Now, with all this exposure and profit potential corporate America is drooling all over itself in anticipation of its slice of word, metal and urethane pie. And what does this bring? Contests, duh. America's a capitalist country, it needs competition, and Americans need to know who is the best. Thus, we have skate contests, which aren't a bad thing. The guys that don't like them have the video outlet to go to, and the guys that want to compete have their options.
What's the point to all this? The contest guys have too many options when it comes to the mega contests. I'm talking about the big guys, "The Fortune 3": Cole, Sheckler and Rodriguez, they're skateboarding's indicators, if you see them at a contest you know there's some serious coin involved. The problem is they've all won different things, so technically we don't know who the best competitive skateboarder is.
There's just so many super-contests and no organization: Maloof Money Cup, Dew Tour, X Games and now Drydek's Skateboarding League. They all have different formats, and if I remember correctly from science class the way to figure something out is to create a control. Sooner or later some of these are going to have to merge. Cole has won Maloof and The Dew Tour Championship, Rodriguez has won Maloof and the X Games, and Sheckler has won the Dew Championship and the X Games. See, not one of them has won the same two.
Skateboarding should take a lesson from surfing on this one. If you want to be the best competitive surfer in the world you join the ASP World Tour. You start on the Qualifying series and work your way up to the main tour. Kelly Slater has won the World Title nine times, he is the best competitive surfer ever. That's that. Skateboarding's contest world on the other hand, is like a fire drill in that giant Asian country that's been all the rage of late.
Chris Cole at the Maloof Money Cup.
5 Comments
1-5 of 5
Posted by time2skate April 24, 2010 09:40am PDTReply | Report Abuse
Agree with standardization and control, but do that and Skateboarding in the Olympics here we come.
Posted by skater williams April 24, 2010 09:05pm PDTReply | Report Abuse
umm sure
Posted by knowthetruth April 25, 2010 03:30pm PDTReply | Report Abuse
That a retarded thought completely! Obviously tom morin is not a skater and doesn't know anything about the skate world. The same goes for the other 2 guys that have commented. Skateboarding will never be about who's the best. Skateboarding is about personal satisfaction, whether there is a camera on you or your tre flippin' a stair set in the dark alone. We do it for ourselves not you! Ask Chris Cole why he skates and I guarantee he won't answer with " 'cause I wanna be the best skater." Skating is about the love of the sport and no real skater ever wanted it to be about being the best. ( except Christian Hasoi, but is he the best now? HELL NO) Another thing to note is any skater can be as good as Chris Cole and Paul Rodriguez , cause there is a ton of pros and ams that can rip it up better than them easily but hate the commercialism of contests. People like Tom Penny and Chris Senn are perfect examples. There are a lot more skaters I can name but those 2 are legends that went completely underground to get away from the crap Rob Dyrdek is doing. Chris Cole, Paul Rodriguez and Ryan Sheckler are just the ones that actually like doing contests and are good skaters. (You can't tell me that Ryan Sheckler isn't a sell out, I don't care how good he is.) So if I can make a suggestion response to your "get skate contests controlled" theory, I suggest that tom morin should be fired for this article! He obviously wrote this cause he had nothing else to write about and had no intention in doing any research or putting any effort into this story. This story and you are a royal mess if your serious about this terribly written story.
Reply by panicxhaleyleigh April 26, 2010 10:11am PDTReport Abuse
Techincally this story is written way better than your comment because Tom Morin has better grammar and punctuation. Also it isn't going to hurt anyone to standardize the scoring system. If anything it will help the skaters get better "for themselves" since thats all they want. They can see where they're lacking and step it up. It's a great idea to force everyone to always compete on the same level because then they have to inovate farther and keep others from catching up. It will help to progress the sport. And no one should be fired from a journalism job for expressing their opinion. That kind of defeats the purpose. Just because you like the contests to be judged 100 different ways and you think you are some kind of skateboarding historical God or something doesn't mean that everybody that's into underground skateboarding agrees with you. The options are out there. And on one more note, skateboarders like Ryan Sheckler and Rob Dyrdek get seen as sell outs but really I think they're just playing the cards they were delt and making a shit-ton of money doing it. But thats just my opinon. I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, I just think you need to accept different views of things. Keep the peace, knowthetruth.
