I’d put that down to bigger wider wheels (trucks snd boards).
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Tangentially related, so soz, but it’s vaguely connected to my thoughts that skateboarding isn’t at its zenith but is depreciating in some way, echoing wider economic stagnation and ‘enshitification’ of our lives.
Are all new board brands a bit shit and seemingly done quite cheaply? I was looking at Sky Brown and Christ Russell’s new outfit, Tanabata Skateboards, and the logo just seems so crap to me. Like a lot of brands now, there isn’t much hype and it relies heavily on social media.
It made me think of other recent brands like King, which just seem a bit underwhelming and undercooked compared to brands of even 10 years ago like Polar, Palace, Magenta etc which had lots of effort go into them.
I know I’m comparing apples and oranges here, but ‘what even is skateboarding these days?’
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I’d say skating has been rolling along for the past few years. Not huge but not dying.
I don’t think new board technologies have had much impact - there are alternatives there, but most people still buy regular 7-ply. Maybe the visibility of skating in the Olympics has raised the profile, even though most of us don’t skate competitively. Also the growing number of public-funded skateparks helps.
The one big change I’ve seen is more girls coming in, and getting good. I regularly see seriously good female skaters at the parks I go to - before, I could go for years without ever seeing one .
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What twat is buying some board technology bullshit really?
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If skateboarding was popping, im sure EA Skate 4(?) would of had more real brands on it.
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Exactly. If brands see no point in being in Skate 4 or whatever that is mad. Player base was pretty big at the start.
Barely any kids in Oxford skating it seems.
Interesting. Where are you based? I noticed a huge influx of women skating in the last 10 years, but would say things have noticeably cooled in that regard in the last 2-3 years and a lot of women have stopped for whatever reason. Like that fashion for featuring women skaters in marketing campaigns and the general discourse about women’s skating doesn’t feel as prevalent. Maybe it was just a bit of a fad or maybe women are established enough as part of scenes for this stuff not to be as noticeable anymore? Unsure what’s happened.
I’m based near London. I skate BaySixty6 and the Selfridges bowl a couple of times a week - I’d say I see girl skaters most times I go
As much as I love and admire female skaters, their recent rise is besides the point.
I’m looking at the act of skateboarding and it’s technical and agile limits. We can certainly go further than where we are (where’s the last 3-400 tricks we were expecting?) but usually great leaps require major changes in the tools we use. The most recent in my eyes is the curb curation.
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YouTube videos on bondo and curb rubbing definitely helped. Was using too much wax ever looked down on? Anyway, using fuck loads of wax. Definitely think the 9inch boards and suv width trucks has helped. Less heel drag than the 7.5 days?
I feel like there has also been an architectural trend during this current construction boom to using granite for curbs/walls/benches. They are more durable so get skated a lot, leading to them getting really slick.
I feel like they used to use cast concrete or install metal and wooden benches more often previously. I seem to remember there also used to be more lighter coloured sandstone used which is harder to slide and chips easily.
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I feel like those two places would be ground zero for female skating, your average carpark or outdoor graffiti canvas not so much.
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Bay 66 is just that stef nurding getting her fake tits out, she only skates to be different for onlyfans
Yes.
When the model for a skateboard company became printing a minimum run of boards and a shopify account, it all became a bit shit.
It’s a bit of a weird thing though… I can get behind something done on a small scale, that has thought and a bit of uniqueness to it, but presenting it like it’s some kind of large scale enterprise just makes it a bit wack.
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I’m not the biggest fan of how she promotes herself via skating, but she’s a lifetime deep at this point.
Got vague memories of a young blond child in Plymouth around 2001/2002 that I suspect was her, so it’s hardly like she’s someone jumping on a fad for personal gain.
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Agreed - but she genuinely can skate. A lot of the tricks she’s doing now take practice, nerve and commitment.
Stef was sound as fuck the summer she spent in Oxford (granted long time ago)
People can be sound, lovely etc and have questionable outlooks, ethics and morals. It’s a strange world.
The fuck?
Attractive woman has questionable ethics and morals?
Attractive woman skates showing some skin, must be differentiating her onlyfans? What uniform would you lot allow a woman to wear to take part in a hobby she enjoys?
Middle aged men pretend to be hyped on women/girls skateboarding but it must be done in either a manly or asexual way. Don’t be too hot.
I don’t know her, maybe she’s a monster and did something horrible but there’s outright sexism and hypocrisy in this thread.
I thought skateboarding was supposed to be inclusive.
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