Thank you for you honesty XXX. And first of all; I do not receive much of a paycheck from anybody anymore for my professional skateboarding. I have played the PC game for many a year only to be manipulated and piggy-backed off of by my contemporaries and disregarded by my big sponsors.

One example being that when my back,neck, liver & skull were broken in a car accident that resulted in a 10-day-coma, Lucero dropped me from Black Label – a team that I had been the top selling pro model for in it’s 1st couple of years. Secondly, Vans, for whom I also helped prosper by playing a role in their advertising campaign to come back up in the skateboard market, also dropped me after my car accident. I mentioned something like this in my dissemination. So really what do I have to lose by telling the truth and shining a light on the exploitation of a once beautiful event. I only felt that by being brutally honest I might gain a reputation as being a  honest truth-teller and not a “disgruntled ex pro” as you put it.

I won’t bother to mention the names of my contemporaries – and who I had considered long time friends – that manipulated and copied what I had worked for years to become to bring themselves up while keeping me down. So in reality, I have only been able to support myself and my family through my skatepark design/construction efforts. I will truly contemplate and consider your advice in the next several days… But I refuse to continue to turn my head from the injustices and commercializing of skateboarding that I have given my body and life to. I Have to Be Real in order to Survive in my heart.

Thanks again. Hope to talk soon, BenTen

1) The true jam format has been terminated – while they still deceptively give it the name “Jam.”  Now it is a runs-in-order competition which has greatly diminished the excitement/energy/fire that was once a key-ingredient of the event.  Many that I have spoken with tell me that they feel the same way.

2) The elimination of the roll-in.  I would most often begin my runs by rolling in via the channel.   This would allow me to start with much-needed speed which is not attainable by beginning with a taildrop.  The elimination of the channel also marks a departure from the tribute/replication of the O.G. Combi and now brings the pool closer to a “X-Games Halfpipe w/ Corners” type of feel.

3) The slippery, plastic-feeling coping.  It no longer has a Grind-feel to it but more of a ‘truck-slide.’   This plastic, pretenda-pool coping also inhibits my skating by causing me to hold back a bit for fear of slipping out if I am going to fast or am a little off balance.

4) The new hip, or “Duncan’s Diving board” as the TV announcers call it, is no longer nearly as skateable as the last one. This new hip is kinked, is completely round with no flat middle, and has no Vert.   All of which greatly detract from this central and crucial structure in the pool.

Those are just 4 of my main frustrations with the competition, rather Media-Event, that now occurs.   My discontent with Vans and the judging is another story altogether.

I rode for, and supported/promoted Vans for over 2 decades, refusing other shoe offers wanting to stay true to the my original shoe-sponsor.  I won my 1st Pro comp, beating Cab in his home town even, wearing a Vans shirt.   I went on to be featured in multiple Vans adds, one in the beginning of their comeback into the forefront which said: “Ben Schroeder coming up, Vans coming back.”  In recent years, when Etnies contacted me asking me to ride for them I contacted Robin, new to Vans and self-proclaimed “Vans Overlord,” and told her of the offer and also of my desire to stay true to my long time sponsor. She told me that if I turned down the Etnies’ offer, she would give me a $10,000/yr travel-budget and that I would be in line for a signature shoe.   I then turned Etnies down.   Only a year after this I asked Robin/Jamie(TM) if my shoe-model would be happening anytime soon and also why they hadn’t contacted me – the only skatepark designer/builder on the Pro team – in regards to rebuilding the combi.  At the time I had believed, and still do, that the largest deficit of that Combi was the small shallow end which need to be opened up similar to the O.G.. They had instead brought in Lance(Nike) and California Skateparks(cookie cutter king) to rebuild it while at the same time holding photo shoots with Grosso at the reconstruction with a tape measure in his hands as if he was a skatepark builder.  They responded to my inquiry by kicking me off the Vans team! This after 20yrs of loyalty and support for Vans.  My career was devastated.

These last facts that I just listed above were not at all addressed or even considered in my post on facebook which criticized the latest PPP Fiasco.  I only tell them to you here so that you can know my recent experience with the ‘greedy’ or ‘mangled’ entity that I feel Vans has become.

What I DID address in my post, and what motivated it, was the judging which placed Lance & Mcgill over Nash & Guerrero.   In addition to placing Cab over Tony Hawk which I and  others feel was a bad call. Lance showed no ‘fire’ or aggression in his skating that I viewed as restrained and strategic.  Mcgill fell quite a bit.  I, as well as Many others, feel that Nash got robbed.  This seems to be driven by a name factor which Nash lacks.  Nicky also skated much better with  many more tricks than either Lance or Mike.  All of this seems to reflect some affinity to the image or fairytale-nature, or even marketability of the PPP for public consumption…

I truly respect many the judges (Cardiel, Kanights, etc) and do not think that they would engage in a ‘rigging’ of the event as many on facebook have claimed.  I do, however, think that they might have been susceptible to an unconscious bias caused by the nature of the media frenzy etc.  I also feel, and have felt for many  years – as I also  have been a World cup judge – that there needs to be a major revision in how to judge a skate competition.   The way it is now done, and has been done for decades, does not seem to always be very viable.  I have wracked my brain many times in pursuit of coming up with a completely different judging system, to no avail.  That IS indeed a tough one.

I hope that all of these words do help you get a better understanding of where I was coming from in my aggressive Fb post.

Thanks,

Ben Schroeder
Locomotive Skateparks
www.locomotiveskateparks.blogspot.com
www.ben10schroeder.com

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In a couple days,I fly to Copenhagen on Friday the 13th. Gonna be stomping with the Vikings on this jacked up leg for just a few weeks building a concrete kidney in a little town in the middle of the forest. It’s going to be Glorious.

It’s a little bit ironic that after all the resistance that I maintained street skating way back at the time that that aspect of the discipline was sprouting up,  two of my closest friends here  in Los Angeles are Brian Lotti & Mark Gonzales funny shit.   Type at ya later blog log.  B

Today I am heading down to San Diego, California for “The Clash at Clairemont” which is also an event aimed at raising funds and awareness on the devastation of Cancer.   It is raining pretty hard in Cali today so it’s going to be a fun one.

Ben

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