Bam and Jackass probably had something to do with that resurgence of skateboarding for that brief period of time.
It definitely helped push skateboarding further into the mainstream than it already was, but the Jackass and Viva La Bam era was mostly at the tail end of the whole big-label skateboarding scene from back in the day.
But, the real true genesis of that scene traces back to when they first started coming out with the double-lipped popsicle boards in the late 80s. Boards before then were shaped like mini surfboards and if you were lucky maybe the back would be lipped. But tricks were more just ramp tricks and pool tricks and faggy old 70s skateboarding tricks like dips and handstands because that's all you could do. But then the symmetrical popsicle boards hit the scene and it led to the invention of street skating which then blew the fuck up. And then of course THPS was just at the right fucking place, right fucking time, but there were tons of extreme sports videogames that were already out. Any of my old niggas remember 2Xtreme? Extreme sports were already trendy by that point, the first X Games was in 1995. And then the labels came around and started gatekeeping the fuck out of pro skateboarding and basically made it pay-to-skate.
Skateboarding is atomized again now and Youtube definitely catalyzed that. Thank god. Back then, everybody wanted to "ride for a label" like that was the dream, that's how you got on the videos and quit middle school to party and do drugs and get fuckin' laid because they had the fucking money and production budgets and distribution channels. So HELL YEAH take your dad's jank-ass VHS camera and go to the grocery store loading dock parking lot by the dumpsters and record some stupid dumb shit and mail it to Big Brother, and promptly get your teenage dreams and ambitions crushed into dust because lol nigga you ain't no rich kid with rich parents from Huntington Beach. After that, go ahead and treat yourself to babby's first existential crisis.
But now in 2025 like, fuck, you can shoot a skate video and post it yourself and a million fucking people will watch it if you're actually good, without any gay gatekeeping, so what the fuck are labels even for now? These zoomies will never live in a world like when I was in high school and dickheads were trying to rob each other of their $65 DC t-shirt or their $200 DVS shoes because label shit was
that important.
So good fucking riddance to the big-label scene of skateboarding. May it rust in piss. Just like Bam ... Bam is from that era when rich kids could just buy their way into pro skateboarding. Not possible now when some turd worlder can shred on a skateboard made of old car parts and cow shit while barefoot, post it to youtube, and steeze all over actual pros riding for labels in front of an entire internet audience. If Bam had his same skateboarding skills but was born 20 years later than he was, he'd be a literally-who.
Thank you for coming to my irrelevant Ted talk. And I agree that there is definitely a hard cutoff age in which you physically can't skateboard anymore if you're a weekend amateur and not pro or ex-pro. I gave it up in my early 30s because I realized I can't afford to continue hitting my body on concrete and making myself permanently crippled and retarded when I still have to hold down a job everyday that pays enough money to finance my whole fucking lifestyle.
