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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: Dark Knight on January 06, 2023, 04:43:24 AM
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I grew up in CA and TX. In both I ran with some heavy hitters. But when you skate with them every day it’s not a surprise. Regardless of the friends I skated with I was privy to some amazing skating first hand. People that just blew my mind in person; almost made you learn tricks.
Daewon
Koston
MJ
Biebel (his nosegrinds are seriously insane he looks like he’s floating)
Pat Channita
Tom Penny
Rowley
Lennie Kirk
Mike Carroll
Reynolds
Alex Olson
Pretty much any vert pro I’ve ever seen. Shit is so crazy to me
That’s just off the dome. In CA I grew up skating with Danny Montoya and he’s seriously insane, but you get used to it seeing it every day. In TX (I was back and forth as a teen) I grew up with Anthony Correa who was also insane. Not name dropping, just giving some reference. They’d be on my list had I not skated with them frequently. Daewon is so good it’s ridiculous. I just sat there behind the fence spying on him at Ramona, didn’t even bother to hop the fence haha. Koston is the same. I met him in LBC right before the first Es game of skate and he was practicing flat at the LBC courthouse. Just watching him made me learn how to do certain tricks. Switch bs big spin in particular.
Sorry for the long winded post, I don’t have my sleep meds.
Free Max B
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I saw Stefan Janoski in 2006 at Sants in Barcelona. He just got on Nike at the time I think. He landed almost every trick he tried and everything was switch. When we was warming up he did every ledge trick regular stance and then switch right after: 5050, switch 5050, tailslide, switch tailslide.. after a while he did a switch flip fs 50-50 on the round flatbar first try too. He was shockingly good and it was just him and Biebel there hanging out. It was the first time I saw someone that good. Since then i've seen a lot of pros in real life but nothing compares to that memory.. I was also 15 or 16 :)
I
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The lines I’d see Anthony Pappalardo do at Love on a daily basis from ‘00-02 were absolutely nuts.
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This post made me think I've never seen a pro skater or at least somebody with skills skateboarding. I skated from 1999 to 2009 almost everyday and the most impressive trick I've seen could be a bs crooked grind on a ledge at the skatepark. We had 0 resources for skateboarding. I remember the best skaters at the skatepark practicing axel stalls so that was the level... Somebody olleing the pyramid was a huge deal.
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The lines I’d see Anthony Pappalardo do at Love on a daily basis from ‘00-02 were absolutely nuts.
Correa used to say how good him and wenning were way before they blew up. Kept talking about “these two kids sleep at the ledges and get up and skate all day” he was propping up Pappalardo really hard. Alex Olson as well.
Quim Cardona is really sick in person as well
I also forgot to put Lavar McBride on the list, kid was so fluid and consistent. Ramona used to be our spot, and during a short period the whole world team would be there. I was there the day he did the last line in this part.
2:52
https://youtu.be/iKO51HdH1CU
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Willis, Tyler Bledsoe, Kerry Getz, Koston, Donny Barley, Andy Stone, Ricky Oyola, Kalis….. too many others to list. But these are all just on normal street sessions. Seeing the entire bones brigade session a 4” inch metal lipped curb at a gas station in Gettysburg was pretty mind blowing also though. Oh and can’t forget Rodney Jones
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Oh yeah there was a Fourstar demo at Southside in HTX and Bledsoe and Puig were fucking insane
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Carlos De Andrade was amazing in his consistency, beastly 360 flips to fakie on transition too.
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Haven’t seen many pros where I’m from, just the odd demo, but I remember being surprised how good Nick Garcia was in person like 12+ years ago.
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Also saw Henry Sanchez at Pier 7 and he ripped.
Watched Kareem and Natas rip a demo in 1995.
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tom asta did the most perfect swflip back tail shuv in the most casual way going back to his starting spot to try a line. dude is on another level with ledges
ishod is the most mind blowing tho by far. he's like a gazelle in the serenghetti
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I think anyone who's seen Brophy skate in person doesn't talk shit on him.
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Matt beach
Reynolds
Alex Olson
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I think anyone who's seen Brophy skate in person doesn't talk shit on him.
GANG!
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I'm old so there are tons but my favorites......
Randomly skated a grocery cart rail one night at a Vons with Alfonso Rawls & Caine Gayle and that shit was unbelievable.
