I never thought that in all my years of skateboarding I would be saying stuff like “contest season has started”, but here I am saying it. Contests have been around skateboarding forever, but I don’t think it has ever been on this big of a scale. This write up isn’t even on the disapproval of them either. This coming weekend is the Vans Pro-Tec pool party contest and I love watching the live web cast every year. Granted it is usually the vets division I like to watch the most.
If you keep up with all your internet news like I do then you’ve heard that Andrew Reynolds has joined up with Street League this year which is pretty cool with me. I have always said any Boss footage is good footage so I will take it where ever I can get it. I do always wonder if the regular Street League guys get a little insulated when they do stuff like this. Let’s face it, bringing in someone like a Dylan or Andrew is just to lure a skate kid that thinks Nyjah Huston is to commercial and not enough real street.
As I get older I could really care less either way, I’ll just enjoy the skateboarding. Sure there are guys who I like more or relate to someone’s style more than others, but at the end of the day I enjoy it all. I have no desire to jump down huge stuff or learn the newest tech trick, but I will watch someone else do it and will cheer them on.
What you have to remember is I come from a era that what got me to walk away from sports when I was younger was the idea of no rules. No right or wrong way. Just the pure love of it. So I do find contest time a bit weird, but I will roll with it and enjoy it.