Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Skateboarding and the Olympics....

Hey what's going on ya'll? I know, it's been quite awhile since I posted up on here, my computer crashed so it took me a minute to get it together but here I am. Today I am here to speak my thoughts on skateboarding being an Olympic sport. For some of you that are unaware or don't read or watch current events, the Olympic committee had decided to introduce skateboarding as an new event in the 2020 Olympic games. Personally I feel it isn't good for the skateboarding community at all. We already have events like Dew Tour, Street League, the X-Games and several other events that showcase the best of the best skateboarders from around the world. We don't need anymore mainstream events being ran by some dudes in a suit that never once stood on a skateboard in their life. I remember when people hated skateboarders, I remember when people called skateboarders lames, faggots, emos, security kicking us out, cops called on us for skateboarding. Skaters used to get shitted on for doing what they love. Now all of a sudden it's the acceptable thing to do? I always loved the rawness and expressive honesty that is skateboarding and I loved the fact that we were our own tight knit collective because there wasn't many of us. Yes there were contests then but those contests were being ran by skateboarders, for skateboarders and supported by skateboarders. Nowadays it seems like a lot of the bigger companies that had ZERO involvement with skateboarding now wants a piece of the fiscal pie skateboarding is cashing in with its newfound popularity. The pros of that is that these bigger companies are keeping our favorite skateboarders skating and taking care of them as the professional athletes that they are. the cons of that however is that alot of the skater owned and operated companies we skaters grew up on and love is slowly but surely dying out because of the fact alot of people love skateboarding fashion and trends but not the actual act of skateboarding itself. Kids buy skateboarding clothes but not boards itself, next thing you know companies like Organika and Expedition One is declining either making their team smaller or in the case of companies like Fallen, call it a wrap and close its doors. To me that is unacceptable and we as skateboarders need to think instead of embracing everyone that throws a big paycheck at us. Skateboarding and skateboarders always prided themselves as being an individualistic activity and not being an organized team sport. My concern is that the Olympics will turn skateboarding into everything it ever stood against which is skaters turning into jocks and more people fencing in the skate community to a bunch of parks when really skateboarding originated in the streets. Skateboarding to me carries the same soul and essence of hip hop music: both gritty, raw and full of fun and passion and both being tarnished by too much mainstream exposure and money at the expense of the integrity of the folks that participate in it. We need to keep skateboarding just that-skateboarding. Sure the we won't get the Lambos or the big ass mansions but what we had was heart and character, we had rawness as well and we as skateboarders need to treasure that instead of looking for every opportunity to make a quick million at the expense of what you stand for as a skateboarder and a person. We need to make skateboarding core again

2 comments:

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  2. So true....I couldn't of send it better myself. PLEASE!Keep up the good work and spread the word

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