Hahaha, yes!
thank you @Scurbrampwoody, what an incredible time
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fun one on BTO on small obstacles.
the Creager and Frosty mentions made me grin
Interesting article about the state of skating and its current malaise:
Echoes thoughts I’ve had recently about young people’s connections to skating. The reference to the average age of customers doubling is alarming!
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Yeah I’m definitely seeing that where I live and my local shop echoes a lot of what’s said in there. Lots of comments re pros actually doing demos/appearances/signings being a needed thing too. Shoe game/money kinda made everyone complacent eh?
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You’d have to think YT and instagram too. Why travel when you can stay at home knowing you’re in everyone’s pockets already? Just drop a clip a week, get the engagement to keep corporate sponsors happy and maybe even be able to monetise it too, bonus!
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from RaD March 1992
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From our very own Floor Odoriser
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Also Olly Todd’s first photo, not that you can see him.
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do you know much about Andy Williams? he’s one of those people i saw/ read a bit about, then it went quiet as streetskating took over
He passed away a few years ago.
He was from the same scenes as Wingy, Andy Scott etc. Very, very good at skating. Especially on vert/mini ramp. He used to skate Rehab in Wakefield a lot.
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thank you
from the April 25 issue of Thrasher
nice to see the UK is still worth mocking, heh
I teamed up with writer Cole Nowicki of Simple Magic to present the headline story from his weekly ‘Simply Ranked’ newsletter in video form. Had fun with this one.
It’s also available as a (slightly different) audio version on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and SoundCloud if you’d like some skate commentary on the go.
Keen to know what people make of the format(s) so feedback is welcome.
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Lol ‘vert charm offensive’.
EDIT: That wasn’t a diss - I just found the subtext that Tony Hawk was somehow forcing vert on the scene, or however you want to phrase the contention of the voice over, a bit strange tbh.
The format was good but what’s the intent here?
When vert is being discussed are we talking about just skating? Or professionalised skating? Or some assumed elite cadre of “spinning children”.
I’m confused as to the ideological standpoint really.
There are young skaters of all genders who skate vert in this country who organise events, make really high quality mags themselves, (the very DIY essence that kickstarted skateboard culture originally) and travel en masse because they like skating vert terrain. They’re not there because there’s some commercial conspiracy pushing a particular “discipline”. At least I don’t think so.
Have a look at Jack Wallbridge’s Vertical Zine here if you haven’t already. He’s 18 I think and makes this entire mag himself to rep his scene and his friends and the
aspects of skateboard culture that he likes.
You asked for comments @PiledriverWaltz so I’m engaging.
I’m not knocking any of it but I can sort of smell an assumed cultural superiority in some of the language used if I’m honest. I might be reading something into it that’s not there as it’s Friday and I’m exhausted but, like I say - I’m still unsure what this thing is telling me.
With that said, I watched it and it’s caused enough thought in response that i’ve typed this out so all is well fundamentally. Interested to see what else you guys do with this idea.
The intention is to do a watchable/listenable version of a weekly newsletter on whichever topic from it is most fun/interesting/relevant to play around with.
There might well be a vert scene in this country that’s thriving in itself but even in the mission statement of the mag you shared mentions the notion of vert being “dead” factoring into his desire to showcase it. It’s not egregious to say that vert, writ large, is not the discipline it once was in terms of popularity / career path otherwise one of the top vert skaters in the world wouldn’t be putting out a video part with the semi-ironic title “Vert’s Not Dead” either.
No intention of cultural superiority behind this other than giving a part like Schaar’s some formal acknowledgement whilst using it as a lens to talk about where one aspect of skateboarding sits in relation to the rest of it.
Re: “charm offensive”, that’s not negatively referring to Tony Hawk “forcing” vert on skateboarding but praising him constant advocating for it which is touched on in the NY Times article referenced and this Rolling Stone piece on Jimmy Wilkins too, if I remember correctly: Olympics or Not, Jimmy Wilkins Is Reaching New Heights
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Fair response man - like I said it wasn’t a diss anyway just with cerebral pieces like this it seems a bit weak to not actually bother with a response (as opposed to a perfunctory thumbs up or whatever) given you asked for one.
Keep it up. I guess they’re intended to be like long form video response/review style things, right?
Either way - the format is good, interested to see what you do with it next.
That is a trope that’s existed since the end of the dominance of pro vert skating in the early 1990s though as you know - ‘vert is dead’ was kind of the reaction to pros losing their status/income once street skating took over. It’s so well established as a historical marker now to be almost meaningless. Hence its (ironic as you say) use as a title of the Schaar thing.
I didn’t read your man’s voice over as saying ‘vert was dead’ anyway, and I only pointed the Vertical Zine/lively vert scene in the UK out because I felt (perhaps wrongly) that ‘vert’ was being kind of singled out as not popular from a class perspective due to its inaccessibility.
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Also caveat time: remember that this place is my only outlet to discuss things not related to the daily horror of my job so I’ll be verbose and annoying often 
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Wonder how vert skaters there are that don’t have at least 1 sponsor
Like how many skate vert purely for fun with no sponsors
