Am I missing something, here.....?

[MrCokesNSmokes]

I was just perusing through the "Covers" thread, checking out people's responses..... and, like a lot of threads I see in my online surfing travels, it sort of degenerated into this weird sort of "Street vs. Longboarding" argument. Sort of like, a lot of threads end up doing, I've noticed.

I guess I missed the "exclusion" memo this week or something. Can someone fill me in, and tell me what the "gay skating of the week" is this week.......? I'd surely want to avoid that one at all costs! I care. Really, I do.........

Seriously, though. I'm not gonna say a whole lot about it, except, this all seems just a little bit silly to me. Skateboarding is skateboarding. It's all good. It's kinda like sex. There's no such thing as bad sex, is there? Maybe some is better than others- fine. But, is any of it really bad, at the end of the day................?!

That's how I see skateboarding. If you're skateboarding at all, then, you must be doing pretty okay. At least, you're pretty OK in my book. So, why do we always need to prop up one type of skateboarding as being more roots, more core, more valid, more cool, or more whatever than another type of skateboarding.........? Are skaters, as a whole, really that frickin' insecure about themselves or something................................?

Besides: There's more important things in life that really deserve the hate. Terrorism. Racism. Poverty. I dunno, pick one, dude. Just, leave skateboarding alone. So what if some old guy gets off riding a 50" cruiser, or some 15 year old likes to switch tre a 20 set? Stop hating on these guys already. It's really not that big of a deal, in the grand scheme of things, is it.....?

Maybe, I'm just stupid. I don't know.

[bean-a-reano]

There are dumbasses on both sides of the fence. Apparently we are very insecure.

[Momona Boe]

I couldn't agree more with ya' MrC&S

Some people just need to hate I guess

I try to skate everything and suck pretty equally at all disciplines.

[rawls]

Longboarding is beginning to hit the mainstream. "Core" or whatever you want to call'ems skaters and longboarders are starting to take offense at what the mainstream is making out longboarding to be.

Just as the mainstream skateboard market is currently targeted at the pre-teens with popsickle stick boards and clothing, the longboard market is doing the same thing for the older aged set. Long boarding is being picked up by people that are saying, "I want to be like somebody else", “that looks like great fun”, or “this is the latest thing”. It is demonstrating characteristics of a trend or fad.

We live in a society of nearly instant recognition. This is the age of video games, paying for specialized performance, and making it big with the least amount of effort. People get antsy when others can do the same thing as good or better without paying the same dues. It dampens their limelight.

Remember when Devo released Freedom of Choice, and Whip it (the lamest song on the album) made it on the radio. Instantly Devo's popularity dropped like a rock with the old fans. But the new fans brought on equally vigorously following. I still say Freedom of Choice was the turning point of old Devo and new Devo. That was the last Devo album I bought for years and years. Devo became mainstream and I did not like it. I was robbed. But guess what? Devo carried on without missing a beat.

Skateboarding is the same way. The old guys (regardless of the era you pick) dont like to look like they are part of something that everyone else is picking up after the fact. It steals their limelight

I started skateboarding in the 70’s, when it was an activity. It was not a rebellion, it was not a statement, it was simply an activity; a mode for transportation that opened up all sorts of new doors to existing terrain. We experienced a broad spectrum of what skateboarding could be. We grew up skating before parks. We did freestyle, we raced, and we rode banks. We saw skateparks come on the scene and go thru several iterations. We saw umpteen changes to the equipment. We saw skateboarding for what it really was, at that time. We saw skating before the media went gungho and focused on pool/vert/park skating. It is a seemingly insignificant thing, but it brings a whole different perspective that can never be overwritten by later events.

The modern skaters are polar opposites. They were going along just fine with a narrow focus on skating and all of a sudden the skateboard market blossomed with parks and new, to them, skating (longboards, old boards, slalom, etc). The limelight was taken away. The media coined phrases like old school skating, but in reality it was just skating without the narrow focus.

So while we say there is more to skating than what the modern mainstream says, the modern skaters are saying who are we (us) to rain on their technical skate style parade by polluting with all this other stuff that is nothing like what they do.

The older skaters saw skateboarding get stripped of its identity and hated it.
The younger skaters are seeing new identities being imposed on skateboarding and hate it.

I guess what I am trying to say is, changes happen. Everyone gets robbed of their limelight. That’s just how it is. Even the mainstream skateboard market and media is getting robbed, as evident in their cries for help from the naked boards and corporate giants dillemmas.

