shit like that. That's why those styles came back. 20 stair handrails and life destroying slams get old, and are unrelatable to most. And that middle of the mall gatoraide jock shit straight up sucks. Someone is going to die on a hill bomb soon enough and people will rethink things.

[Untamed]

I've had visions in dreams of every major vibe shift I need to stop hitting dabs so i can dream again and see what's good

[igrindtwinkies]

I'd rather see Andy Roy roll in, than anything the Birdman ever did.

[Dj Paul]

i rather see gino push

[Rick Trapasso]

I don’t mean individually. I mean as a collective- do we really need to go any farther? Can we just all kick back and enjoy Frog videos? I feel like when there’s a guy who hits a thirty stair rail and then bombs the steepest hlll in LA maybe we’ve seen enough.

....nah

[okdokeydirtbite]

I'd rather see Gonz on an unwaxed curb.

[DanCorteseFromMTVSports]

I don’t mean individually. I mean as a collective- do we really need to go any farther? Can we just all kick back and enjoy Frog videos? I feel like when there’s a guy who hits a thirty stair rail and then bombs the steepest hlll in LA maybe we’ve seen enough.

With Nick Michel, I think you can do all these things

[radcunt]

Regression is the new progression

[Lou Strux]

I'd rather see Andy Roy disappear.

+1 THIS^^^

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

lowkey it needs to disappear

[GnarAlarm]

I dunno, kinda reminds me of the (debunked) story of the Patent Office Commissioner who recommended shutting down the patent office because "everything has been invented"...in 1899.

We've definitely seen the limit or pretty damn close to it for how big a skater can go.
The Lyon 25 is about as tall/long as a skater can jump, I think everyone who has jumped down it has sustained at least minor injuries, any bigger and it'd be guaranteed injury/broken bones.
Seems to be about the limit of what trucks and bearings can handle too. Any bigger of a drop and your definitely blowing out bearings or snapping a hanger (and that's if the board stays intact)

Handrails are harder to say, I could see people doing even longer handrails or more kinks than have every been done, that's just about finding the perfect rails. Maybe somewhere there's an 80 stair handrail but it's not too tall or steep.

Ledge tech is pretty much blown out, not much left there unless all the illegal tricks are given a pass, I guess I've never seen a forward flip front crook. 

The most open frontier is going to be ledge tech on mid sized handrails.
Basically what we're seeing in street league and the Olympics. Seeing Mota do that full cab flip to back tail on a handrail really proved to me there's a shitload of possibilities I may have not thought possible a few years ago.
Up to you if you want to see it or not.

[okdokeydirtbite]

The most open frontier is going to be style and steeze.

[ferguu]

Yes skateboarding needs progression, as do all things. It is the nature of existence; nothing can remain, ultimately chaos reigns.

Sure there's bigger rails with more kinks, or bigger stairsets with bone-breaking drops, but it's possible we may be looking at this all wrong - We're still thinking within the current paradigm, failing to comprehend beyond our own comprehension.
 
Without making a wild prediction I can't really say what the future holds, but I can guarantee that it is so different that it brings into question this thing we call "skateboarding" in it's entirety. I don't believe the solution (or rather, the future of our culture) lies in brute-forcing the human body to do increasingly more fucked-up-shit, I mean, it's no secret that "creative", low impact, "aesthetic-based", skating is on the rise, and possibly even the default / most widely accepted style of skating at the moment, especially within the younger generation.

With that in mind, I wildly predict that skateboarding will become steadily more abstract, with video parts blurring the lines between art, promotion and self expression further more. Nyjah's gonna start doin freestyle pogos in his SLS run getting the first ten-club. Video parts will be edited, scored, performed and written by the skater to enable more autonomy over the creative direction of the piece. Tim Pool will buy SLAP, making us the Forefathers of the First Establishment of Skateology. Life will go on.

[GnarAlarm]

Yes skateboarding needs progression, as do all things. It is the nature of existence; nothing can remain, ultimately chaos reigns.

I'm reminded of a quote from the movie Annie Hall
"A relationship (skateboarding), I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."

Something has to happen. Stagnation is death, like real death, not the "skateboarding is dead" I've been hearing nonstop since the 80s'. Apparently skateboarding has always been dead, skateboarding is actually a zombie and always has been.

