What Happened To Skateboarding?

Last night I was scrolling through Instagram and happened upon some Matt Tomasello skateboarding clips. They were the definition of gnarly. I went through his page for over an hour. I mean really fucking crazy groundbreaking tricks. I was so confused why I had never heard of him. Then I remembered, I haven't given a shit about skateboarding since about a year after the Lords Of Dogtown movie. 

I can't speak for the rest of the nation, but where I grew up, every kid wanted to be a professional skateboarder at one point of their life. We searched for local "gaps" and quoted Grind way too often. We knew every skater. Bob Burnquist, Rodney Mullen, and Chad Muska were household names. Most of us hadn't even had our first kiss yet and we were already talking about how we were going to slay like Sheckler. Now the skateboarding world, as far as I know it, has been diminished to people laughing on Twitter about Tony Hawk not being recognized in public. 

My skateboarding years weren't exactly a cherished time in my life. I had long hair and growing boy boobs that more than I'd like to admit, had me mistaken for a young lesbian. I was terrible at skating. I could barely ollie. I could barely jump. I was terrified of the concrete. The smallest cut and the gentlest fall normally put me on the IR for weeks at a time. That didn't stop me from making my parents spend way too much money on a dope board for my birthday though. 

I dressed the part too. Big shoes I never scuffed from too many kickflips, Indecline stickers, Volcom t-shirts, Kirra cologne, and beanies during the summer. One day in the seventh grade, people kept saying "TAP" in front of me and ran away giggling. I kept asking people what it meant but I couldn't get a straight answer. I started saying it too and laughing along, but inside it was driving me crazy. Eventually during recess, one of the nice girls told me it meant "TKJ's A Poser". Fucking earth-shattering. I needed to prove myself as a badass skater. It turned out that the kid who started it was the best skater in our school. So when the bell rang, I beat him up.

I sucked at skateboarding, but I enjoyed the rebellious teenage world it introduced me too. During my middle school years, the skating world dominated our pop culture. Everyone talked about Don Vito's latest prank on Viva La Bam. Or we argued during Hacky Sack about who was the true goat out of the Lords Of Dogtown trio. If your favorite movie wasn't Grind, it was Jackass. But no matter what, everyone's favorite video game had "Tony Hawk's..." in it. Mine was Underground. Video games were most likely the reason for the skateboarding boom. Luckily, they announced that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is being remastered and set to be released in September. The nostalgia for millennials strikes again. As much as I'll probably regret this statement, hopefully Tony Hawk creates another wave of skater bros out of Gen Alpha. So if you want to feel twelve again or get in the mood for the new Pro Skater, check out matttomasello on Instagram.