ver$hy ver$h & dilbert1's $pectacular $kateboarding $election
- Thread starter ver$hy ver$h
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ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Legendary. Smooth Gino x Wu Tang.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Something which occurs to me looking at these vids now's how young everyone was. You had older people running some of the companies, but the industry was basically built by teenagers and people in their early 20s. It's all so casual and unprofessional. Similar situation to the pirates, jungle, grime, etc. People doing stuff out of bedrooms and living rooms. Whenever the older lot get interviewed all the stories will be about how they came up with a logo just stoned in someone's living room doodling or how all they did was skate all day and party all night. Some of them are still a bit like that. The extended adolescence thing.
Keenan, Gino, etc. all look about 12 at the start of this.
Keenan, Gino, etc. all look about 12 at the start of this.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
This stuff gives you a very particular map of your area and bits and pieces all over the world. You get this spread in your head based on stair sets, handrails, etc. These things become landmarks based on what so and so did there in X photo or video. It's a lens you never really lose. I still see ledges and embankments and imagine what you could do on them.
It's one of those things that offers routes into all sorts of other areas too as you get people branching off into things like urban planning, photography, carpentry, graphic design, filmmaking. Lots of stuff to play around with. You get people making their own edits of old vids, Insta clips, and sticking them on YouTube too.
It's one of those things that offers routes into all sorts of other areas too as you get people branching off into things like urban planning, photography, carpentry, graphic design, filmmaking. Lots of stuff to play around with. You get people making their own edits of old vids, Insta clips, and sticking them on YouTube too.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
It's been interesting to watch it collide with larger forces over the years, see how things like smartphones, social media, progressive politics, big money, international travel, have influenced it. When I was skating in my teens you'd usually have one or two guys who had a little digital camera and basically fell into being the designated filmer and got all nerdy about it, nowadays obviously everyone's got a decent enough camera in their pocket to do it themselves without much thought.
IdleRich
IdleRich
This is true of all youth scenes, northern soul, garage whatever - I think there is something quite fascinating in all these scenes about loads of fifty year old blokes (and it's always blokes of course) explaining how the best music or thing ever was achieved by some kids who grew up with them and and the best way to demonstrate that is to keep fetishising that in the weirdest way possible and if you don't get that your'e weird. And that's obviously fucked up and.... I sort of admire it.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Like with music, you'll find geography and local culture exert a major influence. The skating that's come out of Britain's quite different to what you get in the US. It's much scrappier, lower impact, because the ground's worse, the weather's shit, everything's smaller. You don't see much in the way of people flying down massive sets of stairs or bombing huge hills. There are people that can do it, but the environment isn't really there for it. (I'm underselling the variety in the US, but you get the point.)
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
I hung out with a bunch of skaters growing up in the lake district. Loved the whole world: the vids, the clothes, the aesthetic the attitude. Really cohesive and you felt like you belonged to something outside of the mainstream, even if it was totally corporatized in its own way (a lot of the good shit was expensive!) but it has this proper diy vibe to it. Can't understate how much cool music I discovered from the vids.
Only tried to skate one time, by dropping in on the half pipe at our local skate park in Windermere and my leading foot went with the board, while my other foot decided to stay at the top of the half pipe and I did the splits really fast and landed in a crumpled heap moaning and groaning for a good 15min. That was the end of my skating career.
Only tried to skate one time, by dropping in on the half pipe at our local skate park in Windermere and my leading foot went with the board, while my other foot decided to stay at the top of the half pipe and I did the splits really fast and landed in a crumpled heap moaning and groaning for a good 15min. That was the end of my skating career.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
If you get into it at an early age it can also be quite formative in terms of being your first collision with private property and an authority beyond parents and teachers. The way some security guards will speak to you and behave, even if you're a kid, can be quite jarring. It's exciting sneaking into spots, trying to get a trick before you get caught, but also pretty scary having some mad middle-aged bloke in uniform popping up shouting and chasing you off or threatening to lock you in when you're that young.
there was definitely a big intersection here between skating and the "alt" music subcultures
i didn't skate due to my motor skills issues/nvld, but I knew tons of people that did or at least did at one point or another - it seems like it was practically almost every guy, really
i didn't skate due to my motor skills issues/nvld, but I knew tons of people that did or at least did at one point or another - it seems like it was practically almost every guy, really
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
New York's a bit like the UK in some respects. They have lots of grimey little spots and people skating in that scrappy way. L.A. in contrast is very smooth and wide. SF has lots of hills.
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