As a skateboarder, it is honestly quite depressing to see how skateboarding has become so mainstream over the years. The fact that people today are trying to skate like money-making douchebags like Ryan Sheckler and Nyjah Huston annoys me to the point that I want to give skateboarding up. Don’t get me wrong, these two skaters have an unbelieveable amount of talent, and their skills on a board are mind-blowing but making a reality TV show about your life and trying to get sponsored by brands like Gatorade and Mountain Dew, to me, destroys the point of skateboarding.
In my opinion, the die-hard skateboarding brands that sell their products for the love of the sport are the only ones putting an effort in to hold up the lifestyle of skateboarding. There are those skaters who go out and film video parts, take tours with their respected team brands and still make money, but for the love of skateboarding. However, you have skaters like Sheckler and Huston who are worried about how much money they’ll make at the end of the year or how many competitions they will receive a gold medal at. Skateboarding is about the streets and it always has been. Now, this obsession of making excessive amounts of money has taken over the idea of purely skateboarding for and with passion.
There are many people who think they are a ‘skateboarder’, but what does a ‘skateboarder’ entail? I am not saying that I am a perfect skateboarder, but I do believe I can spot a real skater from a poser skater. For example, many people who skateboard want everyone around them to know how good they are. This is a big giveaway! Chances are, a poser skater will want to show off and grab everyone around him attentions. A real skateboarder will keep their mouth shut and let others admire their ability on a board rather than asking everyone to watch his next kick flip. Real skateboarders show off by landing tricks and pushing themselves to the limit, instead of trying to wait for people to watch them.
Skateboarding shouldn’t be about how cool you look, you should do it for the love of it. Posers try to buy the most extravagant looking decks too. Who honestly gives a flying fart about how colourful you’re board is, it’s going to get scratched up after a week or two and you won’t even be able to see the graphic after a few more weeks. Real skateboarders purchase their setup because they will actually use it.
Another shocking trend that I personally have seen around Cronulla, is people who carry their skateboards around with them but never actually ride them. Even though people carry around their skateboarders, posers will carry their boards around places you can skate, but can also be fined, like parking lots or through the city centres.
The stance on a skateboard, for real skateboarders, is obviously known as ‘regular’ and ‘goofy’. (Regular = left foot forward, goofy = right foot forward). Many posers don’t know the entitlement of skateboarding stances. Also, if people push mongo whilst riding their skateboard. (which is my most hated trend on a skateboard). Mongo pushing means that the riders back foot gets left on the skateboarding while pushing, which is not the way to ride a skateboard in theory.
Also, if a skateboarder does not know what an ‘ollie’ is, in my books, they are and cannot be classified as a skateboarder. An ‘ollie’ is simply a jump on a skateboard, where the tail of the board pops with your back foot while simultaneously sliding your front foot up to the nose (or the top of the skateboard). It is the fundamental trick of skateboarding as it is probably the first trick any skater learns. If one does not what it is, why bother skateboarding?
The fact that people begin skateboarding because others around them are skating, is pathetic. This is another massive giveaway to distinguish a real skater and a poser skater. A real skater skates purely because they want to, not to become cool, fit in with a trend, get girls/guys etc. However, this doesn’t say that if your friends skate you shouldn’t start. If you’re curious and wanting to give it a go, that’s totally fine. But if you’re starting in an attempt to become the new cool kid at school, please, stop skateboarding at once.
Also, there is a large lifestyle skateboarders live within. Conversations about certain professional skateboarders, different video parts or different brands, will arise between a group of skaters. Poser skaters don’t know the names of any well-known skateboarders or brands. This is not saying go learn about every skateboard company, however, it would help to know a little about what shoes you wear or what deck you ride. Also, if the poser you are interrogating only knows about skaters like Tony Hawk, Bam Margera and Ryan Sheckler, than all hope is lost and you may classify them as a poser.
Some posers will talk about how good they are on a skateboard, but will never show you their skills. So if you want to prove a poser from a real skater, give them your skateboard and ask them to do a few tricks for you. If they can’t physically do anything, then you and everybody else around that the self-proclaimed ripper is just a poser. Also, you’ll see by what they wear (like skateboarding brand T-shirts) that you can tell they don’t really skateboard. Real skateboarders don’t excessively purchase skateboarding clothes, they try to stay original and not place emphasis on them that they are skateboarders. Posers tend to purchased mainstream skateboarding brands such as DC, Element, Hurley and Volcom.
Jacob lekki 