Should We Follow the Skateboard Rules or What?

Felt Cute, Might Delete Later

There’s a flood of fast scrolling images and videos going past your eyeballs quicker than you can dedicate any real thought or notice to on most, but maybe you did notice that we deleted a post recently.

In our ordinary business as usual social media push to our audience that another stop of The Boardr Series is on the books, Chris used some images from Charleston over the years, which is now set for October 10 - 11. Chris has worked with us for nearly a year now in all things events, including skatepark design and construction jobs through our Platform Group division.

Chris is much younger than the two older people here, which are Ryan and I, who have been immersed in skateboarding culture for three decades. We’ve seen a lot change and a lot stay the same, and we are always thinking about what needs to evolve and what needs to persevere in both our business and skateboarding itself.

Call the Culture Cops

When we both saw Chris’ choice of photography for the Charleston post, it immediately set off our culture cop alerts. Sure, this is contest skating and nowhere near as cool as real ass street skating, but still, the unwritten rules of the culture sit strong, at least for our generation.

Chris had a handstand photo, followed by a stink bug grab, followed by a judo air. Where we come from, that’s three strikes, the frowned upon stuff by anyone who adheres to “real” skateboarding.

We had internal debates and wondered if Chris was trying to punk us with trick choices. Clem said that the judo is technically fine, but next to the handstand and stink bug, enough was enough and the post had to be pulled.

Are the kids gonna be alright when they grab their boards like this and kick their foot like that?

I think a better question might be, “Is the industry ready for how the new generation is going to make skateboarding whatever it wants it to be?”

Are we personally at The Boardr ready? I think so, I mean I hope so. One of the things that was attractive to Ryan and I when considering Chris for the team, besides his above average work ethic, was how different he thinks from us. It’s refreshing to have our old views challenged, forcing us to think about these things.

When I think of Asics, a brand where I love everything from the team to the campaigns and media run by real skaters, I wonder about their ad in Thrasher that thumbs its nose at the unwritten rules with this particular trick.

Street grabs are already pushing it, but grabbing like that? Culture cop just dipped his shades.

Anyway, wherever we’re going, we are getting there on a skateboard, and we’re just along for the ride with loose trucks.

If you like contests and competition, come and enter. If you just wanna be around other new skaters and make new IRL friends, come and just hang out and high five. Maybe even bro down with the culture cops and awe at how weird it is.

See you at the skateboard shindig, rules or no rules.

Poll Results: Are there More or Fewer Skateboarders Now Versus Five Years Ago?

Results from the few people that chimed in on there being more or less skaters than five years ago:

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ There are MORE skaters now than 5 years ago (11)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 There are LESS skaters now than 5 years ago (16)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ It's about the same as 5 years ago (1)

There are 11,000 people on this email list, so not a huge amount of you chiming in, but thanks to the ones that sent a click vote.

We are Designing and Building the Southermost Skatepark

Not quite as far as Key West, but south enough to swim to Cuba from, the town of Marathon, Florida is about to get the southernmost custom concrete skatepark in the United States. Platform Group, a division of The Boardr, won the bid for design and eventually the build.

It’s insane how much of a long game this skatepark design and build stuff is. Here’s a video of Ryan, Tito, and I talking about the design three years ago! It finally just got voted on and finalized this week. Let’s go get some shovels in the dirt!

Skateboard Agent Life

Jorge Angel aka Porpe works in the Excel Management division over here and was seen signing what appears to be autographs at Street League Miami last weekend. Maybe those are contracts, not autographs. Or maybe they thought he was Alex Midler. Or maybe he’s signing checks?!? Gitter dunn, Jorge.

Thanks!

As usual, check our full events list and other industry events for stuff near you. Things are starting to stack up all the way through 2026 now.