It’s my day off from work. It’s raining out. I was just laying on my bed, wasting time while waiting for the laundry to be done, scrolling through Instagram (e.g. looking at skate clips). Yes, this is the 50-year-old, 2024 version, of flipping through Thrasher back issues after school on a rainy afternoon. Not much has changed. Everything has changed.
These days when I look at skate clips, I am both quickly bored and disenfranchised. It’s amazing how little skate content there is these days that gets me “stoked” or inspired to go skating. Well, strike that. I should say how little “modern” footage there is. I mean once you’ve seen Jaws kickflip melon-grab 25 stairs, Daewon skate a ledge or mini ramp, Jamie Foy skate a handrail, or Burnquist/Way skate a mega ramp….what's left? Beyond that, everything just feels like watching someone play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It’s just so…bland, despite astronomical difficulty. I forget who said it, but, “It’s disheartening to have a culture you loved become something you find contemptuous and alienated from.”
“The skateboarding I see in Thrasher has very little in common with the activity I enjoy. I don't have any sort of hate in my heart for either of those things, it just doesn't apply to me.” -Chris Castle
It’s about time to go take the laundry out, so my time here is short. But suffice to say, much of what I anticipate sussing out in this blog is how this dinosaur (e.g. me) relates to both the modern (and historical) world (and experience), of skateboarding…and scrolling through Instagram a few minutes ago reminded me of the gap between what currently is, and what personally resonates. The chasm between those two could not be wider.
Anyway, time to go fold shirts.
Here is a photo of my friend Ben, that resonates...
First, thank for reminding me. Time to do some laundry as I am working from home today. Second - yeah - I'm feeling this. It is possible and in fact -- a fact -- that having so much skate content available at all times has lessened my enjoyment of it. I much prefer reading someone's thoughts about skating (like I do on your blog) to watching the latest epic shit. As our media reach has expanded, my capacity to deal with has stayed the same. I do not say diminished. I have an unquenchable thirst for skate videos and pics of my friends. I want to know what they are doing, get stoked with them, etc. Like the picture of Ben you posted here.
ReplyDelete"...having so much skate content available at all times has lessened my enjoyment of it." Yup!
ReplyDelete