Quite a while ago, I watched this video, and it bothered me. I couldn't put my finger on why it bothered me, but the whole thing was very uncomfortable.
I thought maybe I was just off-put by how short the match was. After all, Chris won with just 7 tricks in a contest where it's not unusual to see pros volley 10 tricks back and forth before someone gets a letter. Maybe it's all in my head.
After I rewatched it though, I realized that I was actually just uncomfortable because of how little I related to Chris Chann. Let me explain:
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Why Haven't I Seen This?- 27
There's tons of good skate footage out there. I just want to share something that's good that you maybe haven't seen before to get you stoked on skating.
This week's feature is longer than usual, as it's a full video. It's not really broken up into parts, so it made sense to post the full video. It's a work of art and it speaks for itself. If you have a half an hour to kill, I recommend relaxing and enjoying this video.
This week's feature is longer than usual, as it's a full video. It's not really broken up into parts, so it made sense to post the full video. It's a work of art and it speaks for itself. If you have a half an hour to kill, I recommend relaxing and enjoying this video.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Why Haven't I Seen This? -26
There's tons of good skate footage out there. I just want to share something that's good that you maybe haven't seen before to get you stoked on skating.
This will be the last part I'm presenting from the Brainsworld series, and it appropriately ends with the last part. Kea Smith is just a really talented skateboarder, plain and simple. I'll let the skating speak for itself.
This will be the last part I'm presenting from the Brainsworld series, and it appropriately ends with the last part. Kea Smith is just a really talented skateboarder, plain and simple. I'll let the skating speak for itself.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Why Haven't I Seen This?- 25
There's tons of good skate footage out there. I just want to share something that's good that you maybe haven't seen before to get you stoked on skating.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
John O'Neal opened up this video with a solid part. He's got a mean front blunt and the ender looks scary as hell. Take a look.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
John O'Neal opened up this video with a solid part. He's got a mean front blunt and the ender looks scary as hell. Take a look.
Friday, July 31, 2015
An Overview of "Sour Solution"
So apparently all the key guys from the European Sweet Skateboards jumped ship late last year to start their own brand, Sour. I'm not sure why they all decided to leave, but you don't usually see that if the team is generally okay with where they are. Whatever the story behind that might be, they started their own brand and came out with The Sour Solution back in January. In the last week, the full video showed up on the web. I don't really care to 'review' the video other than to say I really liked it, but I think it might be fun to go through most of the parts to bring out some highlights.
Starting things off, we have a pretty entertaining bail section starring Simon Isaksson. At 1:45, there's a really cool trick where Simon does a Bennett grind where he grinds on the OTHÉR side of the ledge and then scares the hell out of a pedestrian, which makes it a line as far as I'm concerned. At 3:10 he starts a line by doing a slappy bluntslide (second one in this video part, mind you) and then ducks under a rail mid-slide. It's awesome.
Starting things off, we have a pretty entertaining bail section starring Simon Isaksson. At 1:45, there's a really cool trick where Simon does a Bennett grind where he grinds on the OTHÉR side of the ledge and then scares the hell out of a pedestrian, which makes it a line as far as I'm concerned. At 3:10 he starts a line by doing a slappy bluntslide (second one in this video part, mind you) and then ducks under a rail mid-slide. It's awesome.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Why Haven't I Seen This?- 24
There's tons of good skate footage out there. I just want to share something that's good that you maybe haven't seen before to get you stoked on skating.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
This week we have Tyler Gould up to bat. Tyler's sick, you guys. This video part alone features some really awesome fastplant variations (a la Jeff Stevens), one of the most solid backside flips I've ever seen, and a kickflip 5-0 that's just perfect in every way. I hope you like it.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
This week we have Tyler Gould up to bat. Tyler's sick, you guys. This video part alone features some really awesome fastplant variations (a la Jeff Stevens), one of the most solid backside flips I've ever seen, and a kickflip 5-0 that's just perfect in every way. I hope you like it.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
A Tribute to Pop Shuvits
It's pretty rare to see just a plain pop shuvit in a video part. It's pretty obvious why: it's just about the easiest trick you can do. A lot of kids learn shuvits before they can properly ollie, and I know that I could pop shuvit for weeks before I ever learned my first kickflip.
I think that a good pop shuvit really is a think of beauty though. For one thing, it's a true test of pop- there's no foot drag or flick, so all of the height comes from raw pop. Since all of the movement happens with your back foot, there's this cool symmetry where you start the trick with your back foot and stop it with your front foot. A good pop shuvit should look like your backfoot is delivering the tail of the board directly to your front foot. I can't help but feel alone in my appreciation of this trick though, because nobody else really raves about pop shuvits. So maybe through this tribute, I can convince you that a good pop shuvit is a beautiful thing. I'm not focusing on frontside shuvits, 360 shuvits, nollie shuvits, or fakie shuvits. Just regular, backside pop shuvits to really showcase how great this trick is.
For starters, let's look at Brad Staba's trick tip of a pop shuvit. It features a whole montage of good pop shuvit, but Staba has my favorite. It's a smooth, floating one that really just seems to work out perfectly.
