I was recently reading my guestbook and someone asked why skaters and skate boarders can't get along. The way I figure, I can approach this two different ways. One, be all pissy and complain about how we are awesome and skateboarders suck, or two, try and really figure it out. Maybe, it is because we have similair sports, but we are newer. Or maybe because cocky people start talking bull about skateboarders and vice versa. Then I thought, I don't have time for this. I'll let people write in and if I like it I'll post it up. I wiil tell you now though that i won't post cocky messages saying stuff like, "skateboarders suck, they suck....". You know what I mean. So if you have any opions, e-mail me at skaterguy13@hotbot.com . I'll reply to you if I like it and tell you it's posted up. Thanks,
james at The Aggressive Skating Center.
Here is the first letter that I liked and decided to post.
my names denis, and i live in Richmond Hill, Ontario. I've been skating for quite a while now, and i visit your webpage on a weekly basis just to check out what's new in our sport. As i read through the "Why can't we just get along" message you left on your webpage, i thought that this would be a good chance for me to express my opinion on this matter.
I believe that this little war were having between bladers and skateboarders is getting old. I feel that maybe, when we started off, skateboarders thought that we were invading their space, and maybe they felt like rebeling and started shit against us. So with this in mind, i hate every skateboarder i saw. Then i relized that, some of these guys aren't that bad, but again, some seem to act like they own the damn skatepark.
I would like to see the day that we could just get along, this would make it a lot easier, because really, this is getting old. i believe that we should just forget about this and just skate. and i know this may be hard, because it wouldn't be the same, we would need somebody to mock or laugh at, i guess that's the way it is, and it's gonna hard to change. whatever, just skate for the fun of it, nothing else matters.
lates,
denis
This is the next one.
this is in response to the "why cant we just get along" topic on your page. i have been skating for about 2-3 months, thanks to a friend of mine from mo. whom i met at college in tulsa. in my opinion, the problem lies in the ignorance of the others' sport. back in my younger days, i was a biker. i lived in the country and we did some stupid gaps down in creeks and stuff like that. thats my background, i fixed every kids bike i knew. so, i can appreciate the stuff bikers do cuz im familiar with it. now, to transpose this into skating/boarding. for the most part, each side thinks the others is easy, stupid, and pointless. i only know a few board grinds, but i have seen a few guys that were good enough to earn my respect. id like to think that the people causing the problems are the posers that are so ignorant that they cant appreciate somebody that does something well, even if it is something they dont care for. another problem is the boarders that 50/50 and tear ledges up. for me as a fairly new guy, i prefer a good ol ledge to a freakin nut rail, and to try and find good ones in tulsa is a pain in the ***. to make matters worse, there are these boarders that tear those few good ones up, thinking its cool to see chunks of concrete flyin after a grind. thats pretty much how i see it, but i would also like to add another point. while in st louis skating in october or so, my friends and i met a couple bikers, skaters, and boarders. aside from a few little kid boarders that were punk posers, everybody got along, cuz they respected each others ability. well, thats my opinion
looey- tulsa,ok
looeyrunde@hotmail.com
Here's another
my whole take on the blader/boarder war is one diffrent than most people. i can see where the skateboarders were angry when blading started, sure we were moving in on their turf. but now that blading has had a chance to face up to the test of time and has passed i think that all of our collective energys could be targeted to a more worthy cause than fighting each other. Like fighting the closeminded adults that think that all skaters (boarders and bladers alike) are trouble makers and shouldn't be allowed to walk (or skate as the case may be) the streets i think that we should all work together to dispell the rumers and fears that all skaters are punks and should be put in jail.
Just a fellow skater
Sorry about the profanity in this one, some people don't know how to speak without cursing in every sentence.
i am both a skateboarder and inliner, and i have frinds from both
sides,
when im with my inliner friends we talk, but never about skateboarders.
vice versa. But some people are bitchy ass and think that they hold the
world on their shoulders, and they think of them selfs as the best,
when
no one in this world is perfect, and those are the people that start
talking shit about others, and thats how all this shit got started. By
all those damn ass full of them selfs bitches, well to them i say F***
you!
Skate hard,
Katie
Next one submitted on 2-4-99
WE GET ALONG FINE!!!!!!!
at our school there are lots of punk skaters and me and my friends
have been friends with all them (me and my friends - bladers) and we
decided to go tag along with them when they went skatin, and we get
along perfectly fine! we even teach each other stuff on the different
set a wheels
StormCat
The newest one as of 2-25-99:
I read about this stuff everywhere, people sayin "hey all u
skateboarders are wimps and posers". but in my town, iowa city, it's
not like that. we the skaters have a deep respect for skateboarders
and vice-versa. when the skateboarders pull off big tricks the skaters
applaud and again vice-versa. we're all good friends and we're not
letting little cultural tendencies get in the way of that. there is no
war between skaters and skateboarding just dumb people pickin fights
for stupid reasons.
Lurch
nletcher@ia.net
http://members.tripod.com/lurch17
This next guy has the story down. He has little from every world.
hay man i don't think that we should all be fighting because it is all
bs. i have been rollerblading since i was about 10 i started to skate
aggressive about a year ago when i discovered the dirks. skating
aggressive is something i wanted to do when i got my first pair of
phantoms. to me skating is life because it really gives me a good work
out and it gets my addrylin going when i do a phatty grind off of a
rail. but recently i had a few bucks to spare and i went out and
bought
a bord and i will tell you right now that it is very hard but i get the
same feeling when i try to do and ally. i just bought my board so i
really suck. but it is something i will do if i don't have enough time
to go rollerblading. still though i will alawayss pick my skates over
my board but if it is really cold and the conditions are not good
enough
to go blading or skating i will throw on my soaps. i think we all need
to just get along and respect others. the only people we need to be
fighting with is the authorities and the cities we live in because
people look at us skaters and they think we are doing harm to a rail or
a curb. as far as i am concerned skating is skating know matter what
you are skating with. we need to unite and get a skatepark for every
big city in the u.s so we don't have to worry about getting a big trick
from the police saying that we are trespassing and damaging property.
and a little wax wont hurt a nice good curb now will is. this is
krazykarl giving my opinion. so lets all get along go out skating and
have a big ass party with all of our friends and get all fucked up.
Krazykarl