By Dave Carnie
The best thing about being a televised skateboard contest photographer is that I can pause my subject in whatever ridiculous pose I want.
This article actually began a couple of months ago when Lutzka left Dyrdek’s Street League to go skate in the Dew Tour. Rob Brink called it “the first trade in skateboarding.” Which brought up the age-old question, is skateboarding a sport?
Games? Leagues? Cups? Trades? There’s a lot of evidence these days to suggest that it’s certainly beginning to look like one. What was more interesting to me, however, was Dyrdek’s quote about “the trade” in the Street League press release.
“The last thing we ever wanted was for Greg to lose a major sponsor because of his performance at Street League,” Dyrdek said. “Despite being signed to a three-year agreement we understood that the companies that are willing to pay Greg expect him to win contests. It was clear after the first year that would never happen in Street League, so when Greg asked us to release him we decided it was the right thing to do.”
Did Rob just say Lutzka sucks? I wrote Greg first to get his reaction to the quote.
“Sounds like Rob said you suck,” I said. “Do you feel that you don’t have the skills to win a Street League contest?”
“When it comes down to it,” Greg replied, “I feel like I have the tricks to win the Street League and if you look at simple results I’ve been able to win contests when all the best guys are there. I think the level of skateboarding is so high and it really depends on who is on that day.”
“What was the real reason you got out of your SL contract?” I asked. “Do you think you have a better chance with Dew? Or is it an energy drink sponsor issue?”
“I can tell you it wasn’t an easy decision,” Greg said. “It really came down to what was the best move for my career. Yes it had a lot to do with the formats and what best fit the way I like to skate. Some of the decision was based on what my sponsors felt was the best event series to get them the exposure they wanted.”
One of Greg’s new “energy drink” sponsors is, incidentally, Jose Cuervo. I wondered if Jose Cuervo wouldn’t be interested in sponsoring an overweight skateboard magazine editor?
“I think I can hook you up with a bottle or two,” Greg said.
Next I wrote Rob to see what he had to say about all this and why he thought Greg sucked so bad. As it turns out, Rob does not think Lutzka sucks so bad. It was a minor political issue: Lutzka lost his Monster sponsor, Lutzka got on Rock Star, Rock Star is affiliated with Dew and Maloof, so Lutzka was backing Dew. What Rob was miffed about was that Greg had said that the Dew Tour had more exposure than Street League, thus forcing Rob to defend his League. End of story.
So after I got the scoop on that whole deal, I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Rob about Street League, energy drinks, major TV networks, and skateboarding in general for over an hour. One of the main themes of the conversation was that Street League is perceived as a threat to a variety of sources. Our own industry even has questioned it.
“I’m on a fucking mission, you know what I’m sayin’?” Rob said. (If Rob had left out all the “you know what I’m sayings” in our conversation, it probably would have lasted half the time.) “Like it or not I’m on a mission with the world’s best skateboarders. Our own industry cannibalizes itself relentlessly. So for the first time when someone’s not trying to cannibalize it—you know at the IASC thing this week, they’re like, ‘Is Street League bad for skateboarding?’ For the first time something is moving the needle and all of a sudden, ‘Oh it must be bad for us. Let’s keep it unorganized, chaotic, and shitty, and that’s the way we’re going to grow.’”
For the record, IASC had invited Rob to come speak at their annual summit meeting, but according to IASC executive director Josh Friedberg, that subject was never on the agenda.
“IASC hasn’t discussed it,” IASC president Josh Friedberg said. “Along those lines, I was pushing to get him involved with the Summit, but he had schedule conflicts. Personally I think it’s awesome that Rob has moved to make a mainstream contest run by skateboarders and tried to do something innovative in terms of format.”
So is Rob putting the “fantasy” into Fantasy Factory?
Not entirely because Josh admitted they did briefly discuss big contests in general. “We decided that we should have a relationship of some type with all of them as they are one of the main touch-points of interaction for non-skaters,” Josh said. “Nothing about them being bad or good for skateboarding, though. They’re just another part of skateboarding.”
