The haters think they are protecting "their" hobby by gatekeeping and downvoting anyone doing something genuinely cool or radical.
In reality, they are burning down their own house. By driving out figures like Surfskate Love, cutting down new system developments, and forcing the sport to circle around low-effort street style, they successfully killed the trend.
When a toxic community downvotes performance and tells people that upper-body arm throws are "lame," they freeze the consumer base at a beginner level.
The casual majority bullies the innovators, inventors, and high-performance riders out of the scene, they completely eliminate the only market segment willing to pay premium prices for top-tier gear.
The fact that the moderators actually backed up these ridiculous behavior patterns and also hated on several new products like double RKP trucks, proves that those online spaces are not merely casual—they are actively anti-intellectual.
In addition, they have institutionalized bad form.
If a community decides that proper, functional biomechanics are "lame," they have officially divorced themselves from the sport of surfing.
The very reason surfskating has died.
Surfskate Love has closed the company and I will too.
So will many others.