CEA
SKATE
OF
THE ART
By Stacy Peralta
"Those who can't do, teach; and those who can't teach, teach
gym..
Woody Allen
Js skateboarding a culture? A happening?, an event?, a
festyle which sets itself apart from other sports? Some still
prefer to group skateboarding together with surfing, perhaps out
of safety. Yet it has nothing to do with surfing. Some feel it can
be the next little league with international status; but no way!
Maybe in fifteen years when world wide saturation sets in, but
not until.
Skateboarding is a young sport with a very personal style.
Why organize a national amateur circuit when skaters are doing
it themselves? Fine, have an overall contest at the end of the
year with all of the regional winners, but let the skaters run their
own contests. At least eight contest series are presently being
run. Who knows better how to run them than the skaters in those
states? What works in one state may not necessarily work in
another. Is control more important than honesty?
Why don't we get the sport on Johnny Carson or the big
newspapers? Well why should we? Who cares if the rest of the
world knows what we're doing. Anyway the big media moguls
only cover events when they've reached their final stage, usually
death or right before. Plus it's at its hippest when it's under-
ground. Let it run its natural course.
A Sacramento skateboard shop holds a streetstyle Pro-Am.
The location; a shopping mall parking lot. A hundred skaters
show up to enter, five times that many to spectate. The terrain is
filled with small wooden ramps, a light post, spectator legs and
a car full of skate maniacs. The contest is madness yet runs
smoothly. Someone is heard saying, "Well, this is no way to
showcase the sport." Question: should we lie to the public and
show them something else? Should we pretend skateboarding
is more professional so as to get more attention? Are we afraid
of where we came from?
Another suggestion is heard: "This sport will never make it,
these professional competitors look like animals. If you're going
to take skateboarding to the masses then these guys must look
more presentable, they must wear uniforms and look cleaner."
Question: Why isn't their genuine skate ability enough? Will
uniforms make them skate better?
Look in any BMX magazine and tell me how boring it is with all
these pros and their color coordinated leather riding suits...Hey
I just wanna skate! I don't want to have to get dressed up in some
modern day barbaric fighting armor. Look at how boring break-
dancing became when they made them wear gymnastic suits.
They took it away from the streets where it was born.
hat kind of sport names its contests Terror in Tahoe,
Slaughter in the Sierras, Shut Up and Skate series? One contest
had entry divisions listed as: unsponsored sketchy, unsponsored
unsketchy, sponsored sketchy, sponsored unsketchy.
Maybe skateboarding is a sport. Maybe it's an artform. How
come these skaters know what they're doing? How come they're
able to run their own backyard contests with no problems? Why
must the adults put on the brakes? Why must an organization
come in to help them? To re-organize?, to change things from
their original nature? Do the industry people and contest
promoters skate? Did they ever? How come so many top skaters
are involved in other artistic fields such as music, painting.
drawing, writing, photography, graphic design? Could it be that
skateboarding is an artform?
It's Friday at noon. A skateboard industry meeting is being
held. 65% of the company owners show up to discuss
skateboarding, contests, trends, directions, etc...The usual
amount of tension exists. The talk centers mostly around
problems and ways to promote. After a few hours of circles, one
of the leaders present reminds us that skateboarding is fun.
"People skateboard because it's fun." Another leader agrees
and says, "Let's not organize ourselves out of business like we
did with the I.S.A." (International Skateboard Association).
Approx. 2 1/2 years ago there was the Great Desert Ramp
Contest, the first of its kind, held in the middle of a remote
California desert. All of the top pros showed up as well as a
hundred spectators. Someone was heard saying, "What good is
this contest, no one is able to see it?"...It's now 1985 and eighty
percent of all vertical contests are held on backyard ramps.
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