VERY IMPORTANT TO READ !!! VERY IMPORTANT TO READ !!! VERY IMPORTANT TO READ !!!

Before I get started, I just want to say that my skills in life are as such. I'm not perfect nor will I ever claim to be but I do know when I see a false promise. When I started V.E.S. I had one goal in mind and I knew in time I would know more. So I started with the belief that saving our vintage skateboard history was important, what I didn't know was how important. I knew as someone thats spent a life fixing things for the better, my skills would only head me in the right direction and I trusted as I always do in time. And this sport and time is unique. Most other sports have been around for so long that most of the original players are gone, but not skateboarding. We are still living in the now and at one of the most crucial point in our history. We are on the edge of loosing what skateboarding is all about and I can see it very clearly as someone that truly cares about our past. Am I George Powell NO, am I The Professor NO, am I a notable subject in Thrasher magazine or talked about on Jenkem, probably not. But I don't care, you see those places and people only move forward in thought and don't really see what's going on for one reason or another. I don't blame them, but I will push back against what I see as the preppy boys club. Todays skateboarding is just that, a club, and in todays skateboard world that club has to be worth something on the open market and can't compete with CHINA.

 !!! WHY !!!

You see this sport has been hijacked from the skaters and most don't even know it. Most just go along to get along these days because because it's easier to get ahead in this sport. This sport has alway picked losers and winners just ask DP, he is not afraid to call people out. But what is wrong with today, is that our sports history has stopped, and years ago. What I mean is the skateboard graphic quality long term and value of skateboards as it pertains to the skateboard collectors market. So many think that collecting skateboards is the same across the spectrum of its history. But I'm here to tell you it's not and for these simple reasons. Old boards are considered valuable in so many ways and you never hardly ever see one cut up into shapes as craft or product like key chains and so on. And about at least 20+ years ago all the way up to now, skateboards have had lost value and have been scrapped and cut into almost anything you can think of just to get value out of the material. You see this is just the tip of the ice-berg in the difference in the market when it comes to collecting skateboards. So many generations of cheap skateboards and so many with no value as history. So now we have years of skaters growing up and unable to even hold their skateboards history or find it for sale as a collector of their past, and do they even care? 

 The day the skateboard companies sold out for cheap product is the day skateboarding started to die, unfortunately most don't even know it !!!

 Don't get me wrong , I see the old guard prop itself back up all the time in the name of there past, but by who and why? 

I have recently come across a discussion of 2 people in the know about the current Skateboard manufacturing market. As part of the V.E.S. R&D we have been constantly researching and trying to figure out how to take care of this new form of cheap graphics and we came across this discussion about what is being used and what they faced in this industry. These are 2 people that are currently and have competed with CHINA or as they put it , CAN'T. In there conversation they talk about the skateboard market and it's ability or lack of it to progress in it's current form and going into the future. In it they say CHINA has locked down our sport through manufacturing of skateboard product and how it's made, and is in just about total control of its direction now and going forward. And if you don't believe it look at what skateboard companies hold the power and money these days and where their product is made. They also say that any innovation from say someone like a small skateboard company will never have a seat at the table and thats probably  because we can't be controlled though manufacturing, but we can be minimized in the market. And even more was said about the graphic quality, and thats the part that really caught my EYE !!! 

Believe it or not, most vintage skateboard collectors value their boards mostly by its graphics or history. Shocker !! But what graphics and when and condition? I have seen constant copies of the past graphics sell for more than the real deal over and over again and wonder WHY !!

These constant copies pushed out and made cheap with just a graphic of the past are made to be skated and not for collecting long term in our opinion. It's a false future market for skateboard collectors.

And thats the dirty feeling real vintage skateboard collectors get when they buy a copy and hang it next to the real thing.

I see no one making a clear distinction for the skateboard collectors of the world, so we will !!!

Ask your self before you buy your next board, what skateboard is acutely being sold for that price?

And where is the history it has and value going forward in ownership?

Now or never and I mean it !! 

First my hat goes off to the old school guard that is still doing screen-printing by hand graphics on skateboards like the old days. Screen-printing, you don't have to be perfect you just have to last. All this new junk as far as we see it just wont last, and not just that but it will not age the same as our vintage boards from the past or even come close. Think about it, most of the graphics made today are made too thin and heat is used when applied. Let's just break that down a bit. So, thin graphics, okay well does anything thin last? And heat, very hot heat to a wooden board, HHMMM. Just at face value these 2 thing are no good for skateboards long term. 

And now we have researched and documented information that we have found that China is mostly controlling the graphic technology now while using our sold out history to sell their product. Get where I am going with this yet? China was said to have in our research almost  3/4 of the skateboard manufacturing or associated materials in market, controlled. 

IT'S NOT TO LATE TO SAVE OUR PAST !!!

We have time on our side as skaters, and that time is now while most of us are still around from the beginning of this sport that still can remember!!! 

