Skatepunk

http://www.thevine.com.au/life/art/skateboarding-101-the-art-part/

"Skateboarding 101 - The Art Part"
by Alyx Gorman
The Vine, Australia

The first thing you need to know about skateboarding is that it is not meant to be consumed in the moment. Unlike your typical sport, the most transcendent aspects of skate do not emerge from a second of play watched in person or broadcast live. The best way to appreciate virtuosity is not at a park, or on a street corner; it is in your living room.

As much a performance as a sport, skateboarding is perfect for video. Truly great skate films, the kind watched repeatedly and obsessively by fans of the genre from Brisbane to Vladivostok, come together over weeks of skating, months of travel and hours editing. People will wait years for releases from their favourite teams, and then ponder the minutia of every trick and stack.

I almost wish it wasn't Nike that had done this, because it just seems so beyond sensible, and I just don't want to be always bagging on Nike... but fake fights for a skate video?

Eric Koston is not only "the best," or one of the best skateboarders who ever stepped on a skateboard, but he is one of the nicest, most considerate people I've ever known. And so of course, now that he's signed on with Nike, I'm conflicted. I want Eric to do well -- if anyone in skateboarding deserves it, it's him. But having Eric riding for the single biggest non-skater-owned parasite in skateboarding sucks.