Skateboarders vs scooters.
It’s a tale as old as time itself.
The tale of good vs evil. Dark vs light. Pineapple pizza vs, no pineapple on pizza.
You get the point.
Everyone knows skateboarders and scooter riders often fight or disagree with each other, but does anyone actually know why?
It seems like a lot of up-and-coming skateboarders and scooter riders come into an already divided scene where they’re assigned aside, and to show any good faith towards the enemy is considered treason.
Today we’re going to take a look into this long-burning feud, to find out why skateboarders don’t like scooters.
It took a lot of investigative work to get to the bottom of this never before answered question, so do me a favor and share this post so we can spread the truth behind the skateboarder vs scooter rivalry.
Now just as a disclaimer, I really don’t care what you do, so don’t get triggered at me, this is just a summary of what I was able to find.
If you’re a skateboarder, or even if you’re a scooter rider, go ahead and leave a comment on why you think the two don’t get along.
I’m sure a lot of you have your own thoughts and opinions on the subject, so be sure to leave them below, and with that said let’s get right into it.
1. Scooter riders are usually kids
The average scooter rider is usually a young kid, which is one of the biggest factors for why skateboarders don’t like them.
Of course there are people of all ages who scooter, but for the most part, scooter riders tend to be children. This simple fact covers the majority of the reasons why skateboarders don’t like scooter riders.
Outside of having terrible skatepark etiquette, they’re usually so young they don’t even have normal life etiquette.
A lot of kids can be loud, obnoxious, annoying, and really just unpleasant to be around, and when skateboarders see those traits on kids riding scooters, they tend to associate them together.
What makes it even worse is that parents like to treat skateparks like daycares, and leave their kids there all day long to wreak havoc on anyone else unfortunate enough to be there.
Basically every skateboarder has experienced this first hand, and has at least one or two scooter kid stories to show for it, so go ahead and leave a comment if you have a good one because there’s definitely a lot of them out there.
Some of the really young scooter kids are so bad, that even older scooter riders will complain about them.
Now a few people may be thinking, “But wait, there are young skater kids who are annoying too.”
Although that’s definitely true, usually there are at least a few older skaters to somewhat guide them and keep them in check. When it comes to kids on scooters, there are no older role models to teach them.
Even if you take the scooter out of the scenario, no one wants to deal with someone else’s whining, screaming kid.
Kids in general can just be inconsiderate, and since they’re usually riding a scooter, skateboarders tend to group the two together.
2. Scooter riders use too much wax
Scooter riders are notorious for over waxing things at the skatepark, which has to be one of the fastest ways to get on a skateboarder’s bad side.
It’s generally agreed upon that there aren’t any rules in skateboarding, but if there was a list of rules, the very first one would be not to over wax things. Actually, the first rule would be not to push mongo, but not over waxing would definitely be number 2.
The issue of the appropriate amount of wax is a pretty divisive one even within skateboarding. If skateboarders can’t even agree amongst themselves what an appropriate amount of wax is, they’re definitely not going to take to kindly of a kid on a scooter getting into the mix.
Some skaters only like a little bit of wax, other skaters prefer a lot of wax, and there’s some savages out there who don’t use any wax at all.
Generally speaking, Scooters, along with roller blades and even BMX pegs, all require a lot more wax to grind than skateboard trucks, which leads to very different opinions on how much wax is considered acceptable.
Even skateboarders who are heavy users of wax tend to think scooter riders overdo it, which naturally leads to some conflicts.
Overwaxing can make something a lot harder to skate, and it can be a pretty big hassle to fix.
(Side note, if something is overwaxed, tin foil is great for getting it off.)
Skateboarders can also be a bit territorial, so if some little kid comes to their local spot or park and starts messing things up, they’re going to get annoyed pretty fast.
Now to be fair, over waxing is more commonly done by roller bladers than scooter riders, but they’re both known for doing it.
The problem of overwaxing is a big one, because it’s an issue that inherently comes with scootering. Scootering just requires more wax in general, so unless scooter manufacturers change the material they make their scooters out of, there’s always going to be arguments about overwaxing.
3. Scooter kids snake
In a skateboarder’s mind, scooter kids are synonymous with snaking, and it’s one of the biggest reasons why skaters don’t like scooters.
For those who don’t know, snaking is essentially just taking someone else’s turn in the line up, and not snaking is a cardinal rule in skateboarding.
On the imaginary list of skateboarding rules, not snaking is above not over waxing, and is probably even above not pushing mongo. Or, it’s at least tied with it.
