Just keep it disorganized. Otherwise it might suffer the same fate as BMX racing. According to the Wall Street Journal article, the reason skateboarding, a much more popular sport than BMX racing, isn’t in the Olympics and BMX racing is, is because there is no established governing body for skateboarding. And should there be? If it leads to someone building me my own Berrics then maybe I’d be for it.

In the past I’ve posted about how I’m not a fan of Nike, I’ve talked smack about Sheckler (not here, but in private with my buddies), and I’ve been bitter about the X-Games and the possibility of skateboarding in the Olympics. But you know what? It’s tiresome to be bitter and hate on people and companies and things. The other day I was reading Corey Duffel’s interview at Thrasher and the guy got sucker-punched by Beagle the Baker filmer, but he doesn’t care and doesn’t hold any grudges. And he doesn’t have anything against Sheckler and says “I’m down for Sheckler, he’s a cool dude.” And then I was reading Sheckler’s interview in ESPN where he talks about selling out, and strangely I came away with more respect for him.

And you know what? I’m just tired of hating. I’m tired of being critical. I’m tired of being a cynic. I’d rather be happy. I’d rather build people up instead of tearing them down. I’d rather be cheering for those I like rather than hating on those I don’t. And in fact, I’d just as soon stop not liking anybody and like everybody.

After all, that’s one of the things I love about skateboarding are how you see all these guys come together and everyone is friends…wait, something’s wrong with that grammar…everyone are friends?…no, that doesn’t sound right either, well, you know what I mean. So I’m done with it. I’m over it. I love Sheckler. Not like these 13-year old girls do, but I’m down for Sheckler. More power to him. I hope he gets to where he’s making $20M per year. I’m down for Bam. I’m down for EXTREME deodorants. I’m even going to try and see the positive side of Nike’s involvement in skateboarding. And if skateboarding ever does get into the Olympics then maybe I’ll actually watch part of the Olympics.

But enough with the jive, it’s time to bring in the love.

What’s your take on this Maloof Money Cup contest? I’m inclined to trust it because it’s got people like Reynolds and Koston backing it, and I know those guys are dedicated to skateboarding. On the other hand, the guys putting on the contest don’t have anything to do with skateboarding. They’re not skaters and they’re not part of the industry. But does that matter?

With things like Nike’s involvement in skateboarding, the X-Games, “extreme deodorants”, and now this, I’ve often had to ask myself what it is I love about skateboarding and whether these things have the potential to hurt it or whether they don’t matter. I’m not sure I mind Nike’s involvement as much as I used to, although I’d still prefer to buy a pair of DVS and support the Gav’s lavish lunches than have my money go…well, who knows where. But I’m not really into getting down on other people who wear Nikes. I think there are worse things going on in the world to fix than someone’s choice of footwear.

Even if the future of skateboarding looks like the NBA or the Olympics, do I really care? Does that somehow rob me of the satisfaction of landing the occasional switch hardflip (I’ve landed two in the past six years!) or doing a front blunt on tranny (I’ve got this pretty locked in)? Does it take anything away from the experience I had growing up as a rebel skater punk kid, which helped me get through some of the more difficult years of adolescence? I don’t think it changes anything for me, I just worry about kids missing out on what I had. But I had a slice of skateboarding history that was unique to that time and I can’t expect skateboarding to ever be the same without a time machine. Whatever it was for me, I’ll always have that, and whatever it is for kids today might be different.

But I think what matters most won’t change, and that’s the satisfaction of individual accomplishment you get from skateboarding. It’s fun to be on a basketball team and win a game as a team, but skateboarding is all about you. Nobody can land a trick for you. They can give you advice, but at the end of the day it’s all up to you, and there’s nothing that can change the feeling of going out and skating and landing something that gets you hyped, and when you think about it that way, things like extreme deodorant seem funny, not threatening.

In case you’ve been in a cave for the last week or two, then you’ve missed out on two of the biggest recent events in skateboarding–the Lakai video and The Berrics. Today there’s more action at the Berrics as they release the much anticipated podcast of Jimmy Cao and others from the City team.

