Skateboarding is not a sport. According to some of the biggest names in skateboarding, like Mark Appleyard and Frank Gerwer, skateboarding is not even an “extreme sport.” Skateboarding is an art, a subculture and a world of its own. It possesses many of the same traits as any sport or pastime but the tie that holds skateboarders together is a tight one. Well, at least it used to be.

In August 2007, MTV single-handedly broke down the skate world’s barriers by airing the reality TV show, “Life of Ryan,” a show that displayed Ryan Sheckler’s oh-so-awful life and times growing up in Orange County – with more money than my family, grandparents and uncle put together – while he skateboards and travels the world for a living.

Boohoo.

As if the label of reality TV isn’t misleading enough, the life of Ryan as depicted on the show is clearly far from reality.

I’m not going to say I like Ryan Sheckler because that would be a lie. I will admit that he is a talented skateboarder, and deserves what he has (at least when it comes to sponsors). But do I respect the guy? No way.

Ryan’s oh-so-exciting life somehow gained the attention of hundreds of thousands of viewers throughout each season of his show’s short career, leaving fans with one thought in their mind: “Skateboarding? Yeah, I could do that.” Well, the joke’s on you.

Meanwhile, the skateboarding world is blowing up online, in magazines, on blogs and elsewhere.

Sheckler and MTV were the talk of the town.
The real world adores skateboarders like Sheckler. He’s been in everything from deodorant commercials to milk commercials. (Yep, he’s one of the few to wear the milk mustache, skateboard in hand.)

But who cares?

Skateboarding isn’t about being in milk commercials, or winning the X Games.

Skateboarding isn’t about having your own TV show or about being famous.

Rather it is about the self-satisfaction of riding the board. It’s about skating your surroundings – anything and everything.
I think it’s sad that corporations such as MTV weasel their way into these kids’ wallets.

What is even more depressing, though, is when your favorite pros change companies they have been on for years just to boost up that paycheck.

They gain money but lose respect.
From a fan’s perspective, it’s just how you look at it.

Skateboarding is branching into two major directions right now: you’re either in it for the fame, money and sponsors who aren’t even associated with skateboarding; or you’re doing it for the thrill, passion and the feeling of bombing a hill at 6 a.m. to grab a cup of coffee.

I hate to admit it, but Sheckler does love skateboarding. He is a professional, and deserves his title. I just don’t agree with advertisements in skateboarding magazines showing a kid posing for the camera like a model, without a skateboard in sight.
Skateboarders used to make money by skateboarding – strictly and solely. They would take photos (yes, of them skateboarding), which would be published in skate magazines, and they would get paid for ads.

Most professional skateboarders in the 1990s and even into the 2000s lived in crammed apartments, with six or seven friends, skating to survive. They didn’t drive around in Mercedes or BMWs, let alone shoot skateboarding ads flaunting them. A skateboarder’s life was as raw and as exciting as you could imagine.

Unfortunately, this was before industry-heads realized they could make a few bucks to be corny and ride for sellout companies. Many of them jumped on that wagon without thinking twice, although a fair share of professionals and skateboarders of all ages remained humble, and underground.
MTV called Tim O’ Connor, a pro for Habitat skateboards, more than three times to set up meetings and get a show started. He denied them every time.

That is exactly how it should be.

Text and images courtesy The Telescope

Krooked skateboards is racing with the mind blowing product of genius, Avatar, directed by our very own James Cameron with the release of its first trailer with perfect 3D effects for the fans all over. The video has been designed to attract all those who happen to be fond of skateboarding.
The locations picked out for filming include Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Some of the stars of this picture will be Mark Gonzales, Dan Drehobl, Bobby Worrest, Mike Anderson, Brad Cromer and Luke Croker.

To a great extent it will remind you of the famous blockbuster movie Avatar, albeit on a very small scale. Please do not forget to carry your 3 D glasses or blue and red pieces of cellophane. Even if you forget your 3D glasses the film will still blow your mind.

I came across this article regarding skateboarding slang and thought it was pretty funny so I thought I would publish there idea of what the commonly most used phrases where.

