is Vert Dead?

The vert ramp used to rule skateboarding. Back in the 1980s names like: Hasoi, Hawk and Caballaro packed venues around the world with fans lining up to see them fly high above the deck firsthand. Neon colors, short shorts and very wide boards with no noses were the rage. Movies and video games were produced, girls with big hair and small bikinis (for the era) were all around and there was money to be made. The vert ramp and the skaters who ruled it seemed unstoppable.

Then the 1990s happened. Street skateboarding did to vert what Nirvana did to 80s hair metal bands. The Gonz, Rodney Mullin, Natas Kappas, Tim Gavin and others began inventing tricks, and doing them on the public terrain of the Los Angles area. In 1992 The Plan B skateboards team changed skateboarding forever with their release of Questionable, which is regarded as one of the most influential skate videos of all time. The lineup included names like: Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, Pat Duffy, Rodney Mullen, Danny Way and others.

Do those names sound familiar? These guys are now running skateboarding on the business side of things too, not to mention still maintaining professional careers, excluding The Gav (Tim Gavin) switch ruined his career. It goes like this, Rick Howard co-owns Girl skateboards and Lakai footwear, and owns Crailtap Distribution which distributes Girl skateboards, Chocolate skateboards, Lakai footwear, Fourstar clothing, Royal trucks and Skate Mental clothing. Mike Carroll co-owns Girl skateboards and Lakai footwear. Tim Gavin is VP of Podium (DVS, Matix and Lakai), Rodeny Mullin is part of the brass at Almost, and Danny Way is co-owner of Plan B. So, as you can see these guys didn't just take over the style of skateboarding with that video and the street movement, they took over the business of skateboarding. Except Duffy, he's not that much of a business man.

In the late 90s vert made a bit of a comeback when the X Games began to take flight. The back-and-forth battles between Tony Hawk and Andy MacDonald, combined with the eye pleasing and camera friendly ramp itself, gave vert a little momentum. This period climaxed when Tony Hawk stuck, in competition, the first ever 900. It was, and still is, one of the most memorable X Games moments of all-time, but maybe the only one to include a skateboard and a vert ramp.

What street skateboarding did to vert in early 90s, the mega ramp did to vert in the 21st century, and once again Danny Way was involved. Now, it wasn't big pants and little wheels doing super tech tricks. It was insane roll-ins, huge kickers and giant quarterpipes. And keeping up with deja vu, it was a video that Way was involved in that got the whole thing started. The much awaited release of the DC Video in 2003 kicked skateboarding in the ass. It started off like any other video until Way's part, which caused jaws to hit the ground. Few had ever seen a mega ramp, and even fewer had seen anything like that on a skateboard. He was doing all sorts of grabs and spins over a gigantic gap, not to mention variations of slides and grinds on a suspended rail 20 ft. or so in the air.

Fast forward a few years; there's a whole of crew of guys killing the mega ramp, and it has two events in the X Games. The mega is just so mainstream friendly because most people don't know skateboarding, but they do know a big fall when they see one. So, when a guy like Jake Brown falls five stories, he gets on the Tonight Show and your Grandma knows about it.

Now, there is the growing popularity of pool/concrete park skating of late. Bowl contests like the Pro-tec Pool Party in Orange, CA are going down around the world. Skating in something like a pool, or a bowl, is just so much more three dimensional. Left, Right, North, South, East, West. Instead of just,back-and-forth, back-and-forth.

The final nail may have been the Superpark event at the past two X Games, which has been a huge success, and it's easy to see why. There's just so much more going on: concrete, wood, pools, bowls, hips, gaps, metal coping, concrete coping, tile, loops, etc. Not to mention how fast guys like Rune Glifberg and Tony Trujillo are flying around the course.

There you have it. Skateboarding is a progressive sport that has been evolving ever since it's inception. If Darwin were brought back to life, and asked to study it. He would probably come to the conclusion that the vert ramp has not been able to adapt to its changing environment, therefore it is not fit, and may find itself extinct in the not too distant future. Just don't tell that to PLG.