stolen from Bud Stratford's blog...Myopia Vision vs. No Vision At All

[skategeezer]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Myopic Vision vs. No Vision At All



These days, the biggest problem that our industry seems to be facing is that of "myopic vision".

I disagree. I believe that the biggest problem that we're facing today, is Nonexistent Vision.

It's not like there's some sort of "bad", or "regressive" vision out there somewhere to fight. What there really is, is the sound of crickets chirping in the night. And... that's it. Nothing.

Where are the leaders of our industry, making themselves accessible to skaters, articulating what the skateboarding of tomorrow is going to look like? Nowhere.

When I ask my clients, "Where do you see skateboarding in one, two, five, or ten years?", the response is usually silence. "Like, who has time to think about that kind of ####?! I have a business to run over here!"

Well: Without a vision of where you want to end up... well, how will you ever get there...? How will you ever find success, if you can't map it between here and there?

Vision, is of prime importance. Vision, is key.

Of course, the biggest problem facing skateboarding right now, is that there's genuinely not much left to do. For the most part [with very, very few exceptions], skateboarders over the last four decades or so have pretty much figured out exactly how many ways we can flip, spin, shove, toss, grate, chop, and roll a skateboard. The era of rapid discovery and progression has ended. Outside of stuff like Danny Way's experiments with Mega Ramps, there's very little progression to be had, and very few revolutions left to spark.

Instead, the future of skateboarding itself will be: Revisionist. A cycle of re-hashing old paradigms. Sure, there will be small, evolutionary changes to how we ride skateboards... but, nothing major. What's the next thing to do, once we switch tre a 20-stair? Switch tre a 21-stair...? Maybe, do it just a little cleaner than before?

This is one of the reasons for skateboarding's decline: There's simply not much left to really do, and there's nowhere really left to go. Rodney [Mullen] figured most of it out in the 1980's. And, for the most part, the rest of us have pretty well caught up.

Land speed records will continue to fall, on ever-more specialized speedboards. But: How much faster will we really go? The laws of physics on the human body probably preclude stand-up speeds much over 100 mph. So, what's next? 100.000001 mph? 100.000002mph? Certainly, not 200 mph. That is for damned sure.

So: In terms of the actual act of skateboarding, I see and endless series of circles ahead. Street's hot again. Tomorrow, it'll be freestyle.. or, if that's too stupid for the kids, we'll revert back to the "flatland" moniker*. Then, pools will come back into vogue. Skateparks will go through ebbs and flows of construction, deconstruction, and ultimately, destruction. Nothing will stay the same. But, it will never really waver that far from established historical precedents, either.

Longboarding will thrive. Longboarding will die. Longboarding will go through another winter. Then, in some distant future, it will be reborn once more. The same will happen to slalom, vert, and other specialized versions of our pastime. They live, they die, they're reborn. Ad nauseum.

Assuming that all of this is pretty spot-on, then: What will the future revolutions revolve around? And, how will they come to pass?

Steve Rocco shows us the way. As he usually does. According to the documentary (The Man Who Souled The World), street skating was a completely pre-planned phenomenon. Paraphrasing Per Holknekt, Steve realized that "Freestyle is old. But, look at this brand-new thing! Street Skating! I'm going to take this, and make this the next big thing!"

This is vision at work, my friends. The Idea is the important part. The Movement is a result of a great idea. The street skating movement has now dominated skateboarding for what? Close to twenty years now? Now, the movement is getting rather old and stale. It's far beyond time to move on.

But: To what...? Whatever it is, it won't be brand-new. That is for sure.

What the skateboarding of tomorrow will be, is this: Hybrids. A cross-pollination of many facets of skateboarding. We're seeing this already. We've seen it in the past. Street skating itself is merely a hybrid of freestyle and vert tricks, done on commonly found urban terrain. Then, we saw freestyle-influenced street tricks being re-adapted to vert. Now, we're seeing street and vert tricks taken to longboards. Likewise: Park slalom combines old-school bowlriding with slalom racing. Hybrids: Combining many precedents, to form new ones.

What of "mainstream" skateboarding? Same deal. Think: Tony Trujillo. Hybrids of many types of skating, crashing together. Or: Any late 1980's skater. Like: Tom Knox, Alan Petersen, Wade Speyer, or the aforementioned Mr. Way. Or, Rick Blackhart in the early '80s. In short: All-terrain powerhouses.

I can see retro-styled street skating making a huge comeback. Street skating on '80s era equipment. Just like Santa Cruz's Streets Of Fire video. It's super simple, and it's sort of dated, for sure. But, it's fun as hell! And, to any current kid that's never experienced it, it'll be a hot new thing. Old, to us old enough to remember it. But, brand-new to them.

But, at the end of it all, the future revolutions in skateboarding won't be physical... in terms of, how we physically ride skateboards. The future revolutions will be ideological. That is: The ideals that we adhere to. Example: The idea that old[er] people can't, or shouldn't, skateboard. Today, that ideal is being driven into the dirt by skaters of my generation, who either refused to quit skateboarding once "their time" had run out (I'm an example of this)... or, skaters that did quit, but came back at some later point in life. Whether it's to share in their kids' childhoods, or to relive our own, the reasoning doesn't really matter. What does matter, is that we are still here, skateboarding. While aging significantly. And, changing the commonly held ideas of what a skateboarder is, in the process.

