Writer Alana Massey’s ode to the ageless, melancholic appeal of the Skater Boi really stirred something in my loins last week. Gross? Gross! I know.
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Next up, we have a reformed #skaterboi who is now a “made in America, gun-toting, hard-working son of liberty.” If you are familiar with rural suburban skater bois, this progression makes perfect sense to you.
My favorite photo of the #skaterboi oeuvre was taken at a skate park in Bethpage, New York. Bethpage is “home to New York State’s best tasting drinking water,” a one-time epicenter of modules for moon landings, and home to these boys and their three-legged dog.
Taylor would intimidate me, and we also wouldn’t get along in a fundamental way, but that would not bother me if she invited me over.
Other honorable mentions from #skaterboi include dogs on skateboards and an inexplicable number of photos featuring a man who is doing a lot of different things in his photos though not skateboarding in a damn one of them. There is also one fantastic Roy Lichtenstein-inspired meme with a tearful woman saying: “Oh God! Why can’t my boyfriend skate?”
That, my dudes, is a very good question to ask yourself. If you came of age during a certain era, all of these perennially hat-haired, Volcom-wearing little hellraisers will make you want to return (briefly) from the planned community you crawled out of. And now maybe you won’t be too scared to talk to them. That is why #skaterboi is the realest hashtag on Instagram.
Photo via Nan Palmero/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
