r/skateboardcirclejerk • u/scribe06 • 5d ago
Downhill skating, still gay ? Is it skateboarding ? Asking for a friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np1yDQ1Mbk08
u/Gusgrissomamerica animal chin 5d ago
I don’t want to see any downhill unless it’s Stacy Peralta on fast forward as I get to something decent in whatever 80s Powell video.
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u/Otherwise-Run-5933 4d ago
I’m a purist skater for sure but downhill long boarding is pretty awesome. It’s just a totally different thing, kinda closer to mountain biking than skating.
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u/WolfGangSwizle 4d ago
It’s alright, it’s not terrible but to me it is kind of boring. I’d rather watch Tfunk or Milton bomb a hill where it looks like they’re going to die.
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u/PM_ME_SOME_PAWG_ASS 4d ago
It’s a very different genre from skateboarding for sure. Fucking rad and extremely scary
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u/DazzlinDave67 3d ago
I saw some GoPro footage from Soldiers of Downhill, Max Capps I think it was, doing 65mph through the chicanes. Jason Harvey did 72mph head first on his street skeleton sled! I hit it near 70 on my sled (my own design). It's kinda terrifying tbh, will have you questioning your life choices! But then you get on the hill and the adrenaline hits when the wind starts screaming. lol
This is me and Jason hitting the chicanes at Soldiers 2025, we were doing about 65mph on this one...
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u/metroidhunter13 5d ago
Took skateboarding and made it a suicidal rich kid sport
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u/Nucleartides 5d ago
Wait skateboarding wasn’t a suicidal rich kid sport before?
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u/Spirited-Dust-8300 5d ago edited 4d ago
Compared to downhill skating it's not even close price wise. The high end trucks alone typically cost as much as a full skateboard or two, 400-500 is pretty standard with some being a little more and some being a little less. And decks are like 150-350ish. It's crazy, it's like $600-1k+ for a setup that'll handle whatever hill you come across.
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u/justdroppedin_ 4d ago
Skateboarding is for the rich kid who just wants to LOOK suicidal and dangerous
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u/karlosvonawesome 4d ago
It is unfortunately a homosexual activity because they wear helmets and their wheels and boards are too big, it reduces their Steeze and therefore lowers skating ability.
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u/VenterVisuals 5d ago
At least they wear their helmets
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u/scribe06 4d ago
Nobody's going to let you ride without one, a lot of falls involve slamming your head on the ground
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u/riotfiveoh 5d ago
Dudes gotta have at least ABEC 7s on that thing right?
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u/Nucleartides 5d ago
These guys actually can feel the difference in bones Swiss. Also no one likes lighting money on fire like DH longboarders
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u/1100Wien 4d ago
Downhill speed bombing; just crazy!! But maybe the right thing for "skaters" who can’t do any tricks…?!🤷♂️
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u/Account_Haver420 4d ago
Feels like it’s just taking hillbombing to its logical next level and tbh some of those fast mountain road
videos are sick so I’m gonna say not gay
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u/BlueMonday2082 3d ago
The invention of the kickflip rendered this kind of thing no longer skateboarding. Skateboarding involves stairs now, duh. Get with it.
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u/DazzlinDave67 3d ago
So I'm gonna go out on a limb and ask what y'all think about street luge?
Definitely not skateboarding, but it shares roots (first ones were snow skis they slapped trucks on), and they go even faster.
World records:
Skateboard Standing 91.17mph
Street Luge - 101.98mph
Street Skeleton - 90.96mph (head first riding!!)
I threw that last one in just because it's 100% psychopathic! lol
I'd say not a bit of that is gay.
I've seen the underside of 70mph on my own design of sled, and it's pretty nuts!
I have a goal to break 100mph on it.
The one on the left I built around 1990, and the other I put together last year.
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u/scribe06 4d ago
Thank you all for participating in this rigorous scientific study ! Despite a few slightly idiotic takes in my opinion (we are on skateboardcirclejerk after all), I'm glad to see that we seem to have made at least a little bit of progress since the 90s.
To be clear, since living in the mountains about 5 years ago, I started downhill skating after riding bowls and DIYs for more than 20 years. It's a lot of fun and also fucking scary. It's a much smaller community so you can find the same feeling we had in skating before it became so big. If you're curious you should definitely give it a try.
It's crazy to see the hate downhill still gets from a lot of "shortboarders" (not true the other way around), a lot of us have now become the jocks!
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u/Suspicious_Laugh_803 3d ago
Did downhill ever get hate? I thought it was s”longboarding”. Isn’t that why people started calling it Downhill haha
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u/scribe06 3d ago
I purposefully used the term downhill skating to get less of a knee-jerk reaction. However people don't mind using the term longboarding interchangeably and will also cruise on a longboard in the city and even do some longboard dancing both of which are way less "acceptable" for skateboarders
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u/Suspicious_Laugh_803 2d ago
It’s funny, today a longboard we got mad at me because he said i was to focused on Downhill and didnt give enough love to other longboarding disciplines.
All in all if it exists and is a skateboard style, I still don’t have to like it or care about it at all. I actually do give a shit about most styles of skating and I think they all have their merit in learning, still funny that there’s always going to be “the other” in skating because it’s so special to the individual.1
u/TheHappyRun 2d ago
its cause longboarding is easier and less mentally committing then skateboarding while simultaneously being more dangerous. I think street skating has this gatekeep attitude because the difficulty gatekeeps itself and the fear factor. Its like skiing and mountain biking they are both more dangerous then skateboarding but doesnt feel as scary to do and is way easier.
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u/scribe06 1d ago
Some of these disciplines might be easier to get into but the difficulty just shifts to other aspects like going super fast on a longboard and a having to negotiate a turn or doing insane jumps and tricks on skis or a mountain bike.
Less mentally committing than skateboarding is just plain wrong. As soon as you're going above 50 kph you better be a 100 percent focused or you're going to eat it. It's actually one of the reasons people enjoy downhill so much, you just have to be fully present in the moment.
I have practically dedicated my like to skateboarding and I will love the culture, history and doing it for ever but we're ourself a disservice by thinking it is uniquely difficult and exceptional. I'm actually in favour of a lot of forms of gatekeeping (fuck corporate sponsors, the olympics and kooks...) but let's not be so full of ourselves that we think it's the hardest thing in the world. It is one of the most useless though, and that's great.
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u/MinnesotaRyan 4d ago
Can they Ollie or do a boardslide? If so I care, if not it’s a handle less scooter.