Monthly Archives: March 2010
Skateboarders should always be involved in skatepark development
The past decade has seen an unprecedented rise in skatepark building across the country. It seems every town no matter how small has one, in fact I was looking at a Utah skatepark registry the other day and noticed that even Moab had one… crazy. This is not going to be a post on the good and bad of skateparks, Ill save that for another day. What this post will talk about is how skaters always need to be involved in the actual planning and building of skateparks. The idea of this post came when Boardistan posted the set up for the Maloof Money Cup set for the first week of June in Queens. When I first heard about the Maloof Cup being in the fountains at Flushing Meadows I thought it was a great idea. Then I found out that they were actually going to build a concrete park for the contest and leave it up as a permanent park when the weekend was done. That is even more amazing but then I thought of something .. What about the iconic ledge over the drainage grate.. would it be sacrificed for the new fancy park? Well taking one look at the layout I was happy to see right there listed as item of interest number 2 is “The Flushing Meadows Ledge Over Grate”. Now of course the Maloof Cup is known for interpreting iconic spots in their contest layouts but I was still pleased to see that the Grate which could have easily been taken out had been kept intact. Only Skaters would know and appreciate why this needs to be there. After all its not just history its a symbol NYC skateboarding rivaled in my mind only by the Brooklyn Banks. Skateboarders know what skateboarders want. This is the reason one of the most popular skateparks of all time is the DIY skater/bmx’er handmade park Burnside. Thats why skaters should always be involved in design.
Its easier in places with large budgets like NYC to have these Skater run companies come in and build/design a skatepark. Smaller places do not understand the value of such companies all they see are the dollar signs affixed to them. What smaller towns dont understand is that a poorly designed skatepark will be shunned by most of the skating community. Thats why on a small-town level it is crucial for city planners to accept input even from local skaters as to what works and what doesnt work in their proposed designs. Failure to research and find out such things by city officials results in skateparks with features such as this….
Really? I mean REALLY REALLY? WTF is anyone other than Richie Jackson, The Gonz, or Haslam supposed to do with this thing? Notice also that there is not a soul in the picture at the skatepark … thats 1point for me. Now Im sure that the City Council in the little town responsible for this abomination thinks that the tax payer money that went into this park was wasted. Why should they think anything different, there is no one there so obviously its money poorly spent. This will prevent any sort of future projects to be absolutely shot down without question and of course all the local kids are the real losers. Heres a few other examples locally of really atrocious design….
Take look at this ledge and rail. These are next to each other in another local park. Once again, REALLY!?, they seem a tad harsh dont you think? If thats not enough what you cant see is that the fence for this park is about 2 feet behind me. This gives you the ample room of about 3 feet to negotiate hitting either of these. This park is pretty much only populated by the BMX kids and thats to hit a spine thats not visible in this picture. You can see a few other elements of the park within the pictures and they also are only marginally useful. The park is well built structurally just ill planned from a usage standpoint. Again Im sure the City Council regards this as a failure and waste of money.
Now what happens when a community not only fails to get rider input on their park but also fails to understand the basics of park construction? Well my friends you come up with this scenario…
When built these two slabs of concrete were level. Not so anymore huh? In fact this entire park is made up of dozens and dozens of individual slabs all sinking to varying degrees creating ungodly bumps and cracks. Many of the local kids here have used a common skater trick and placed Bondo in many places hoping to lesson the severity of the ground. I actually come to this park from time to time because it has a C ledge that I like. However due to the massive amounts of slabs here its become nearly unridable as there is an intersection of four slabs just in front of it and of course each slab has sunk to a different level. Heres a pic of that …..
One final maddening thing about this park is the fence. If you ll notice in the picture above the fence is a bit off the surface of the slab. Well as fate would have it its just high enough for a skateboard to go under which is infuriating because then you have to go out one of the gates and walk around to go get your board. Poor design once again.
So to sum up, skaters out there especially in small towns need to take an active role in their communities park design. Go to City Council meetings and let them know that a poorly planned park will result in a waste of tax payer money. Cities do not need to shell out millions for a great park they just need to understand correct design concepts and apply them to the financial and structural constraints that they have. To all the heads of state. despots, and kings that read this listen to your constituents about what they would like to see in a local park and work with them because at the end of the day it is their park and they should have fun using it.
I used to be a Skater that Snowboards….
When I first moved to SLC and started riding I was for sure a skateboarder who snowboarded. My riding style still reflects my heavy skate influence but now my snowboarding is starting to influence my skating. In fact now 13 years after Ive began snowboarding Ive grown to realize that Ive become a snowboarder that skates. This first really hit me this past summer when I was spending a good bit of time at the skatepark. My lines were noseslides, 50 50′s, 5.0′s, boardslides and lots of manuals. Nary a flip trick to be found. It really was more like imitating snowboarding instead of skating. I found it amusing…..