Sick – this means the same as “cool” or for you older guys, “rad”. Pretty much anything can be sick. You can pull off a sick trick, have a sick board, or a skatepark can be sick. It’s one of those slang words like “bad” was a decade ago, meaning the opposite. Along with “sick”, something really cool might get called “ill”, “insane”, “gnar” (short for “gnarly”), or even “rad” or “righteous”.
Stoked – to like something or to be excited. I am stoked that you are reading this. I’m stoked I can land a tre-flip. The word comes from making a fire bigger – when you add fire to it, or fan the flames, you are “stoking” the fire.
Sketchy – not well done, or not trustworthy. A sketchy trick looked badly done (“clean” is the opposite – a clean trick looked flawless). A sketchy person is someone who you don’t want to bring home for dinner. A sketchy skateboard is a piece of junk that might break. I think it’s funny that the shoe company “Sketchers” tries to make shoes that LOOK like skate shoes, but are, in fact, sketchy.
Bail – to bail is to either fall, or to jump off of your board right before falling. It doesn’t get used all the time though – some people just say to fall or crash. The word “bail” is more traditional in skateboarding, but if the people you are around don’t use it, you might sound like you’re trying to hard if you insist on saying “bail” all the time!
Poser - this is someone who looks like a skater, or who claims to be one, but who doesn’t know anything about skating. This term can be pretty hurtful, so don’t use it lightly. And it’s tough to know if someone truly IS a poser – read Posers Vs Slow Learners for more.

Jesse Martinez vividly remembers the first time he saw a jump ramp. “[It] was somewhere around ’82 or ’83. I went out to my grandma’s house out in Simi Valley to visit her. I just skated around town and I came across these guys skating a ramp. I said ‘Whoa! These guys are jumping off a ramp over there.” Turns out one of the skaters’ fathers had built it for him. Martinez spent the day trying it out, then returned two days later and offered to buy the ramp. The owner refused. So: “I wasn’t the straightest person back then, so I went back to the dude’s house later that night, and there it was on the side of the house. I flipped it over, put it on my skateboard, and rolled it back to my grandma’s pad.”

Luckily for all concerned, Martinez brought it back the very next day.

At the time, skateboarding was considered a dying art; the boarders were just emulating their surfin’ compadres. But Martinez kept at it, practicing both ramps jumps and wall kickturns. One day, he had his eureka moment: “Why don’t I put this ramp against the wall and try it?” He tried it, did it, and liked it. Pretty soon, his SMA partner Natas Kaupas and an assortment of Dogtowners were rehearsing their wall moves.

The next step was to unveil their new trick in public. Martinez, Kaupas, and the Dogtowners hit up an Arizona skateboarding contest, shortly after jump ramps had been added to the competition. Martinez recalls what happened when he grabbed a ramp and slid it up against a wall: “[All] these local guys were like ‘Hey, what are you doing!?’ I told them, ‘Wait a minute…watch.’ I went and I hit it, bam! When I turned to look back, all 30 of them were just standing there in amazement…wondering ‘What the hell did this guy just do?’ It was a barrage of guys crashing into the wall for the rest of the day.”

That original ramp would serve Martinez well one last time, in 1985, when he was photographed using it for a wall kickturn. The picture would wind up in a Powell ad that appeared in TWS magazine in ‘86. Unfortunately, Martinez left the ramp there to go on a six-month tour, and when he got back, someone else had taken it – ironically enough. “It was a sad day, but it served its purpose. After the photos, it was labeled as one of the first actual jump ramps that started everything off there…Whoever stole it, bring it back – I’m still here at the beach.”

This past weekend, the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) joined hundreds from the skateboard community in a fundraising celebration to honor and induct icons; Bruce Logan, Tony Alva, Tony Hawk and Danny Way; into the Skateboard Hall of Fame at the Vans Skatepark in Orange, CA.

“This event was long overdue and it turned out to be a truly heartwarming and monumental occasion,” said John Bernards, executive director of IASC. “Skateboarding used to be looked down upon and we were considered criminals or social pariahs – it was time for us to take a moment to acknowledge and honor those who put their hearts and souls into shaping the sport into something positive that anyone can enjoy today.”

Skateboarding Hall Of Fame

Peter Smolik is a trip. He is a super nice dude, anyone who has ever met him will tell you that. The thing is, he plays this character… AlkaSmolik. You point a camera at the guy and he instantly snaps into the crazy G he’s known as. It rules. This video is like 3 minutes long, when a normal sketchy sunday is like 30 seconds! He stopped by the shop the other day after working out at 24 hour fitness for like 4 hours to help get back on track after breaking his foot. Get well soon Pete, skateboarding needs you! Story courtesy Tosh’s Corner.

Sure, skateboarding was invented in the ’40s, and came into its own as a sport in the ’70s, but the ’90s were really the best time to be alive and skating, Need proof? Here are the top ten reasons why…

1. The Best Videos Where Made

Let’s see….Video Days. Questionable. Trilogy. Welcome To Hell. Goldfish. Spitfire video. Skypager. Soldier’s Story. The End. Uno. Lick. Eastern Exposure 1-3. Stars And Bars. Yellow. Life In The Fast Lane. Love Child. Tim Dowling’s Listen. A Visual Sound. Color video…. I could go on for days. Basically , there ain’t no comparison.

