2013 Scooter Trends

Another year has come and gone.  Scooters have continued to progress in multiple ways, from Ryan Williams pushing the limits on the Nitro Circus, to new, innovative products being designed, to more and more riders taking filming seriously.  As in any other year, certain trends have emerged from the wildly diverse scooter world.  Some may pass into 2014, others may not.  This is a short list of a few of the trends I thought were the biggest.  Keep in mind that this isn’t a “best” list, nor a “worst,” just what I found to be popular in scootering over the past year.

-Starting a “Crew”

There have always been different crews of riders in scootering, but most of them were of OG riders who all eventually parted ways, to go on with life or a pro career.  I think the first crew to really set off the new generation was Friendly.  These guys were affiliated only by friendship, rather than because they were sponsored by the same company.   The pictures and videos they’ve dropped show how fun scootering can be.  2013 saw full lengths and other montages by more crews than I could name.  Do I think it’s necessary for a group of friends to call themselves some fruity name?  No.  But do I back the time and effort they put into making videos?  You bet.  Peachy, Concrete, Trend, Basic, Venture, Kooky, Funky…the list goes on.  So while the number of scooter crews got bigger, so did something else…

-Big Scooters.

There was a time when having tall bars made you wack.  In 2013, if your bars were less than sack height, you might be considered the odd man out.  The bar height trend is directly related to deck size too.  Demand for bigger, more comfortable decks increased, and to compensate, bar height was raised.  There are still plenty of shorter decks for the younger, smaller guys out there, but with the advent of decks like the 22 inch Threshold, more and more riders are opting to upgrade their size.  And why wouldn’t you?  Girls love a big deck. 

-Handrail Hucking.

Over the years, there’s only been a handful of riders willing to toss themselves down gnarly rails.  But over the past year, we’ve seen tons of younger riders on the come up, looking to prove themselves.  The result?  Thrashing unlike what we’ve ever seen before.  It was just a matter of time before we started to ride handrails on a more regular basis, but the progression we’ve seen over the past year is remarkable.  Who would have thought that Zack Martin, a relative unknown until 8 months ago, would be backlipping Rincon?  We all know Jessee Ikedah is on another level, but his peg abilities down rails are unrivaled.  And let’s not forget Mr. Backlip himself, Tyler Bradley.  Anyone can wildly huck themselves, but when you watch T-Brad ride, he makes it look so easy and natural.  I could keep going.

-S4S

This is one of the more annoying trends I’ve seen.  Instagram is my favorite social network.  It’s extremely popular among scooter kids, and mostly everyone under the age of 30.  It allows you to share your pictures, short video clips, and connect with those of similar interests.  Many riders instead choose to use it as a popularity contest.  Giving shoutouts in return for shoutouts to gain followers…it wouldn’t be so bad if it was only once or twice, but there are riders perpetually doing this.  This type of thing has been going on for years (remember the sub4sub comments on Youtube?), but that doesn’t make it any less wack.  Ya’ll be thirsty.

-“Trippy” Editing

You all remember the film burn.  Popularized by the likes of Nickeh, it was imitated by a legion of aspiring filmers and editors across the world.  This year the cool thing to do was adding in trippy visuals with a psychedelic song.  Nobody did it quite like clothing company Satori did.  Of course, you can say they just copied skateboarding’s Pyramid Country/Palace, but they were the first to really do it successfully in scooters.  There was also another kind of “trippy” that swept across the scooter world.  Juicy J’s army of codeine fueled riders produced more videos than I could count.  This wasn’t the only trend in video editing either…

-Old Movie B-Roll

To add onto this, we also saw a lot of videos with footage from old movies as b-roll.  This originally seemed like a cool idea- Tyler Wheeland’s Nimbus fork edit featured pictures from WWII because Tyler has always been interested in wars.  And McKeen’s Addict So What part had a lot of footage from old b-list horror movies, and it felt like it fit the vibe of the part.  I’m not sure if the same could be said for a lot of the videos of 2013.  It’s different when you’re bombarded with images that you have no idea what their relevance is to the rider.  But kudos for trying. 

-Fashion

I wasn’t going to include this one after discussing the topic so thoroughly in my last article, but there were some aspects I didn’t include.  A lot of guys, myself included, have been into dressing nicely over the past year.  I do it because I think it’s good to look good, others because they are so “into fashion”.  White button ups, dress pants, parted hair, it’s all a part of the look.  Some have even gone so far as to start tucking in their shirt. The fashion trend seems to have kept mostly in the circle of OG “street elitists” but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it more widespread over the next year.  Insert Dylan Rieder comment here.

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So there you have it, a list of what stuck out to me as the biggest scooter trends of 2013.  Honorable mentions include:  The myth of the Tilt wheels, crewnecks, standard definition, Miley Cyrus, hurricane fullcabs, drinking, motorcycles, and kickless rewinds.   Agree?  Drop a comment and let me know.  Disagree?  Drop a comment so I can delete it.