I think Freestyle is going to make a comeback.

[Rev J]

Just due to basic economics. Most skateparks now are municipalities run by the Park and Rec departments in most cities. Since the housing market is going bust and more homes are being foreclosed on that means less property tax is being collected, meaning less money for everything. Usually Parks and Rec are the first to get the axe.

Freestyle you can generally do on any flat ground which gives you more places to skate.

[_Turtle]

Freestyle gear can be quite expensive and I live in the UK, so any gear I want would have to be shipped fom overseas, adding to the cost. Plus, people will always find ledges or stairsets or make their own spots. So while freestyle may take a rise, the current scene will be here for a while more in my opinion.

[Rev J]

The thing is that the only real "Specialized" gear is the wheels. The Powell Mullen reissue deck and most of the freestyle decks that I've checked out have been 7.5" width. You can easily get a 7.75" Street Deck and split the difference. I know you're in the UK it seems like most of the newer freestyle videos I've seen are European skaters, and more than a few of the freestyle specialty skate shops I've seen on the web are in Europe.

I realize that people will always find skate spots. It just seems like as a skate spot becomes popular some external force (business owners, law enforcement, etc.) comes down on it.

[_Turtle]

I'm planning on getting some freestyle wheels to make my setup more suited to both street and freestyle, because I've done some research and decided that is what's best for me. But someone coming into freestyle might see all these pros with small mellow setups with square ends and be a little put off by the way it seems you need special equipment. I would love for more people to get into freestyle, because it is so fun and different, but it might be a little daunting to look at. Hopefully people will see past that and realise that you just need a little creativity.
I can definitely see freestyle on the rise, but maybe not a huge one.

[Rev J]

The funny thing about the square tail is if you do enough Caspers, Truck Stands, etc. you'll wear it down to a square tale.

[HighVoltageSk8r]

Street skating

[Demon]

i didnt know you were on the cafe too rev j.

C/S
STD

[JesseH0630]

i think it would be awesome for freestyle to come back, i skate street but i have crazy respect for freestyle...ive tried to spacewalk and "walk the dog" and i can spacewalk like two twists (not sure of the technical term) and i can "walk the dog" two or three times, let alone throwing in caspers, truckstands, fingerflips, and handstands and rail stands

The funny thing about the square tail is if you do enough Caspers, Truck Stands, etc. you'll wear it down to a square tale.

haha^

[Rev J]

i didnt know you were on the cafe too rev j.

C/S
STD

I am now.

[DeadBlueSky]

Street skating

This. As much as I love freestyle, people will just remember that skateparks are just cages for skateboards and go looking for street spots.

[Xgecko]

This. As much as I love freestyle, people will just remember that skateparks are just cages for skateboards and go looking for street spots.

Part of the reason I have a quiver.....Park, freestyle, a couple of cruisers and a bunch of different DH

[MN_Mike]

Freestyle is pretty sick. I really like watching old footage of dudes like Welinder, Harris and Mullen(even more than his modern skating). However, I don't think it will make that big of a comeback. For one thing it's insanely difficult to do a lot of those tricks. You need insane dedication and have to practice for hours and hours to link all of that stuff together. It's not like going out and learning to kickflip or do a grab trick. You have to learn to go into and out of tricks. The way I see it, every company is cashing in on making cruisers. I'm thinking it might go back to more rootsy street style skating.

[Rev J]

Freestyle is pretty sick. I really like watching old footage of dudes like Welinder, Harris and Mullen(even more than his modern skating). However, I don't think it will make that big of a comeback. For one thing it's insanely difficult to do a lot of those tricks. You need insane dedication and have to practice for hours and hours to link all of that stuff together. It's not like going out and learning to kickflip or do a grab trick. You have to learn to go into and out of tricks. The way I see it, every company is cashing in on making cruisers. I'm thinking it might go back to more rootsy street style skating.

I hear where you're coming from. The thing is that kick flips, big spins, helipops etc. were all freestyle tricks to begin with. Learning to make them flow into each other can be as simple as paying attention to how your feet land on the board. If you land a trick a certain way use it to your advantage. You may land a trick in such a way that your feet land int the "sweet spot" for another trick. You can also use the symmetry of the board to your advantage. I'm starting to view the "tail" as being whichever end lands under my back foot it simplifies things a bit.

I also see what you're saying about Cruiser boards, and I'd love to see a return of "We don't need a skate spot, the whole city is our skate spot. Hit it and quit it approach."

Freestyle was never quite as big as street, and vert for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Plus in my 15 year old eyes it looked a little fruity. I would like to see it pulled back from the dominion of "Old Men". I think skaters like Kilian Martin are doing a good job of doing that. I think that kids are weeing Mullen skate and wondering where it came from too and that will help.

Maybe a Hybrid style will kind of emerge. Looking back at some of same old footage that you were watching Welinder's street skating looked like a more primitive version of what Rodney, and Kilian are doing now and Cameron Martin was starting to pull into that area too on a freestyle board.