Ed Templeton, Huntington High benches, he went faster than pretty much anyone I saw at the time.
Sean Young, slippery parking garage hip in Atlanta that is still there and is barely skateable but he was going over a trash can at top speed
More recently (as in not 1990s) Grant at what was his local is probably the best skating I've ever seen in person.
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I watched Phil Shao skate a demo, but he was barely trying and gave me an awful stinkeye (which I no doubt deserved) when I tried to frontside flip the little bank-to-bank gap after seeing him try to do it.
I pulled up on a curb spot and Cory Kennedy and Simon Bannerot were there skating it together. I just sat back and watched, of course. Both of them are just astonishingly good, but CK is probably the single most natural skateboarder I've ever seen - and this was like ~6 months out of prison. This is not a controversial opinion here, but without hyperbole he is one of the best to ever pick up a skateboard.
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went to the skatepark once and saw Ishod there. i ended up barely even skating that day cuz i was just staring at Ishod the entire time. he wasn't doing anything insane or anything but everything he did looked so fun and effortless.
Danny Fuenzalida is always at my local and its nice watching him barely try and do shit i could only dream of.
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Tommy Sandoval
I’ve never seen someone do flip tricks down big gaps like that before. He did everything within a few tries and it was all super gnarly
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Saw a Zero Demo once. They definitely won the demo. The decks of the ramps would shake when one of them landed something. Pretty unreal. Garrett Hill did a pop shuv on flat and was still going up after he caught it… pretty wild.
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I saw Tom Asta in person and realized he skated exactly how I wish I could
Young Ben Raybourn and also Dan Nepcha and a 1031 demo. Dan was just really good, at the time he was doing kickflip body varial front board, and it was pretty sick. I had never heard of Ben but he was just doing tricks. Going back and forth across the park. Every movement was a trick. It was unreal.
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Lots of different people over the years. I was always stoked to see Kien Lieu hopping over things. Best thing I’ve seen recently was Tommy Sandoval and TBone playing skate at city. Tommy was obviously still really good but TBone was killing it too. Way better than anything mid 40s dude should be.
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j cassanova at a girl/chocolate demo in 06, he just rifled off trick after trick on a handrail like it was nothing
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Ben Raybourn is super rad.
I saw Jereme Rogers at a girl demo and he didn’t miss a trick, no one knew who he was. He just kept rattling off tricks.
I saw Brophy at the aforementioned Fourstar demo and he was ripping.
I saw someone mention Matt Beach. He’s definitely on the list.
Javier Sarmiento is crazy good too
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One time I saw Nate jones and Pete ramondetta at this loading dock ledge on the embarcadero that I don’t think exist anymore. Nate jones was practicing his bs180 and kept checking with Pete to see how lazy they were looking. That was pretty sick lol
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Lots of Brazilians rippers, to name a few:
Luan de Oliveira
Nilton Neves
Rodil Ferrugem
Carlos Ribeiro
Alex Carolino
Andre Hiena
TX
Tiago
Formiga
Luiz Apelao
Akira Shiroma
Klaus Bohms
Wilton Souza
My favorite in particular was Akira Shiroma, very creative and has a lot of fun on his board. Formiga is incredible, amazing pop and very consistent, can skate anything. Alex Carolino is incredible to watch as well.
A few Americans...
Gravette
Kimbel
Emile Laurent
Lockwood
Raybourn
Cairo Foster
Mark Scott
Frank Shaw
Monk
Alex Foy
Grant Taylor
Sebo
Josh Falk
Brent Atchley
Tony Ellis
Boserio
Tony and Ben were my favorites by far, Tony skates like a war tank. Emile too, very powerful and fast. Josh Falk impressed me as well.
Edit: Adding Henry Gartland to the list, RIP...saw him skating at that CSS event where they built a miniature of hubba hideout, he was killing it..
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went to the skatepark once and saw Ishod there. i ended up barely even skating that day cuz i was just staring at Ishod the entire time. he wasn't doing anything insane or anything but everything he did looked so fun and effortless.
Danny Fuenzalida is always at my local and its nice watching him barely try and do shit i could only dream of.
Got to see fuenzalida with the think crew when dyet and lizard king were on, those dudes are all underrated.