But are they bad or good for skateboarding? It’s a question that may not have been asked by IASC, but I’m sure many have thought about it. I don’t think so, but one can’t help wondering with the popularity of The Berrics and Street League if skateboarding isn’t going to turn into one big game of SKATE. The first season of Street League was, at times, painful to watch. I wasn’t the only person to liken it to watching golf. Nieratko thought it looked like kids playing on a slide. “They slide down, then they run back to the top, and slide down it again, then run back to the top…” I sometimes see a combination of freestyle and jump ramps when I watch it. Rob himself even admitted that the first season was “slow as fucking shit.” Is this how skateboarding is going to be perceived?
No one is enjoying the Street League more than Nyjah. Jesus Christ, what is that $450,000 in prize money so far this year? That’s cool and all, but the Braves fucking stomped the Nationals.
But while we within the skateboard industry might have our minor critiques about SL formatting, there are some other people out there who straight up HATE Street League, namely the other contest series.
“The Dew Tour is freaking out,” Rob said.
Apparently they are not pleased at all with Street League. And they’ve gone so far as to insinuate that Street League is going to kill the Dew Tour.
“Are you kidding me?” Rob said. “Like what the fuck does action sports have to do with me? And how could you possibly say that taking Chaz Ortiz, Ryan Sheckler, and Paul Rodriguez from the Dew Tour collapses your entire thing? Like that’s fucking bizarre.”
As a skateboarder, I take some pride in what Rob is doing. Rob’s running a contest series on his own terms against these giant corporations, and mainstream sports, and he’s winning. Which is indeed bizarre because he’s dealing with some crazy fucking shit. As much as Rob wants to retain the purity of skateboarding in the mainstream sports arena, the politics continue to threaten his vision.
“It’s more the insanity that it’s on this level,” he said. “Check this out, let me give you the latest on what’s happening right now: there’s four Dew Tour stops, there’s four Maloofs, four Street Leagues, next year there’s four X Games, and then MSG [network] is doing the Empire Open at the US Center a couple weeks before the Maloof Cup. MSG’s new thing is they’re going to jump in the game and start their action sports tour, and then turn Fuse into a better Fuel. Like that’s the fucking mess of skateboarding fucking event chaos that’s coming around the corner, you know what I’m saying?”
“It sounds like a lot of people fighting over the custody of the child,” I said.
“My thing is, you guys go ahead,” Rob said. “You guys can go action sports ‘til the cows come home. This is just street skateboarding. And for me it’s just building skate plazas and showcasing professional street skating. That’s it. It’s as simple and streamlined as that. Everyone else can do whatever they want for everything else. In the end do you want to be a part of action sports, or do you want to be a part of skateboarding, you know what I’m saying? And God bless all parts of skateboarding, they’ll be here forever, but this is only about the elite fuckin’ street skaters. It’s about creating something that the world loves to watch and is exciting, you know what I’m saying? Because anyone can win it. Dudes are so fucking good. These guys are doing tricks first try that were video part enders four years ago. And now this year they’re training on a whole ‘nother level because they know there’s so much money on the line and they have to have everything wired. So it’s changing even the way they skate.”
“Training?” I asked. “Does that sound weird to you? Have you ever trained or practiced to skate?”
“No, because I invented this shit,” he said laughing. “I was the first pro to call a skatepark a TF, a training facility. I don’t give a fuck what you do in Street League. Nobody gives a fuck unless you put it down in the streets. The paradigm is gone. It used to be the contest skaters and the street skaters. Now the best fucking street skaters are the best fucking contest dudes. Tell me one of those guys in the elite didn’t have one of the best video parts in the last five years that are in this league.”
If anyone is going to be able to retain the purity of skateboarding in the arena of sport, it’s Rob Dyrdek. I’m rooting for him. While I’m not the Street League’s number one fan, I’ve watched a couple and I appreciate the simplicity. It is just what he says it is: street skating. And at times, amazing street skating. At other times, really boring street skating. As my wife said while watching one, “Fucking make something.” But, most importantly, there are no motorcycles. And not only do I think SL is good for skateboarding, but skateboarding on TV is so incongruent with how skateboarding really is that it creates an element of comedy that, I think, affords more opportunity. Something that hasn’t been lost on Rob either.