[MN_Mike]

I think Welinder was a little better than Mullen stylewise. Mullen was so rigid and methodical and was amazing at blasting out trick after trick in one small area which won contests. However, dudes like Welinder and Harris were so much more fluid. Watching modern freestyle looks more like what Harris and Welinder were doing and less like Mullen was doing. I would love to learn to skate freestyle, but my body is pretty ****ed from 20 years of street skating. That and I just don't have the patience. I don't see younger skateboarders getting into it because it takes work to get down, it's not instant gratification like skating a skatepark.

[DeadBlueSky]

The simple reason why freestyle has taken that route (Per/Harris rather than Rodney) is because their styles and approaches are more accessible on a base skill level (read easier to digest and progress). Using Rodney as a template sets the bar too high and people lose interest when they realise that no matter how long they spend skating they will never be able to do even 10% of the tricks he does in Rubbish Heap alone. It is pretty alienating.

I hope people don't take inspiration from Kilian. His skating is monotonous and he has some how made an impact by being a middle of the road freestyler doing middle of the road street tricks that are presented with a sticky gloss.

[NoSwitch]

Just due to basic economics. Most skateparks now are municipalities run by the Park and Rec departments in most cities. Since the housing market is going bust and more homes are being foreclosed on that means less property tax is being collected, meaning less money for everything. Usually Parks and Rec are the first to get the axe.

Freestyle you can generally do on any flat ground which gives you more places to skate.

Housing market here and in many similar areas is actually starting to boom again. It has turned to a seller's market with more buyers than sellers. I know several people in real estate that can confirm this. Unemployment being back below 8% along with unbelievably low mortgage interest rates are fueling this boom. As for parks, they were almost all private run bigger parks or back yard half pipes in the 80s.

That said, I can still see Freestyle making a comeback. Most things do. People burn out on just about anything and the next generation usually goes in a slightly different direction. We saw it in snow sports too with racing being hot in the 60s, freestyle being hot in the 70s-80s then racing/carving making a comeback in the 90s with shaped ski technology, then fat skis and BC/AT powder skiing became the next wave we are currently in. Which leads to the post by our mother below..

Freestyle gear can be quite expensive and I live in the UK, so any gear I want would have to be shipped fom overseas, adding to the cost. Plus, people will always find ledges or stairsets or make their own spots. So while freestyle may take a rise, the current scene will be here for a while more in my opinion.

Gear companies could leverage this/facilitate it with proper marketing by pushing freestyle gear again, perhaps with some innovations. A new, fresh dimension (or an old one few remember) could stimulate industry sales and popularity. To add a skating related analogy to shadow the ski industry trend changes over time we can look at how old school clay wheel street skating, slalom, and carving boards evolved to basic freestyle sticks from 60s to 70s, which gradually moved through the vert craze in the 80s with all the giant pig shapes. Every kid that had the previous technology wanted the newer gear and followed the skating trends to match. Fast forward to Popsicle shapes and street shredding that currently rules. Freestyle could very well be the next big thing just as street replaced vert.

There is a lot of money to be won or lost driving or closely following these iterations. But many things do come back around and almost everything goes though periods of being out of style.

[DeadBlueSky]

People seem to have a really skewed idea of how popular freestyle was even in its "golden era", when it was still a relatively marginal practice in terms of actual participation and visibility. There are some seriously rose tinted glasses being shared around and I think it is in part to do with older generations wanting to remember "their thing" as being more significant than a footnote in the rise of Rodney and the rise of skate nostalgia as a valid market due to the first generations of Big-Three era skateboarders moving in to middle age.

[MN_Mike]

I don't know...putting Mullen up against Harris and Welinder...even Cameron Martin..there really is no comparison. After all the talk....Welinder was the only one to ever beat Mullen. Mullen may have invented all the tricks but Harris, Welinder and Martin(Cameron) took freestyle and progressed. Welinder and Harris kept going when Mullen dropped out. I know that's not a popular opinion, but it is fact. But...video does speak for itself.

[MN_Mike]

When I started skating in 91. Freestyle was still pretty popular, at least in the area I grew up in. Of course I was an 11 year old kid skating with guys who were in their late teens and early twenties who came from the "era" you're talking about. The major companies were still making freestyle decks into the mid 90s. Freestyle was really important. Probably even more important than vert/pool skating. Hell, the modern popsicle stick shaped decks are really just freestyle decks with kicked rounded noses and tails. If you take one of the early skinny double kick decks there isn't much difference at all. If you look at early street skating it's just freestyle tricks adapted to different terrain. So to say it is a "marginal" practice is just a little inaccurate.

[Rev J]

I hear what you're saying. In my area growing up (Maine) had a lot of stupid macho **** going on.

I know this is going to sound a little mean but it almost looks like having a couple of nervous breakdowns were the best thing to happen to Rodney's skating. I look at those old videos and the skating is great but he really doesn't look like he's having fun. In the newer videos he at least looks like he's having a blast.

Looking back one of the only 2 shops in the town where I grew up that sold skateboards had a complete Kevin Harris board that I should've bought as my first board. But wanting acceptance from my peers won out. 20 years later I see the error of my ways.