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he may not be heavily regarded as a transition skater but watching sammy baca skate a skatepark is incredibly entertaining
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Seeing PJ, Kalis, Stevie, Mike Mo, Jack Curtin, and Tom Asta skate in person was incredible to see the talent they have. Chany, Alex Olson, Kenny Anderson and Jason Spivey all have style that sticks in your brain
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McCrank, in his prime and well after his prime. Amazing.
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Leo Romero at a demo before he was well known. Flip into everything on rails, that was really crazy to see at the time.
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Ishod blew my mind when I saw him skate the first (and only) time.
It was at a Nike demo and it was clearly more impressing to watch him skate than the other Nike "supertars" like P-Rod, Shane etc.
Mike Carrol was really dominant next to the back then stacked Girl roster, but 16 year old J Casanova was impressing to watch as well.
same goes for Phil Zwijsen.
saw a little kid destroy mystic park which turned out to be axel crusher... he was maybe 12-13 back then.
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went to the skatepark once and saw Ishod there. i ended up barely even skating that day cuz i was just staring at Ishod the entire time. he wasn't doing anything insane or anything but everything he did looked so fun and effortless.
Danny Fuenzalida is always at my local and its nice watching him barely try and do shit i could only dream of.
Fuenzalida is definitely up there with skill and ease. Miami has a bunch of real good skaters for sure.
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KB, Dylan, Nick Matthews
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Saw PJ at Skaters Island one night (right after WHL came out) doing casual varial heel b/s lips on the pyramid flat bar, hardflips on transition and other insanity, it was surreal to my like 12-13 year old mind.
Chris Cole won a Zero demo I went to one time, first try 360 flip front 50/50s and nollie flip back 50/50s on a rather large hubba (most everything was first try).
Dana Ericson nollie flip back tails on like 5-6 foot transition every time.
Watching Bachinsky skate transition was incredible as well.
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This post made me think I've never seen a pro skater or at least somebody with skills skateboarding. I skated from 1999 to 2009 almost everyday and the most impressive trick I've seen could be a bs crooked grind on a ledge at the skatepark. We had 0 resources for skateboarding. I remember the best skaters at the skatepark practicing axel stalls so that was the level... Somebody olleing the pyramid was a huge deal.
Sounds like you grew up in an isolated town pre internet, just like me. The element team came and visited my local in like 99 or so without Bam, and I remember just being mildly impressed. That was about it.
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Eric Dressen
Jason Lee
Mark "the Gonzo" Gonzales
Ron Chatman
Hawk
Hosoi
Mariano
Mullen
D Way
Dressen and J Lee were my favorites to see live though.
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i've seen tyler surrey shortly after he moved to barcelona at the el born skateplaza at ciutadella and it was incredible how this dude arrived at the park and within minutes was doing everything first try on every obstacle in this small plaza with subsequently updating each and every trick on every obstacle there is and so to say constantly one-upping himself. it was incredible and so fucking easy for him. this dude can really do everything on the skateboard. he's a nice dude too.
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I've seen alot of pro and ams skate Tampa. KB and Alex Olson are next level though, they were just fucking around and do the hardest shit casually.
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DLX demo, 2008, Martinez, CA skatepark. There were guys from all their brands—but Busenitz made everyone else look like a child.
Saw Kalis at 3rd and Army and his 3 flip was better in person.
TNT was a dick, slamming tallboys on the hill at Potrero. But when he started skating it was magic and power. Again, Busenitz at Potrero made everyone except Tony look dumb.
Jake Phelps looked like more of a opioid abuser in person, dropping N bombs.
People who suck in person: Tony Miorana
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every time i see tony karr skate in person i just sit down and watch. shits magical.
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Dennis Busenitz in 2003 at make a wish in Houston was the best skating I’ve ever seen in person. Second would be watching Brad Hiser skate anywhere.
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I’ve seen matt gottwig do some shit seemingly out of nowhere that’s truly impressive
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San Diego double set contest around ~2005
Bastien warming up on the 5 flat 5 with a 100 mph kickflip popped head high while everyone else was warming up with Ollies. Proceeds to bs flip and switch heel it first try. Full cab flipped with a few tries then sat smoking a spliff for the remainder. His tricks flipped insanely fast in person.
Same contest, young Tyler surrey and wes kremer playing skate in the parking lot and seshing a parking block. I remember Wes had a cast. They seriously did every single standard flip trick first try and then started doing oddball gnarly tricks like switch flip shifties, bigger flips, etc.
