Comments on: Skateboarding and the Olympics

By: Lose Weight Before Your Weight Loses You

Lose Weight Before Your Weight Loses You — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:59:10 +0000

Would that mean they’d consider adopting other x-game sports for the olympics as well?

By: Teddy Torres

Teddy Torres — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:43:15 +0000

I think if people want to skate in the olympics more power to them. Those that don’t like it, don’t watch it. I have heard all kinds of attitude towards skaters who want to keep it in the nieghborhood and skaters who want to go places with there skill. I look at it this way, I’m broke and if someone wants to pay me to skate then where do I sign.

By: ummm

ummm — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:59:42 +0000

umm, i think if skating was a pe option, id like it. And the fact that its going to be an olympic sport really shouldn’t affect anyone at all, if you dont like it, then dont watch it, it happens every 8 years, only the fake skateboarders will participate, the only real ones will stay on the skate teams and stuff, but if the teams go int the olympics, then those companies will probably be forced to shut down, cause i know i wouldn’t buy nything from them anymore, and neither will nyone else. Sims skate/surfboards and World industries used to be huge, now i see them at like walmarts and stuff, cause they were trying to appeal to the wrong group. At that same time, the group that steve rocco and Rodney mullen created, appealed to the kids who liked to fuck with people. Now like Rodney Mullen has the biggest/bestest company, Almost skate co, whoooo go uberlight

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:06:33 +0000

i agree with Will street should stay away but vert would be kinda cool.

By: Will

Will — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:50:48 +0000

Vert should go in the olympics
street should stay way out the way

By: Adam McQuerry

Adam McQuerry — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:23:22 +0000

I still feel so stupid about my first and reactionary comment! Thank you jrickner. We’re of the same opinion and yours is so well put. Are you a girl or something?

By: Adam McQuerry

Adam McQuerry — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:11:05 +0000

Fine. Public apollogy to Clarkie. I discovered who SHE is AFTER my attack. Before I even knew that Clarkie was a “she” I posted a comment on this site imagining her to be a virile male “me” @ 24. Got that ATTITUDE? Sorry, Clarkie. I may be a Pot, I may be a Kettle, I still have egg on my face at age 35. I commented with a Grizzly Bear mouth and got my Hummingbird @$$ in trouble (AGAIN). I “ran my fingers off” before I did my research. Upon discovering my folly I went to Pedro for a video release (S.C. Veterans) to look for you or someone you know and explain that I DID my research and I was sorry, and then somebody ripped my stick (a Tom Knox reissue that I purchased, Strangely enough, in the City of Santa Cruz for a session at Derby). Then I really couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find my board. A terrible mess. Sorry.
At any rate….. We live and learn and somehow still manage to love. Skateboarding rules. Skateboarding kills. A gun is a gun until someone picks it up. It is only then that the gun takes definition if it only be an extension of the hand that holds it. A skateboard is not a gun. UNIVERSE controls skateboarding (and toes and feet). The gun is a Prop for the Beastie Boys, a Tool for the Lawman, a Weapon for the Taker and a non-issue for me. I could be killed with fists, feet, a pipe or a broken bottle. I might even get a massage, a lever-extension for my wrench, and some kudos for taking out the trash given those same items. Things are what they are. What I’m trying to say is that skateboarding is an ART FORM & the capable love skateboarding no matter what direction UNIVERSE takes it or what it or it’s sibblings grow up to be. Some kid like me saves his soul tearing up the backyard swimmin’ hole while the parents are watching the Olympics, BECAUSE the parents are watching the Olympics, and this is pleasing to the me and to the Universe. One kid is picked on and ridiculed and finds redemption in chasing or attaining achievement or GOLD MEDALS in skateboarding while another one throws another Columbine. Tragic.
I hope you get everything you want, Clarkie. When it comes to “Who controls skateboarding” I’m good enough only knowing that it’s not me. I am thoroughly Keruuupt and will eat a ROLLERBLADE to prove it. You may never let me sweep the skateboarding industry’s sawdust. I’ve seen it though.
If you HAD to be someone else, who would it be? That “ever-so-pure” barefoot guy on the bus (Mark Gonzales writes about him in “Broken Poems”), or Tony Hawk?
You MUST choose…
I am Keruuupt! I will trade ROLLERBLADE money for Hot Dogs and eat them with chilli and cheese and smile my crooked smile.

By: jrickner

jrickner — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:52:15 +0000

Tony Hawk said:

“There are plenty of successful skaters that have made their careers almost exclusively by competing. These are the ones that will rise to the occasion when offered a chance to be Olympic athletes. The irony is that the naysayers whose livelihoods are based in the skateboard industry will end up benefiting from the newfound global interest.”

By: jrickner

jrickner — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:48:29 +0000

Skateboarding should be an Olympic event. Becoming part of mainstream culture helps skateboarding as a whole. Those people who want to keep skateboarding DIY/underground/in-the-streets/punk/etc are not truly being as individualistic as they would like you to believe. Think about it- If jocks started skating, and brought with them their uniforms, attitude, attention to form and detail, training regimens, and overall mainstream-ality, would it REALLY affect you, your enjoyment of riding, or the way you skate? If it would, the problem is within yourself. There are many aspects of skateboarding: art, competition, fitness, image, lifestyle, self-identity, subculture, fashion, business, hanging out, and just having fun. Your commitment to and enjoyment of any of these aspects rests solely on your own decisions, not what others are doing.
Here’s what I see the olympics could bring skating: Increased support for public concrete parks, better technology in terms of performance and safety, and increased natural athletic talent participating in and pushing the progression of my favorite sport. There will always be an underground, artful, just-for-the-fun-of-it, movement in any sport just as there is currently in skateboarding. Just look at 3-on-3 street basketball, stickball, street hockey, and other neighborhood versions of mainstream sports. They still maintained their DIY, low-exposure status and people still enjoy them.
I think that it really needs to be pointed out why Andrew Reynolds and companies like Baker might resist skateboarding achieving its highest potential as a sport. They make their money more so on their image than the technology and talent they bring to the sport. Now I’m not saying that Baker sells crap or that they have a crappy team. They have tremendous talent and their products are excellent. But they don’t SELL their products based on their talent and quality. Just look at their ads in the magazines. The majority of skateboard companies choose to sell themselves based on their attitude and style, even though their teams and products may be excellent. They know that Olympians and people striving to be Olympians demand excellent products and won’t buy image and style, which will force these companies to change the way they do business. I just hope that individuals and companies in the industry would not place their talent for selling image above supporting the actual progression of the sport.

By: jack black

jack black — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 05:39:38 +0000

yeah i think skateboarding should be in the olypics it is a sport how about them dancers little chinease gymnastic peaple try to skateboard you will see the peices of #$@ not be able to so screw all of you who think skateboarding is not a sport just probably cause your fat@$$ is sittin on ur couch eatin doritos