Sign this petition:
With due respect for Olympic Athletes, we the undersigned skateboarders and advocates strongly request that the IOC NOT RECOGNIZE SKATEBOARDING AS AN OLYMPIC SPORT, or use skateboarding to market the Olympics. Further, we ask that the IOC NOT recognize any individuals or groups claiming to be the IOC recognized governing body of skateboarding or provide funding to them. Skateboarding is not a “sport” and we do not want skateboarding exploited and transformed to fit into the Olympic program. We feel that Olympic involvement will change the face of skateboarding and its individuality and freedoms forever. We feel it would not in any way support skateboarders or skateparks. We do not wish to be part of it and will not support the Olympics if skateboarding is added as an Olympic sport.
Not sure where I stand on this one.I can watch Danny Way any time without the olympics but maybe it would help to get more parks built.
Yea I’m not sure where I stand on this either. There’s a lot of positives and a lot of negatives associated with this sort of attention. I do really enjoy watching all the snowboarding events in the winter olympics.
On another note I do love that Skatenerd shirt, but at the same time it is just incorrect. Skateboarding is a sport, there is no way you can deny that so please don’t bother. I’m not saying it isn’t also an art form and a culture, it certainly is those things as well as others. To say it’s not a sport is just… well stupid. You don’t have to be throwing a ball to a teammate to be participating in a sport. Is fishing not a sport? What about hunting? What about cycling? All those sports share something in common with skateboarding. It’s just you. You’re competing against yourself, nature, an inanimate object… you get the point.
Now maybe back in the 40’s and 50’s when it was a piece of wood with some steel rollerskate wheels on it you could claim that it wasn’t a sport. Unfortunately the ability to make that claim disappeared 30+ years ago when skateboards were mass produced and people started doing tricks that required a level of skill and competing in competitions. I find it funny that people still have this “anti sport” thought in their heads. Skateboarding was a sport before I started and before any of you started. I can hardly wait for the responses. Flame on people.
just call me switzerland….cause i am neutral on this one.
see originally i didnt have a problem with it but as i started to think about it the olypics would put guidlines for skating certin tricks tht they wanted to see it would suck the creativity of skateboarding right out. i mean if they put skateboarding in the olympics in the 80’s would we still be doin slappys would the design of the skateboard ever change i mean there is alot of thigs tht could completely change skateboarding as we know it
I am pro slappy…especially if it is done frontside…That will make the judges happy.
keep skateboarding out of the olympics. Unless you put someone like Duncan in charge who will keep it true. Theres no way a dagger would sell us out to these pinche putos. Skateboarding is just like the rest of american life in terms of the media controlling the scene. That makes me sad. Its fucked up when you see trends in skateboard magazines and its fucked up when you have guys like PETE ELDRIDGE who only get flow from companies, yet little kids and image hos are making a living. This aint rocknroll, this aint hiphop. This is skateboarding.
Well, the question about skating being a sport, i guess to some people it is and to some it isnt. Depends on your view of skateboarding. For me, ive been riding since april 1985 since i was a little kid, thats 22 years now. People like me who dont even care if i see a mag or a video ever again but still are out almost daily searching and learning, to me its not a sport, but to someone who likes to sit and watch the xgames, and gossip about stats, who rides for who, wears all the latest in “skate” fashions, i can see how these people see skateboarding as a sport. Again, it comes down to the viewpoint of the person. To me its not a sport. Any arguments?
I can agree with Dr$ to an extent, I guess it all does vary depending on your view. The Dr has 7 more years in the game than me but I feel the same way as you do when it comes to skateboarding media (mags, vids). I haven’t bought a skate mag or video in almost 4 years. I get 99% of my skateboarding news, photos, videos or whatever right here on Haveboard. As far as contests go I do like watching them whether it be on TV or in person. Don’t necessarily like all the corporate sponsorship bullshit but I guess in order for someone to pick up a check for $10K someone’s gotta pony up the loot right? Gotta take the good with the bad.
You gotta make your green somewhere now that I am robbing you blind
It’s a spart. The guys who claim that it’s all mental and therefore an art are guys like me who just skate ditches and manny pads. Some of the kids I film with, though, watch skate videos all night with ice-packs on their knees after a fourteen stair filming sesh. The level of athleticism is undeniable in these kids and the fact that they might not know what a no-comply is or have never heard of Frankie Hill doesn’t make their individual take on skateboarding any less valid than the rest of us. Pj Ladd said he would be stoked for an Olympic skateboarding event. After ten hours of practice every day for ten years in an attempt to become a world class athlete, it would allow him a platform to really show and be treated as such.
Skateboarding isn’t about sport or art. The very thing that makes skateboarding such an interesting force is the fact that it is such a perfect marriage of these two aesthetics. Evil Knievel meets David Lynch. Your tricks can be subtle and graceful or raw and unapologetically photogenic. So I think the athletes should have the right to choose whether or not Olympic glory is something important to them. And as always, we have every right to turn the t.v. off and go skate.
SKATEBAORDING IS NOT A SPORT BECAUSE: 1. There are no rules. (unless your a scenester) 2. There are no goals. (unless your a careerist) 3. There are no refereees. (unless your a hater) THANK YOU AND GO CRY ME A RIVER.
Skateboarding is a method of transportation, not a sport. Is riding the bus a sport? Come to think of it, bowling and pool are not sports, either. And neither is a fucking spelling bee! But if there can in any way be a “winner,” then ESPN will broadcast the fuck out of it.
this topic of whether it is a sport or not is fucking boring. Sport or not, I don’t really think it should be in the Olympics.
