I feel the online skateboarding community is easily manipulated by good marketing. Tech wizard skaters winning in an “old school” contest format shouldn’t be a huge surprise for a fan base that is well aware that the Tampa contest has been affiliated with SLS for a minute.

Burn your idols

Skaters are not likely to burn their idols. Skateboarding progresses beyond the scope of what our idols were able to accomplish, but we revere them because innovation wouldn’t have happened in the direction it has without their influence. The Tampa contest has hosted a lot of people who, if there were some kind of skateboarding hall of fame, they’d be in it.

Watching the Tampa contests is a nostalgic experience for a lot of folks. Its roots are in the past, and we watch those past contests to get stoked on our skateboarding idols. The skatepark itself, however, is a building with obstacles in it. It’s a building that generates a profit. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think that it deserves the same kind of idyllic reverence in its current state that its occasional inhabitants have. I think it’s that near-mythical standard skaters hold Tampa to that makes them upset when a new pro like Jagger Eaton wins, who was a demonstrably different style than their favorite winners of the past, and even of skaters who compete in it today like Decenzo or Louie.

I think the online skate community might be less irked with Jagger Eaton’s win if Tampa Pro was more forthcoming with the way they judge the skating.

Winning Tampa Pro gives you a “Golden Ticket”¹ to the SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship. Last year it was Dave Bachinsky who “secured the North American slot”² in the SLS Pro Open by doing well in Tampa. This year, Jagger “earned the Monster Energy Pro Open Pass”³ to the semi-finals of the 2018 SLS Pro Open, “one step closer to skating his way into SLS.”

The Street League website claims that Tampa Pro is a “far cry from an arena contest…Tampa is old school,” that its winners and losers are up to debate, and that “that’s what makes Tampa rad…it’s all about the moment. Not a trick for trick breakdown…” Tampa is judged differently than SLS. It is a best of three runs format, rather than then real-time ISXTM Instant Scoring⁴ system that is intended to be precise and objective.

Why do I feel that this is a half-truth? I think that Jagger Eaton could have won this year based on the merit of his skating alone, but the influence of SLS makes me think that Tampa Pro now merely services as a pipeline to the broader brand of Street League contests.

The “old school” thing may have been the case in the past, when skaters like Mike Vallely, Kerry Getz, Andrew Reynolds, etc. won, but if you take a look at the last several years, every winner with the exception of maybe one has the potential to thrive in an ISXTM scoring system: Luan, Nyjah, Shane, T Pud, P Rod, and now Jagger – I’m excluding Louie Lopez in 2017 because I don’t think he should do these contests (his street parts are a gift). Without a doubt, all of those guys deserve to win a contest because of their ability to skate. But if Tampa is all about getting stoked on a run, even if there are bails, even if it’s all about the moment, then Decenzo’s run with the wallie three⁵ should have won. SLS is going to need fresh faces and new winners at some point. It makes sense that the skater who wins a Monster Energy Pro Open Pass⁶ is going to score (objectively) good marks in an ISXTM system rather than have (subjectively) good style.

Like so many of you, I didn’t know who Jagger Eaton was, because I don’t primarily watch contest skating. His skating, however, should be celebrated. He’s exceptionally good.

Defining style

As a spectator who participates in commenting online, its hard for me to make sense of what exactly the average skateboarding viewer wants.

I see a flood of reactions that claims he has no style, that he’s a “robotic” skater who relies on going deep into his ready made grab of tricks in order to produce the most technically sound and contest-worthy run. In seemingly the same posts or comments, folks are concerned that the only flip trick he does in his run is a kickflip. I guess the chill frontside flip on the quarter isn’t stylish enough because it was flicked from the same side of the board as the blunt kickflip. The same kind of commentor probably extols the virtue of style, this elusive quality that separates Tampa from other contests like Street League (it doesn’t, as I claim in the last section). That commentor probably throws in references to skaters like Penny and tosses the word “style” and “stoked” around some more to prove their point, forgetting that Penny’s contest runs are a treat of kickflip variations.

In an attempt to defend Jagger’s win, here are the tricks from his winning run. There are no bails. I’m going to omit the reverts and the hopping off the board to run.

1. Feeble entire flatbar
2. Noseblunt 180
3. Switch nosegrind
4. Switch back tail hubba
5. Gap 180 nosegrind
6. Kickflip back lip
7. Blunt kickflip
8. Switch feeble
9. Blunt frontside flip
10. Frontside flip quarter
11. Nollie nose slide

On paper, that’s a seriously impressive list. I guess one way I define style is board control, and I think that list demonstrates an advanced level of board control. I also think that the environment and occasion work to define style as well, so the contest format necessitates tech skating, as it is proven to win. The whole point of a contest is to win, even Tampa. I believe you are deceived if you think the point of the contest was to look cool. The contestant’s sponsorships want them to win. And you’re tuning into a heavily sponsored event.

Also, the last time I saw a switch back tail in a long line, Miles Silvas was in an Adidas ad. IIRC, it was the trick that a lot of folks used to defend his line that had similar characteristics to Jagger’s (hopping off the board a few times).

Jagger did three reverts and one skip down the crowded quarter. I think I, and the judges, know that he could have used the quarters to set up his next trick better. However, I don’t think that the reverts on flat subtract from how impressive his tricks are. It subtracts from his style of skating, the aesthetic approach that most of us cherish more than technical ability, but this is a contest, and the contest works to define the parameters of style: it wanted tricks, not aesthetics.

The beanie

If I learned anything from contest skating’s greatest gift, Life of Ryan⁷, it’s that Red Bull demands that you rep some kind of branded head gear. If you Google Jagger Eaton, he looks young and awkward. Most of all, he’s young, and if rolling the beanie up over your ears is a cool trend among younger skaters, then I don’t blame him for participating in that, seeing as he’s gotta have some kind Red Bull shit on his head. You’re lame if you hate on the way he wears his beanie. If you do, I think you are participating in a broader trend of hypocrisy in skateboarding. You probably got vibed on for wearing baggie clothes, or skinny jeans, or for cuffing your pants, or whatever. It’s a hat, chill.

That said, it does look goofy to me.

Citations
¹: http://streetleague.com/faq/
²: http://streetleague.com/2017/12/08/2017-sls-season-recap/
³: http://streetleague.com/2018/03/06/jagger-eaton-wins-tampa-pro/
⁴: https://www.isxscoring.com/
⁵: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2FgAnN_QM
⁶: The names of these things are starting to sound like a bit, like Talladega Nights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXry-cXybG0
⁷: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Ryan