When skate videos first burst onto the scene, they were few and far between. The equipment was expensive and only a select few even knew how to operate it. Often times a video would be passed around from skater to skater until that fateful day when the tape would cease to hold its strength.
Videos like The Search for Animal Chin, Public Domain, Shackle Me Not, Hokus Pokus, to name a few, were in the first generation of VHS tapes to be liberally passed around to large groups of eagerly enthralled skateboarders hungry for any sort of skateboarding media.
As the culture grew, so the the expense budgets for videos. Trips and tours, expensive cameras and editing equipment, the introduction of actual film makers involving themselves with video projects, which all brought a high level of film quality. Which in turn brought a higher level of loyalty from the viewers. Stunning visuals, synced music tracks and inhuman level talent created a perfect storm of VHS and DVD’s flooding the market and overwhelming a population that welcomed the monsoon with open arms. Give us the content! Skateboarders were tired of watching the same videos day after day until the whole video was memorized to the point of knowing what trick was done at every single spot ever….
Fast forward through all the technology booms and extreme advances, and here comes Youtube. A platform like no other. A platform that allows anybody, anywhere, to upload anything. Of course skaters are 
going to get involved. A place to post footy!!!
Youtube stars starting emerging and the big companies had to compete. It’s too easy to scroll through some videos on youtube rather than head all the way to the skate shop and spend a bunch of money on a video that will be watched a few times and then be basically discarded. Youtube allows the content to be shared and passed around with a greater intensity than ever before. It’s global. Not only is it the best way to share, but it allows for bonus content like raw files, b-sides, rough cuts, and SkateLines….
So, thanks Youtube for allowing all of us the ability to not only share videos, but post our own videos as well.
