2011: “Skinny pants & some Vans…” 2012: “Camo shorts & snowboard boots.”

On Christmas Day, Lil’ Wayne attended the Lakers’ season opener against the Chicago Bulls with his current love interest. The striking part of this occasion was not Derrick Rose shitting on the Lakers on their home court with with 20 seconds left in the 4th (as lovely as a Christmas gift as that may have been), but Lil’ Wayne’s odd choice to wear camo shorts and snowboard boots. Yes, snowboard boots. In L.A.

Quartersnacks has been covering how Wayne’s influence permeates into skateboard culture since the beginning (see here, here, here, here, or here), and this may be the most shocking development yet. It is possible we are jumping the gun here, but this could indicate three things…

#1 (and the most likely scenario): Lil’ Wayne is over skateboarding due to a miscalculation that equated skateboards (i.e. “white boy shit”) to higher levels of disposable income. Upon realizing most skaters are broke as hell, Wayne’s marketing team re-strategized his involvement with “extreme sports” to cultivate to the higher income bracket associated with snowboard equipment and lift tickets. We look forward to hearing skate references replaced by snowboard ones in whatever this winter’s equivalent of “Look At Me Now” might be.

#2: Lil’ Wayne is taking a break from pushing his pro-skateboard agenda during our winter off-season, and merely attempting to tap into an alternate, winter-friendly snowboard market while we are left to pay less attention to skateboarding (thus more to partying and watching Netflix.)

#3: Lil’ Wayne is back on drugs. The Weather Channel reported that it was 72 degrees in L.A. on Christmas, yet he is wearing snowboard boots. That certainly sounds like a richer version of the New York crackheads who wear bubble goose jackets in July. This also means that many impressionable urban teens who purchased the hood’s beloved ‘Lo duck boots at the onset of winter will be switching to Burton boots midway into the season. No, really. You ARE going to see kids making rounds shopping on Broadway and Lafayette Street wearing snowboard boots with tight sagging pants by mid-January.

This once again proves how far ahead of the curve Chris Brown (who sported snowboard goggles in his video earlier this year) is. If the pattern we observed between Chris & Wayne as it relates to “extreme sports” holds true, Wayne should be riding a scooter by April.