Reply by knowthetruth April 28, 2010 02:36pm PDTReport Abuse
Are you serious man? Do you really think that skaters need competition to innovate them selves and progess as a skater? If you do your just way to young to understand what I really mean cause you got into skating after it was commercialized. Most of the best skaters hate to do demos and you think they are gonna be all about contests? I understand you want to be able to say "blank is the best skater because he won these contests." but think of it like this, Tony Hawk is an awesome skater and he won a shit load of contest and since he quit competing he's only gotten better right? Of course he has, but is he the best vert skater in the world because of his wins? Why does it even matter who's the best anyways there's nothing that anyone needs to prove when it comes to skating and if you think they do your one step closer to being a sell out that needs attention. I would hope your not going pro cause we don't need another Ryan Sheckler. (who completely sold out, hence the reason he's super rich while Lizzard King lives broke style and not caring about it.) As for the journalist, I would hope that he has better grammar than me. I'm not a journalist, I'm a musician. All I was pointing out is that he got paid for writing a stoner thought. I have them all the time but sadly enough, I don't get paid to babble about them. Remember this is skateboarding not the NBA or surfing. There is no reason to standardize the only sport that wants to be an outcast. Also Hell yeah p-rod is the sick!!! Just not the best, thats where personal opinion comes in though and thats as far as "who's the best" should go.
Reply by panicxhaleyleigh April 29, 2010 05:53pm PDTReport Abuse
I didn't say they needed them. The pros who don't want to be "commercialized" just won't do contests. They'll do what they wanna do, you know? I didn't say anything you said I did. You are so obsessed with the idea that underground skateboarding is better and more real. You've never met these "commercial" skaters and you don't know whats going through threir mind. They might have a family to provide for, they might like to put on for there fans, they might want to be the best skater out there or they might want to be thebest skater they can be. Every person is defferent and I don't think you appriciate that. Not all skateboarders want the sport to be outcast. A lot of people think it should be as big as all the other sports. Lord knows it takes the talent. Broaden your horizons, friend! Not everybody thinks like you.This is not an argument to be won or lost. its an opinion. I think you do have some good points. A lot of great skaters don't care about fame, being the best or banking in dough. But some do. And they aren't sell outs (Ryan Sheckler is a little bit because of his reality show but I still respect him), they just know what they want and they've got the skill to get it.
And on a side note, some times stoner thoughts are smarter that thoughts that happen otherwise. Or so I've witnessed. I'm drug free.
Reply by knowthetruth May 5, 2010 02:23pm PDTReport Abuse
It's agreed that skaters want to be the best they can be. I don't think there is a person in the world who doesn't want to be the best they can be, but do you really respect some one who's only goal is to be better than you? ( not saying any pros or am skaters are like this) Its kind of creepie that some how you know I've never met any "commercial skaters" before. It is relieving though that your wrong about that. And I could totally understand you saying that I don't know whats going through their minds. What does it mean when someone says "I wish the sport didn't become so commercialized that kids use skating to be in a 'cool' crowd with no actual fixation on being a skater."? That means skating should be in the olympics right? I am just patronizing you now cuz I can give you the name of the skater that said this but how about you try reading a Transworld or something that has alot of interviews with these "commercial skaters" ( I call 'em pros) I'm not pulling this stuff out of thin air. I've got a hell of a lot to support my ways of thinking on this subject. I've watched and lived through the progression of skateboarding probably since before you seen your first titty. All I was pointing out is there is no reason what so ever for contests to become a circuit to find the "best" skater. Its about the fun of skateboarding not staying underground or becoming a national competitive sport. Of course not everyone thinks like I do. If we were all riding the same wave I wouldn't have to write so extensively on this subject. Also if the only thing you have to say to me personally out of all that is " broaden my horizons" I have to suggest you take some of your own advice. Especially since your biggest gripe is using spell check.
On your side note, I'm sure you have witnessed that. Just not here. I'm ALWAYSHI not half baked with likewise thoughts.
Reply by panicxhaleyleigh May 6, 2010 05:16pm PDTReport Abuse
Firstly, I have no idea when I saw my first "titty" since I happen to have two of them. I'm glad you've been paying attention to skateboarding for 18 years. Secondly MY horizons are completely open to any and all thoughts. I picked this little arguement with you because you seemed to be stuck in your own thoughts where you were completely right and the author of this blog was wrong, not because of your lack of correct spelling. If you hadn't made the comment about him being high and needing to be fired neither of us would have had to spend the time defending our views to a person we've never met. And thirdly congrats on your knowledge of pro skaters and interviews in Transworld. It changes nothing in the arguement because unless you know the opinion of every single pro skater out there then someone might want to know if they are the best. I personally don't give a damn either way, standardized or not, I'd still rather participate in the sport than watch it. Pros are awesome, don't get me wrong, but hero worship is unhealthy. As for the kids that "use skating to be in a "cool" crowd", they're called punks and they're generally easy to pick out. They're the ones that only skate when their friends are around.
Posted by vikingstud April 27, 2010 03:33pm PDTReply | Report Abuse
ryan skeckler or p-rod r the best
Posted by sk8halmstad May 8, 2010 06:41am PDTReply | Report Abuse
Ryan Sheckler
Reply by sk8halmstad May 8, 2010 06:42am PDTReport Abuse
Ryan Sheckler
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