This article might sound a little messed up, but follow me if you can, because this is my first attempt at what can best be described as  a "rant" column. I'm basically typing what I'm thinking here, so without further blabber, I'll give you today's topic: What's the deal with vert skating these days?

Really though, how does one define vert skating? Is it skateboarding on transitions that have vert, while wearing pads? Does it even really matter how big the trannies are, as long as they have a certain amount of vert in them, and if so, how much?

One thing I do know is that vert skating isn't what it used to be. When I grew up skating as a kid, I looked up to pros that were able to have solid video parts with both vert skating and street skating. Now-a-days, I can't even name a handful of skateboarders that can bridge the gap between vert and street like they used to.  It makes me think that somewhere along the road of skateboarding, there seems to have been a fork where people picked either vert skating or street skating. Or was it transition skating and street skating?

Either way, one thing has remained the same about vert skating -- there's never any ramps around that people can actually learn how to skate vert on. Seriously though, think about it: Growing up in Toronto, I had access to the vert ramps at local skateparks, namely Torontosaurus, Rudy's and Rampage. However I was only, like, eight years old and didn't have the balls to drop in on the massive structures. On the west coast of Canada, Vancouver had two vert ramps that I can ever recall: the Richmond Ramp (a.k.a. The Clubhouse), and more recently the vert ramp at the now defunct RDS skatepark. I know Quebec had a least one vert ramp for a whole, at the Boucherville skatepark.

On a Canadian note, Barry Walsh, Rob "Sluggo" Boyce, and even Rick McCrank used to have street tricks and vert tricks in the same video part. If you need proof, feel free to consult The Burning, 20/20, and any of the Whiskey videos. In my opinion, some of the best vert skaters to date are Danny Way, Bob Burnquist, PLG, Colin McKay, Rune Glifberg, Bucky Lasek, Jake Brown, and Tony Hawk. Did anybody out there ever see footage of Tom Penny or Jon Cardiel Skating vert? If you haven't, you should ‘cause it's amazing, not to mention padless.

Here's an interesting one to think about: Is the new vert skating pool skating? Since so many transition skaters have switched to skating drained pools (like the old days), we may begin to pay more attention to the similarities betweem skating a pool and skating vert ramps. Sure, you can't really get as high out of a pool, but I think that skating a concrete bowl takes more balls then a wooden ramp. Thoughts?

Speaking of vert ramp construction, there's another area that's gotten crazy. I'm not even sure what's considered standard for a vert ramp these days. The previously mentioned RDS ramp and the YMCA Encinitas ramps are pretty sick and have tons of features outside of a normal back-and-forth ramp. Mega Ramps are a whole other story: that's some sort of lottery money ramp; the kind you can't build unless you've won 35 million dollars. And speaking of money and ramps, are the Dew Tour and the X-Games keeping vert skating alive? Nah, I don't think so... unless you're Andy Macdonald.

Hands down, the Animal Chin ramp was one of the earliest fantasy ramps that I can remember. It might have even laid the groundwork for some of today's more technical ramps. I remember watching it and begging my mom to let me go and find it in the desert. No joke! I didn't even skate vert; I was just that pumped on the design of this monstrosity.

Let's just say that I wanted to take up vert skating tomorrow: where would I even go to learn how to skate vert these days? Does the public even support vert skating? Most of the newly designed public skateparks have shit to do with vert skating. I'm just putting it out there, but seriously, I bet there are a few secret barn ramps out there, right? I hope so.

In conclusion, this rant should have either given you an anxiety attack or made you think about how you personally view vert skating. Whether you love it or hate it, one thing can be said: those people that are good at it are people we all envy. On another note did anyone notice that vert has that "rich sport" vibe to it, like snowboarding and wakeboarding. Just mentioning wakeboarding reminds me of another valid point: wakeboarding takes the cake for the worst sport ever invented, but I'm not even getting into that because that's a whole other article on it's own.

I leave you with some vert skating videos:

Animal Chin Ramp: 8 Minute Montage

Danny Way: Questionable part

Jake Brown: What If part

[Turns out, there's now a vert ramp in Toronto's west end, at CJ Skatepark. There may be hope yet. - ed.]

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Related:
All 80s Vert Day
PLG On Top Again
Maloof Money Cup Results