skateboarders-1 SF cops-0

[Hollow]

http://www.baycitizen.org/crime/story/s ... ssaulting/

[Rude Boy Puff]

Getting away with punching cops is cool and all, but then I saw he rides a long board.

[Hollow]

Getting away with punching cops is cool and all, but then I saw he rides a long board.

In before Pauly.

[ZACH ATTACK]

This dude is the living personification of white privilege. I mean, punching cops and getting away with it is cool and all, but if he was a person of colour the cops would have been acquitted of any wrong doing and he'd be doing time for assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

[Hollow]

This dude is the living personification of white privilege. I mean, punching cops and getting away with it is cool and all, but if he was a person of colour the cops would have been acquitted of any wrong doing and he'd be doing time for assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

Of course it's the personification of white privilege. So is skateboarding as a whole.

[ZACH ATTACK]

So is skateboarding as a whole.

You're gunna have to explain that one.

[Hollow]

So is skateboarding as a whole.

You're gunna have to explain that one.

Maybe not white privilege, but privilege to be certain. I mean, the fact is, it's a hobby that depends on the destruction of the necessary components to carry it out. You are constantly buying new decks, new trucks, new wheels. This is something that people of a certain social standing just can't afford to take part in, and those that manage to do so generally have to make themselves walking billboards in order to afford to do it.

I'm not saying fuck skateboarding (I think it's rad) but theres some definite criticism that could be done of the movement as a whole.

[officespace]

uhhhh what social standing do you have to be in to afford a five dollar skateboard??/ To be a professional you may have to spend a bit of money but that goes with every career.

[ZACH ATTACK]

Having worked in a skate shop, I can say that in my experience a lot of that isn't true. Sure, shit breaks sometimes, but unless you're trying to go pro or become the next CKY (i.e. you're super hard on your gear or reckless with it) there's no reason why you should be "constantly buying new decks, new trucks, or new wheels." I sold a lot of complete set ups for under $100 and for the most part the only difference was that the deck and wheels didn't have any names or graphics on them. Becoming a "walking billboard" in order to be able to afford to skate isn't a reality because most people don't get sponsored, and even if you do manage to get a sponsorship most of them are for like 10% off. My employee discount was better than most sponsorships. I definitely noticed a trend where rich kids broke their decks frequently, bought new gear all the time, and were decked out in brand names. Everybody else bought a new deck once or twice a year (if that, i also knew a lot of kids who skated the same decks for two or three years at a time) had me put their old trucks on them, dressed like a normal person, and looked after their stuff. Skating no more requires breaking the necessary components to carry it out any more than being in a band requires me to destroy my amp and break my guitar to jam regularly. Sure it happens sometimes, but it's also largely avoidable if your not a dummy trying to pull off Tony Hawk video game shit. It's also a lot more affordable than being in punk bands.

[Hollow]

Having worked in a skate shop, I can say that in my experience a lot of that isn't true. Sure, shit breaks sometimes, but unless you're trying to go pro or become the next CKY (i.e. you're super hard on your gear or reckless with it) there's no reason why you should be "constantly buying new decks, new trucks, or new wheels." I sold a lot of complete set ups for under $100 and for the most part the only difference was that the deck and wheels didn't have any names or graphics on them. Becoming a "walking billboard" in order to be able to afford to skate isn't a reality because most people don't get sponsored, and even if you do manage to get a sponsorship most of them are for like 10% off. My employee discount was better than most sponsorships. I definitely noticed a trend where rich kids broke their decks frequently, bought new gear all the time, and were decked out in brand names. Everybody else bought a new deck once or twice a year (if that, i also knew a lot of kids who skated the same decks for two or three years at a time) had me put their old trucks on them, dressed like a normal person, and looked after their stuff. Skating no more requires breaking the necessary components to carry it out any more than being in a band requires me to destroy my amp and break my guitar to jam regularly. Sure it happens sometimes, but it's also largely avoidable if your not a dummy trying to pull off Tony Hawk video game shit. It's also a lot more affordable than being in punk bands.

Fair enough, I'll readily admit that most of my opinions are based from an outsider perspective (I'm clumsy enough on my own two feet, putting wheels underneath me is just a bad idea). Two points I'd like to bring up.

First, I worked in a skate shop for a year or so myself, and I can tell you that I was hardly ever selling full decks to the same people every day. However, I was selling decks on a weekly basis to the same kids. We're talking about kids who would drop hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month on clothes, decks, bearings (I had one kid who would buy new bearings every week. Seriously), wheels, etc. You're absolutely correct that there were kids who would get a deck and treat it with care for a long, long time. My shop also had a box full of discarded decks that I would regularly let the kids with little or no money dig through to find one that might still work. But the vast majority of people I was dealing with were there every day, and most bought stuff every day. Obviously that's anecdotal evidence, and by no means do generalities dictate the whole, but from what I've dealt with myself there was a lot of very reckless spending going on amongst skateboarders.

Second, and this is tied to the first point, is that the skate videos I've watched (the aforementioned CKY videos, Zero's stuff, the Sorry videos) pushed this concept hard. Of course they would, they're basically just hour long advertisements for those various companies, but they're still a large and important part of the skateboarding community, and definitely direct the way the community presents itself.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to go on some PC rant about how horrible skateboarding is. Just providing criticism from my point of view, and maybe spark discussion (which is obviously happening now).

Dwarren: WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU GET A DECK FOR FIVE BUCKS?

[tylerp]

I bought hari's old skateboard for $5 I think

[Jordan f.]

I haven't been a "skater" for years but... When I skated hard (everyday, skating sets etc.) I maybe (sometimes I would go longer) bought a new deck every 1-3months. So $65 every three months. I would generally skate the same trucks/wheels/barings for over a year at a time. Really the only time I got new shit was my birthday or christmas. Me and my friends rocked shoe laces for belts, value village jeans, shoes ripped to shit and covered in shoe goo. Most pro-skaters are broke as shit and look it. Parks are free, transporation is free, the city is free. Someone can skate for over a year on less then $350 total. Take any "group" of people and there are over-privilidged kids. Weed is for rich kids because I know people who have spent hundreds of dollars on bongs and vapourizers. Not to mention the price of weed itself. I know lots of people who smoke weed who are far from rich.

Puffin, your comment made me laugh.

[Jordan f.]

My last set up cost me 0$ (got free random parts from other people), I then gave it to my friend so she could learn to skate when I moved back here.

Willa, I feel like you must have worked at West 49 or some other giant mall store.

[Hollow]

My last set up cost me 0$ (got free random parts from other people), I then gave it to my friend so she could learn to skate when I moved back here.

Willa, I feel like you must have worked at West 49 or some other giant mall store.

Actually I worked at a small independant place in Phoenix. But that comment about weed is pretty spot on. Im willing to admit that my original opinion was off base. Good convo, though. Definitely got me thinkin'.