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27 thoughts on “Why we don’t have more vert ramps”
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acceptance of the risk. thats the keyword
theres no more sk8 or die. or skate and destroy.
I dunno, I’d rather risk a big vert wall than anything involving ollies onto a railing down some stairs…
Perceived risk might be more to the point. Kids perceive the vert ramp as being more dangerous than the rail and stair set. I’d say the actual danger is reversed. You have to work hard to get high on vert, while you can wreck yourself on a railing and stairs at an early skill level.
What your saying is you’d rather kill yourself flying high out of gnarly vert, than getting pop without the aid of tranny.
I think I’m saying… popularized forms of street skating as seen in magazines and videos require more acceptance of risk than vert skating, mega ramps excluded.
I think vert actually seems sketchier to most skaters for a really simple reason. Street has been more popular for awhile. The unfamiliar is sketchy to most. Vert dont scare my homies that grew up skating it, street odds seem riskier to them. Makes sense. For those who really love skateboarding, you’ll risk bleeding on anything. Thats how Scroeder amped me to just drop in and try anything he’d egg me on to do. It can be a good thing but I dont recommend anything other than to do what gets yer spikes off.
i enjoy skating mini bowls up to 6 feet. i really want to go bigger. i think the new sj park will make me face my fears.
i see kids at the park who are learning to drop in and are scared shitless. i was that kid once.
watching vert skating is so fun, doing it must be more fun.
Steep, tight vert is not my natural fortay and can scare the piss outta me when dropping in. But I kept skating for that reason. As soon as the nerves slow forget everything in your head and take a chance without thinking. Not saying I dont my limits(seem to be more as years go by) but its a great feeling to see what happnes. That is one of most irreplaceable feelings skateboarding offers.
The best accomplishments Ive granted myself in skating have been the result of impulsive risk, not baby steps.
..tho I’d probably heed the tranny on ramp in frame1 above. What is that, the clown ramp?
What isn’t familiar is scary.
When I was growing up, I skated a 16 foot deep bowl when I was 15, and built a 13 foot tall vert ramp when I was 16 years old. Mostly because that’s all we knew. We didn’t built mini-ramps per-sey. We built them with vert because we were emulating what we were familiar with, mostly influenced by The Magazine at the time, Skateboarder. Which had vert ramps and backyard pools.
I remember sitting in my 8th grade class designing a vert quarter pipe when I was supposed to be writing an essay. It was all I could think about at the time…I couldn’t wait to get home to start building…
Was it scary? Sure at first it was, and of course that was part of the fun too. But, the learning curve is the same as with any aspect of skateboarding. You learn from the bottom up, small to big. How to fall, how to ride and balance on vert, incrementally. Everyone rode vert at the time. That was the thing to do. I remember we would mark how high we would get on the ramp each day.
What killed or almost killed skateboarding was the closing of nearly every skatepark in the country, and the label by mainstream society that skateboarding was too dangerous for kids. This label still prevails and is used by NIMBY’s today as an argument against building more skateparks.
I don’t think that street skating is any more or less difficult than vert skating. Both are learned in similar fashions, both incrementally, and by repetition. Certainly street skating is more accessible to more people, making it easier for the average beginner to be attracted to, especially if there’s no skatepark around to access. Simply hop on your board and learn to ollie…
Which brings me back to my point. The unavailability of a bowl or ramp with TRUE vert is a major contributing factor for the kid’s unfamiliarity with vert skating. In other words, if they are only exposed to street skating and mini-ramps, then vert skating is so “other” or foreign to them as to be unfamiliar and therefore “too scary” to even try.
In addition to that, after a child reaches his mid-teenage years he/she is unlikely to try anything so foreign to them because it might make them look uncool. And looking cool is so important to teenagers of any era.
For us it was cool to learn vert, so we did. What is interesting to me is the resurgence of vert skating among younger kids. Those kids that are too young to know that it’s supposed to be scary. Those kids that have access to true vert bowls or ramps. They are pushing the envelope of what can and should be done on vert or in the air. It’s fun to watch.
It’s a great time to be a skateboarder!
