#TRENDWATCH2020: Poles

There is no shortage of evidence to conclude that the future has proven to be a colossal disappointment. Even the dystopias predicted by Hollywood for the better part of a century feel sexier than the actual calamities humans face today. We were promised alien invasions and flying cars; instead, we have a plague and can order a burrito to arrive at our door via a piece of glass.

Skateboarding’s future is also no stranger to sexy, doomsayer predictions.

For years, we’ve heard about this mythical “just wait!” when skateboarding isn’t “cool” anymore and only the #true #believers remain.

Hasn’t happened.

Elders warn us about the homogenization of skaters growing up in skateparks, creating an army of robot-zombies who can switch flip back tail on their 365th day of skateboarding, but who you can’t tell apart from the other seven thousand robot-zombies who can switch flip back tail.

Hasn’t happened.

Some even insist on a hot take that street skateboarding will cease to exist in the near future — much like the vert collapse in the early 80s — due to more effective skate deterrents, and a general lack of interest in tackling the variables associated with street spots.

Hasn’t happened.

Instead, from sea to shining sea Nik Stain’s Instagram to Jake Kuzyk’s Vimeo page, people are skating poles laying on the ground.

Andrew Wilson via @vadimovich

Dustin Henry via “Kiddo“

A poetic lens might look at us with nostalgia. Here are these grown adults — some of whom even have girlfriends (!) and jobs (!!) — retaining a childlike wonder towards the most mundane scraps of the world. (We were at Stroud two Fridays back, and watched a parent have to pry their five-year-old away from a piece of plywood placed halfway on top of a parking block, creating a makeshift seesaw. We felt the crying child’s heartbreak deep in our souls, and knew a skateboard was in their future.)

But a doomsday prepper might look at us with raging envy. They know that nobody is better prepared to have fun at the apocalypse than skateboarders.

While the rest of the world is on two pills with their VR goggles on as everything is engulfed in flames, we’ll be in a Mad Max-style caravan running over every street sign, building the post-apocalyptic poleparks of what remains of our futures ♥

Previously: #TRENDWATCH2020 – Doubling Up On Bank Tricks