Vans DTSD '09 is about to melt your brain
Posted 09/23/2009 09:19:00 by i am vans
Once Again Back is the Incredible- --
Yeah. It's going off again this year. The Vans Downtown Showdown. And what's beautiful is that there isn't a load of mega hype lead up going into it. In fact, it's a relatively slept-on event. One day out of the year that suddenly sneaks up on you and melts your brain. The folks at Vans quietly conspire with the invited crews behind closed doors to put together one of the best events of the year. Even at this late date, this reporter still does not have any declassified obstacle or team detail to share with you. I don't know who is designing what, but I'm sure none of us will be disappointed. What I can tell you is that it is happening, and the air of secrecy is strictly to insure that you are all surprised by what these lunatics will come up with. Basically, when I know it, you'll know it. And this goes for the day of the event as well. We'll be bringing you live updates here at vans dot com via writing and photos, you know the drill. So since we can't do any reveals just yet, let's talk about what this event is all about and what it does or doesn't mean.
Preconception as Limitation- --
There was a time in skateboarding's history when many things were measured by their impossibility as opposed to their possibility. Primitive equipment, zero learning curve, and the idea that a certain trick being done was a question of how instead of when. As skateboarding progressed, the preconceived notions of what was skateable and what was not began to blur into one another and the world around us simply became a series of challenges to both our physical and mental agility. We reached a point where the question of whether something was possible became partially irrelevant. Obviously we are governed by certain natural forces which place a perceived limit on what we can do, but to a skateboarder those forces take a back seat to creativity, perseverance, and imagination. I've tried to express this concept many times as an answer to the question "how is THAT even possible?". For a working example, look no further than the object known as a "jersey barrier" or "k-rail". A solid concrete monolith with identical sides, each with bi-angular face. Consider too, that these objects have a small vertical base. 15 or so years ago, there might have been a handful of skateboarders who saw a limited amount of potential in these infrastructural objects, but most ignored them as being worthless. Today, almost any trick is possible on these barriers as their potential has been unlocked through not only a progression of skateboarding ability, but also by an unlimited imagination that we all share and develop over time. This is the nature of skateboarding, the answer to limitation is only a matter of figuring out how to circumvent it, by any means necessary. Skateboarding is not like restrictor-plate racing. You are entitled to go as fast as you want, and by virtue of being a skateboarder the only limitations you face are the ones you have not yet breached.
Limitation as Preconception- --
There are a scant few limitations to what obstacles you will see at Saturday's Downtown Showdown. The largest of them being that the obstacles, more or less, have to be designed with a PG audience in mind. After all, this event is webcast and will be telecast at a later date, and something like a full-blown titty bar, complete with real, live titties simply won't pass muster with the censorship powers that be. I use this example as it came far nearer to reality this year than you might think. A few years back, the Enjoi team was able to slip one past the scrutiny police when they created the "Dick Guantlet". Had it been painted in a photo-realistic fashion, it might have never made it to air. One other minor limitation is the amount of time in which the obstacles can be constructed. Paramount Studios is a working back lot, so the crews of builders have several hours instead of several days to build out the obstacles to the participating teams' specs. Aside from that, the only other limitation is one's own imagination and approach to each obstacle. We've seen in the past that this particular one gets broken down pretty quickly.
Innovation as Entertainment- --
5 years in, the Vans Downtown Showdown still provides some of the most innovative skateboarding seen all year. You can forget your high-profile video premieres with tightly edited footage, you can shine watching the playback of yet another lame cable TV show about a tour that went down 5 years ago. Forget about seeing 18 different dudes doing the same trick at the same spot. This one is all about the live and un-cut. The random and the element of surprise. If somebody pays in flesh, you're going to see it. If somebody pulls that seemingly impossible banger out of thin air, you're going to see that too. Guaranteed, you will see obstacles and skateboarding you've never seen before, and will never see again. Adaptation and improvisation will be rampant. And lest we forget the little matter of $85,000 being spread amongst the top performers on the day. Challenging Obstacles+Monies+Top Pros and Ams=Mayhem. There's also a chance for one of you lucky viewers to come up large on a sick, loaded Mitsubishi hot rod. Keep checking in here to get the latest updates. We'll have some sneak peaks and introductory info on Friday, and Saturday the entire back lot gets burned to the ground! GET HOT!!!