I will lose all my sponsor if I don’t enter the olympics. My mountain dew, Ford Trucks, and Burger King money. dON’T BE ANGRY BUT I need my olympic money. I gots to buy an Iphone. Yall feel me
If you don’t like skateboarding in the spotlight stop filming your selves. Maybe paint pictures of skating instead. I think skating is more of an art any way. You are all apart of the problem.THis is why skateboarding is going to be in the olympics. You can’t stop the fire.
Layaway, shut up and skate your mini ramp.
It’s funny reading what some of you people think the definition of a sport is. Get your mind out of the NFL state that’s in. Maybe you should look it up for a clearer vision. It doesn’t involve rules, goals/scoring, or referees. As for it being in the Olympics I don’t think it’s anybodys decision here, unless of course you’re on the level that you think you could actually compete were it in the Olympics. Layaway makes a great point. Stop drawing attention to skateboarding and all of this will go away. If you’ve ever filmed or taken a photo of a trick for something other than just looking at it all by yourself then you have no right to complain about how big skateboarding is getting. What’s that smell? Oh it’s the smell of hypocrisy.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l33ohfzgk9k
dfiant, I am glad you like my shirt, however it is as correct as I want it to be. It says “If I” meaning, my opinion. And those who buy it believe in it. It happens to be the best selling skatenerd shirt of all time. If you look at the petition, Bob Burnquist signed just a few before me. And a few years back Lance Mountain was quoted “Skateboarding is not a sport, it’s an art form” in reference to ignorance of non skaters getting involved in the industry. There is no question to the athletic integrity of skateboarding to many of its users. However, everyone gets involved for their own reason and style. To solidify the rules, equipment and terrain of skateboarding would just be wrong. Skateboarding is still changing.
I have to say that it would be beyond my duty to contribute to any campaign that might successfully lead to the prevention of someone else actually realizing their dreams. If skateboarding goes to the olympics and skaters want to compete, let them. No disrespect to those with the talent who elect not to go either.
Nugget, you certainly can call it what you want. If I could edit that line in my first comment I would. That is great that Bob Burnquist will sign a petition to keep skateboarding out of the Olympics, a 3,000 year old sacred global competition between the best of the best. Maybe I would take him seriously if he wasn’t in such a hurry to hop on a plane to catch the next X-games contest, Gravity Games, Dew-action sports tour or maybe set up a fuckin rail that he can grind into the grand canyon before opening a parachute so he can make an hour show about it on national TV. If it does become an Olympic sport you can bet your ass he’ll be standing on the vert ramp next to all the other guys begging for a chance to win a gold medal and get a little more fame and fortune. The grass is always greener on the other side… especially when there is green (or in this case gold) on the other side.
I want gold medal with choclate in them. I alway run shit at the dew cup.
Just like jewelry, I never understood the appeal of medals and trophies. These things don’t do anything! Nobody has ever said, “That trophy sure came in handy when our car broke down.” I admit that I do contradict myself here, as I once won a pack of bolts at a contest, and I keep them around for the sake of memory. How ghetto of a contest is that, when one of the prizes a fucking pack of bolts? That’s how we roll in Phoenixville.
skateboarding isn’t that cool anyway. i’m going to play wii. byeeeeeeee
you gotta feed the monkey, man, but there is such a thing as too much. I guess you are right DFiant, i myself am a hypoctite. I make $ skating, i shoot with photo and video people. i have sponsors. I travel and even go to contests lately. And ive got some mainstream oportunities going right now.I dont like pigs but a cracka gotta eat.(thats the hypocricy right there) For the most part i dont have to go to a real job. I love to skate and to find and learn new stuff. Doesnt mean i like all the hype in skating. Used to take a certain breed to be honest. Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you.
I feel ya Dr$ and I was in no way taking shots at you or anyone else on here, I know a dudes gotta eat. And if I could make money skateboarding you better believe I would. As the wise layaway pointed out, we’re all part of the problem, so I guess we’re all to blame right? I just want to know if people want to draw the line… where does it get drawn and who has the right to determine that? There’s hypocrisy in everything. We’re all hypocrites when it comes down to it.
I really don’t understand why anybody would be opposed to skateboarding in the Olympics. I just don’t see the problem. We all have intense nostalgia for skateboarding and the way it was when we were young and first starting out, but it really isn’t our decision anymore to define what skateboarding is or will become. There are new kids with new ideas and, for me, that’s really exciting. Also, it will open the door for talent we never expected. Once it becomes less American and more International we will undoubtedly see a surge in different styles and skills from parts of the world that are, well, not California.
This is an issue of exclusion. None of us, by virtue of how long or passionately we’ve skated, have the right to exclude willing participants from competing. Sell-outs, posers, scenesters-all of them have a place in skateboarding, otherwise this skateboarding lexicon would not exist. Skateboarding is whatever you want it to be; art, transportation, sport, stunt, exercise, defiance, acceptance, etc. I for one did not spend the last twelve years on-board to secure a place in a skateboarding hierarchy. Bottom line: nobody has the right to define skateboarding for someone else.
Yeeeaaaa! I like that! Now excuse me. I need to go fix my frontside grabs. I grab the board between my legs, instead of outside my knee. We all know that shit’s against the rules. But I push with my back foot!
I have farts for sale does any one got 2 dolla dolla bills yall all all yea
Don’t give up your right to define what skateboarding is.Tryin’ to come up on some new farts,really though.
if you train, is it a sport….i just read this entire thing just to find a DO post. fuck ya….now back to icing that ankle, yoga, weed and all types of ill shit….
There IS a upside to all this maybe it would be the end of pushing mongo the judges would dock points for being MONGO