Scooter kids are notorious for snaking, and just getting in the way in general. They also do victory laps, where they just keep cruising around the park without stopping, and sometimes they even combine this with playing follow the leader.
All of these things are big no no’s in skateboarding, but they’re commonly seen in scootering, at least among younger scooter kids.
Since the majority of scooter riders tend to be little kids, they usually lack a sense of situational awareness, so they have no idea what’s going on around them, and they usually don’t even realize they’re getting in everyone’s way.
The fact that they’re so small makes it even worse, because then skateboarders feel bad for running into them even though it’s their fault for getting in the way.
If scooter kids didn’t get in the way so often, it’s almost guaranteed that the animosity between scooter riders and skateboarders wouldn’t be so bad.
Also, it’s worth pointing out is that even the way a scooter functions can cause traffic problems at a skatepark.
The way scooters turn and maneuver is a lot different from skateboards, so even if a scooter kid is doing his best to stay out of the way, a skateboarder can easily misread the direction the scooter is going, which can quickly lead to someone getting tackled.
Honestly, the same kind of goes for both roller blades and bikes too, since the way they turn is so different from skateboards.
3. Riding a scooter is easy
Another reason why skateboarders don’t like scootering is because it’s a lot easier to ride a scooter than a skateboard.
Because it’s seen as easier, it doesn’t get a lot of respect from skateboarders.
This doesn’t mean that the top people in the scootering world aren’t talented, and there aren’t scooter tricks that are hard.
However, compared to skateboarding, scootering is a lot easier to learn.
Chances are, if you took a person who never skated and never rode a scooter, they could most likely cruise around on a scooter right away, but it would take them at least a few days before they could ride a board comfortably.
If you go a step further past just riding around, even a lot of the tricks on a scooter are easier to do.
For example, basically anyone who can ride a scooter can bunny hop instantly, but for someone learning how to skate, it can take days, weeks, or even months to learn how to ollie.
Of course, there are probably scooter tricks that are hard to do, and it’s not like anyone can just step on a scooter and instantly be good.
The point is, compared to skateboarding tricks, scooter tricks are a lot easier.
A lot of scooter tricks can be learned in a few days, or sometimes just a few minutes. When it comes to skateboarding, it takes people years to learn a lot of tricks, and you have to work a lot harder to get them down.
Aside from how much easier scootering is, there’s also a much smaller variety of tricks compared to skateboarding.
There are way too many nuances to both scootering and skateboarding to actually calculate every trick, but given the construction of a scooter vs a skateboard, it’s safe to say there are way more possibilities for skating than scootering.
4. Scooters aren’t cool
When it comes down to it, a lot of skateboarders don’t like scooters simply because they don’t think it’s cool.
Now I’m not saying this assumption is justified because honestly, I don’t care what anyone else does, I’m just pointing out the stereotype.
Deciding what’s considered cool is pretty subjective, but at least for this scenario, it’s safe to say that in the eyes of most skateboarders, scootering is seen as pretty lame.
If you’re not in the world of skateboarding, this might not make a lot of sense. After all, the only thing really separating skateboards from scooters is 2 missing wheels and some handle bars.
Sometimes, things just aren’t cool and there’s no explaining why. I mean, why are guitars cool, but keyboard guitars aren’t? Some questions just don’t have answers.
The actual reason why scooters aren’t cool isn’t exactly clear, but then again, it’s kind of hard to explain why anything isn’t cool.
Scooters are often considered a toy for kids, while skateboarding has an entire subculture and lifestyle that comes along with it. Skateboarding has influenced fashion, art, and music, and scooter is, well it’s just scootering.
When you think of a skateboarder, there’s a ton of images that might come to your mind, but when you think of a scooter rider, there’s most likely only one, and chances are it’s a little kid with a helmet and candy on his face.
If you don’t skate, it can be hard to explain, and you will most likely never understand it.
Why do skateboarders hate scooters?
The skater vs scooter rivalry has been ongoing for decades, and will likely continue for as long as suburban moms treat skateparks as day cares.
With that said, you shouldn’t dislike someone simply because they ride a scooter. Just because there are some scooter riders who do something, doesn’t mean they all do.
In life, you shouldn’t generalize an entire group just based on the actions of a few bad actors. Everyone is different, and everyone should be treated as an individual.
Hopefully, this post shed some light on the ongoing feud between skateboarders vs scooter riders. There’s a lot that can be said on why skaters don’t like scooter riders, so if you feel like anything was left out, go ahead and leave a comment.