Lurper – a contributing writer to Jenkem Magazine has released this controversial article about the corporate changes in the skateboard world lately and how lots of skateboarders and their companies are being forgotten about. It’s a great article which makes some strong points and is definitely worth a read. Unfortunately though I can’t agree 100% to everything he talks about. I agree that we have to hate on Corporations and how they see our talents as their profits, and I definitely do not agree with any type of Corporate Takeovers of small companies. But being a long time skateboarder, almost 27 years of skateboarding now, I have to argue some points in this matter. When speaking about Steve Rocco, Mark Gonzales and Mike Vallely rebelling against corporate control in the late 80’s, early 90’s he might have forgotten to mention that Steve Rocco was the one who taught the entire skateboard world how to focus your board, and that it was cool to do so. That was a huge money ploy, but since it was a skateboarder, did that make it right? No. It’s a business and it’s always going to be about money. Just like how wheels changed hardness so that people had to buy them more often. Skateboarding also almost completely disappeared in this 80’s to 90’s era and only the true hard cores continued on with the lifestyle. So as much as it may hurt to know how much corporate support is funding these huge skate events like Maloof Money Cup, X Games, and Street League, isn’t there some positivity to seeing our sport and lifestyle promoted positively across the world. This will help it to survive and will give the true skaters more chances to start their own small companies and continue to be supported by the locals. It’s an unfortunate balance to our society as skateboarders. Yes it sucks that long time rippers are getting cut from the sponsors after how much they have given them over the years, but it’s the “1 guy” that sold out the company they should be mad at, not the corporation that bought it. And yes it sucks that they are trying to change the world away from street skating altogether by creating skate parks all over the world, but street skating was never accepted in the first place, so the people who do it are always going to do it. And with amazing skate videos like Pretty Sweet still coming out I believe that even the younger generation will always be encouraged to rebel against the system and skate street. But I also believe that this display of skateboarding on these huge TV Networks is actually helping street skateboarding be accepted in some cases. By having more people seeing it on television, the more people start to understand it and support you for your efforts.

I don’t agree with the fact that these select few kids are making humungous amounts of cash and others don’t get the chance to even try, but I look at it as just another huge sport. I’ve always compared skateboarding with Golf, in the sense that you have to perform well to make it. You have to show up to events, qualify to make it to the finals where the money is, and then compete for it. Then once you’ve proven yourself enough times you might get some recognition and big sponsors offering you some deals. It’s not like Baseball or Hockey where you sign a deal for this amount per year for this many years and then you just go play. In that world a lot of the top contract signers start lacking skills after the first 2 years of signing. They feel as though they are taken care of and don’t need to prove themselves as much so they can sit back and take it easy. Skateboarding is definitely not like that, and never will be. Look at Ryan Sheckler, this kid has been amazing since before he was 13 and is still out there competing hard. And I think he gives it his all every time he goes out there. It’s a whole different mentality to be published on television every move you make. I just look at it as 2 completely different societies. There’s the faces of skateboarding that the whole world knows, and sees on TV and thinks they are amazing. Then there’s the real skateboarders that no matter what happens in the world, they go out and skate. They film and work hard for themselves, not for others, and  they keep skateboarding what it always was – a lifestyle.

But unfortunately in today’s crazy economy, it’s hard to know whether or not skateboarding would survive without all the world-wide publicity it has been receiving over the past decade and a half.

Always support your local brands and skater owned companies, let the posers buy the rest of the products, support the real skateboarders that are just out there to skate, but also thank the ones on the TV for helping to build skateboarding into how big it has become.

I’m not the type of person that would ever sell out, but I do understand the mentality these others have and why they take the offers that get put on the table. It is a corporate world and if they don’t join it, someone else will. There is no stopping what has become, so I guess the real question is how to handle it….

Read the story below by Lurper and let’s hear your feedback

http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2012/11/26/how-corporations-are-changing-skateboarding-and-why-it-matters/

“With all this Drama about UBC, it’s kinda hard being me H-I-P-P-I-E.” Is that Snoop Dogg?? Or just a worse version of it?

I love being stuck in the middle of this stuff. It’s hard for me because I have my negative opinions about things but I also have so much respect for certain people who have created the world we are living in. It’s awesome how this conversation began and then continued on and on. 1 Man made his opinion clear and along with others voiced it loudly. But I wonder how many emails were sent that said that the UBC Park Design was good and people were excited for it. I’m sure there was lots of positive feedback as well. At least I hope there was. It’s very difficult to create a new spot that everyone is going to enjoy, especially when you take in all the factors of Finances, existing pipes and other obstacles in the ground, and how many different suggestions come out of the meetings. After talking with Kyle Dion from New Line yesterday on the phone I am reminded of all of this. Sometimes what we want isn’t always possible in the location dedicated for it to be built, Guildford Bowl was the same way where we were told by the City that we had X amount of square footage, but then the blue prints showed all the gas lines, and that number changed dramatically. The other thing to remember is that just because we didn’t show up for the planning meetings, it doesn’t mean other people weren’t there. Over 300 people gave feedback about what they wanted to see built at the UBC location and the designers have to go from there. I’m sure it was a lot of work just figuring out how to try and please everyone at once, like usual. I think the biggest problem of all is that we, the skateboard community in the Lower Mainland, are completely spoiled with Skate Parks. We almost have too many to be able to respect them all anymore. For all us old guys, let’s reminisce back to the 1990’s and remember how hard and long you used to have to work and how many people would have to be involved with petitioning and finding sponsors for funding and getting the city’s approval to even consider having a skate park. It would literally take years just to get to a planning stage. Those days are over, and New Line Skate Parks are one of the main companies that brought us past those days. Without their positive influence on skateboarding across the world, where would we be right now? And I think we should all be grateful for them and what they have done for all of us.

This UBC Skate Park might not be a destination spot for all skateboarders, but that wasn’t the intent of it in the first place. The design meetings happened and the response was huge. And they worked through all that feedback to come up with something that would appeal to both the street skaters and the tranny skaters. They have been super busy reading through all the emails and replies to this design and have definitely taken people’s opinions into account. As I said before, whatever gets built there will be constructed properly and will be fun for many people.

Love it or not, it’s your choice whether or not to go there. And if you don’t want to, then pick and choose one of the other 60 local skate parks that have already been built for you….

After a couple of crazy days being in the middle of a major discussion Sean Campbell is stepping back from the lead role on this UBC Skate Park design issue. We thank him for being the leader and getting the ball rolling towards reconsideration of a new style design of the park. Both the reps from UBC and New Line Skate Parks were receptive to the opinions and comments Sean and others have made so far and I’m sure will leave their ears and minds open for more feedback about this subject. But it is now up to you, the public to continue this discussion with them. Sean does not want to be the Face of this battle, he just wanted to encourage people to join it. And really, it shouldn’t be a “battle” in the first place. One thing that we all know is that skate parks costs big money, and any design plans for any type of construction cost money too. I’m sure there is room to change but is it possible without more funding? I’m not sure. I wasn’t personally involved in any of the planning for this park.

Continue to send your feedback directly to New Line or to the UBC Planning Department just like Sean did initially and we’ll see what the outcome ends up being.

Either way there will be another skate park in Vancouver next year, and it will be built right.

Hopefully it’s one that makes sense…