There’s a lot to say about what followed the skateboarding boom of the early 2000s. Some of this era is worth remembering and some worth forgetting, like the middle school yearbook photo of you in tight jeans, braces, and a beanie containing your dyed black mop of hair.

It’s been more than a decade since the late 2000s era of skating, which is just long enough to justify taking a look back.

You made the change from bulk to vulc

In the early 2000s, you were probably slipping on your Koston 3s, your Stevie Williams DCs, or maybe even your Osiris D3s. But eventually, everyone realized skating in what were basically flat-soled Timbs was not only difficult but painful to watch too. In the late ’00s, things started to slim down to floppy tacos. The Chukka Low made a comeback in every single colorway, the Lakai Manchesters were on every other kid’s feet after Fully Flared, and even the Supra Skytop went back to having a vulcanized sole in ’08. This era also introduced us to the Janoski, one of the most profitable and played-out shoes in skate history.

You were part of the Kr3w

If you didn’t skate during the Kr3w pants era then you didn’t understand why skaters were squeezing into these nut-crushing skinny jeans. If you did skate, you understood that Kr3w stuff was essential to the ‘fit of the time. People probably asked you, “Why are your pants so tight?” And you likely responded, “They’re better for skating,” or, “They’re comfortable.” Both of those answers were lies, and you knew it. They just somehow looked cool on skaters you looked up to.

MTV was the pop-culture outlet for skating

After Viva la Bam ended in 2005, MTV needed to keep their skater viewership up somehow. In the late 2000s they added three shows with skate-centric themes, Rob & Big, Life of Ryan, and Scarred. (Why was Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach the host? Was he actually cool back then?) Every pedestrian who saw you skating probably asked, “Are you filming for Scarred?” That was skateboarding at the time: pop-shuv-nosegrinds and mini-horses.

You sat in your local shop watching Fully Flared on loop

The same way Yeah Right! defined the early 2000s, Fully Flared was the defining video for most kids in the latter half of the decade. You probably watched the overly dramatic intro five or six times before getting sick of it and could even namedrop that Spike Jonze guy’s name. Sad to say, but after dominating the category of influential videos for so many years, this may have been Crailtap’s last video that even mattered.

Baker and Deathwish ran skateboarding

Coming hot off of Baker 3, the Baker Boys were the coolest alcoholics in skateboarding. I saw the older kids in my town bring Jägermeister to a spot to film themselves taking shots before trying a trick. I even remember seeing a kid land a big spin down a four-stair and do the Erik Ellington at Carlsbad walk away from the landing. No other group in the history of skating made being a “pile” look so cool.

You remember the last good Transworld video

Let’s face it, And Now was the last “good” Transworld video. In the past, a new Transworld video always proved to be some fire hot shite, and that was true for And Now. And Now brought us career-defining Nick Trapasso and Sean Malto parts, while still staying weird with a Richie Jackson classic. You might have even tried a few powerslide pole jams (or at least manscara) after watching this one.

You YouTube’d skate videos for hours on end

It was revolutionary when you no longer had to wait 45 minutes and rack up a million viruses on your parents desktop just to download a skate video. YouTube officially destroyed the mIRC / Kazaa / Limewire era, and you and all your friends would crowd around your monitor and watch part after part in 360p, squinting to discern a heelflip from a kickflip. You probably even uploaded at least one montage yourself, and it definitely included a sappy indie rock song and 3 film burn effects via a SkatePerception.com tutorial on Adobe Premiere.

You were blasting MGMT on your iPod Classic

Picture this: you’re about to head to the meetup spot, you pop in your Skullcandy earbuds (worst headphones ever btw), you roll your thumb in a circle, scrolling down the list of artists on your iPod Classic. You stop scrolling when you hit MGMT, smash play on “Electric Feel”, and fly off to the montage in your head. If it wasn’t “Electric Feel,” it was “Kids,” “A Time to Pretend,” or some shit about a neon horse.

You ditched THPS (and real skateboarding) for EA SKATE

You might not have been able to get off your board in the first version of SKATE, but god damn were the controls miles better than button mashing in THPS. Putting the weird and awkward intro video aside, this was everything that burnout skaters of the time needed — a game where you could leisurely skate around the city, do challenges for real magazines, and pick up sponsors from the biggest companies of the time. Nothing was cooler than taking bong rips, blowing the smoke out your friend’s window so his mom wouldn’t smell it, then switch tre flip back 360-ing a 20-stair.

Words: Larry Lanza
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