Eduardo Craig and Dave Bachinsky take the cake in this one. Dang! Bachinsky should get together and do a mini ramp video with Daewon and Haslam. That guy has some crazy tricks and one of the most solid styles around.

The Berrics is essentially a private skatepark apparently owned by Steve Berra and Eric Koston. Why? Well, if you had the money to buy a building and build your own skatepark in it and only let your homies skate it, wouldn’t you? Of course you would, my boy.

Now, you may recall that Berra came under fire around the time of the DVS video because he was making “fake spots,” that is, he would take a real spot, and spruce it up a bit.

It’s not as though no one had done this before. Putting bondo on a spot is making a “fake spot”. Cutting the kink off a handrail is making a “fake spot”. Building Burnside was making a “fake spot”. Building a wood box with a metal edge and skating it in the street in front of your house is making a “fake spot”. I think what drew attention to Berra was that he went farther than others in that he got a bit fancier and had some fun with it all blending the fake parts into the real parts and I think the backlash came because people thought he was trying to make it look as though he hadn’t created the spot when in fact he had. Only Berra can answer the question but I’m guessing he wasn’t trying to trick anyone but rather he was just having fun with it. But hey, ever since Jovantae sucker punched him Berra’s been the guy everyone jumps on for some reason.

This all reminds me of the statement I believe Appleyard made a few years about when these concrete parks started popping up everywhere “Nobody ever turned pro in a park.” At the time I thought “Yeah, that’s right.” But I think we’ve seen a shift in the last few years. While it’s true there aren’t any pros who are 100% park pros (Chalmers came pretty close to being pro just because of his park skills but the guy had plenty of footage elsewhere too), there is more and more park footage popping up in video parts and parks are rapidly becoming the only place where you can skate without getting harassed…and sometimes you even get harassed in parks.

I don’t think there will ever be a point where real street skating will disappear. They can’t skateproof every ledge, they can’t knob every rail. It just won’t happen. But I wouldn’t be surprised if more and more skating gets done on spots that we as skaters create. And while I’ll admit there’s something about finding a spot that wasn’t intended for skateboarding and skating it as is, there’s also something to not having to drive two hours to skate a spot, get kicked out after five minutes, drive another two hours, get kicked out, and drive back home frustrated. Is doing a trick on a piece of marble you bought and placed on top of some cinderblocks in a warehouse you own the same as doing the trick on a marble ledge in front of a building you don’t own? Maybe it’s slightly different somehow, but frankly, who cares, it’s still fun to do, and for me it’s still fun to watch.

According to this article at ESPN, it could happen that soon, especially if the International Cycling Union gets their way. Yes, you heard right, a cycling union is campaigning to get skateboarding in the Olympics.

I’ve already given my opinion on skateboarding and the Olympics, so I’m not sure there’s any reason to re-hash the issue, but man, I don’t know how to prevent it. I’m sure people will continue skating the way they’re skating today and getting the same enjoyment out of it, but are we going to see a new generation of skateboarders arise that have as a goal getting to the Olympics instead of just having fun? Are we going to have rivalries between “hardcore” skateboarders and those wearing uniforms? Are skateboarders going to become law-abiding citizens? Will nighttime skating with generators become a thing of the past? 20 years from now will the idea of skateboarding on anything but park terrain be a thing of the past? Or will it be more or less the same as it is today, except that in addition to the X-Games we’ll have the Olympics?

Who knows, but if people start respecting skateboarding what will I have to be disgruntled about? I grew up angry that skateboarding didn’t get any respect, now that it’s getting respect I realize I liked it better when it was rejected. I guess you can’t have it both ways.

I’ve had many an argument over where skateboarding ranks in comparison with other sports. Of course it’s tough to compare, because every sport is different with different objectives. What sport take the most strength? Agility? Nerve? Endurance? Well, someone over as ESPN took a scientific approach to it. Granted, it’s ESPN, there were only two judges, and one of them is a pro baseball and football player, so you couldn’t exactly expect great results for skateboarding.

