I just couldn’t help it.

Michael Brooke, publisher of Concrete Wave magazine, lifted my coverage (photos and all) of the IASC Skate Summit from this site and posted it on silverfishlongboarding.com.

Okay, that’s not my favorite thing in the world, but it’s not a biggie either. Really. (Linking the content would have been a-okay though … )

Anyway, it caught my attention. But it was what people were saying about the IASC Skate Summit on that site that really caught my eye. And before I knew it, I was down in message board trenches, offering to “shed some light” on the meeting. "After all," I thought, "I was there and maybe people would be more interested in what was really discussed than speculating on what they thought was said." Well, it seemed like a bright idea at the time. 

I should back up for a second. Concrete Wave is an excellent magazine that covers a wide variety of skate disciplines, but has really found its niche in the longboarding, vert, and slalom markets—disciplines that are pretty much ignored by many skaters and most of the larger skate companies. They are disciplines that the larger skate mags shun as well. But it’s really a healthy niche, one that’s growing and one that has a dedicated, knowledgeable, and passionate following. But it’s a niche, by definition a “specialized market.”

And to be completely honest, I have never been nor probably ever will be a skater. So by definition I’m a poseur, a clueless rube, an outsider who doesn’t get it.

But damn if I don’t find Brooke’s site fascinating anyway. The intense passion—anger even—his message-board community has over where skateboarding seems to be heading, and who’s steering the ship, makes for a thought-provoking read. And even when it sometimes veers into Sherry Shriner territory, well, that's interesting too.

I first tuned in to these rumblings back in December 2006 during the whole blank deck brouhaha and subsequent “Under Fire” supplement that TransWorld Business (my magazine at the time) helped IASC put together. But that’s another story. The point is, even then there seemed to be this skate culture war brewing just barely under the surface.

At least, that’s what some would have you believe. In fact, some say it’s nothing less than the IASC companies wanting to keep the whole skate market for themselves, of there being some unified front to keep all forms of skating except street skating hidden in the back room like some grotesque, deranged uncle that everyone’s ashamed of. There seems to be this fear that skateboarding has somehow sold out or is in danger of doing so.

As Forrest Gump would say, “Now, I don’t know anything about that.”

In fact, I found the IASC summit invigorating in that there seemed to be so much on the table for discussion. Are skate parks good or bad for the sport? Depends on who you talked to. Do industry leaders want to make skateboarding more parent and elected-official friendly or present it as the punk-n-dirty activity most adults and cops cast a jaundiced eye at? The opinion was split.

Far from being a unified front, a shadow government of guys in grey suits with sales charts and Machiavellian plans, it seemed a stew of opinion. It was a discussion certainly broad enough to include the likes of Brooke and some of his ardent supporters.

Which (finally) brings me to my point: for next year’s summit—and I do so hope it occurs again—guys like Brooke should be among the first invited.

From an outsider’s perspective, and really that’s all I have to offer here, it would be way more valuable to have all parts of the market talking to each other—and getting the real story about what each other is up to—than to play this guessing game. Seems to me everyone has a role in keeping the market healthy and moving forward, even if we don’t always agree with each other.

I welcome your comments.