Not this time. Lola T did the Dew Tour and did incredibly well for her first major comp but she’s still young and inexperienced and got a lot to master so trying to self fund through this cycle is too difficult for her and her parents. 2024 though.
Similarly Roxana Howlett was our highest placed at London SLS with Helena Long not too far behind. Just look at what top 20 are doing though… we can’t compete with that yet. Again self funding getting to 8 or so worldwide events is near on imposs and not worth it unless you know you’re competing.
Thanks. I’m just tired of the hate - it grinds me down. Sorry about reacting like that.
I’m having a hard time of understanding the apathy of it all… do we want skateboarding and the decisions to be in the hands of skateboarders? That’s what we harp on about most don’t we? Well I need help!!! There’s no money, I volunteer, the whole board does… The people that help me the most and do most of the work are the ones who don’t skate but are totally up for Volunteering their time to help the cause. To grow and develop skateboarding… to accept responsibility for tasks and get on and do them… I love these people. I would love it much more if there were some skateboarders to help!
Serious question: what do you need? I’m a skater (ish, mainly just cruise to work and back at the moment tbh, but still think it’s a scene with amazing potential, especially for getting kids active) and I’d love to get involved, though fitting it around a full time job and family would be tricky.
PM me if you like, if I have skills that you can use then I’m up for it.
ey i know i pissed you off with the Dacuna thing but besides that the Olympics is actually really exciting and i thought most skaters have come around to it now. certainly anybody i speak to about is really interested to see skating in the Olympics and how they’re going to handle our messy, drug-addled lunatics
i take it that you’re not getting the same vibe from people then? like @Will i think there’s quite a few pro-active heads on this board that’d be happy to help. genuinely let us know what we could do and i’m sure you’d get some positive help
No, Powley was a Voluntary Board Member of Skateboard England. Darren Pearcy has been employed by Skateboard GB as the Team Manager as a result of a bid we wrote to UK Sport’s aspiration fund to support some of best British Skaters try and qualify for Tokyo. His role is fixed term until just after Tokyo 2020 and so trying to get at least one GB Skater there will make a real difference as we will be in a stronger position and may actually get some real £££ to help with a lot more than just supporting five people and their goals. I’m talking the big stuff… facilities strategy - getting more and better skateparks and skateable spaces, development in coach education, comps/events and judging (filming / photography as a by product)… all of this will help create a better, more diverse scene with employment opps and pathways for our skateboarders. And of course Skater Owned shops just really need to sell skateboards and skate gear to stay in business
wait so the US and Canada already have awesome olympic skateboarding facilities, staff, strategy etc. but the UK is has nothing in terms of facilities yet and is dependent upon actually seeing some kind of results?
In the grand history of the Olympics, England didn’t have an Olympic sized diving/swimming pool for years. So I don’t think skating can moan to much at the moment about not having any special treatment.
I guess that’s because there’s never been a body or organisation or group (whatever) that would be able to receive such large investment and even campaign for it in the first place. There is only a finite amount of money that goes to this stuff from the public purse… all the sports/arts etc are competing for it. What else is there apart from results and a decent, reputable governing body that is responsible and can demonstrate it can do what it said it will do?
We are currently working on a facilities strategy now with Sport England’s help… we’re also just about to start the mammoth task on working on a bid to UK Sport for the next cycle and beyond that needs to include a performance pathway, talent I.D - stuff that all the other Olympic Sports have had for ever and have numerous staff to develop, shape and improve…
That’s what we really need help on at the moment. I crying out for and ex-pro, experienced TM or industry person that have considerable knowledge of international competition skateboarding / international level sponsorship etc… Someone that is willing to help for the greater good of UK Skateboarding (I expect something negative here about how Olympics is shit - thanks in advance) …
Other National Federations have this support and no disrespect to anyone on the current board because we have lots of excellent people with diverse skills, but we don’t have that Bob Burnquist (Brazil), or Jürgen Horrwarth (Ger), Renton Millar (Aus), Sluggo (Can)… These guys have been supporting this and their country’s movements since the beginning …Since Powley and Wingy have resigned (much respect to both of those guys for the long slog they put in) I need someone to help pick this GB stuff with me
I think the success of trick snowboarding in the winter Olympics shows how popular skateboarding could be. That last winter Olympics had record viewing figures and was genuinely interesting, I think the Japanese Olympics could be the same
Maybe it’ll take an Olympics or two for the UK to realise we need proper facilities etc. Horse before the cart and all that
Snowboarding has a much higher level of consistently landing though, right. Often bails are ridden out. Skateboarding is very start/stop/run up quarter/bail front board a lot of the time and doesn’t often hold the attention of the casual spectator as it’s too technical and not as ‘spectacular’. they should probably just chuck the fucking megaramp in and be done with it.