2. The Level Of Talent Will Forever Go Unmatched

I don’t care what anybody has to say. If it weren’t for cats like Eric Koston, Danny Way, Pat Duffy, Kareem Campbell, Daewon Song, Tom Penny, Guy Mariano, Chad Muska, Mike Carroll, Alphonzo Rawls, Jason Lee, Andrew Reynolds, and Jeremy Wray (just to name a few), there ain’t no telling where or what the hell skateboarding would be like now. Those guys literally changed and are partially responsible for the game as we see it now.

3. The Best Contests

I mean, is this even debatable? Just the level of excitement that joints like Back To The City, Brooklyn Banks, Munster, Houston Pro, Tampa Pro, Slam City had…and then we had the illest amateur contests imaginable. You go to any NSA district, regional, or finals, and they were better than most Super Bowls! And here’s another great thing–the street guys would actually stay and root for their vert comrades. I’mtelling y’all, 90s was the best.

4. The East Coast Explosion

Good googly moogly. I remember this like it was yesterday. It was like when Snoop Dogg (Ricky Oyola) and Tha Dogg Pound (Fred Gall, Matt Reason, Donny Barley, et cetera) thought East (West) Coast was biased about their music (skating), and came through and kicked over the buildings in the “New York, New York” (Eastern Exposure0 video. Sorry if y’all don’t get that, but that’s the easiest way I could reference the “takeover.”

5. World Industries Was Created

It took on dude to change the face of the skateboarding industry, and that one dude was Steve Rocco. He didn’t give a f*ck about what the industry thought of him. He didn’t give a f*ck who he made angry. And he didn’t give a f*ck about the way the industry perceived the way he ran his business. He was a real bawss! Don’t wanna run my ads? I’ll start my own magazine! I don’t like you. I’ll take your riders and make them superstars. Plus, he gave more minorities jobs than the damn Job Corp. As I said, BAWSS status.

6. Vert Skating Was At Its Peak

The level vert skating was at back then was so ridiculous that there was street dudes incorporating it into their video parts. I’m saying, when you’re watching a video and you see a dude do a backside 360 tailgrab fakie nosegrind revert or a fakie 540 heelflip indy grab, you’d wanna skate vert too! It was like these cats were literally doing ledge, mixed with the hardest flatground tricks, on eleven-foot ramps! And oh yea, the 900 was done in the 90s too. And it ain’t even fair to discuss when Bob Burnquist hit the States.

7. There Were No Manufactured Pros Or Ams

See, unlike nowadays, you had to actually be at least somewhat well-rounded at skateboarding to even be taken seriously. There was no such thing as a “video skater” or a “rail guy.” There seemed to be a common, unspoken level of wackness that was just not accepted as much as it is now. Teams had variety. Skaters had real personalities. All in all it was doper.

8. Graphic Design Was At Its Peak

The 90s was the premier era of design. Guys like Sean Cliver, Marc McKee, Marty Jimenez, Natas Kaupas, Andy Howell, Ron Cameron, Ed Templeton, and Thomas Campbell (just to name a few)….these guys were at the forefront of art. Galleries were paying attention. Companies were literally ripping off skateboarding logos. As Russell Bongard said, “The new bible of cool was written in the 90s, from and aesthetic standpoint.”

9. The Best Shoe Companies Were Created

And when I say “the best,” I’m speaking in terms of teams that these companies were built around. And with that said, I think we can just stop at both DC and Etnies (yes, I know Etnies is technically from the 80s, but that was really just Natas). These are our “Nike” and “Adidas” of our sport. They’ve both been built around solid teams, have always had solid products, ads, branched into other sports and genres, and furthermore, have withstood the test of time. Say what you want, but these two companies will be around until they wanna be.

10. Trends Were Actually Being Started, Not Followed

When the hell did skateboarders start following trends? Real talk. Since when was it “cool” to dress like anything other than a skateboarder? If you look at the history, half these other “action sports” stole our tricks. Half these bands/rappers stole our looks. It’s like, we Benjamin Buttoned our whole existence and now we look as if we’re emulating other people…and accept it! We let money and sheep define our current existence. ‘Scust. Now I know why my folks always say, ” The good ol’ days.”

Japan Skater Hiroki Muraoka Now Rides For Ipath Shoes

Hiroki Muraoka is a super rookie on the IPATH Japan team. He got some great coverage in Transworld Skateboarding Japan.

On Wednesday, Tony Hawk the 41-year-old king of skateboarding became the first action sports star to get a paraffin replica of himself in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Here is a picture of Tony next to his wax figure likeness.