This is just what happens when a dirt bag sport goes mainstream. It's sort of the evolution of accessible "extreme" sports. If the sport is "cool" enough (has a cool grass roots sub-culture), has the opportunity to be bouje-ified, is easy enough for a newbie to classified as a "participant", and takes place somewhere not too scary... it's ripe for transformation by the masses.
The same thing happened to Snowboarding as well. It's too bad because so much of the sub-culture that drives the attraction of these sports simultaneously disappears as it's mainstream-ness grows.
Never happened with skateboarding because, well obviously, it's just too fucking hard to even start, but, it also takes place in dirty streets and skateparks... and even if you could come up with a $1000 skateboard... where would you show it off? Can't really drive to work with it strapped to the top... you know, so you can tell all your colleagues about how you're leaving work early today to go thrash a ledge downtown.
Probably some other good examples out there... maybe climbing / bouldering?
July 11, 2022, 8:59 a.m. - IslandLife
This is just what happens when a dirt bag sport goes mainstream. It's sort of the evolution of accessible "extreme" sports. If the sport is "cool" enough (has a cool grass roots sub-culture), has the opportunity to be bouje-ified, is easy enough for a newbie to classified as a "participant", and takes place somewhere not too scary... it's ripe for transformation by the masses. The same thing happened to Snowboarding as well. It's too bad because so much of the sub-culture that drives the attraction of these sports simultaneously disappears as it's mainstream-ness grows. Never happened with skateboarding because, well obviously, it's just too fucking hard to even start, but, it also takes place in dirty streets and skateparks... and even if you could come up with a $1000 skateboard... where would you show it off? Can't really drive to work with it strapped to the top... you know, so you can tell all your colleagues about how you're leaving work early today to go thrash a ledge downtown. Probably some other good examples out there... maybe climbing / bouldering?