No Skateboarding Day
Horrible corporations are ruining the world of skateboarding again! How? Through Go Skateboarding Day… At least Neal thinks so. (Link Via Rob Brink)
“June 21st will probably be a fine day to skate… then again, so will the other 364 days that come both before and after this corporately-blessed skateboard holiday (or commercial, depending on how you look at it).”
Sure you can skateboard everyday, but it’s not everyday that a bunch of adults are going to get together to help kids build ramps, have a BBQ, and giveaway prizes. Go Skateboarding Day is also a good excuse to drag out some of your friends who hardly ever skate anymore.
I do agree with Neal that there’s no need to buy promotional material from the IASC, but I don’t see any problem with having corporate sponsors for Go Skateboarding Day events. Most sponsors are giving money, not asking for it (though they hope their advertising will be effective). Ask anyone who is riding a board that day and you won’t hear them say they are “celebrating a collective corporate marketing holiday”. They’re just skateboarding.
If Company A wants to drop money on an event that will get a bunch of skateboarders together, that kicks ass! And if Company A is a sketchy company we’re not going to fall for their marketing tricks and become loyal to them. Once their sponsorship dollars are gone so are we. Just like a corporation can use skateboarding without really caring about skateboarders, we can use corporations without really caring about their business.
Feel free to post your comments on the ups and down of corporate sponsorship and Go Skateboarding Day.
Why did he make a big deal out of it? It’s not everyday hundreds of skaters meet up, have a barbecque and skate. Neil’s a douche, to put it gently.
I’m completely comfortable with coming across as a douche to some people. I’m actually kind of honored to know that I might have considered a skate-politics type issue, made my opinion public, and received strong reactions on both sides of the issue. But yes, a lot of people consider me a douche when it comes to this… and many make fair points that I respectfully disagree with.
Like I said on the site, I’m completely down for anyone who wants to go skate on this holiday-thing that it’s being made out to be. I’m not ragging on anyone for going out to skate for any reason at all (as stated on the site). I’m just making it known that this day, and the swirling around it, are in large part because of an organization called the IASC. Something else I mention on the site… the “International Association of Skateboard Companies,” which, though almost entirely true, still hosts a few people who simply don’t represent “skateboard companies.” The membership is a typical corporate fraternity with one goal in mind: make as much money from skateboarding as possible.
That’s fine. It may do a lot of good for other people not associated with the big dogs… it may cause skate-filled kegfests and sessions that might not otherwise happen, that’s fine… in fact it’s GREAT… but the holiday still is what it is. The idea was hatched in a lab and cleverly designed to make a lot of bank and offer a lot of commercial time to a lot of companies… but *some* of those companies have no reason to involved with the originators of this holiday except for the fact that there’s a way to make a little bank off of it.
Beyond that, the site serves to share my own personal philosophy… and that’s that every day I can skate is “Go Skateboarding Day.” It’s something that tends to ring true to other skaters I know. I mean, think about it like this:
To me, going out and skating is the best damned thing ever, whether it’s really nailing a hard trick or just pushing to the store. Either way, to me… the entire act of skateboarding is the best thing in the whole world. When I can do it every day, I do… which is nearly every day now, though I’m nursing a healing ankle sprain. So basically, having a good skate session is better than Christmas… but I get to have it every day, not just once a year. That’s how fucking incredible skateboarding is to me. With that mindset… having a “holiday” based on something so great is redundant. We don’t have Easter, Valentine’s, Christmas or (insert holiday here) every day, but skateboarding *is* every day.
As far as skaters having BBQ’s and adults building ramps for the little youngsters… props on all of that and cheers to everybody. But really, people should be doing that shit anyway. If it takes a holiday to remind skaters in a skate community that they should actually engage each other, then I fear that there may be a trend in some sort of pussification. Now I’m not calling any skaters that choose to skate (or take part) on this day (as I may myself) pussies, but I am saying that the idea that there needs to be a special little lovey-dovey day just for us skateboarders to have for ourselves… well it sounds kind of pussified to me.
In my Utopian visage, skateboarding would be accepted enough so that there’d be a decent park in every town, but beyond that, skateboarding would be dirty and simple… and to a large degree, hated by others that don’t skate. I have this kooky idea that I developed in the late 80’s that skating while being hated by 99% of the world outside of skating just made it that much more pure. But I digress, I’m a wordy romantic longing for an era of skateboarding that just wasn’t so saturated with commercial ties and marketing bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t effect my skating or enjoyment of it, but when I’m sitting around looking at how my preferred mode of art/athleticism is being whored out, I get bothered. But hey, it’s just one dude’s opinion, and that’s what I stand by.
Last thing: major props for actually following through with the Photoshop. I wasn’t sure if anyone would be able to find a way to manifest a donkey and a yak coupling, and I can, without question, say that you were the first one to do it. Seriously good shit… I tip my hat, sir.
I apologize for the insane length of this post, but I’d like to wrap up my feedback to a quote that Jason Jesse said a while back concerning skateboarding…
“I love it so much I want it to die.”
I really couldn’t agree with him more.
Peace, and keep up the good work.
>Neal
[...] Shit’s pretty funny: http://www.hdskate.com/2007/06/19/no-skateboarding-day/ [...]
Dont take too much offense to Nick, since hes not allowed to skate anyways. I also feel that there doesnt need to be a reason like an official day to go skate; it should be because you want to.
Who says I’m not allowed to skate? I’m just saying, who cares? Let people make money off skateboarding and let corporations be evil. It’s like the whole Nike argument, people saying that they are not a real skateboarding company, it just gets to me. It’s just stupid. Sooner or later the “fake” companies will die out and the real, commited companies will remain. So let them sell their shit on Go Skate day. Let them soponsor events. More money for us, right?
While browsing around for montages today I came across a ton of sites that are promoting Go Skateboarding Day events. It’s really hard for me to view it in any negative light while watching a pack of 100 skaters ride down the middle of the streets.
Nick,
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a dime from the mega corporations. The money they’re making is taking away from all the companies that stuck with skating through its ups and downs. The mega corpos will care about skating as long as they can make money from it and when the fad is over, the companies that actually care will be forced to barely get by again or fold.