Quick question: which of the following sounds better to you?
Stake holder or stay colder
Wire you insulate? or Why are you in so late?
Amanda Hugnkiss or a man to hug and kiss
Isn’t this fun?
Well, really, the “fun,” as well as which thingy sounds better to you, is open to interpretation. I suppose it all depends on your perspective. Yeah, that’s what a guy told me.
Marbie Miller nose where the nose goes. A smooth pick on those one brick QPs, you nose? To make it easier for us to understand. Photo: Matt Price
Luckily for you and I—fools so tightly focused on one singular child-like obsession—this idea can apply quite smoothly to skateboarding; you know, to make it easier for us to understand.
Thank dog for skateboarding.
But the act and the actions we’ve immersed ourselves in are, metaphorically, all over the shop. Masses of variables and impulses and ideals have left us with so much—too much, some say—it can feel like we’re up to our eyeballs in our own shit, and our only way of dealing with it is by arguing to what degree it stinks.
Really, though.
Sheffey Senior fuels his own fire in the middle of the backyard-scene golden era that almost nobody refers to as an “uprising.” Photo: Tobin Yelland
Skateboarding is changing—again and again. As revisionist history states, the Z-Boys forced their hand from the streets and backyard pools of Santa Monica. Then came the investment bubble of the 70s skatepark and its inevitable implosion. This fueled a backyard uprising of wooden structures, which arguably led to the blown-out vertical dominance seen on VH1’s I Love the 80s. Reactionary visionaries fell away from this marketed center (or were they pushed?) and spawned a more street-anchored version of the pastime, aggressively documenting it on video for all to see. Then “tech,” then “go big,” then “mainstream,” and now we are witnessing the effect a F.U.B.U. skatepark renaissance is having on our own whimsical establishments and foundations.
There’s a lot going on, but what’s hot about it—or rather, not so hot—is that we’ve all got strong opinions about what part of skateboarding is “real” or “good” or “fucked.” As we’ve moved along our own fractured timeline, the opinionated roadblocks have gotten harder to get around, and for the first time in a long time, divisions—real divisions—seem to be flourishing.
Of course, certain amounts of divisiveness can be healthy—especially for kids our age. Separation effectively fosters the coming evolutions of skateboarding, enabling us to grow new appendages and shit. Separations based on trends, however, or what an individual can or can’t do (as opposed to function, or what an individual can appreciate) are really only holding us back.
Save the metal quarter pipes, for without them, how would the beekeepers know where to do their biz? The captions are silly—it’s all skateboarding, right? Dan Plunkett to fakie. Photo: Jon Coulthard
I mean, which sounds better?
Rail or Hubba? Trog or jock? Vert or mini? Park or pool? Transition or ledge? Freestyle or flatground? Contest or race? Trick or stunt? Friend or foe?
How about, who or cares?
The arguments are silly—it’s all skateboarding, right? But they’re also as real as they are part of the debate. The only things that can’t really be argued are that skateboarding will change whether you like it or not, and that good skating trumps bad skating every time. Not “good” and “bad” in some kind of axis-of-evil, comic-book-convention sense, but “good” and “bad” based on see, hear, smell, touch, taste—senses working overtime.
Ted Barrow slappy slides for the sake of argument. The premise? Axis-of-evil “good” and “bad” look worse the farther you get from ComicCon. Photo: Alex Ramirez
For the sake of argument, though, let’s say all your senses were stolen from you and you were only presented with the idea of skateboarding. What would you say then?
Is skateboarding a good idea, or is skateboarding a bad idea?
Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.
Listen to Ted Barrow’s Sad Escapes Playlist.
