Invasion of the Longboarders
by zhx
It’s been brewing for the past couple years, quietly, and behind the scenes…but the jocks are invading skateboarding. This summer particularly, the invasion is in full swing. How? The longboard, my friends. The longboard.
I’ve never had a problem with my longboarding brethren; in California, the longboarders seemed to be comprised primarily of small-wave-day surfers and burned out barefoot hippies. I wouldn’t consider them “skateboarders”, but they’re not a target of derision. A longboard provides a much smoother ride than a standard skateboard…but that’s about where the allure ends. The general consensus among the street community seems to be that longboarding is “skateboarding for people who can’t skateboard.”
That appeal has hit my town hard in recent months. Longboards are selling like crazy at the local skate shop, but not to skateboarders. And no, Wyoming HAS no surfers or burned out hippies. They’re being picked up by high school and early college-aged jocks. You can’t drive 10 minutes in this town without running into armies of polo-shirted, cargo-shorted, Birkenstocked bastards carving their way through traffic. And our respective mentalities haven’t changed a bit; we haven’t welcomed them into the skateboarding community and they still hate skateboarders. Go figure. I ran into a group downtown a couple days ago and one of them actually yelled “Skaters Suck!” at me. What? It was confusing hearing that come from a guy standing on a skateboard, Banana Republic logos or no. The jocks have really outdone themselves this time.
In a way I feel like skateboarding’s integrity is at stake, but I also know it’s a fad. They’ll eventually get bored and go back to driving really nice cars, playing grabass, and consuming Bud Light.
Jocks already invaded skateboarding a long time ago. Haven’t you ever seen a Muska video?
That dumbass is still around too.
Simon Woodstock!
Wonder what happened to THAT guy…
Don’t group all people riding longboards together with the “bros” who are all about just “chilling, cruising and carvin it up my friend.” I skate park with a standard 32″ deck but also own several longboards and spend most of my time doing downhill or “speedboarding” where speeds of 50-80 mph are not uncommon in mountainous areas. Heres an example:
ps: I consider myself a skater, not a longboarder.
someone sounds bitter… I would too if I lived in Wyoming. Don’t hate, appreciate. Longboarding is skating. Maybe you should expand your horizons.
Wasn’t bitching about longboarding, just jocks on boards.
…Bro.
Longboarding is taking over and thats something that all skaters are going to have to deal with. Popsickles are out and everything else is in. I wouldn’t go as far as saying skaters suck to someone riding a popsickle, but they do think that popsickle riding is the only kind of skating, so I could care less if it caused them to get butt hurt.
Street’s not the only kind of skating. It’s just the only kind that anybody cares about.
You wanna exxxtreme carve, whatever. I like learning tricks. Moot point anyway, since I was just bitching about jocks trying to invade my culture. If you’re not on the football team, I think we’re on the same side.
also, butts.
Why do you have to discriminate? What good does it bring? No one is hurting you wether it’s a jock or someone else. Grow up you narrow minded fool. You’re the one killing the stoke.
This has to be a joke. “Killing the stoke?” Hahaha
Who are you, anyway?
wow. where to start?
i would say that the ‘longboarders’ you are taking about exist but are only a small percent of the people that ride long skateboards. Most of us consider longboarding skateboarding and have respect for street skaters. Just not pricks who think they are more core because they wear tight pants and have p-rod nikes and that one signature deck by BAM.
As for the ‘extreme carving’. That is just some bull. There is nothing extreme about carving and no one who rides a long skateboard would say that, it is simply relaxing and soothing. There are many disciplines that use a long skateboard such as downhill or slalom which involve much skill at high speeds, osmehting im sure you could never accomplish.
The ‘killing the stoke?’ thing… you are not a skater. Skating is about spreading the stoke and getting anyone who is interested hooked on skating.
I think you should loosen up the tight jeans and rainbow colored shoes your ‘culture’ is pushing upon you and open your horizions
another thing, youre talking about jocks invading skateboarding.
What do you think of all the pro skaters endorsing Nike then? a complete jock company who sold out just to take your moniesssss.
outstanding work
Angry longboarders read this.
And yes, I’m very much against Nike invading the industry. I support Consolidated’s Don’t Do It campaign completely. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about.
And I’m not one of those tight pant guys, but thanks for telling me I’m not a skater. I’ve only been doing it for 13 years or so, love it to death and it will always be a part of who I am. Sorry that I don’t consider stoke a tangible element.
maybe it’s the only kind of skating YOU care about. whether you like it or not, skateboarding is evolving….even if you are not. i bet you’re probably riding the same setup that kids 20 years ago were riding. let me guess. 32″ deck, 5″ trucks, 55mm wheels? oh my god, i think i just shat myself. why don’t you try something new, besides a new color of wheels
those “hippy-jocks” who yelled at you, were mostly likely just fucking around. learn to take a joke and laugh a little… chill out and smoke a blunt. if skaters yelled something like that while i was skating, i would laugh my ass off.
i’m also from wyoming and by looking at your other skate pics, you obviously live in casper. which is funny b/c casper has some of the best longboarding hills around. yet you confine yourself to one discipline. there is so much to skateboarding that you are missing. sure i’ll hit up the park every once and awhile, but it’s a lot more fun to bomb down garden creek at 50mph
we’re all skaters. the more skaters the better. stop hatin
Yeah, skateboarding is evolving, and the people pushing it are the tech guys pushing the envelope on, yes, 32″ decks and 55mm wheels, not people going down hills really fast. Which I never said was not cool.
And I was really trying to avoid stereotypes, but a longboarder just told me to smoke a blunt. I laughed.
Oh, nice touch adding “bigdicksinmyass.com” to “zhx_the_ignorant.” Cuz when I’m not out killing stoke in my rainbow shoes, I’m on the receiving end of some burly gay sex. Generally, anyway.
The problem is not skaters, it’s that we live in a town full of assholes. Some of them skateboard, sure, but it seems like we have a higher than average number of assholes here. I’ve never run into my friends, but I have been called out by kickflippers, had them throw stuff in the street and generally try to start something up between us. It goes full circle, there are idiots anywhere you look, especially if you look in Wyoming.
man, wheres all the whiny religious kids?
Longboarding is the most controversial topic I discuss.
Nice.