What we are seeing is simply a new era in skateboarding starting up. That’s just how it is. This happens about every 5-10 years. The old guys know this. We saw it in the late 70's, in the mid 80's, and in the early 90's. The new guys have not experienced it yet (skaters and companies), but they are now. 25 years from now, today’s skaters will be jonesing for the old days when all they needed was a set of stairs to skate, kick butt graphics, and endless selection of shoes.

[dkj]

Long boarding is being picked up by people that are saying, ... “that looks like great fun”...

OMG, perish the thought! Slim hates people like that.

[dkj]

like a lot of threads I see in my online surfing travels, it sort of degenerated into this weird sort of "Street vs. Longboarding" argument.

The only thing weird about it is the anti-longboarding bullshit coming from the vert and street crowds (along with some has-beens and never-were's on this forum.) This is aided and abetted by the T-shirt vendor controlled "mainstream" skate media. It's the tiresome 30 year old C.R. Stecyk "we're core and you're not" journalistic approach.

I say F**K 'em, and I say shovel their s**t straight back at 'em early and often.

[MrCokesNSmokes]

Rawls, as usual, makes some very interesting points. Especially the one about, skateboarding as an "activity", vs skateboarding, as an "image".

I grew up as a street skater.... just because, that was what was en vogue, when I started. But, I also got to see the final days of the "vert-era rock show".... and, I also knew enough older dudes that, I heard the late, great stories of the Concrete Skateparks. Maybe this little slice of time is what has shaped my view of skating since then. As, I never got hammered, or misled, into believeing that there was only one kind of skateboarding. Indeed, I was always aware that, somewhere out there, other types of skating existed. So, I sought them out........ actively. Out of curiosity, I suppose. Out of wondering: Do these things I hear tales about...... really exist, somewhere....?

When I started my street company in 1991, I found a LOT of NOS '80's pigs, and wheels to match. Cheap! A lot of late '80's fishes, too. I bought them all. Noone else was gonna do it, evidently! So, why not me?! Smartest move I ever made, there. Good times resulted from my purchases, so all was well.

I sought out pools to ride them in, as well as, abandoned concrete skateparks. I even flew to England to skate Harrow.

When I first saw a longboard at the local skate shop in '95, I bought it without a second thought. I was like, "Oh, this is kinda cool! A really, really big skateboard! How neat!" Maybe someone should have gotten me that "longboarding is gay" memo a lot earlier than they did......... but, not that I would have read it, anyway. Obviously, a really, really big skateboard can't be anything but fun, dude. Get real. You, keep writing your memos. I'm goin' skatin'.

That's what skating is kinda supposed to be about: Going out there, and tracking down "the unknown". Like, it's all some sort of Big Adventure..... that perpetual quest for Animal Chin or something. It's fun. That perpetual quest for The Unknown is a large part of what has kept me skating all these years. As long as there's a promise of something new, neat, or interesting somewhere out there, I'm gonna keep trying to find it. Guess I've made a career out of it, actually. Hmmm. Go figure.

So, that's why this whole "splintering of skateboarding" frame of mind hits me as being sort of grating. It's tantamount to saying, "I hate adventure, and I am deathly afraid of The Unknown". Well, that's no way to go about living life, is it?! Gawd, if we all had denied adventure and knowledge throughout the expanse human history, we'd all be living in the f'n caves, still. Things happen because the Human Spirit, on some level, craves Adventure, and confronting..... tackling, even...... "The Unknown".

So, that's why this whole notion of "gay skateboarding" really doesn't make any logical sense to me. Regardless of your age, experience, or personal preferences..... it still seems like, when skaters close their minds to new things........ they lose, at the end of the day. The Adventure is put on hold, to appease The Insecurities and The Cool Crowd.

I'm far happier quashing insecurities, and embracing my nerdiness. But, that's just me. Being the Uncool Dork is really sorta fun. Maybe more people outta try it out.

Y'never know. They might even like it.

[msk]

[laxguy]

From what I hear the terrorists ride shortboards....

[gorillabiscuits]

The only thing weird about it is the anti-longboarding bullshit coming from the vert and street crowds (along with some has-beens and never-were's on this forum.) This is aided and abetted by the T-shirt vendor controlled "mainstream" skate media. It's the tiresome 30 year old C.R. Stecyk "we're core and you're not" journalistic approach.

I say F**K 'em, and I say shovel their s**t straight back at 'em early and often.

It goes both ways dude.

Just skate what you like, fuuck all.