By Hali Estrada.
Skateboarding is getting bigger than ever and is NOT because there is more Skateparks, FUCK NO. This worldwide Skatepark booming is the result of the popularity Skateboarding gain in the late 90’s with the X-games and video games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater; The kind of popularity only big corporations can achieve with a decade of huge marketing campaigns and advertisement; Lucky for us, Skateboarding itself is not and will never be for sale… so relax… because if somebody strange to Skateboarding builds a park, or starts a company selling boards bluntly copying graphics, or calls himself a real Skateboarder to sell shit in Wallmart or Target, is not doing us a favor and is not defining Skateboarding or making it bigger and most definitely is not making a real contribution to the core Skateboard industry.
I read something Thursday morning before going to Agenda that make me think a lot about my home country and how some “Important” Skate companies are managed there by Surfers and people who know nothing about Skateboarding but somehow run the game there, that’s just fucked up but what I read went even beyond that. Please don’t tell me that because you built Skateparks in Peru, the core Peruvian Skateboarding companies will suddenly make more money and will owe you something, Im sorry but is not like that, the core Skateboard industry was there doing business before you built your parks and they will still be in business with or without 10, 20 or even 30 Skateparks. Core companies will always have Skateboarders to support them. Skateboarding doesn’t need Skateparks but Skateparks would not be there without Skateboarding; Skateboarding doesn’t owe you anything.
Chris Cole, Jesus Olcese, Giancarlo Zavalaga and Paul Rodriguez.
So, I was thinking about all this stuff walking down the lines in Agenda; To my surprise a lot of brands that have nothing to do with Skateboarding were selling … yes… SKATEBOARDS. I kept walking down the lines thinking about what I read that morning about Peru when suddendly I walked into the amazing Tony Magnusson, Tony was one of the best Skateboarders in the 80’s and 90’s, and with Mike Ternansky were behind the force that changed Street Skateboarding forever; H-Street Skateboards. Tony came to Peru back in the 90’s with Alphonzo Rawls and Jason Rogers; after a brief walk down memory lane he asked me how things are in Peru. I told him that Skateboarding is bigger than ever there and that there is a lot of Skateparks; he looked at me in the eye and with a smile on his face he told me: “Thats because we went there, we changed everything”.
I think this is very true, not only them but all the Skateboarders and companies that were here since the beginning, they were an inspiration to us and they are the root of this huge tree that is now the “Skateboard Industry”; Skateboarding is bigger than ever because our roots. Needless to say “The Berrics Agenda” was the only part of the convention center where I felt comfortable, I think is a great Idea to separate the core brands from the rest of the show. It was almost 6:30pm when we decided to go back home but not before meeting the legendary Brian Lotti, in my opinion one of the best styles ever along with Ray Barbee. It was the perfect end to our Agenda experience; we even took a couple of pictures, here they are :).
CFL.
Josh Kalis and Jesus Olcese.
Brian Lotti and Hali Estrada.