[Democratic Republic Of Mongo]

i rather see gino Ginwoo push

[ferguu]

Expand Quote

Yes skateboarding needs progression, as do all things. It is the nature of existence; nothing can remain, ultimately chaos reigns.

[close]

I'm reminded of a quote from the movie Annie Hall
"A relationship (skateboarding), I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."

Something has to happen. Stagnation is death, like real death, not the "skateboarding is dead" I've been hearing nonstop since the 80s'. Apparently skateboarding has always been dead, skateboarding is actually a zombie and always has been.

Well that has me thinking that what one considers death another might consider the dawn of a new era, in which case we're all necrophiliacs.

[FrAnKenFrEd]

Oneupmanship will always be a driving force in skateboarding to an extent but what I keep coming back to is relatability.

1988 to 93, golden years in my opinion, and also when the gap between the average 15 year old and a pro was small enough to keep kids super engaged. Skateboarding was relatable and achievable. There was a perfect balance of awe and inspiration. "I think I could do that."

But now... I am not so sure. And it's reshaping 'the culture." I know if I was 15 now, it would hold very little appeal to me.

Not to sound too old, grumpy and jaded but some things need to disappear to be re-found one day to remain vital and interesting. Now, in hindsight I miss the cycles of death and re-birth skateboarding used to go through.

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

Yes skateboarding needs progression, as do all things. It is the nature of existence; nothing can remain, ultimately chaos reigns.

Sure there's bigger rails with more kinks, or bigger stairsets with bone-breaking drops, but it's possible we may be looking at this all wrong - We're still thinking within the current paradigm, failing to comprehend beyond our own comprehension.
 
Without making a wild prediction I can't really say what the future holds, but I can guarantee that it is so different that it brings into question this thing we call "skateboarding" in it's entirety. I don't believe the solution (or rather, the future of our culture) lies in brute-forcing the human body to do increasingly more fucked-up-shit, I mean, it's no secret that "creative", low impact, "aesthetic-based", skating is on the rise, and possibly even the default / most widely accepted style of skating at the moment, especially within the younger generation.

With that in mind, I wildly predict that skateboarding will become steadily more abstract, with video parts blurring the lines between art, promotion and self expression further more. Nyjah's gonna start doin freestyle pogos in his SLS run getting the first ten-club. Video parts will be edited, scored, performed and written by the skater to enable more autonomy over the creative direction of the piece. Tim Pool will buy SLAP, making us the Forefathers of the First Establishment of Skateology. Life will go on.

I predict meta will make ai skateboard influencers  with all the clip training data they farmed for years

[backside_frontside]

I don’t mean individually. I mean as a collective- do we really need to go any farther? Can we just all kick back and enjoy Frog videos? I feel like when there’s a guy who hits a thirty stair rail and then bombs the steepest hlll in LA maybe we’ve seen enough.

The Frog team needs to try a little harder before I can enjoy their videos. And you know what? That's what skateboard needs, people need to try a little harder.

Less low impact, less ride-on grinds, less reliance on go-to tricks part after part, learn new tricks, do a back noseblunt from the side, less noseslides, less wallrides, less cool guyism, less milking it, more banger clips, less b-roll, double angles, and slow mo to pad out your part, put out that career-defining part.

It's cool when skaters try their hardest.

[91FeelGoodOnWood]

Man that clip got you fucked up eh?
Go bomb a hill and see what it’s all about.

[ferguu]

Expand Quote

I don’t mean individually. I mean as a collective- do we really need to go any farther? Can we just all kick back and enjoy Frog videos? I feel like when there’s a guy who hits a thirty stair rail and then bombs the steepest hlll in LA maybe we’ve seen enough.

[close]

The Frog team needs to try a little harder before I can enjoy their videos. And you know what? That's what skateboard needs, people need to try a little harder.

Less low impact, less ride-on grinds, less reliance on go-to tricks part after part, learn new tricks, do a back noseblunt from the side, less noseslides, less wallrides, less cool guyism, less milking it, more banger clips, less b-roll, double angles, and slow mo to pad out your part, put out that career-defining part.

It's cool when skaters try their hardest.

One thing is certain; progressive art forms are at their worst when a doctrine is established.