San Dieguito 10 stair contest in 2001/2002
Billy marks rifled off like a half dozen flip in tricks quickly including a kickflip feeble. Peter Smolik did a switch hard flip on flat total illusion flip style while holding a beer. My dad made us walk away from him lmao.
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Dennis Busenitz in 2003 at make a wish in Houston was the best skating I’ve ever seen in person. Second would be watching Brad Hiser skate anywhere.
Brad and Nate Broussard should be household names
7:16
https://youtu.be/9bw-bdpdfzw
EDIT: start at 6:30 so you can peep Wayne Patrick
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Mike Carroll blew my damn mind at a Lakai demo in I think ‘03.
Pappalardo was there as well (he was still baggy Pops then) skating this little ledge and his consistency was insane. People were just calling out crazy tricks and he was nailing them.
Don't know if anyone knows who he is, but Montreal local Carl Labelle was a fucking monster at the time (early-mid 2000's Crail flow/am maybe?). Shaped like a football player, could ollie your house and had a really technical game. Was privileged to watch him tear Peace Park a new asshole more than once.
I've seen Grant Patterson skate many times. Dude's tiny, had huge pop and the best damn nollie flip tricks I've ever seen.
Wade Desarmo is so good it's almost annoying. I've seen him switch backside flip a long 4-5 stair like 25 times , landed every single one of them bolts, every make was perfect yet he always seemed bummed because it wasn't perfect in his eyes.
Welsh skates really fucking fast for a guy his size.
I've seen TJ Rogers skate an entire demo without missing a single trick. Fucking mind blowing and I'm not even a fan of his.
Karl Watson looks even better in person than on tape.
Wes Kremer is a madman. Probably the most talented dude I've ever seen. I'm 98% convinced he has no idea what trick he's about to try and just pulls something out of his ass at the last second and nails it. I partied with him that night and boy can he party.
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I’ve seen matt gottwig do some shit seemingly out of nowhere that’s truly impressive
I've seen Matt Gottwig picking up Thai food.
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saw Cromer at a huf demo and it was gorgeous. small dude with massive pop.
Dylan obviously.
TJ rogers, as mentioned before was so good!
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I was in barca at the wallie/bank spot at Arco de Triunfo. I was there for about a week and skated there every day. Gustav and Tyler came and gustav skated that shit like it was a really mellow bank. He'd pop out of it ridiculously high, it was crazy. He did a frontside flip out of it first try, i didn't even see it but i accidentally filmed it so he blew my mind when i was editing 7 months later. I tried frontside flip for about 1/2 hours and didn't get anywhere close. Insane to see the ease.
I shook Rodney's hand, anything more was not needed.
i've seen tyler surrey shortly after he moved to barcelona at the el born skateplaza at ciutadella and it was incredible how this dude arrived at the park and within minutes was doing everything first try on every obstacle in this small plaza with subsequently updating each and every trick on every obstacle there is and so to say constantly one-upping himself. it was incredible and so fucking easy for him. this dude can really do everything on the skateboard. he's a nice dude too.
Never had him on my radar until i met him, he's really nice and crazy good
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Late 90s Pat Channita was incredible. He landed every trick, every try. I swear I would see him at a skatepark for 2+ hrs and never fall, while also not playing it safe. As underrated as they come.
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Late 90s Pat Channita was incredible. He landed every trick, every try. I swear I would see him at a skatepark for 2+ hrs and never fall, while also not playing it safe. As underrated as they come.
Skated with him quite a bit. Dude was so good.
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I've only ever seen Dill walking around not doing shit but looking hella faded. It still kind of blew my mind because he had just became a celebrity as the Ozzy show had just came out. I've seen James Kelch bomb hills and do 360 flips hella fucking high as a young kid, I don't know how big he is, but he was big to us
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Saw a shortish 5’9 dude hippy jump over something that was literally up to his shoulders most impressive thing I’ve seen in person
Also I was walking by Tompkins once and I saw that King kid switch ollieing over a full size orange jersey barrier, like one of the ones that’s like 4 feet+ high and a foot thick. I didn’t see him land it but he was getting over it, pretty crazy irl
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Primitive demo with Shane O’Neil and Diego was insane….everyone was so good. I’ve seen lots of pros over the years but for a two hour window, it was like 30 park NBDs went down.