Unfortunately, skateboarders spend a lot of time rolling around on the ground, and this does not make for good television. Although Sandoval looks like he’s having a seizure and/or taking a shit, both of which are good television.
“Have you considered doing a fantasy skateboard league?” I asked. I’ve long wanted to create something of that nature.
“I already did,” Rob said, “go sign up for it.”
Apparently Rob has also thought about a fantasy skateboard league and made it reality on the Street League site. Although what I found on the site is more of a guessing game than a proper fantasy league. Creating the latter would require a lot of work. Rob has already envisioned a skateboard fantasy league that incorporates all aspects of being a pro skateboarder, such as ads, magazine coverage, video parts, etc., and that’s how points are generated.
“I’ll tell you what I am doing, though,” Rob said. “After this year I’m going to the gaming commission in Vegas and trying to get approved so you can bet on this, you know what I’m saying? Just the idea of being able to bet on this shit is amazing.”
“What the fuck?” I said laughing. Gambling on skateboard contests? That’s awesome. Imagine looking at the board in Vegas and seeing “skateboarding” on the list with horse racing, basketball, football, etc..
“Yeah, I had a dude do it last year,” Rob said, “My dude, who’s from Vegas came to me like, let’s do this, I got everything fucking set up.”
Rob, however, is still fiddling with the contest format and isn’t going to apply to the Vegas gaming commission until he’s got all the bugs ironed out. But once he’s got it dialed in, we will be gambling on skating.
“I just want to see the paperwork you have to fill out and write ‘skateboarding’ in,” I said.
“Oh my god it’ll be so sick,” Rob said laughing.
It’ll be even sicker when I hit the jackpot with a trifecta of Nyjah, Sheckler, and Cole. And maybe King Shit will turn into something that looks more like a racing form?
26 Comments
I’m sorry but Rob is fucking up big time. Greed has jammed up his thought factory!
The berrics, street league, dew, tours. and everything else people hate are lame, shitty, and pretty boring. Although at least they’re not telling telling skateboarders what to do. Some of the websites (slap, youwillsoon) are very hypocritical. Remember its easy to turn down a sponsor when they aren’t offering it to you.
“skateboarding on TV is so incongruent with how skateboarding really is that it creates an element of comedy that, I think, affords more opportunity.” So true, never thought about it like that. I say, keep the masses as mislead as possible. That way hopefully they’ll stick to the longboards.
Dave Carnie is amazing and Rob Dyrdek has the right idea. im game. my trifecta is dylan, malto, sheckler. BOOM
He is so brainwashed look how he respond to every single of those…
Yeah but try to take Shecks & PRod out of SL … Rob is dumb
Oh and
“Tell me one of those guys in the elite didn’t have one of the best video parts in the last five years that are in this league.”
Leo and pretty much a whole buch of pros.
Rob needs a bitchslap.
Look at Rob’s fucking shirt in that photo. He’s a walking douchebag…err, oops that’s not it. What’s the word I’m looking for? Those big structures that display advertisements? Oh yeah, he’s a walking billboard. My bad. I wonder why that photo made me think of the word douchebag instead of billboard…
skateboarding is being destroyed from the inside…oh lawd
i’m a gambling man… this shit will be crack!!!
if redbull came to me and offered me a deal i’d take it. i’d even skate street league. money doesn’t grow on trees, and you don’t skate forever. better make the most of it.
i thought the idea was cool for street league, thought maybe it wood b new ppl winning contests… Nyjah wins all of them with sheckler never far behind meanwhile dudes like dylan rieder, tommy sandoval, biebel, mike mo, marc johnson, and other “real” street shredders never make the cut.
How can anyone say “skateboarding is being destroyed?” I take my board to my local spot, whether it be a park or some street and I fucking SKATE. that is what skateboarding IS. Skateboarding = riding a skateboard however you want to. Skateboarding can’t be destroyed until the entire earth is covered in water and no one manufactures decks and I have no way of throwing one together using random shit I find.
