Recently I've noticed a huge upswing of hate towards pumping or spinning anything. I've actually seen a general hate of everything new school coming from older riders on here from across the board, but more recently it's been focused like a god damn laser on the topic of pumping.

Is there a reason that people dislike it so much? It serves a function, you gain speed, and it's no less effective than scuffing (which in itself looks just as ridiculous) and it means you can focus on doing a link without really even touching the tire. I guess what I'm trying to understand is why there are so many older riders that feel the need to bash newer riding without even trying to understand what goes into it. This is not always true, and there are some people that have a real justification for why they don't like it, but I can't help but get the feeling that the majority of the disdain comes from people that just do not want to let go of the old and let the new take off. Again, I'm not sure this is true, but this is the general vibe I keep hearing over and over.

For example, in the media section someone posted a video of Dan Rigby, and everyone jumped on it saying how good it was and how great the style was. All completely viable opinions. But I couldn't help but notice how many people automatically jumped on the "f*ck pumping!" bandwagon and made his tricks out to be superior in some way because he didn't really pump anything. This doesn't really make any sense to me because there are just as many amazing links being done today on video that equal or surpass the stuff that Dan does in that video. He's a great rider, but I guess what I'm saying is that there are a lot of good riders out there that do not receive the same level of respect simply because they use pumping as a mechanism for propulsion rather than placing their foot on the tire and kicking. I see this not only with this video, but others that feature older riding.

I think that if you're going to bash people pumping tricks or pick on a certain style, the least anyone can do is at least point out which riders rub them the wrong way and just come out and say that they hate a certain riders style. A serious offense to many and a much bumpier route to getting your opinion across than simply saying that a certain style of riding is whack, but if you're going to make a blanket statement about a style of riding, then you might as well go the whole nine yards and just start calling peoples riding out personally instead of hiding behind "pumping is lame scuffing for life!".

If you are going to knock on riders who pump in threads that do not contain riders who pump, then you really should start posting in threads with videos of riders who pump, and openly exclaiming how much their style sucks and lay out a A-Z plan for how they should approach their riding.

What I'm saying is that this attitude is inherently mean spirited, and it creates this weird sewing circle mentality of "us and them" which I would go as far to say we already have enough of on the forum and at contests. I have the same amount of respect for Dan Rigby as I do for many pros and ams that pump in their links, and to distinguish one above the other over a choice of technique is fairly petty in my opinion. It's almost impossible to compare a link that Dan Rigby does that is a complete bomb where he doesn't pump, and a link that Martti pulls where he does. In fact, it is impossible unless you can do both, and unless you are one of the best riders in the world, I don't really think anyone has the right amount of authority to judge this sort of thing. I mean, you CAN if you really want to, but it should at the very least give you pause and a moment to consider whether or not your criticism over a whole technique used within riding is really worth the effort to make.

I just wanted to toss this topic out there for discussion because lately I've seen it come up time and time again, and I just don't understand the mentality. If you hate pumping, please come in here and tell everyone who you think has a sh*tty style of riding, and if you don't want to do that then I guess maybe lets have a discussion about why pumping should or should not be used.

aaaaaaaaand cue flamewar!

Ah, leave it to Dion to crack me up with a quick ready jpg...

Team Pralex hates TJ Perry's style.

pumping has huge advantages...

some people just dont like change... personally i do a little of it all, new and oldskool.

hell, its not like your going to scuff a steam roller,

then again people never pump megaspins


each trick requires its own skill, f*ck trends and posers 

my problem with scuffing is that a lot of times it throws me off balance point. like in backward steamrollers and fork glides, you have to take the most crucial mechanism in the balancing machine (the leg) and move it down to the tire to scuff, and even just TRYING to pump is easier sometimes than throwing my leg down. still, i'm not saying i never scuff, i find lots of times when scuffing is greatly helpful and stylish. screw snobs, do what works.

Nothing shows more command over a trick than pumping it, in my opinion. It means you are using the whole bike in whatever awkward position it may be without a kind of jerking or hesitant look of scuffing (of course this depends on your style). I tried pumping rolling dumptrucks today and that is tough to learn to pump, backwheel pumping is very very hard for me but I could scuff it for days.

Pumping is cheaper on the tires and shoes too. 

(I don't hate scuffing).

Let's imagine we are in a competition, you and me. We both do the same trick, but you scuff and I do not. Who you think is gonna win? You, stocked in the past, or me, doing what is trendy nowadays? I think the answer is obvious...
Wont you hate my style of riding because of that? You had worked on that trick as hard as me, but I won because I ride the trendy style. And if you want to win, you'll have to learn how to ride the new style... and that's not easy, is it?
That's just an example of my point of view.
I like all this pumping stuff, but I do not have anything against oldschool.

If you do a trick without any flaws and I have to scuff to save a trick, what you did was more difficult.

Also, if pumping is trendy, then by definition so is scuffing because at one point scuffing was the big new thing too. Just because there was a paradigm shift towards one style over another, doesn't mean one should be discounted simply because it is new.

Well this is just a hunch, maybe the hate stems from envy / jealousy. Someone was bound to say it and many people were thinking it, so there I said it. 

Honest question though.

Doesn't it seem odd that nobody has called YOU out personally for your pumping despite doing it fairly often in wheelchairs and throughout your links? I've yet to hear anyone say "Oh f*cking aaron frost pumping away f*ck that guy" and it confuses me why some people are a valid target and others are not.