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There have been a few times where the only other person at the skatepark besides myself was Grant Taylor. I’ve seen him ollie up to frontside grind the mini ramp from flat, use the roll in to hit the box, backside ollie head high into disaster, and do the coolest airs. Truly a sight to see
I’ve also seen Tony Hawk land the 900. Twice
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Didn’t really grow up gettin to see many pros live but once I got back to my hometown from college and our diy had blown up, I’ve been privileged to see and normally skate with some amazing folks, pro, almost pro, should be pro. First has to be Gus Gordon, just a fucking animal and glad to see him gettin his flowers, I had never seen anyone get so much air and have such reckless abandon.
Next would be Chris Cope, our diy is heavy on the transition side and my god he just glides thru that shit, so effortless. He once slammed pretty good in the bowl and just casually says “pretty sure I ripped my ballsack open” and left to take care of it. Hoss shit.
Joey Ragali is now a good friend but rifles off some really amazing tricks at all times, just makes switch look so natural, and the tum yeto dudes who have came thru for a demo or otherwise are just all sick. Axel treated the park like he skated it every day, Dakota rips super hard too. and fast. The Roger dudes came thru recently, Reese Barton and David Langston were rippin so casually it made no sense. creature homies were there so Kevin Baekkel also was insane to watch. Billy Rohans mom lives down our way so he came down a few summers back and damn for his age he was so fucking smooth and fluid it was wild. Matthew Martin, not pro, but also pulls out tricks I’ve never even dreamed we’re possible so easily, noseblunt variations on transition that just seem impossible to have such control. And last but not least, Ben Bradford, not pro but is in my eyes, the shit I’ve seen him do just is out of this world. Oh fuck also Sam Sneed, may have seen in the fdr rip ride footy or sk8mafia insta or Indy insta, young but def on his way. Truly some of the most effortless and high stakes skating I’ve seen came from that tall bean
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I have seen Kelvin Hoefler skate my local a few times. It is unbelievable how good he is.
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Pat Burke at Black Box in like 2011 was pretty incredible
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Donny Barely. It wasn't so much anything that he did since we were skating a curb, but I think he was the first pro I ever skated "with" and it was just insane that he was skating the same spot as me.
Bastien was amazing. He stomped every trick and the switch heel up the Tempe 6 stair was mind blowing.
Hassan was amazing. Dude skates with so much power.
Jaws was amazing as a kid. I remember watching him do a McTwist and then immediately roll out of the bowl and do a back 5-0 down the 9 rail at Tempe. A run with a McTwist and a handrail trick is pretty insane.
Murawski is amazing as a skater, but it is just incredible how welcoming he is and how he supports everyone around him. It was mind blowing to see him be so down to earth and cool to everyone.
Wade DesArmo is impressive for the same reason. It was insane to see him come to the Crailtap demo in Toronto and just sit in the audience and cheer everyone on like a total skate nerd.
Kader's tail drop at the Dime GC. And Ishod having so much board control with an injured ankle at the Dime GC Game Of Skate was insane.
McCrank at the Courts in Vancouver. That man is amazingly talented and makes everything look easy.
T-Funk skate the handrail at the Dime OC. And, Decenzo attack that stair set with ease at the Dime OC.
Finally, interacting with Dill blew my mind. It was beyond painful and I couldn't wait for him to stop talking.
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I got to see Lewis when he was really young and came to Sweden, and got to see him go grow into the legend he became. He was truly something else.
There was also a skater in Sweden few would know - Andreas Engelkes that was unbelievable. He was on evol, t-mags company before Osiris. Dude was miles before most people and basically outskated every pro in the world champs 94. Probably the skater I’ve seen live that was so much before anyone.
Ali and Pontus as groms was pretty amazing as well.
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mike maldonado
ronnie creager and reemo at a blind/city stars demo
jahmir is wild in person
jeff rasp rips as well. does shit at fdr that scares me
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Go skate day Andrew Reynolds in Vancouver, it was sick he just stomped around town like Godzilla……
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The first Emerica wild in the streets NYC. Andrew Reynolds, Leo Romero, Aaron Suski, Sean Payne, Nesto Sutton, Tony Cox stood out that day.
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I was there when gilette did the fs alleyoop sw bs 50 then bs alleyoops sw fs fifty line at warschauwerstrasse. Never saw someone skate a flat ledge like that and never saw it since
Casey rigney
Grant Taylor shut down our local indoor the day it opened
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Matt Hensley in 1988. I think Shackle Me Not had either not been released, or no one had seen it.