I think that a good pop shuvit really is a think of beauty though. For one thing, it's a true test of pop- there's no foot drag or flick, so all of the height comes from raw pop. Since all of the movement happens with your back foot, there's this cool symmetry where you start the trick with your back foot and stop it with your front foot. A good pop shuvit should look like your backfoot is delivering the tail of the board directly to your front foot. I can't help but feel alone in my appreciation of this trick though, because nobody else really raves about pop shuvits. So maybe through this tribute, I can convince you that a good pop shuvit is a beautiful thing. I'm not focusing on frontside shuvits, 360 shuvits, nollie shuvits, or fakie shuvits. Just regular, backside pop shuvits to really showcase how great this trick is.
For starters, let's look at Brad Staba's trick tip of a pop shuvit. It features a whole montage of good pop shuvit, but Staba has my favorite. It's a smooth, floating one that really just seems to work out perfectly.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Why Haven't I Seen This?- 23
There's tons of good skate footage out there. I just want to share something that's good that you maybe haven't seen before to get you stoked on skating.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
This week we've got Tino Rincon. All I have to say about Tino is that he looks unnaturally natural on a board. At one point he does a nollie frontside 270 to back tail 270 out, and he does it with more ease than I thought possible. Enjoy.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be featuring clips from a great video that I stumbled upon titled Brainsworld. A lot of the spots in the video are also featured in the A Happy Medium series, which makes me think that these guys are from Arizona, although they're a bit younger than the Happy Medium crew.
This week we've got Tino Rincon. All I have to say about Tino is that he looks unnaturally natural on a board. At one point he does a nollie frontside 270 to back tail 270 out, and he does it with more ease than I thought possible. Enjoy.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Santa Monica Triple Set- ABD List
Hello ladies and gentlemen.
Did you know that Ryan Gallant did a kickflip backside noseblunt down the clipper ledge? Because I didn't until quite recently, and when I came across it, I stumbled onto the ABDarchives page for the famous clipper ledge.
Before I continue, just reflect on how awesome Ryan Gallant is, both for doing that trick and every other trick he's ever blessed our eyeballs with. Are we done reflecting? Good.
Anyway, I began to wonder what other famous spots had such pages, only to realize that very few seem to exist. Of course, a couple of famous spots are pretty well cataloged in other ways, so the most famous spot I could think of next was the Santa Monica triple set. When I began, I really didn't realize how much stuff had gone down at Santa Monica, but the spot always interested me. It's very distinct in videos, as it sits right on the beach and has a long history of crazy tricks going down there. It's a gap that is big enough that nobody really steps to it unless they're serious, but yet it's still manageable enough to be open to all kinds of possibilities- as we will see.
What I have here is (I think) a good start of a list of all the notable tricks that have happened at the Santa Monica triple set. I do acknowledge, however, that I almost certainly missed a few and for that reason, I'm asking for your help! If you know of another trick that has gone down at the set, let me know in the comments. I'll be updating the list as I discover new tricks.
NOTE: I apologize for the speed of the GIF's being kind of messed up. I couldn't find a better way to make them that didn't speed up the clip by almost double, so I tried to use slow motion video clips where possible so that they wouldn't quite have that weird hummingbird effect. Since this page is kind of heavy, the speed might also change depending on your internet connection, but I tried to be good about saying where each clip comes from so you could go see it for yourself if you choose.
For now, let's dive deep into skateboarding history and really appreciate some of the incredible feats that have gone down at this historic skate spot.
It was way back in 1993 that New World Order came out and Kareem Campbell opened up his part with an ollie down the triple set. Kareem's style is still great to watch today.
Did you know that Ryan Gallant did a kickflip backside noseblunt down the clipper ledge? Because I didn't until quite recently, and when I came across it, I stumbled onto the ABDarchives page for the famous clipper ledge.
Before I continue, just reflect on how awesome Ryan Gallant is, both for doing that trick and every other trick he's ever blessed our eyeballs with. Are we done reflecting? Good.
Anyway, I began to wonder what other famous spots had such pages, only to realize that very few seem to exist. Of course, a couple of famous spots are pretty well cataloged in other ways, so the most famous spot I could think of next was the Santa Monica triple set. When I began, I really didn't realize how much stuff had gone down at Santa Monica, but the spot always interested me. It's very distinct in videos, as it sits right on the beach and has a long history of crazy tricks going down there. It's a gap that is big enough that nobody really steps to it unless they're serious, but yet it's still manageable enough to be open to all kinds of possibilities- as we will see.
What I have here is (I think) a good start of a list of all the notable tricks that have happened at the Santa Monica triple set. I do acknowledge, however, that I almost certainly missed a few and for that reason, I'm asking for your help! If you know of another trick that has gone down at the set, let me know in the comments. I'll be updating the list as I discover new tricks.
NOTE: I apologize for the speed of the GIF's being kind of messed up. I couldn't find a better way to make them that didn't speed up the clip by almost double, so I tried to use slow motion video clips where possible so that they wouldn't quite have that weird hummingbird effect. Since this page is kind of heavy, the speed might also change depending on your internet connection, but I tried to be good about saying where each clip comes from so you could go see it for yourself if you choose.
For now, let's dive deep into skateboarding history and really appreciate some of the incredible feats that have gone down at this historic skate spot.
It was way back in 1993 that New World Order came out and Kareem Campbell opened up his part with an ollie down the triple set. Kareem's style is still great to watch today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)