Death of the 80s Skate scene as viewed through music video…
The 80′s saw a huge surge in skateboarding. With the proliferation of street skating skateboarding became more accessible to the average kid in Kansas, Alabama, or where ever. Of course looking back everyone should have known that this meteoric rise wouldnt last forever. Skating had already weathered substantial declines 60′s and 70′s and as fate would have it the worst decline would come in the early 90′s. Looking back its easy to see and understand how it happened, market saturation to its non core demographic is pretty much the reason. Skating went from counter culture to over the counter culture as seen in the succession of these 80s videos….
- SUICIDAL TENDENCIES ” POSSESSED TO SKATE” 1986
In this video skating is still “unknown” … I mean come on flaming pentagrams and hispanic punk rockers? It doesnt get too much more counter culture than that. Skating is the theme of the song and obviously strongly featured in the video…..
- R.E.M. “ITS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT” 1987
Just a few months later we already see the shift. REM although still indie and outside the realm of “normal” is a drastic shift in musical and visual tone. Skating not really the focus of the music but included in the video for “cool points”…
EMI has disabled embedding … how cool of them
- INXS “DEVIL INSIDE” 1988
Ok 1988 almost the peak of the skating boom and its getting ugly on the MTV. INXS former Aussie “Alternative” band make a grab for pure pop stardom. This vid is pure late 80s pop culture with spandex, tons of hair gel, etc etc. Once again skating not part of the song but shown in the video ( mostly in the last minute or so ) for cool points. Only this time its cool points aimed at your kid sister not you the skater…
- TOM PETTY ” FREE FALLIN” 1989
Heres the icing on the cake, Tom Pettys Free Fallin from 1989 just before ” the crash”. Tom Petty is about as skateboarding as these guys. Note also that the skating is no longer pure like in the Suicidal Tendencies video. Its now become what some art director thinks skating is or more importantly what the art director thinks the viewers see skating as … check out the girls clothes …seriously?
Of course skating is again big and in fact its bigger now than ever before. Theres no way it could ever crash again… right? I mean there are so many skateparks around these days but of course there were alot in the early 80′s as well and they all got bulldozed. I dont know I would think that if skating was again being mass consumed by people who dont actually participate in or understand the culture than yes maybe it could be on unsteady ground but I mean there would have to be some sort of sign for that…. any kind of sign …… anyone? …… anyone?…….
Im a warm up kid and it sucks…
There are two types of people, the folks who have to warm up and the folks that just go at it full speed from the start. My friend Steve is a go getter … full on hits all the jumps and rails first run. Im not so lucky Im a warm up kid and it sucks. Its not just snowboarding or skateboarding either its everything. When I run the first half mile is the hardest and when I ride my bike I pretty much want to turn around and go home until about the fifth mile. Once I get going though Im hard to stop I just wish it was easier for me to get going. The worst thing about it for me is that its not just a couple warm up runs on snow or even a few ollies and boardslides on a skateboard. Its a process that usually takes a couple hours. Now in my younger days when I was responsibility free this wasnt so bad of a thing. So what if it took me two hours to warm up we when would skate all night or for an entire weekend day. Two hours out of ten isnt a big deal. In fact many times my slow start would prove beneficial as we cruised the streets of Atlanta or Montgomery or where ever we were skating at the time. Now however as I get older its becoming more of an issue. Hot Salt Lake summer days can drain you fast and many times at the skatepark by time I feel good and loose Im exhausted. Snowboarding is a bit different in that I dont get so drained as easily but that doesnt make it any more fun to deal with. Many times I just feel out of it for the first hour or so. Sore stiff and groggy is the general rule of thumb. If Im riding alone I find that I really have to force myself to stay those first few hours but when I do I for sure get the payoff. The best thing Ive found is to just keep my attitude positive and go with the flow. If I cruise through the park and dont feel like hitting anything I just get out and go on some different runs. Luckily after riding Brighton for so long I always know a few good runs to get loose and get the juices flowing. I keep the tricks pretty stock for those few hours, straight air grabs, 180s, a few 3′s but nothing serious. Falling is a buzz kill during these earlier times. As I build momentum I start going bigger and trying some things that I dont have on lock to try and up the stoke level. Now there are a few instances where Ive found Ive been able to reduce this warm up time sometimes to almost nothing. First is new POW, I mean who doesnt get stoked for deep days now thats an instant energizer. Second is meet up early with people I know. Sometimes this backfires and my mind is saying “go go go!” when my body is saying “huh what did you want something?” but usually this is a great method of getting out of my early morning funk pretty fast. The third and most unusual method is to leave work early and go ride. Since I start work at 4am I can leave at 10 and still get some good hours in both at work and on the hill. Despite the early start I find I ride really well on work days because my body is already in go mode after being at work half a day. The last negative thing for this warm up crap is that many times at the end of a day I really feel like Im just getting going good. Yesterday at Brighton was typical in that I had to fight through the first hour or two but by time the lifts were getting ready to shut down I was in a full on frenzy with my best runs of the day coming at 3 o’clock and after. Its something Ive just learned to deal with I guess and if there is a bright side its that I always leave the hill stoked and ready to come back for more. So fair warning to anyone that comes out and takes some laps with me .. first hour or two Im a grumbly bear but past that Im all good because after all Im just a warm up kid and it sucks.