If you’re unhappy with the #37 ranking, take their poll and give your own opinion.

I don’t necessarily think skateboarding is superior to sports in all ways. In some ways, yes, but ultimately what matters is whether it is superior in a fun way for you, and you don’t need anyone else to tell you that. But here are the ways in which I believe skateboarding is “more” of whatever than other sports:

1. Complexity – There are more variables in skateboarding than any other sport, or in other words, you can do more different kinds of stuff. In football there are a limited number of plays you can run. Baseball today is more or less the same game today that it was 30 years ago when skateboarding was just starting. In order to find more variables in other sports you really have to start digging, but in skateboarding new tricks in new places are being done all the time. We’ve got new videos coming out every month, and when’s the last time you watched a video and thought “There’s nothing new in this video.” Heck, 90% of what I saw in Cheese and Crackers was brand new stuff I had never seen and most of which I hadn’t ever considered possible. It was the equivalent of somebody in football breaking half of the existing NFL records in one game–mind blowing. But in skateboarding “mind blowing” is the norm, such that we’re almost used to it and expect to have our minds blown.

2. Skill – Look at Daewon, Rodney Mullen, Colin McKay, or Danny Way. I’m sorry, I know it’s not easy to be a good athelete when it comes to basketball, football, or baseball, but if you take strength out of the equation you can’t tell me it’s harder to learn how to hit a baseball right than it is to do a heelflip lipslide on the mega ramp or a switch 360 flip to fakie manual to fakie 360 flip out. I don’t expect a baseball player to agree, but those of you who skate know it’s true.

3. Intestinal fortitude – Is there anything in baseball or basketball that requires guts? Boxing, maybe. Football, sure, maybe a bit. But is there anything in any other major sport that compares to the feeling you get when you’re looking at doing a new rail or large set of stairs? Your legs wobble, you ride up 50 times, and you just can’t bring yourself to do it. When you finally do, you either make it, make it far enough to break the fear and try it again, or get broke off so bad you can’t skate for two months. And sometimes you don’t have what it takes to even try and you go home and cry yourself to sleep. Seriously, what other sport requires the level of guts that skateboarding does? Ok, I’m not talking about ledge tricks or flatground, I’m talking about rails, stairs, and other such stuff, but you get the idea.

Skateboarding uber alles!

I’m 31 years old. Ancient in skateboarding terms where the average age is somewhere around 14. Since I’m planning on opening a skateshop (someday, ugh), I often wonder whether I’m in touch with what my buyers are going to want. I like to think of myself as being in touch, but I’m having more and more doubts.

For example, when I was a kid, Powell Peralta was the big company. I and all my sixth-grade friends loved Powell. Santa Cruz, G&S, and Schmitt Stix were other popular companies. Later companies like World, H-Street, Toy Machine, Plan B, Alien Workshop, Real, and Girl took over. These days I look at companies like Blind/World/Almost and think “Are these guys serious? Does anyone buy this stuff?” The graphics, the ads–it all seems childish to me, even if the riders are amazing. Companies like Girl, Chocolate, Zero, Workshop, Habitat, Toy Machine, Real, and Foundation seem like the legitimate contenders.

But then something in my mind speaks to me and says “Maybe Blind is to today’s kids what Powell was to you when you were 12.” Could it be? Were all the older guys looking at me with my Per Welinder deck from Powell and shaking their heads saying “What a dork”? Do the kids today even know who Rick Howard or Mike Carroll are, or is it only the older guys like me buying their stuff?

Part of the problem is that brands don’t seem to have the power they once did. I go to skateparks and I see a lot of Krew clothing, and of course it’s easy to tell what shoes someone is wearing, but as far as decks all I see are blanks. So I don’t really know what’s popular as far as deck companies go. I guess I can figure it out pretty quickly if and when I get my shop up and running, but I’d prefer not to have to learn the hard way. So what are the popular deck companies in your neck of the woods?