it’s all been said by the other guys; og skaters are vert riders – it’s what we know, where we are most comfortable. We had this exact same ramp vs street riding situation a while back here in Mallorca; The ramp i mentioned in the last cartoon had been sitting out in the countryside for 12 years, and none of the local street/mini ramp skaters had even mentioned it to me, even knowing that i’m a vert skater and would want to ride it. So we found it by chance on a net posting sometime back,and said to the street guys “hey there’s amassive vert ramp out in the stix, u wanna come?” they were like,”oh that, nah, it’s too scary”… Since all i ever skated from 78 to 80 was a big u shaped wood half pipe with 2ft of vert,or a park pool in the UK, i was a bit baffled by their reaction. So us “old timers” went over and ripped it, and i have to admit I too was very apprehensive about dropping in from the 3.5 high wobbly rotting wooden platform, but i knew that i had the ability to do it, so i just didn’t think about it and went down. Five minutes later i was blasting FS airs ect, and having a lot of fun. Anyway, a few weeks later we invited the same nu school guys over for a session, and these guys are seriously fearless and skilled mini ramp skaters, but only one would come, a guy who is possibly the most aggressive and talented mini ramp ripper i have ever seen, and he admitted he was scared to ride the 3.5 metre steel monster, and really couldn’t put any sort of run together. His pals all declined the invitation and stayed practising typical ankle busting flip and rail tricks at the local vert free cement park… which to me is far more dangerous, forcing one of our guys to comment, “why don’t I just bust my ankle right now, instead of waiting?…” Anyway, we are planning to promote/get more people into vert ramp riding by holding a vert ramp jam/demo and barbecue early summer, in conjunction with the local council, which will be followed up by having the council fix the thing up, to make it a safer prospect and get more younger guys into it.
“Just drop in ya pansy!”
Well, said..especially Dan. Like anything learned, repetition and building skills happens from begining to end, that’s true. Im not as aged as everyone here but I know this; skateboarding is not as sport. I will never refer to it as a sport nor do I call skaters athletes. Skateboarding, to me is more like an experiment.
There are principles, formula’s, consequence and success but all loosley defined and everchanging. I believe anyone is entitled to be involved and choose their own level of involvement. You dont get that out of garbage like sports. More than every non skater or adult legitimizing skatebaording through xtreme games praise, the only thing I hate is when I hear it suggested as an olympic sport. Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
And here’s my point; no one spends their first 4 months at football practice and pulls off something a pro might. But you can move leaps and bounds in skateboarding after a short time. Sure, you need a grasp on the basics but how many of you have pictured something in you head for ahwile, that you have either never or rarely tried before, and you fixate on it, and then you let go and..(I wont repeat a nike slogan) and then it happens like magic.
The 1st time I ever dropped in to vert it was the second ramp I ever dropped on and it was full on “vert”. Was an indoor skatepark called alternative sports in AZ. Went from riding their 4 1/2 mini ramp to getting talked into dropping in on a 14 ft vert ramp w/no pads, just helmet. One of times y’know, I was so stoked, teh 1st drop I didnt commit and went backwards so hard I knocked my helmet over the front of my eyes,the second I commited and rode into the other side of the ramp so fast and akward I slammed shoulder first into the tranny. You just never forget that is skateboarding,and how it feels, and it doesnt feel liek a sport.
S.U.A.S.
Oh, SAUS, ok, sure.
Jake, I can dig your comment about everyone being involved and choosing their own level of involvement- that does seem like a major distinction not present in traditional sports. I’ve been skating for 25 years and just recently revisited the concept of skating for MYSELF only- seems obvious I know but concentrating on it has made me totally free.
Shit yeah, I took a break for 3 years from 19 to age 22
and it was an eye opener when I started back up.
I knew I was addicted for life when I still had a complete even when I wasnt skating.
It seemes more necessity now in an adult world where between jobs,obligations, kids,you are never on your own time. Skateboarding gives me freedom from that now more than ever and when I ride time doesnt exist.
Im glad you can understand, brad.
I was pretty abstract in my words.
Also mr zorlac, unfortunatly Im stuck here at work and cant S.U.A.S, so my next best escape is to putz around on SnA. But thanks for the suggestion, for now I have to pay the bills by ignoring my shitty job. If you are able to get out and go ride, I highly suggest it. I envy those with the daytime free to them
whatever…absence of fear? most of the vert skaters around here wear a helmet and full pads to skate a curb
Plastic courage.
most of the vert skaters around here wear a helmet and full pads to skate a curb??????
Those types wouldn’t skate a curb
finally…i thought my posts weren’t offensive enough to illicit response
Drama queen!
i have seen pictures of you in makeup…im a queen?
Curb tricks are only wishful vert tricks….
go ride your motorcycle and jump a fullpipe.
“Curb tricks are only wishful vert tricks
I never had the availability to skate anything vert when I was growing up. It was all street or ramps that were small enough to be semi-portable… When I did have the chance to skate any vert it was only for a few fleeting moments.
So what? Now I’ve got parks all around me that have vert. “Serious” vert. Not “Benny Hill” vert, but that stuff is fun too…
It’s not that I won’t skate it at all, but when it comes time to try out my minirampchamp tricks in the peanut at Goodyear, quite simply, it ain’t happening.
Skating for myself means who am I trying to impress?
Geez, I suppose I’m probably being heckled but more or less I’m just happy to still be skating after 22 years. I just try and skate everything to some degree or the other these days.
And if I have an equal level of mediocrity that goes across all the stuff I’m trying to accomplish, well hell, that’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, right?