We skaters can still turn the tide but we have to stand together and save our skateboards history and put it back on top again. We can win this war overnight if skaters that care about our past step up. And all you have to do is realize that all these copies of the past are just that, copies of the past made cheap with no other purpose. Do you think our history is cheap? The true value we all share is in our skateboards from the past and they should be represented as such. China can't control what they didn't make!! Here are someways to change the direction of this problem.

Stop buying new boards for more $$$ just because they were sold out fast. Stop buying cheap boards just for fad only, like The Pokemon boards and endless others pushed out to the market. And stop thinking that the powers that be in the corporate skateboard world - THAT HAVE SOLD OUT- will bring back the past just as you remember it, they can't but you can. Being a skater comes with a badge of honor and that is something thats earned for ones self just like our history. Skateboarding was always meant to be progressive and not controlled, so if your frustrated with what the skateboard industry is offering, now you know why.  And If you want to thank China for their help and their methods, then it's like thanking a shoehorn for getting your shoe on. Other than that well........

This is not so much a rant but a warning, that soon all of us skaters that paid the price in money, sweat, blood and time for this sport will be  forgotten or scrubbed from history one by one. And the sport of skateboarding will be used to provide humor to the 

KINGS AND QUEENS of the rich world. 

I also don't say these things because I am jealous or hate the skateboard corporations, I say it because I cant just sit and watch and do nothing why are skateboard history is being demolished and the future of it being so controlled. So I am using my platform as a voice in the research we find to help the skateboard collectors of the world gain knowledge. 

It seems that getting rid of history to many these days, is a good thing, but is it? And do you think what fills that void is only good?

If you remember your past, you stand on stronger ground.

But if you sell your past, your future is not your own.....

This is off a new Powell board. I get real close to prove a point. These graphics will not last like the old boards from the past and they will not have a good future for most if collected for a future profit. They are made so thin that you can see the wood grain right through the paint and the wood grain you see is even in all the colors of the graphic. What do you think is going to happen to the graphic when the wood starts to get dried out and cracks? Some collectors already know. It will look like junk as the graphics wont age with any patina and the board will look old. Ugly combination if you ask me. This kind of graphic should hold no place with the rest of the vintage boards nor should it be held as equal on the same market. This is a false future market for the skateboard collectors.

Todays skaters will not have the same pleasure of holding their past like the old school skaters can,  because the boards they have made in today world, just won't last. So I don't expect to hear anything from them. But the skaters of the past that are holding your skateboard history and see the difference, you should speak up, and stop going along to get along !!!

The V.E.S. R&D is compiling proof and picture from our research to help the skateboard collectors market understand what was once a great market to invest in has been now taken over by cheap copies of skateboards past and are being sold as false equal on the same market.

And sold for way to much for the product it is or is not !!!

Again, thin graphics. This is just a very light scrape in the paint. And because it's so thin there is no room for error when you try to collect one of these boards to keep it in pristine condition. The old boards might not have been perfect, but they didn't have these perfect problems. 

This is the problem that is coming to the skateboard collectors market in the future. But the worse part is that it's already here and happening. V.E.S. is not alone in our frustrations with these boards made today, many collectors have many problems with there collections too. So many buy boards to make a profit, but what profit can you make when your new board is a broken egg already. 

Again these boards made with this so called state of the art graphics are junk and are a false promise to the future of collecting skateboards, and through the V.E.S. R&D that we do we are trying to open some eyes on how todays product is being made, its graphic durability and what these boards are made for. Skateboarding only.

We also believe that because China is in control of a good part of our skateboard manufacturing and controlling how product is made, this problem will only get worse for skateboard collectors. The China manufacturing skateboard market can win cheap product with volume, and that is not going to change, but we can win this war with our history 

if we see it as more valuable.

Invest in vintage skateboards with pride or you can buy a 

cheap copy made today and just ride.

The skateboard industry has a lot of rot in it. But now days rot is considered good for the future of skateboarding. And what kinda future is that and who controls it? Many of the once believed in original skateboard companies have sold out and can't admit it, so they double down. It's sorta hard to admit when you sell your soul to the greed and profit of todays skateboard world. But they know they can pass the blame if they put the evidence in plain sight, and most won't be able to see it.

-It's sorta like the side affect of something-

We are in the business of saving skateboards history so we take offense when we see this name of a dominate supplier on almost everything. No shared wealth here and only one direction with the intent of dominance. The skateboard industry will only change if they have to but for now they see no need. 

Santa Cruz does not stand alone, they stand with more companies than you may think. So do your research and know what you are riding and know that if it doesn't really matter to you, then you will never matter to skateboard history !!!

It's time to pick a side boys and girls while you can and pay close attention to who is doing what and for whom !!!

 Buy a board from a company that still works hard with their hands to put out great skateboard product !!!

This board is made to last and will look good doing it.  Stop buying cheap boards and buy from Manak Skates company, if you dare !!!