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I’m not a skater

July 7th, 2006 | general

Even though I still have one, it’s been a while since I rode a skateboard. But still I always felt attached to the, errr, um, lifestyle (for lack of a better word) in some way. Now I don’t think I even like the current state of the industry.

In the mail I just got a new CCS catalog. Right away an advert insert for Proactiv Solutions fell out (for all the young acne-faced skaters…brilliant!). And it only went downhill from there…

First up were the T-shirts and then other clothing. I guess over the years skate decks, trucks, and wheels have become accessories so they can be put in the back…of a skateboard catalog. Now shirts used to excite me, looking at all the new designs and logos. I made it through all the shirts without saying “oh, i must have it” once.

Sweatshirts and hats all the same blah blah…jeans and pants slightly slimmer, tighter fit, but basically the same…blah blah AH HA shoes!!!

You know you’re in trouble when Nike is the first brand listed. I’m not a fan of Nike anyways, and I don’t like Nike in skateboarding, but I have to give them credit when it’s needed. The SB Zoom Air Tre looks like it could be one of the best skate shoes available function-wise. No seams to rip in the toe area, has built-in lace protection, no big visible air pockets. Now if it only didn’t have that swoosh logo on it.

The other shoes were all the same. That’s sad because more than anything I always enjoyed looking at the shoes. But nothing, besides the above mentioned Nike, stuck out from the others. Sure there were a few weirdcolors available, but nothing could ever compare to these.

Finally I got to the actual skateboards. I always preferred 8 inch deck widths. I managed to find a few, but the majority of decks available were still in the 7.5 to 7.75 range. No surprise there. Graphics were nothing new either. Then I got to the trucks.

Seriously, what ever happened to plain silver trucks, or even painted trucks without logos on them? It seems every damn truck company seems to think graphics on trucks look good. What crap.

Next up were wheels. When I first started skating wheels came in a variety of colors and were rather large. Then came the “white only” wheel faze which was great. At that time wheels sizes shrunk down to barely being bigger than bearings. Thankfully they grew again, but are starting to drop slightly again. I think the best wheel size is around 55mm. Only Spitfire and Ricta offer 55mm wheels, with everything else smaller. And what’s up with dual colored wheels?

Yep, I never thought the day would come that I wasn’t impressed with logos on T-shirts and new graphics, but looking through the catalog made it clear. I’m just not ‘into’ the whole skateboard industry thing. Sure I still enjoy actual skateboarding whether I’m rolling around or watching good people skate, but I no longer care about having kick ass brand logos on everything I own. Wow, I’m old.

Oh yeah, about the site. It changed again. It’s not perfect, but I’m working on it. The new colors were just a bit on the dark side. Maybe someday I’ll find something I like.

7 Comments

  1. matches
    July 7th, 2006 at 8:11 am

    Interesting post. My thoughts as I clicked on the links:

    -I love those Nikes, especially in that first color.
    -I wish I could find these 80’s-looking sk8 shoes Eastbay used to have. They’d blow those adidas out of the water.
    -If I skateboarded, I’d be all over those argyle trucks.
    -Dual-color wheels are silly. But at least they tell you what to where and watch with them so your skate life feng shui doesn’t get jacked.
    -I think the black on white is an easier read, but your Rants & Rambles graphic still has the black pixel matting.

  2. majafa
    July 7th, 2006 at 1:46 pm

    a shoe weirder than the adidas? those must be awful…

    ha, I just noticed I need to fix the colors of the backgrounds when people post too. oops.

    The rants/rambles logo is next to be changed as I’m currently still using the same one from the last color scheme, and I want to redo the gray square bg graphic as well with more gradient fading. but first I have to make posts readable…on to dreamweaver.

  3. majafa
    July 7th, 2006 at 1:52 pm

    there, the color may not stay, but at least the posts are readable. rock.

  4. PDF
    July 8th, 2006 at 2:14 am

    Skateboarding is fun. Trucker hats are rad. Pink wheels are extra fast. Possibly even dangerous.

    Maybe I should quit talking to people so that I can actually leave comments on their websites without just reiterating the converation we had two nights ago. ha. I’m old.

  5. matches
    July 9th, 2006 at 2:27 pm

    Yellow?

  6. majafa
    July 10th, 2006 at 1:57 pm

    Yellow just until I find a new color. I needed a new color so posts were readable (Black and Black didn’t work well) and I had the HTML code for yellow written down for some reason, so I just threw it on there. Then like me I kept putting it off and never fixed it. That Rants & Rambles graphic still needs fixing too…I’m so far behind.

  7. dabootski.com - home
    July 12th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

    […] While some folks are more bummed that ever on the ‘ole trickstick (and industry), I have been falling for her all over again. There is a bunch of little parks all over the place around here and even one being built in the city I’m currently residing in. Might even get me motivated enough to get cranking on this. […]

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