This appeared in the NYT in response to their article about Bob Burnquist's megaramp.
A Ramp to Self-Indulgence
To the Sports Editor:
Re “A Skateboarding Ramp Reaches for the Sky,” Nov. 1: Clearly, Bob Burnquist can be described in many ways: risk-taker, athlete, committed and passionate come to mind. But the one word that is never applied to his high-adrenaline world of X Games participants and their fans is bored. After all, one has to be really bored — or convinced that the mundane world is too difficult to handle — to conceive of such an idiotic, wasteful and valueless pursuit as the world’s largest skateboard ramp. Seth Beckhardt
A lil reactionary, not to mention the weird supposition that there are two "worlds"--one "high-adrenaline" and the other "mundane"--inhabited by skateboarders and normal people respectively. Would that it could be so, Seth! Skate Planet! I'll write a letter to NASA asking them to keep the Hubble searching. I'm sure they have time to poke around the galaxy; they're probably really bored - or convinced that the mundane world is too difficult to handle - to conceive of such an idiotic, wasteful, and valueless pursuit as the world's largest telescope.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Big Blog Trumps Slutty MySpace Warmup Edition
Apparently there's a new skateboard company called Mentality Skateboards, a company whose only video, Skateboarding Explained, features Dan MacFarlane, a counselor a skateboard camp called Lake Owen. That is, Mentality's pro is a guy who teaches six-to-eight-year-old kids how to ollie.
Mentality's selection of MacFarlane as Skateboarding Explained's featured skater introduces a new and (hopefully) singular type of professional.
Most skateboard companies build up their credibility and mystique by creating videos and ads featuring athletes who jump down enormous flights of stairs, fly upside-down in halfpipes, or get in fights with security guards. The skateboards they sell basically signify the tricks they capture on film, and their brand identity relies heavily on whether their videos feature hip-hop, punk rock, fighting, drinking, weed, girls, grimy spots or smooth picnic benches. The attitude portrayed is all or nothing, land or crash, there is no between.
The more typical companies that do create "how-to" videos for skateboarding like The Basics of Skateboarding or Tony Hawk's Trick Tips have generally relied on the skills and expertise of seasoned pros; when a kid pops in a tape, he still gets to watch Geoff Rowley do a manual or Andrew Reynolds 50-50 a knee-high ledge. It's not amazing stuff, but at least the pros' smoothness teaches the kids to get comfortable on a board. Seeing Ed Templeton, whose parts normally feature noseblunts on steep banks, just ollie onto a curb gives a sense of ease, comfort, and bridled talent. More than that, one gets a sense of the months Templeton probably spent tripping the back trucks on the curb and faceplanting right when his pretty next-door neighbor came out the front door to walk her dog.
Mentality's model is different. They built a company around instruction, demystifying skateboarding, being famous for being accessible, for being the opposite of Greco/Daewon. For Mentality, just landing the trick is enough. MarFarlane doesn't look comfortable doing any of the tricks he lands, and one gets the sense that he is totally letting loose to land a kickflip on the flatground, that he pulled out all the stops just to stick that boardslide on the flatbar. When someone buys a Mentality board, they're buying the brand of mediocrity. And they get a free wallet with every purchase.
The result feels sad, for MacFarlane and for the kids who'll watch his video and might even buy his decks. The message of Mentality is style doesn't matter, just learning the next trick--the end result of a lifetime of skateboarding can yield a mediocre role in how-to videos. "Those that can't do..." "blogger.com," "The Believer," "Lupe Fiasco," and all that. The floogates are open but the filters aren't tight enough, the semen's leaking through the condoms, the editorial department is the news board, everyone's reporting, nobody's hating. In the aughties--the age of TMI--you gotta hack through the hackery to get to the gems.