Ten years ago, the idea of a 40-something skater was almost impossible to fathom. Today, it exists. Tomorrow, it will be commonplace. The same goes for girls and women: There exists today, a myopic form of "common wisdom" that says that females don't have any desire to skate. I was actually told this recently, by a sales rep that was representing a girl's "action sports" fashion line. Today, that notion is cracking. Tomorrow, girls will be skating everywhere. And, women of all ages will skate... following the footsteps of guys like me, and my peers. Old dudes. That love skating.

The Idea needs no justification or defense to begin a movement. It merely needs to be great.

The future of skateboarding, then, will be the shattering of preconcieved ideological paradigms.

The future of skateboarding will be ideological growth, and ideological revolution, and ideological death. Ideas of who skateboarders are, and what they subscribe to, will be far more valid than whatever they may be doing.

The changing of the ideals, and the infusion of new ideas, will be what keeps skateboarding new, relevant, and fresh for the next generations of skaters.

*(Which, incidentally, is where most skateboarding is happening these days. Hello?! Games of SKATE? Impromptu flatland contests, yo. That's all they are...)

[TwinTown Skater]

"Elementary, my dear Watson."

The best line in the whole thing is "Tomorrow, girls will be skating everywhere." So will we embrace the change or be rigid, stuck in our preconceived perceptions?

[rollinmukti]

I want to preface my comments with copius amounts of humility, as I am the third (and perhaps rarest) form of older skater (if you want to call me that) that was not mentioned...over thirty and learning for the first time. I don't know #### on a skateboard; can't do one legitimate "trick". But I have a great time and I learn what I can at my own pace!
Some of what I did when I wasn't skating when I was younger was think and play with ideas and my imagination, so I am hoping this post I feel like making will prompt futher discussion from those with deeper roots in skating and I might gain further insight along the way.

To me, fun as it is, a skateboard is a vehicle for transportation. When I go out to skate, I generally have in mind where (what loop) I am going, but not what I am going to do along the way. Sometimes I have gone out with an educational agenda in mind , like tic-tac'ing or bent knee turns (I warned you I was a noob!), but most of the time the manuvers along the way come spontaneously along the way.

I am not one for showing off. Not that I never do. , I am sometimes moved to "do" something a little extra if I see someone watching me while I skate, but this post is not about me. When I imagine skating with the freedom to do the tricks that I can't (yet? maybe?), "tricks" are only a part of the ride and a functional neccessity in the journey, not just showing off. So a rider might ollie to go up on a curb, or clear a gap, or go down stairs. Core tricks developed over the decades would be a way of overcoming the obstacles that lie in the shortest path between points A and B. I don't know if there is a need to switch tre flip or even kick-flip, but some creative individual may find some obstacle which that is the most efficient means of getting past. I could see where it might be better to boardslide down the railing of a longer set of stairs and the specifics of the approach, the landing, or the surface slid upon might make one type of slide or grind preferable over the other techniques available to the skater. Equipment would be chosen to maximize flexibility of application and speed.

Do you see where I am going with this? The author talked about the expansion of the "older" and "female" sectors of the skating community. Perhaps an maturity, wisdom and taste would also increase. To put this in a competitive example, skates could race from point A to B through an urban environment where they can choose their own route to advantage their own, unique set of skills, with "tricks" coming spontaneously from the environment and not executed for points.

I see more and more people riding for transportation because of the envirnment or conveninece, and with global warming and increasing congestion this trend may continue. The kind of riding I am imagining is like the ultimate all-terrain commuter; weaving through pedestrians, leaping down stairs and over broken pavement to get to work on time and tuck their board under their desk while their boss is looking for a parking spot. Not that poeple would stop enjoying all the other types of skating, but could this be a part of "the next Big Thing"?

[tarzan]

yay for novels online.

[Wells]

Too retarded. Did not read.

[kraffft]

Yeh, the author seems to be revealing that they personally have no vision, and can't be bothered to find anyone that does.

I see the concept of a skateboard 'industry' changing drastically. Increased availability of more flexible manufacturing equipment making it easier for anyone to produce parts (and bringing more creativity to design).

Also the skateboard being such a small, simple, and inexpensive device, it can incorporate technological advancements very readily and still be affordable. (Not even a word about technology advancing in that article).

I'll get deep into this subject if anyone's down..

Feeling a skateboard under my feet feels like the smallest sliver of what's possible within the bounds of standing on a rolling platform.

[enemy combatant]

following the footsteps of guys like me, and my peers. Old dudes. That love skating.

Bud Stratford is not that old. And full of #### as usual with his marketing and now "hybrid' theories. The 19 year olds will always go for the raddest maneuvers.

Skating will follow in the footsteps of surfing where style is everything.

[WaveDancer]

Skating will follow in the footsteps of surfing where style is everything.

Amen.

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