Geoff Rowley Discussed the Future of Skateboarding

It’s been nearly 30 years since Geoff Rowley first picked up a skateboard in Liverpool. Simply 5 years later, Rowley packed his baggage and left for Lengthy Seashore, starting a profession that has taken in a long-standing Vans collaboration, a Thrasher Skater of the Yr award and his ascent to changing into, arguably, essentially the most well-known skater that the U.Okay. has ever produced.

Over the course of that profession, Rowley has seen skateboarding transfer from area of interest pursuit to Olympic sport. “I don’t suppose the common particular person thinks we’re as a lot of a dirtbag as they used to,” Rowley jokes. “The largest change is simply that individuals realize it now. Individuals weren’t that conscious of it 20 years in the past. Once I moved to america in 1994, there was nonetheless an enormous stigma connected to being a skateboarder. You have been nonetheless screamed at from automobiles on the aspect of the street, identical to I used to be the entire time I used to be rising up in England. That’s modified now, individuals have accepted it into tradition extra.”

The cultural affect of skateboarding is a narrative that’s been instructed a thousand occasions, nevertheless it’s crossover attraction has by no means been clearer. Luxurious homes from Lanvin to Dior have launched skate-inspired footwear, whereas movies together with Mid ‘90s and North Hollywood present how skating is taking to the silver display screen.

“Once I moved to america in 1994, you have been nonetheless screamed at from automobiles on the aspect of the street. That’s modified now, individuals have accepted it into tradition extra.”

Rowley places the roots of this cultural acceptance on the flip of the millennium, when skateboarding started to overlap with mainstream tradition. “Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 performed a giant function in that, in exhibiting individuals how cool skateboarding was, how visually fascinating it was,” he explains. “You then had the Bam [Margera] TV exhibits, and the Rob Dyrdek present and the Jackass present, all layered behind that. I feel it was like a one-two punch. All of that stuff allowed skateboarding to develop its international attraction.”

This yr is a giant yr for skateboarding, with the potential for a brand new period to start. Subsequent month, the Tokyo Olympics will start following a 12 month delay, formally welcoming skateboarding into the world’s greatest sporting occasion. Skateboarding’s Olympic debut shortly after Tony Hawk Professional Skater 1 and 2 have been reissued for next-generation consoles, opening up the video games to a brand new technology of followers.

“The Olympics are developing, that’s going to alter issues,” Rowley provides. “It’ll put skateboarding into individuals’s homes in additional locations than it ever has carried out. It’ll be fascinating to see what impact that has on it. However having the Olympics and the Tony Hawk video video games relaunching on new platforms on the similar time is certainly going to have a constructive affect and it’s undoubtedly going to show skateboarding to a brand new technology. Why wouldn’t it? The sport’s implausible.”

Being featured within the collection had a huge effect on Rowley’s profession when it first arrived, as the primary installment of Tony Hawk Professional Skater arrived the identical yr as Rowley’s first Vans signature shoe. He once again features on the reissued video games, showing alongside a wave of latest abilities. In addition to Rowley, Hawk and different skaters of that period, names akin to Nyjah Huston and Tyshawn Jones have been launched for the video games. “Hopefully it’ll be an enormous catalyst to get youngsters to choose up skateboards and begin skateboarding,” he provides. “Hopefully they’ll bear in mind the names of people who find themselves in these video games, the newer technology, and go purchase their boards, begin skating and have a constructive affect.”

“If you happen to’re not continuously watching what’s occurring within the business, you’re going to get left behind.”

Whereas Rowley is optimistic that Tony Hawk Professional Skater 1 and 2’s launch will profit skateboarding, he echoes many others within the business when he voices doubts concerning the Olympics. “I feel they’ll present it the best way they need to present it,” he says. “Skateboarding is much more thrilling, particularly in particular person, than numerous these different sports activities. That’ll be one profit, that you just’ll be capable to see that the individuals there are actually loving it and having fun with it. However by way of my skateboarding, I’m not curious about that form of aggressive skateboarding. That doesn’t push me, personally. Nevertheless it’s a constructive factor, and it’s going to do good issues for the business, whether or not I prefer it or not.”

Away from the Olympics and the Tony Hawk video games, Rowley partly credit the brand new developments to the web, and the quantity of clips uploaded day by day. “If you happen to’re not continuously watching what’s occurring within the business, you’re going to get left behind,” he says. “We’re in a washer of development proper now, and if I put my head down I’m going to overlook lots.”

However Rowley is optimistic about the way forward for the game. “Each ten years, I feel we now have a flux of change,” Rowley explains, including that he’s excited concerning the new section that skateboarding is getting into. “I feel we’re going via that now regarding the tips that individuals are growing, and simply the route of the business. It’s progressing, it’s growing. I’m stoked on the brand new kinds which are coming into skateboarding, and the completely different ways in which individuals are studying to govern their board. The long-established methods of road skating are being exploded aside. I’ve been ready for that.”