Negli Usa è una moda, in Italia il fenomeno non si è ancora diffuso.
Lo squid ovvero portare un mezzo di locomozione all’estremo, non importa se sia una minimoto o una bici, l’importante e guidarla male anzi guardarla come un pazzo furioso!

Tutti ricorderete il video del motociclista che passava a velocità supersoniche fra le macchine dell’autostrada di serravalle nel nord Italia.
E’ impressionante il numero di visite che ha ricevuto il video.

Ma come accennato ad inizio articolo, il motociclista non è stato però un pionere di questa “disciplina”.
Leggiamo assieme la definizione attribuita allo squid, riportata nella libera enciclopedia online:

SQUID is an irresponsible motorcyclist. The term is derogatory and common among motorcyclists in the United States and is generally associated with a new or reckless motorcyclist seen riding erratically and/or beyond his or her capabilities, often without appropriate riding gear.

The origin of the word is varyingly attributed:

• A contraction of:
  • “Squirrely” and “kid” (possibly taken from California surfing culture), or
  • “Squished” and “kid”
• An acronym for:
  • “Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Ignorant and Dangerous”, or
  • “Stupidly Quick, Underdressed and Imminently Dead”

Note: both of these are likely to be backronyms

• Derivative of U.S. military culture:
  • Newly-inducted sailors based in San Diego in the ’60s would frequently buy an inexpensive two-stroke motorcyle for transportation while on shore, whether they’d ever ridden before or not. So, there were large numbers of unprotected, inexperienced “marine life” squirting through traffic in a hurry and leaving a trail of black “ink” (smoke) behind them.
  • “Squid” was also a common derogatory term for sailors:
    • Recent inductees were called “squids” by more senior sailors, and
    • All sailors were called “squids” by Marines
• Based on similarity between the way a “squid” rides and an actual squid swims.
  • Squids can appear unable to change direction while swimming without first coming to a near complete stop. However, once the squid does stop and change directions, it can very quickly accelerate back to its regular swimming speed. Beginning motorcyclists commonly have trouble negotiating turns, and must slow down to unnecessarily slow speed, while at the same time have a tendency to ride very fast on the straight sections of the road.

Often young, squids are identified by their reckless abandon (speeding, wheelies, stoppies etc.) and by their inappropriate attire (shorts, backwards ball caps, flip flops, wifebeater T-shirt, etc). Such a rider eschews all or most of the protective gear worn by many riders (helmet, gloves, leather jacket, riding pants, and boots) and the social and legal norms of riding behaviour, and as such is looked upon with derision by experienced motorcyclists, who also refer to them as “organ donors“, “Zip-Splats”, “a Stillie”, “Skin Crayons”, “Sausage Creatures”^<1> and “soon-to-be-ex-motorcyclists”.