It Ain’t Goodbye…

… It’s “Until Next Time”.

I know better than to announce “The Terrible Company is Dead”. 12 years ago, I made the mistake of posting something along the lines of “The Terrible Company is done, 2003-2013, RIP” with the intention of never resurrecting it. Ultimately, 3 years later in 2016, I got the itch to return to making skateboard videos and brought it back.

The reason I made that grand claim was that I didn’t feel like The Terrible Company was needed anymore – but the truth was that the nature of what this blog did and what I got out of it changed. For the last 9 years the output of this blog has been a creative outlet for me to hone my skills as an artist, and get better at making visuals that match my sensibilities. I’ve tried to get better at graphic design, video editing, filming and writing, and whilst the results are up to you to judge, I feel like I got what I needed out of it.

Over the last year I have been presented with an opportunity to do something I have wanted to do for a long time: Start a business. Unfortunately, that business isn’t within skateboarding. I’ve had to make a hard choice as I finish Pirate Broadcast: Do I start another long term video project that will detract from my ability to grow my business, spend time with my family, and actually skateboard myself, or do I put a bow on this era of The Terrible Company and potentially say that Pirate Broadcast is the last full length video I make?

Pirate Broadcast is, to put it plainly, probably the best I can do as a skateboard film maker. There’s very little room to grow for me here, and I’ve hit the ceiling. This isn’t me saying I am the best film maker in skateboarding, far from it – it’s an admission that I don’t believe I can reach the level of quality of far more successful people operating within the UK scene, and that I’ve done everything I want to do within that sphere for now.

So, if everyone is filming their tricks with a smartphone, and I’m getting diminishing returns out of making skate videos, what reason is there for The Terrible Company to exist in this form any longer? I’m sure there’s an answer to that somewhere, but for now I feel like I am much more excited about what I can do in other creative projects unrelated to skateboarding.

In time, years from now, I may find the passion and motivation to film another 30 minutes of relatable, daft, fun skateboarding in the Coventry area. That’s the lesson from the last time The Terrible Company went on hiatus. However, for now, it ain’t “goodbye”, it’s “until next time”, whenever that may be.

Thank you all.

Ade The Terrible. X