By frontside
Skateboarding culture is not lost because of the Olympics, in fact it is celebrated and will continue to exist.
So tomorrow is the day skateboarding will be competed in the Olympics, after years and years of debate how skateboarding is dead after it was chosen as part of the Olympic sport in 2016, it is still very much alive.
In fact, it is so much better than what the X Games in the early 2000 gave skateboarders, it made us showcase our art and culture on a world platform, at the same time made us open to accept that we cannot dictate how skateboarders should look like.
Skateboarders can now look like a gymnast, a tennis player or some 90’s rapper.
The X Games, when it was organised by satellite sports channel, ESPN in the early 2000 made us wear helmet on a street course that clearly is not street at all. Yet it raised new wave of skateboarders that we see today, competing for the Olympics or just a normal skateboarding Joe’s at the streets.
The rulebook created by ESPN was even worse than what the WorldSkate, that is lead by bunch of roller skaters that wore a suit. WorldSkate then later joined by legendary pro skateboarders in the set up.
However, we still think that skateboarding should have their own governing body, but for now, it is better to shake hands with them rather than let some outsiders decide how skateboarding should be played in a world championship.
In a recent video to promote the games by World Skate, we can see how skateboarding is not 100% dead when we hear 13 year old Sky Brown said how much she is looking forward to skate with all the girls at the park, she is so happy and it is going to be the best thing ever.
We were so worried a young skater would skate just because they wanted to represent their country, win some medals, win some money, forgetting our roots and why we skated in the first place but clearly, it is not the case.
Meanwhile, Andy Anderson, just want to show people that skateboarding is fun, artistic and you don’t need to be so good that you need to be in the Olympics to skateboard – just have fun with it.
Most of them in the games gave a very cliche’ answer, but we know that is not a very honest answer. It is just something that we see many athletes said during media interview, “I want to do my best, win medals for my country, make my country proud, etc.”
Most of us know that most of them involved just want to skate, have fun and support their skateboarding brothers and sisters, besides their ambitions.
Some said the Olympics divided us, into nations competing to be the best, and that is why skateboarding, a lifestyle that is about freedom to express and having fun, shouldn’t be in the Olympics.
It is very clear now, there are two sets of ideas, the one that is aiming to be the best skateboarding athlete and the other, skateboarding is just a lifestyle.
Skateboarders did not lost control of skateboarding, they control what they can and gave the rest to greedy businessmen. Which is, normal in the world today.
Check out #VansWhereItStarts campaign in Instagram to see how we shouldn’t forget where we came from. Here’s from Pa’din. He won 2 X Games Asia medals.
CREDIT: ALL PHOTOS FROM INSTAGRAM @WORLDSKATESB. GO CHECK THE REST OF THEM.