I have a problem with Rob claiming Street League is street skating. It’s not. It’s obstacle skating.
Street skating takes place in the street (duh!). Maybe if the SL course incorporated angry pedestrians, street freaks, overzealous security guards, occasional downpours and cracks in the concrete, then I might reconsider.
Thanks to the Berrics, Street League and the rest of the skatepark culture, kids don’t skate in the streets anymore. It’s a fact.
Finally, skater’s don’t train. they play. A skateboard is a toy we never managed to put down.
p.s. Good article Carnie. You missed a shameless plug with Sandoval’s pose: Taking a king shit?
so…look, i love skateboarding, i love it so much i would even want to take big opportunities away from it, like street league, yes, sure its a great way to showcase skateboarding and take it big, but at the same time what if we just keep it simple like its been years before street league appeared, lets make it our own litle secret, where only we know about it and not some rich kid who saw it on tv and other mislead crowds….its like music, theres bands that are underrated, sure it sucks, they dont get lots of money but its a good thing kept between a small amount of people and it makes it richer..
in the interview it sais that everyone on street leage has had a major influence on street skating…bullshit, where the fuck has chaz ortiz put out a mind blowing part that has changed skateboarding? never…sheckler? neither…you should get real street skaters in it, not the big top people who are in every magazine and all over the internet, and its usually the qualifiers that never make it to the finals that are the most true to skateboarding, like dylan rieder or tommy sandoval…
and yeah sure, if we put real street skaters who probably dont have as much considtansy, (because theyre out skating the street and not inside a “training facility” all day)…maybe the show wont be so interesting and dyrdek wont make money out of it and is dream wouldnt happen….why does it have to always be about money? i could probably say dyrdek is the one who started the whole tv skateboarding on mtv and shit like that, then sheckler followed…that should remain in the past and be forgotten, and so should street league….
i support rob with what he’s trying to do. look at skateboarding 20 years ago, like, wtf? it was so simple and pure, it was just skating. now look at what corporates have tuned it into? greed greed greed. in essence, rob is somewhat blinded by his ego and such, but for fucks sake the man is trying to keep the shit alive! he’s fighting off powerful enemies with small arsenal and making an impact. other companies just want attention and money.
Many may not see, or want to see the parallels between Rob Dyrdek and Dana White from UFC but they are there- and while there will always be haters, respect has to be given to the few than can turn their passions into massive business entities.
The purists will always despise seeing their beloved art/sport/thing exposed in a lot of ways to a large number of people that will not, and do not care. Predatory companies will rise and fall, and a wave of poseurs and hangers-on will be bred…..but through all of this, money (hopefully) begins flowing, and trickling down, with coverage, and perhaps just a few outsiders may see something that inspires them to try as well.
For skateboarding to be as big globally as it is, it’s expected that there would be yet another competition to take things to the next level. It’s always going to be about sponsors and paying the bills, but you can’t hate on seeing skateparks and plazas popping up all over the place giving the groms a place to build the next generation (while emulating all the pros they just watched on ESPN).
If you skate, it may make you cringe to see things blown up as big as they are, but just be glad skateboarding hasn’t totally disappeared.
All I can say is the last Dew tour street skate was WHACK. They screwed up the second most important part: the sound. I couldn’t hear the wheel role, tail pop, grind and landing sounds and that completely destroyed my enjoyment. I need to hear that shit, without it I don’t feel like i’m *part of the action*. Plus the commentators were so distracting talking about skater back-stories and other inane topics. Street League is stepping things up with some crazy obstacles and even crazier tricks with some skaters displaying mind-blowing consistency. I’m not disappointed that some of the greats like Koston and p-rod were totally blown out of the running either. I mean if I see one more contest where p-rod makes 5 failed attempts at a switch flip and is then crowned champion just for making it in the end, i’ll be sick. That be said p-rod is an amazing skater and deserves everything he has. I just wanted see mind blowing tricks landed with consistency. Street League has (mostly) accomplished that this season.
Great article.
will this make skateboarding go away? No, so shut the fuck up an stop saying its ruining the sport. Yeah its a commercial endeavor but so is basically every company in skateboarding. Great video parts won’t go away, street skating will always exist, so it really doesn’t matter how anyone tries to make money from it.
