Hipótesis: ¿Qué significa ser un skater?

Todos hemos escuchado hablar de los skaters. Asumimos que es el que practica un deporte, como un tenista o un futbolista. Sin embargo, al yo tener amigos "skaters", se que el serlo tiene una definición más densa, que va mas allá de la mera práctica del deporte: ser skater es un estilo de vida, que incluye la forma de comportarse, vestirse y las actividades que llevan acabo diariamente. 


Antes de empezar mi investigación, voy a generalizar lo que, para mí, significa ser un skater.
Busqué en la famosa página Urban Dictionary lo que ellos toman como significado. Entre todas las entradas, encontré algunos significados interesantes:

"1.) Someone who wears baggy clothes, i.e. hoodies, jeans etc. These so-called 'skaters' can't always skate, but townies like to call them skaters because they reckon it's an insult. 
2.) (the REAL definition) Someone who loves to skate (and can actually do it), not just some poser who thinks they are a skater just because they wear skate clothes. A skater can be anyone - grunger, goth, hippie, punk, mosher or even a stupid townie."


"Basically, a skater is just that. Someone who skateboards. You need to put no stereotype upon us-in fact, i know a chav who skates! Skaters wear whatever they want to, and because of this often appear non-conformist, however they wear what they feel is comfortable. 
On the other hand, just wearing skate clothes does not make you a poser. Many people wear skate shoes because they are comfy-thats wot theyre made for (apart from skating). However, wearing skate clothes and claiming to be a skater, without the ability to even do an ollie is being a poser. 
And hey-being a skater doesnt mean you do drugs-i dont smoke weed, i dont smoke, but i skate. Sure, some skaters do weed, but its their body to fuck up. 
Most skaters dont mind bmxers or inline skaters, everyone can use the park. And yeah, course we piss people off by street skating-thats part the fun. Lighten up, dont be so materialistic. We're out having fun, all you can do is stand around and complain that we're having more fun than you. "

"A person who is foot mounted on a board of some type with zero-four wheels. Usually without any motor. (Manually propelled vehicle.) Skateboarders usually do not have a single fashion, and their clothing style is borrowed from other sub-cultures. (i.e. Punk-Skaters, Prep-Skaters, Homie-Skaters, etc.) Skateboarding has been derived from the "surfer", "stoner," "metal-head" and "punk" sub-cultures. (Actually, Skateboarding was born through the surfing sub-culture. When the surfers couldn't surf, they created the first skateboards which consisted of a couple 2x4's nailed together, a milk crate and some clay wheels. Later the milk crate was removed, the 2x4's were replaced by maple wood glued together in "plys" and the wheels were improved. The original term for skateboarding was "sidewalk surfing.") Sadly some ignorant people still affiliate skaters with stoners. (This is mostly because skateboarding is viewed as a counter-culture by Society.) Skaters are typically athletic and usually do not use drugs.
The term is actually difficult to define due to the fact of the large diversity in the sub-culture. Basically anybody who uses any type of skateboard for any reason. (yes posers exist, but they exist for every sub-culture, I'm sure that there are "Thug" posers also.) Skateboarders do not listen to one specific type of music. No strict fashion exists except for the people who try to look dedicated/sponsered, or are actually sponsered by wearing name-brand skateboarding clothing (such as a company's t-shirt, hat, or shoes.) Any person can be a skater: african, asian, european, mexican, female, male, elderly, youngsters, poor, rich, etc.
Skateboarders are people who participate in a sport/art, not a fashion trend."
Fuente: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=skater 


Con estas definiciones en mente, puedo concluir que ser un skater no es meramente un deporte, sino un estilo de vida que abarca a varios tipos de personas, que, a pesar que ellos creen que tienen cosas en común, al ser vistos en su totalidad, las tienen. Estas características que tienen en común son las que voy a explorar en el blog.