I was reading an article in the newest issue of The Skateboard Mag yesterday, and an article caught my eye. The details of the article, ie title and author, elude me. However, to briefly summarize: no matter what happens to skateboarding today, yesterday, 10 years down the road, or in 80s, skating will never be AS YOU WANT IT, exactly, and what it is that you personally get out of skateboarding. Having had a day to think about this, I’ve decided it warranted a bit of an investigation. For those of you that browse the forum, we have a ‘Rook status based on public credit given to skaters for their footage. As of recently, more members are reaching the threshold set for that particular status. Noticing this, I draw parallels from this to the modern world, where more and more kids seem to be gathering their skills about them, and dumbing down the act of skating in a sense. Interesting, the parallels between the internet and the real world.
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Now, I started skating when fat shoes were awesome, skinny pants were for girls, and tre flips were only beginning to gain popularity. When either you were learning flatland kickflips, or you were a long-time ripper. Today, at any park you can see a kid tossing tre’s down whatever he chooses, and doing the standard arsenal of tricks: nosegrinds, crooks, 5-0s, back 180s, nollie flips and pop shuvits. This is modern skateboarding. It reminds me vaguely of someone being taught to play little league baseball. The technique is there, but where’s the flair? The individuality? The creative touch? It makes me wonder what skateboarding means to THAT kid. Henceforth, that’s his name. THAT kid. Equate him to a local, a kid you saw at a competition, whatever you choose. You should know the type.
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Unless I miss my guess, 90% of the kids that clog skateparks and invade Sports Authority with their parents looking for skate deals will have quit skating by the time they either 1/ get their drivers license or 2/ graduate high school. Thus, skateboarding to them is…… a time killer? A competition? A way to feel like they belong to something that society has twistedly raped into being ‘in’? A way to look bad-ass? Think about THAT kid, and make your guess as to which of the many motivations he has for sharking the local park everyday and trying to build up a sponsor tape on his friends cell phone camera. How does he want skateboarding? What does he get from it?
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This leads me further to the relationship between skate videos and this exploration of the state skating. Upon the release of Alien Workshop’s Mind Field, I noticed far greater criticism of the level of skating in the video than I expected. Unfortunately, skate videos, as mentioned in the article-that-I-can’t-name, are becoming too much about blowing peoples minds instead of just solid, stylish pro skating set to a great feel. How often did you see smith flip-outs before Fully Flared? On any given weekend I see three or four guys do tricks of that caliber. Due to the excess of skaters in todays world, the sanctity of skill is becoming degraded. As we all know, it’s about who you know, not what you can do. This is something THAT kid needs to get through his mind, so that he can stop wasting his time, quit, and depopulate the park by a smidgen.
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I find it refreshing when I talk to members on here and we ramble on for hours about tricks and locals and parts and stuff to try. It shows that dedication. That special little tick inside someone that knows who they are, and knows skating is a part of that. It’s infectuous. I don’t catch that vibe at skate parks, or in skate shops anymore. What is it that’s changing skaters, and skating as a whole? The list can go on forever, as change is inevitable. However as we look it in the face, what exactly looks back at us? If skating were personified, how would it feel about the mongo-pushing kids getting flowed clothes because their dad films all their early grabs with his little JVC? The kids that will one day turn 15, pick up a football and their first girlfriend, and wave a proverbial middle finger in skating’s face?
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To recap a tiny bit, skating is losing its special-ness. Everyone can trick. Everyone can film and make a montage and publish it to the internet. Everyone can recieve praise, whether it’s warranted or not. Anyone can get on the Berrics. All they have to do is text something stupid or write a faddy e-mail. Mainstream has had it’s benefits, but it’s also had its downfalls. This is not to say that I personally wish for an earlier time; indeed, as again stated in that article, skating will not return to how it was before. That is the past. The future is….. uncertain. Will it keep growing? Will it crash? In either circumstance, what happens to the skill level? Will it top out? Will it disappear? These are things we will all have to deal with, assuming the few that care to read to the bottom of this shit-slag intend to stay with their woodstick for as long as they’re physically and realistically able. For those of you who don’t make it this far….. are you THAT kid? What’s in this beautiful art/sport/pasttime/hobby/bullshit we call skateboarding for you?
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I’ll tell you a little something. Skateboarding would be the way i wanted it if everyone skated transition, looked like Josh Kalis, and loved the East Coast. If I could go to a park and have it mostly to myself, or have the others there be chill and down to earth, instead of up their own ass with their own great 5050s on the park downrail. If decks didnt cost me a months worth of grocery money, and if skate videos weren’t on the internet for download. But this isn’t possible. So for me, skateboarding isn’t how I want it. And you know what? That’s fine. I’ll keep slamming to the flatbottom til my hips turn blue. I’ll keep drooling to pro parts until my jaw locks up. I’ll keep pissing away my paycheck just for the sake of rolling around in my own world for a few hours a week. Through everything I hate about skating, there’s everything I love. That’s all I want from skating. That world. That zone. Everything else be damned, because none of that you or I can change.
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Now I ask……. what is it to you?