One time I visited a mueseum of cubist furniture in Prague, I was reading all the little pieces that came with the furniture, really interesting stuff. A lot of them spoke about a rift in the movement, which really only existed for like 3 years - some Czech cubists felt that there was a right way to create cubist pieces, and that you must follow some core principles, while others chose to flaunt these rules. I was reading this like "How you gonna be on the forefront of modern art, but forbid others from taking the movement any further?" The movement broke down because the two groups couldn't really reconcile their differences, amongst other things.

What I'm trying to say is I believe its best to allow each individual to express themselves exactly as they desire, since it contributes to the evolution of culture. Like aren't we so lucky that if you don't like Frog there's a whole other sect of skateboarding chucking themselves down increasingly larger shit? Ultimately, chaos reigns.

+ if everyone followed the hucking paradigm there would be no Todd Falcon, which would be an INTERNATIONAL tragedy.

[GnarAlarm]

Oneupmanship will always be a driving force in skateboarding to an extent but what I keep coming back to is relatability.

1988 to 93, golden years in my opinion, and also when the gap between the average 15 year old and a pro was small enough to keep kids super engaged. Skateboarding was relatable and achievable. There was a perfect balance of awe and inspiration. "I think I could do that."

But now... I am not so sure. And it's reshaping 'the culture." I know if I was 15 now, it would hold very little appeal to me.

Not to sound too old, grumpy and jaded but some things need to disappear to be re-found one day to remain vital and interesting. Now, in hindsight I miss the cycles of death and re-birth skateboarding used to go through.

I've thought that for a while, it's hit a point where good ol' hard work and moxie won't carry you to the top of the heap.
The "elite" level pros have that x-factor natural ability. Within a year or two on a board you'll know for certain whether or not a full cab flip to back tail on a ten stair handrail is in the cards for you. And for 99.999% of us it's absolutely not.
I think that's why we've seen a renaissance of lower technical level skating and teams.
People be like "welp...I'm sure as fuck never doing a nollie 270 switch back tail bigspin out on a handrail, I'm gonna have to get weird if I wanna stand out".

[Dr Hass]

Weird to see some people have a hard-on for progression. While there’s little point in being a small c conservative, you can also point to many societal ills and see their roots in progression for progressions sake. Progression means nothing without context, functionality and soul. It is not nostalgia to recognise that some elements of the past were better than the present day - an era of music, or architecture, for example. So to advocate for progression as an inherent good is wrong sighted and you may as well go and join those morons in Silicon Valley.

On a minor point, I never got those people who say they get bummed out by skaters skating unrelatable, gnarly spots in videos. Yeah it’s never going to be something I’m going to be able to do, but it’s amazing to marvel at all the same. People don’t stop playing football because Messi exists.

[GnarAlarm]

Weird to see some people have a hard-on for progression. While there’s little point in being a small c conservative, you can also point to many societal ills and see their roots in progression for progressions sake. Progression means nothing without context, functionality and soul. It is not nostalgia to recognise that some elements of the past were better than the present day - an era of music, or architecture, for example. So to advocate for progression as an inherent good is wrong sighted and you may as well go and join those morons in Silicon Valley.

On a minor point, I never got those people who say they get bummed out by skaters skating unrelatable, gnarly spots in videos. Yeah it’s never going to be something I’m going to be able to do, but it’s amazing to marvel at all the same. People don’t stop playing football because Messi exists.

I guess this is unpopular but I don't really need the pros to be relatable to me.
I'm actually very curious and excited to see the limit of what's possible on a skateboard.
It's okay to be interested in both, you can like punk rock and prog rock at the same time.

[Lenny the Fatface]

More creativity is needed, and THEN you progress within that. Someone had to come up with a manual, someone had to look at a hand rail and grind it, someone had to think about how unexplored wall rides were and try some stuff.

Good example is The GX1000 stuff from right before the pandemic. It was insane footage, not only because of the danger involved, but the fact that a whole crew was trying that crazy shit. It felt like a new way of skating even though it was just riskier hill bombing.

A bad example is the early Magenta stuff in 2013 which everyone liked initially because it felt like a new approach to skating. The really long lines, all the power sliding, and an emphasis on centering the underground Japanese shit, with a noticeable lack of skill discrimination. Problem was nobody in that crew ever tried to elevate what they were doing. That Magenta style quickly became 20 dudes in bucket hats power sliding in a new city, which led to that whole vibe falling flat by the end of 2014. It was creative, but nobody took it on themselves to push boundaries.