Coming this week….
new posts coming this week include…..
- “Im a warm up kid and its sucks”
- debate/opinion “style vs progression where do you stand?”
- “why skaters should always be involved in making skate parks”
also two quick reviews
- Ride Machete
- Smokin’ ‘ Big Wig
until later this week enjoy this quick clip … frontside layback slasher at Brighton Resort
Sellout!!!
Its the age old dilemma in “action sports” … the sellout. Of course in the early 80′s this wasnt much of an issue. In the 80′s we called Target “K-Mart” and K-Mart wouldnt touch a skater,BMX kid, or snowboarder with a ten foot pole and neither would any other mainstream company. Really about the only thing we had to sell out to was the occasional lame gimmick like leopard print griptape companies or someone who came up with a silly skateboard storage device. So when the offers not even on the table its pretty easy to turn it down. Today though its a totally different ballpark. With the rise and legitimacy of these “action sports” skaters, BMXers, and snowboarders are hot hot hot and the companies that sell crap to kids just cant get enough of them. So heres the question.. What is a sellout and if given the opportunity would you sellout? Being core is all well and good but at the end of the day it doesnt pay the bills. In fact for you me and all the other folks that will never get the chance to sell out its pretty easy to get on your soap box and start pointing fingers. Think about this though. Most of us have “normal” jobs or at least some way to pay the bills. We love skating and riding and we may even “live” it but at the end of the day its not where the food on our table comes from. These athletes however do live it and its a brutal short lived career path. So if you had the opportunity to cash in when you could would you turn it down?
Theres a few different paths to take with this choice. First is the P-Rod path. P-Rod has already stated he wants to use skating as a way to ensure he never has to worry about money for the rest of his life. He doesnt have crazy vitamin or car audio deals but he has placed himself in a position to make tons of cash by way of large corporate sponsors (think Nike) and contest winnings. Shaun White is a great example of this in snowboarding, although to be honest theres so much more money in snowboarding that if youre a contest kid and not even the best you could probably still make bank over the course of the prime of your career. The second is the dirtbag approach ( think Baker Skateboarding or Anti-Hero). These are the guys that eschew all the big time stuff, the “core” kids if you will. They are fine with just skating for skatings sake and thats cool too. They will probably gets shit jobs forever but skate forever too so thats fine. They are also usually the sell out police who like to point fingers at the first group as an example of whats wrong with the current state of their sport. The last two groups are offshoots of the first two the only difference being these two groups are usually older vets looking to get the last bit of money they can. The Veteran Superstar is the grown up version of the P-rod group. The Vet uses his longtime standing in the industry and mass appeal to push products that are not necessarily rooted in the actual sport any longer …. Yeah Im looking at you Tony Hawk Vitamins. Its just a way to keep some money rolling in when the sponsor dollars from actual gear starts to dwindle. The last group is the Sour Vet and its of course made up of older core kids. Somewhere along the way the Sour Vet decided that he probably would have been better off selling out in the first place because being 45 and working for a moving company sucks. This is the kind of thing that leads to this.
So at the end of the day where do I stand on the issue? Well heres what I think. I think you are a sellout if you take money for a product that wouldnt normally use without the endorsement deal. Heres an example from my life. Ive been a vegetarian for about 18 years and if I was offered a deal from Ballpark Franks and took it then Im selling out. If I got an offer from Morningstar Farms for their fake hotdogs then I feel its ok for me to endorse that product. Its kind of a mix of both schools the core and the score group. So in the spirit of not selling out I will now list the big money grubbing, poor exploiting, blood sucking companies that Im willing to have support my blog. Any CEO’s of the following lucky select companies may at any time contact me to get the details worked out….
- Rockstar .. but Ill only support Sugar Free Rockstar and Im not going to drink one everytime someone points a camera in my face. Ill say I like to drink one in the mornings because I dont like coffee but thats about it
( somehow I dont think these type of demands are going to net me much traffic from potential sponsors)
- Audi .. ok Im more open on this one .. Ill take anything that has AWD except an A4
- Del Taco … of all the large national “mexican” fast food chains these are the guys who get most of my money
- XBox 360 … just gimmie games and Microsoft points and ill be yours
Wow thats actually about all I can think of right off the top of my head. I guess Im not as bad of a sellout as a could be but I mean come on Im not really the most marketable person … who the hell would buy BurritoShoes at Target over this guys.