-BLKPRJKT
Yeah. It's going off again this year. The Vans Downtown Showdown. And what's beautiful is that there isn't a load of mega hype lead up going into it. In fact, it's a relatively slept-on event. One day out of the year that suddenly sneaks up on you and melts your brain. The folks at Vans quietly conspire with the invited crews behind closed doors to put together one of the best events of the year. Even at this late date, this reporter still does not have any declassified obstacle or team detail to share with you. I don't know who is designing what, but I'm sure none of us will be disappointed. What I can tell you is that it is happening, and the air of secrecy is strictly to insure that you are all surprised by what these lunatics will come up with. Basically, when I know it, you'll know it. And this goes for the day of the event as well. We'll be bringing you live updates here at vans dot com via writing and photos, you know the drill. So since we can't do any reveals just yet, let's talk about what this event is all about and what it does or doesn't mean.
Preconception as Limitation- --
There was a time in skateboarding's history when many things were measured by their impossibility as opposed to their possibility. Primitive equipment, zero learning curve, and the idea that a certain trick being done was a question of how instead of when. As skateboarding progressed, the preconceived notions of what was skateable and what was not began to blur into one another and the world around us simply became a series of challenges to both our physical and mental agility. We reached a point where the question of whether something was possible became partially irrelevant. Obviously we are governed by certain natural forces which place a perceived limit on what we can do, but to a skateboarder those forces take a back seat to creativity, perseverance, and imagination. I've tried to express this concept many times as an answer to the question "how is THAT even possible?". For a working example, look no further than the object known as a "jersey barrier" or "k-rail". A solid concrete monolith with identical sides, each with bi-angular face. Consider too, that these objects have a small vertical base. 15 or so years ago, there might have been a handful of skateboarders who saw a limited amount of potential in these infrastructural objects, but most ignored them as being worthless. Today, almost any trick is possible on these barriers as their potential has been unlocked through not only a progression of skateboarding ability, but also by an unlimited imagination that we all share and develop over time. This is the nature of skateboarding, the answer to limitation is only a matter of figuring out how to circumvent it, by any means necessary. Skateboarding is not like restrictor-plate racing. You are entitled to go as fast as you want, and by virtue of being a skateboarder the only limitations you face are the ones you have not yet breached.
Limitation as Preconception- --
There are a scant few limitations to what obstacles you will see at Saturday's Downtown Showdown. The largest of them being that the obstacles, more or less, have to be designed with a PG audience in mind. After all, this event is webcast and will be telecast at a later date, and something like a full-blown titty bar, complete with real, live titties simply won't pass muster with the censorship powers that be. I use this example as it came far nearer to reality this year than you might think. A few years back, the Enjoi team was able to slip one past the scrutiny police when they created the "Dick Guantlet". Had it been painted in a photo-realistic fashion, it might have never made it to air. One other minor limitation is the amount of time in which the obstacles can be constructed. Paramount Studios is a working back lot, so the crews of builders have several hours instead of several days to build out the obstacles to the participating teams' specs. Aside from that, the only other limitation is one's own imagination and approach to each obstacle. We've seen in the past that this particular one gets broken down pretty quickly.
Innovation as Entertainment- --
5 years in, the Vans Downtown Showdown still provides some of the most innovative skateboarding seen all year. You can forget your high-profile video premieres with tightly edited footage, you can shine watching the playback of yet another lame cable TV show about a tour that went down 5 years ago. Forget about seeing 18 different dudes doing the same trick at the same spot. This one is all about the live and un-cut. The random and the element of surprise. If somebody pays in flesh, you're going to see it. If somebody pulls that seemingly impossible banger out of thin air, you're going to see that too. Guaranteed, you will see obstacles and skateboarding you've never seen before, and will never see again. Adaptation and improvisation will be rampant. And lest we forget the little matter of $85,000 being spread amongst the top performers on the day. Challenging Obstacles+Monies+Top Pros and Ams=Mayhem. There's also a chance for one of you lucky viewers to come up large on a sick, loaded Mitsubishi hot rod. Keep checking in here to get the latest updates. We'll have some sneak peaks and introductory info on Friday, and Saturday the entire back lot gets burned to the ground! GET HOT!!!
-BLKPRJKT