this guys has done little more than ollie for the last couple of years & he's supposed to be a professional skateboarder & gets paid? everybody on this message board should be pro then. if you have a job & you slack off, you get fired. skating & getting paid to do it, i feel, should be the same. that's why you're called a professional skateboarder, you have the ability to do above what the rest of the skate community can do. kick this guy off & give someone else out of the thousands of no names that're busting they're ass off a chance.
Ability alone, a pro does not make.
Pop's past is what got him notoriety, which is what generates sales of products he represents, which eventually lead to him going "pro", and so long as the name Pappalardo can generate interest, he'll make money off of his skateboarding (no matter how limited, sparse or lack-luster it gets).
Skateboarding already has plenty of guys in it that can "do above what the rest of the skate community can do".
And I still enjoy watching (some of) them.
But I also enjoy watching someone who's been that in the past, but now approaches their skating in a different way.
The stance you've chosen to take is just like those people that say "how is this art?! its just a bunch of splatters on a canvas! I could make that!" after seeing a Jackson Pollock painting.
And if that's too much of a faggyhipsterartist-like interpretation, then lemme approach it from a competitive sports angle.
Michael Jordan still has pro model shoes dropping for Nike.
And if a video of him just leisurely shooting hoops at a court in Brooklyn at 4 am dropped, I wouldn't complain about how he wasn't working on his windmill 360's, or how some random kid from a college team is "busting his ass" so much harder than he is now, or how he hasn't played in, or won, a game in years.
I'd just watch the old guy shoot the ball around the best he can, the way he wants.