What’s your take on this Maloof Money Cup contest? I’m inclined to trust it because it’s got people like Reynolds and Koston backing it, and I know those guys are dedicated to skateboarding. On the other hand, the guys putting on the contest don’t have anything to do with skateboarding. They’re not skaters and they’re not part of the industry. But does that matter?
With things like Nike’s involvement in skateboarding, the X-Games, “extreme deodorants”, and now this, I’ve often had to ask myself what it is I love about skateboarding and whether these things have the potential to hurt it or whether they don’t matter. I’m not sure I mind Nike’s involvement as much as I used to, although I’d still prefer to buy a pair of DVS and support the Gav’s lavish lunches than have my money go…well, who knows where. But I’m not really into getting down on other people who wear Nikes. I think there are worse things going on in the world to fix than someone’s choice of footwear.
Even if the future of skateboarding looks like the NBA or the Olympics, do I really care? Does that somehow rob me of the satisfaction of landing the occasional switch hardflip (I’ve landed two in the past six years!) or doing a front blunt on tranny (I’ve got this pretty locked in)? Does it take anything away from the experience I had growing up as a rebel skater punk kid, which helped me get through some of the more difficult years of adolescence? I don’t think it changes anything for me, I just worry about kids missing out on what I had. But I had a slice of skateboarding history that was unique to that time and I can’t expect skateboarding to ever be the same without a time machine. Whatever it was for me, I’ll always have that, and whatever it is for kids today might be different.
But I think what matters most won’t change, and that’s the satisfaction of individual accomplishment you get from skateboarding. It’s fun to be on a basketball team and win a game as a team, but skateboarding is all about you. Nobody can land a trick for you. They can give you advice, but at the end of the day it’s all up to you, and there’s nothing that can change the feeling of going out and skating and landing something that gets you hyped, and when you think about it that way, things like extreme deodorant seem funny, not threatening.
I’m down for any competition that brings so many awesome skaters to the same place.
The Maloof Money cup I think is great for true skateboarders. But I think the Xgames reputation with media has a bigger edge. If the Maloof Money cup were to gain more media alot of people would maybe like it even more than the xgames.