Respect Authority

When the skateboarding community isn’t abuzz with illegal substances, it typically opts for something… well, skateboarding related. This week has been all about Thrasher Magazine’s Back to the ‘Berg contest, the 4th annual assault on the legendary steps of Wallenberg. And like the stairs it was founded upon, the contest was appropriately huge. Of course, not all the best skateboarding has to be on the epic scale of the Wallenberg four, nor does it surround itself with the type of media fanfare Thrasher editor Jake Phelps would have probably made fun of just a few years ago.

While the Wallenberg news may be hard to avoid, sometimes the best of skateboarding has a way of slipping past us… particularly if it happens in Europe. The industry across the Atlantic has been consistently growing over the past decade, and with its own assortment of companies and magazines, it’s becoming increasingly easy for American skaters to feel a bit left out. How the tables have turned — at least we’ve got YouTube. How else would we be privy to this raw, blistering section featuring Dennis Busenitz in a display of street skating at its purest? Short of backpacking across the old world like so many of our J. Crew sporting, recent college graduate counterparts… we wouldn’t be.

Seriously… you know you’re good at this shit when you put an ollie at the end of your part and nobody even complains.

Years before the current age of global media infestation, skateboarding was but a facet of American dreaming for poor, dejected European skaters — just like Taco Bell, cheerleaders, and actually getting arrested for smoking marijuana. But they hardly need to dream now, especially with Euro-centric magazines like Kingpin giving away free copies of Adidas’ European skateboarding video Diagonal with its latest issue. Like I said, at least we’ve got YouTube.