Although skateboarding has become more popular than ever it is good to see that it has not become too homogenized. Skateboarding, the look, the style, the dress; it is so very different from region to region. It's neat to observe.
While in Colorado i skated (if that's what you want to call it) at two parks and stopped in at several skateshops. The first thing that stood out to me was the differences in how the skaters dressed. There are completely different things available at the skateshops and closely related, the skaters look much different. Different companies are carried, different styles are carried, and different set-ups are carried. i, of course, took advantage of this and picked up a few things that i've never seen in my own region.
First, east coast (and more specifically New England) skateboarders are just harder in every way and i definitely looked different than the others at the parks. One of these things is not like the others... Not to say that midwestern skaters, or New England skaters, all look the same. If fact there are great differences in how each individual in either region looks, as skateboarding is such an individual based activity, but the skaters in each region definitely have a "look".
New England skaters, as i said, are just harder when it comes to the look and style. This may be said of New Englanders in general. We are more aggressive, less friendly, faster paced, and more wound up as a region and it leaks into our look and our actions. Eastern skaters dress in darker colors, with more of a militant or aggressive "give me my space" look and our skate-style is similar.
Our trucks are tighter and our wheels are harder. It comes from the terrain. We don't have lots of big concrete parks to skate. We skate where we can. This means rough asphalt, bricks, sand left over from winter road care, and lots of cracks. We are frequently at risk of harassment by cops, jock, and random citizens as we often are skating where they also happen to be. If we are fortunate enough to have a park it is usually an obstacle based park on a slab of asphalt, concrete, or an old tennis court. This always amazed me seeing how we have some of the worse weather swings (reaking havoc on ramp material and 'slab' material) and we have so many economically strong cities yet New England skaters never get the concrete parks. Come on now... we have such outspoken naysayers yet they won't give us a decent space to skate? Where is the love?
Midwesterners, on the other hand, seem so friendly to me. Not just the skateboarders but the people in general. i keep thinking of the quick-friends-for-an-evening my brother and i made while out one night in Wyoming. The people at the skateshops were very happy and welcoming. The colors of the clothing were brighter and the deck companies and graphics were lighter-hearted. Less skulls and more cartoons. There were huge hat varieties as well. In addition to the plethora of baseball hats there where scally caps, fedoras, and more. Maybe it's a reaction to the unblocked sun of the big sky out west.
Their set-ups are also oh-so different. Their trucks are loose and their wheels are soft. This is a necessity when is comes to their skate terrain: the incredibly smooth, flowing, concrete skateparks. i was a fish out of water with my New England set-up (more on that in another post). Their parks are absolutely beautiful, and huge. Gigantic maroon golieths, not some old tennis court that parks and rec stopped replacing the nets on years ago. Impressive!
Although my skating on the trip was some of the worst i have done, i fell even more in love with skateboarding out there. With all the popularity of skateboarding in recent years it was inspiring to see that we are all still just tribes of people who independently fell in love with the same useless wooden toy. Each tribe has it's own culture and style. Skateboarding has not, and will never, become some homogeneous cookie-cutter activity.
Thank you Animal Chin!
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