I agree though, sometimes SL is a bit boring to watch and people who are not familiar with it have not a clue the difference between tricks.
“people who are not familiar with it have not a clue the difference between tricks.”
It’s not for those people. I’m sure they would rather get their rocks off watching aerial ballet (motoX) anyways.
This has absolutely nothing to do with me.
I grew up skating “street”…the streets of DC, Philly, NYC, SF, and every rough spot in between. Skateboarding is suppose to be impulsive and weird, not methodical and over-thought. Street League is nothing more than “freestyle” skating (think Rodney Mullen) on steroids. Of all the contest series out now, it is absolutely the most boring to watch, and most skaters will agree. Who the fuck wants to watch robots all day?! (that’s not a knock on the contest skaters themselves, but rather the format of the contest). Not a big contest guy at all, but at least with the Maloof Money Cup series, there is constant movement allowing you to see someone’s style, and they leave the parks for the community after the contest. Not hating on Rob or what he is trying to do, just can’t stand the format of Street League.
I hear what Wheelbite is saying. The whole idea of supporting robs concept of money being a motivator for consistency in wheely boarding doesnt really sound like tv skateboarding being different than the “other” or “real” skateboarding. Made to skate spots and the abundance of parks featuring “street” obstacles are nice, but they just dillute it and make it safer to skate. Why build parks that feature stuff existing in a rawer form somwhere in the streets? Maybe its because a these energy drinks or snack foods paying into this crap do the same thing with food – process and preserve some sort of hyper awesome yet unhealthy thing. Contests are frustrating because people arent doing them for the sake of just going out and skating, theyr not caring about skateboarding, just theyre pocket books. If anythign the maloof cup is the most viable option because it picks up on the changes in skating faster, and makes course with layouts closer to a street environment. Maybe the announcers just arent rude enough in the X, dew, league or any of that crap.
“Why build parks that feature stuff existing in a rawer form somwhere in the streets?”
Because street skating is illegal, duh. And also if you’re building a park you might as well make the obstacles exactly how you want them as opposed to street skating where you have settle for stuff as it already is.
Skating is so hard. I liked battle at the bay. Those obstacles were fucked, but that was a street contest. It was real. What if Senn dropped Anakin? Who built that ledge, it was bigger than the titus box.
The invisible team on some bridge with a coupla shitty jump ramps and a one foot high flat bar. That was memorable footage. I’m not even being nostalgic for vhs or anything. I have to back pulaskipusher. I want to see human beings skating. I want to see them laugh and cry, and bleed, and get car sick.
As soon as there’s points you have Felix going “oh he should have tried the three lip”. Because we can all see how easily Sheckler can bail those super hard tricks its kinda ruined it. I’m sure he has some injuries from time to time, but John Reeves was a big dude, you could hear him slam from your living room, and it made you appreciate what he was going through.
I just can’t watch Rob’s show and feel any affiliation with it. Sure the tricks are sick…but Dyrdek has it ass backwards. There are literally thousands of people just as good who aren’t on tv.
Skating’s not really a competitive thing anyway. Skate contests were always a creative thing. An exchange of energy. I need at least a burning cop car. Everyone who skates wants to watch good skating, its entertaining, but this just isn’t skateboarding. It’s a bunch of very rich and talented people, but seriously, who needs a reminder of how ineffectual we are? Tv? Really?
Lutzka doesnt need exposure, he needs to get his ass a budget and some shittier sponsers.
WHY do most of you think street league is ruining skateboarding! exposing skateboarding is the best for the sport. think about it, basketball made its advances from street, and now it’s one of the most popular sports in history. DO YOU KNOW WHY? because it was broadcast and ppl who didnt know about it came to love it. rob dyrdek is trying to turn this amazing sport into something more,and i thank him for it! each sport had to go through this step, STOP holding it back! oh, and there is nothing wrong with getting money from skating, baseball, football, bball, tennis, golf, etc a. i think ignorant skaters like the ones writing the comments i have read are trying to make skateboarding fail.