ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

Personal opinion:

Money and business destroyed the soul of skateboarding once (remember the people wanting to make money wth skateparks?) and it destroyed the soul of another sport related to us (snowboarding). I totally dig the idea of letting slalom skateboarding grow without much merchandising and just pure determination and spirit and contribution by people who love it as much as I do.

Not to downtalk anyone who has an idea and money sure helps, but it can destroy much.

I like it the way it goes right now and I feel it is the right way to do it. It is the reason why I like it so much at the moment and why I keep going. I missed that in the other parts of skateboarding.

Thanks but no thanks.

I pay less than $10 per month in hosting fees and $35 in yearly domain registration fees. This is my contribution to the community. I have received "gifts" here and there from kind souls within the community but I assure you, I am still paying more than I am receiving, this does not count the time invested in setting up and running the site.

I had an idea to make the best site that I could and $ was one of the things that I wanted to keep out of the equation. I appreciate that you are looking out for me and in that, I just got paid...

It's too much for me to "do it all" and try to organize an advertisement campaign and all the hassle that goes along with the money part. I would rather keep things simple and easy for you to understand.

#1. No advertisements will keep deep pocket companies from throwing the small guy. This puts everyone on the same level.

It's important for me to see Plankk-R have just as much say in the scheme of the advancement of the sport as say Turner Summer Ski or Roe Racing. It actually makes you realize who has the passion for the sport. Gareth participates at this site because he wants to, not because he pays, the same for Dalv.

I just think this is a good system to go by.

I will tell you this, IF there were ANY advertising dollars, I would like to have the proceeds go to the site paying for itself, stickers and banners for races and if there is anything left, a fund for either equipment that can be used for racing and or a travel fund (to be applied for) for traveling skateboard slalom racers.

Bottom line, Vlad and I are struggling to get quality vinyl stickers made for the site. We are going to pay for them out of our own pockets and recover the costs from people who want to help us with this project.

This is truly a community site, I appreciate your views but I don't see things changing. I just want slalom to grow or at least make it through the next down cycle.

Thank you for your words, I do appreciate them.

I put this in the "Election" forum because I think this is about the most appropriate area to discuss SlalomSkateboarder.com as a concept. It's not "off topic" and I didn't want to add another entry in "Random topics," so I'll put it here. Hey, shoot me.

First of all, let me be blunt: I'm a capitalist. I think Money is a wonderful thing. Money is the measure of a man's accomplishments, his value, his productivity and most importantly his creativity. When something is created and made available to a buying public that makes MONEY, then it is a GOOD thing. There is NOTHING wrong with the free exchange of money for a product, service or idea. That's that. If you think otherwise and feel it's necessary to denigrate and criticize money as a measure of greed or corruption, then hit the bricks and go find another topic.

That being said, let me continue by saying I see nothing at all conflicting or disagreeable with Adam and his associates (I know Jani is involved, don't know of anyone else,) want to use this website to make money. I know Adam's views on the subject and I can certainly agree with his desire to avoid any apparent conflict of interest or to appear as though conversations are abruptly discontinued for fear of leading to a chagrined advertiser. Then again, though, if money was collected with this website, it could lead to several good things. First of all, Slalomskateboarder.com could afford all the neat things that would spread the word more about slalom racing: more banners, stickers, ADS IN LEADING MAGAZINES and other paraphenalia that makes advertising fun (anyone want a "SlalomSkateboarder.com" baseball cap?) Also, SS.com would be able to do things to help racers and promoters put on more events. What if you could RENT the TrakMate from Adam for a reasonable rate plus shipping? Adam could use the SS.com advertising dollars to buy several of Tway's masterpieces to keep on hand. Tway sells his system and makes money, Adam uses ad revenue to buy the system and then SS.com makes more money through rental revenue of providing the system. Everyone wins. So even though I can understand that Adam and Jani don't want to use SS.com as a means of buying a new ski boat or a chalet in the Swiss Alps, it would be cool to have the cash to do some little things to make slalom racing more accessible. And as I am such a capitalist, I have to ask, "why wonder where the money is coming from if advertisers are more than willing to foot the bill?"

Also, it's not necessary for SS.com to sell its soul and become a nasty billboard with ads that slow down loading a page. Here's a concept I would suggest that would make things better for everyone (advertisers, webmasters, readers and racers alike,):



As you can see, each individual topic is "for sale." The paranthetic tag lines for advertisers are actually hyper links to their own website. Simple, clean and maybe worth a few dollars a month to some eager skate sellers? If each forum could be sold, maybe Adam and Co, could see a couple of hundred dollars a month coming in? (Depending on the ad rate.) 12 months at that rate would see $2,400 in the bank for all sorts of neat things. Here's another idea: the top racer in Europe and the top racer in America each get a plane ticket sponsored by SS.com to go to the other continent at the end of the year for a race? A points system for races equal on both sides of the Atlantic would result in a "Slalomskateboarder.com Racer Of The Year." All to be paid for by the monthly income of those little, unobtrusive colored hyperlinks.

OH, AND ONE LAST THING - Let's just suppose that SS.com does sell an ad to Acme Skate Decks. Then, a topic pops up where dozens of skaters talk about what crappy junk Acme is selling. Acme sends an e-mail to Adam saying, "if you don't put a stop to this, we'll pull our ad!" To which Adam can say, "hey, we lasted a year without your money. We'll last another without it in the future. Thank you for your business."

It's not a priority and certainly not necessary for the good of the sport or this website. But, hey, if the means are there to make things more fun, why not go for it?