Videos that have taken years to film and edit available the day after the premieres on the p2p's, online only bedroom skateshops that have no overheads and chainstore skate shops killing off skater owned shops, footage of what would be (enter skaters name of choice here) ender to a section filmed by someone who happened to be at the spot at the time uploaded onto youtube..

On the other hand it allows smaller companys to get their name out/advertise ect with minimal cost and fuss, gets events/jams/competitions advertised with little notice, magazines can get info/articles/advertising to reach people who dont buy the magazines..


Do you think things like this have a negative impact on skateboarding as a whole or does it just cancel itself out?

Discuss

Well I'm sat here infront of my computer when the suns out..

Ah sod it.. I'm off to Clitheroe..

Anyone fancy joining me?

Ah bollocks.. i'm still here...

The internet is killing skateboarding!!

Mine in particular!

nah, the nets good for skating, it makes skating more open, rather than waiting 2 or 3 months to see results from a comp in thrasher or something like the old days. It also helps skaters from less popular places blow up - it used to be essential to make a pilgrimage to california to get anywhere in skating (sponsorship) but now you can just youtube it - I guess its like a speeding up of the "sponsor me tape" process - which is cool I guess, certinaly for the progress level of peoples skating.

on a negative point, the net obviously gives rise to an excess of opinions, previouisly if you felt strongly about something, you wrote to the mags, now you just chat shit on the internet, which is bad, coz the skate companies can just go online for 5 hours and get a general feel of what people want and angle to them, which is fine, but partly takes the "pushing foward" element out of it all, kinda standardizes, and makes a lot of stuff "samey" where as previously, companies and skaters had little choice other than to be original.

The internet is killing everything, all forms of structure and hegemonic representations one by one. Capitalism is going on holiday and soon we will be joined by unstoppable and inevitable chaos.

i just read Compliciting by Iian Banks, you should give it a read.

i think the internet is working for the radio, and is doing a contract hit on TV for killing the radio star.

I thought video killed the radio star.

Swings and Roundabouts.

The internet isn't killing skateboarding. It's changing skateboarding. Nothing stays the same forever, and whether you like it or not, you just have to accept it.

To a degree i agree with you greg, although i cant see the positive aspect of a video being uploaded a few days after it is released. This has a knock on effect in other areas, shops are not selling copys of whatever dvds ect, which affects profits, which has an effect on how much stuff they can flow their team riders/what events they can hold.

Maybe the overdue seven year glitch should come round once again and bite skateboarding right in the arse, ending what was once an oversaturated market...i mean come on, its gotten to the point now were some pros are endorsing face cream/sunglasses/cars..seriously, what the fuck have sunglasses got to do with skateboarding?...but thats another story.

hehe ryan sheckler

Your DVD point is too true. Putting a skate DVD on google videos or whatever has a knock on effect which is not good for Skateboarding no matter how you see it.

Pros endorsing all that shit however (Haven't seen much evidence for it myself, but i'll take your word for it), i feel is up to them. If a pro feels the need to earn a few bucks by doing an advert, then personally i'm not going to hold that against them. Money is a big thing in this day and age (and always has been), there's a lot of money in endorsement, and be honest here, would you turn it down? I know i wouldn't, (Well, unless it was for something really wierd and twatish)

Skateboarding related endorsements i have no issues with, face cream, energy drinks,sunglasses and earphones for example i do.. if the skater is that marketable then surely there must be a loads of skate related stuff they could endorse.

The likes of redbull and mountin dew do actually put into skating, making videos (in redbull's case) and organising and sponsoring pretty high level events and competitions..which is fair enough.

A lot of pros dont get paid as well as the likes of koston, so i can imagine they need to bring in the money somehow, however they are role models to a lot of kids too, which is where the advertising/marketing is aimed at, so a bit of thought wouldnt go amiss in accepting who they represent, even if they do need the money.

what has shaving got do with football, golf and the other sport on the new gellite advert.



/I just feel like being devils advocate

Skating is far too big now to go back to an underground state for some time, and this is mostly due to skaters endorsing shit, videos being available to anyone at any time, and snipers uploading tricks onto youtube and whatnot as soon as they're landed. As Greg said, skating's not being killed or even challenged by the internet, it's just changing the way it's being marketed. If people are still getting hyped on a leaked video part and buy the DVD because of it, or a kid picks up a skateboard because they see Bam do a kickflip on an advert for hemorrhoid cream or something, skating's only going to continue growing in popularity.

Yes, given a few years, most skate shops might only operate via the internet, and when Mullen's 104 his new video part will probably be available for anyone in the world to watch months before the DVD is released, but at the end of the day, skating will still be the same sport/pastime that we've grown up with, and surely that's the most important thing?

It's only a very, VERY small part of the skateboarding world that is connected with that garb. Like 0.01% or something. The rest is just skateboarding being what it is, awesome.

Oh and Pip, I'll take your word on that and pick it up when I can. Always been impressed with any of Banks' books.

With regards to what you said about skate videos being put online, the same is true for just about any media. The internet is a way of communication, and now that technology has progressed to a point where greater things than just text files can be transmitted... the latest albums, movies, skate DVD's, books, articles, all online. The internet punches a whole in any of those industries, perhaps skating in particular because it's a small industry that relies on things like that, but true for any industry none the less.

I don't think it's killing skateboarding. Changing, as Greg said, but not killing.

oh greg we all know youve got some kinky fetishs
and yeh greg sums it up here, changing.

Hmm its a very weird time indeed for skating, only the other day i saw some dgdw in the latest 'Transworld Skateboarding' mag i saw some dude who looked like Boots in an ad for 'Schwarzkopf haircare' stuff and an anonoumus gilette advert featuring no skaters. But as previously mentioned things will adapt and to be honest im a lifer at this so i dont mind if its not cool anymore or not as big cause i'll be shredding till i'm grey yo!

The good outweigh the bad.

You could say this about pretty much everything though.

Is the internet killing the music industry.

Is the internet killing the film industry.

I think the internet is pretty much affecting everything.

It's also spawned a new generation of narcissitic fuckheads who fail to grasp the beauty of paragraphs and simple sentence structure.

Tits or GTFO.

Trix can STFI.

stokedontrent.

Now, i've never seen that before. But i managed to read it without even thinking.

I love the internet.

Skating is always the same no matter what. skateboaridng is chilled out sessions, intense night missions, road trips, new places, new faces ect ect. Skateboaridng isnt being killed by the internet, if anything it makes it better, i'll watch, i dunno, Bag of Suck on Google and get stoked and go skate. Fuck it, free video, it didnt cost me anything, it makes me aware of Enjoi and shit so good for them. They didnt lose any money cause I had no itention of buying it. Free advertising yeah? good for them. Skateboarding never fades, it only gets better.

What about things like Globe UBF? Vox black and blue?
Both are released via the internet by the companies for free veiwing. These are not cheap to make, and the companies will make an immediate loss from making them. The videos have created a massive amount of exposure for these companies and created hype and a buzz about them, thus bringing money into SOS's and the companies through more shoe sales?. I realise this is only in a small number of cases but it's proof that skateboarding is changing with the internet, certainly not dying.

Is Skateboarding Killing The Internet?

Is skateboarding killing itself? And in turn, is the internet killing itself also?

Time paradox.