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.
Skateboarding down hills — like sex and sunsets — enjoys an exorbitant approval rating among humans. But even then, you have to admit that hills have been having a moment these past five years. People end video parts with hill bombs. People bomb hills for justice. The New York Times runs editorial on skateboarding’s most influential collective of hill skaters. Mainstream sports outlets chronicle the most notorious hill-bomb with a judgey raised eyebrow, but they still cover it.
Everyone has witnessed A.V.E. beat up a street sign, and watched a stress montage or two. But what about the other 25 human emotions? Traditionally speaking, skate videos have not been a place for expressing them.
Sure, friends in the background are allowed to clap and cheer, but a stoicism has always been expected of the person rolling away. It is part of skateboarding’s great contortion of reality: a year spent on a video part is boiled down to three-and-a-half minutes, oh, and dude wasn’t even that hyped on himself when he landed those tricks.