Sean Sheffey H-Street/pre-Life era.
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Seeing Julien Stranger skate the BQE DIY in Brooklyn was magical.
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Tom Asta is really good at skating
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I've seen griffin gas skate in person. That mf is so fucking good. That is when i knew skateboarding was at another level.
Tommy Gorrula was so good too. Smooth and consistent as fuck.
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Seeing Julien Stranger skate the BQE DIY in Brooklyn was magical.
of all the dudes at all the spots what’s the story here
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I saw Tom Penny skate the HB park on a trip to Cali in 95. On everything, he did not miss a trick in the 30 minutes he was there. Absolutely nothing I’ve seen since compared.
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I forgot to mention :
Matt Mumford skating the Death Bowl at Pizzie Park in Australia after drinking 6-7 tall boys in the hot-ass Australian sun, it was like 42 degrees. I was scared to just drop in, dude was fucking killing it like it was a mini ramp. Loudest grinds I've ever heard.
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John Dilorenzo is some sort of Floridian tech wizard. It was a trip, everyone stopped skating just to see.
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I also saw Rick McCrank in 2001 and he had absolutely no fear, could skate anything in front of him. I remember Brian Anderson tre flipping higher than I could ever ollie.
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I saw Tom Penny skate the HB park on a trip to Cali in 95. On everything, he did not miss a trick in the 30 minutes he was there. Absolutely nothing I’ve seen since compared.
That’s where I saw him frequently. Also got shot at there by skinheads. Fuck HB and Orange County in general.
HB has been historically known as a skinhead hotbed
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/police-discover-more-than-50-firearms-while-serving-search-warrant-at-huntington-beach-home/amp/
https://orangecounty.adl.org/news/from-the-kkk-to-skinheads-a-century-of-fighting-hate-in-orange-county/
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Brent Atchley regularly at Burnside around Elementality/This is my Element era. The flow was unreal.
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People who suck in person: Tony Miorana
That dude was the fucking worst, but I hear he’s sober now, so good on him. He used to be insufferable.
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I forgot to mention :
Matt Mumford skating the Death Bowl at Pizzie Park in Australia after drinking 6-7 tall boys in the hot-ass Australian sun, it was like 42 degrees. I was scared to just drop in, dude was fucking killing it like it was a mini ramp. Loudest grinds I've ever heard.
Death bowl. Pizzie park. 3L of beer. Australian scorcher. Fuckin legendary mate
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Pfanner. Saw him when i was living in asia. unbelievable. his "simple" tricks don't always translate to video maybe, but some of the stuff he did in Korea was legit insane.
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Bastien Salabanzi, Geoff Rowley, Jereme Rogers, Danny Cerezini, Zered Bassett, Axel Cruysberghs
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There's been three people I've seen skate in person and I've said "wow" out loud, to myself
Brad Cromer, Rick McCrank, & Alex Olson
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I’ll add Miles Silva skating a rail/hubba/stair set and landing almost everything first try. Crazy flip in stuff.
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We grew up skating with Tyshawn for about 2 years before someone in our group went into Supreme and showed them footage of him doing a tre flip down a 9 stair in battery park that inevitably got him introduced to that entire scene and changed the trajectory of his career forever. But boy were those years special, and he was an insane talent. The threshold for being gnarly back then was a little different considering if you've ever skated New York City you'll find there are very few handrails, but he would literally never hesitate to jump onto any rail whether or not it even seemed possible, which is funny because all people have to say these days is how he doesn't skate rails. He would blow our minds with that shit, I remember watching him try to 5050 down the indoor 10 handrail before they redid the entire spot, from my knowledge nobody had ever touched that thing and while I can't recall him landing it that day, the kink at the end and the steepness made it seem truly impossible. He would do shit like this on a daily basis, camera or not, just to test his own ability and give us something to be juiced on. He also nollie flipped the same 10 stair on a waterlogged 40oz shaped cruiser board.
Another thing is he was probably 10 or 11 around this time and was very small compared to the rest of us who were some years older, and literally could not pop flat ground tricks yet given his size. But if you took him to a stair set and told him to try a trick, he'd stick or roll away from it within 5 tries. And I'm talking any trick, I seen him nollie backside heel a big ass gap in minutes never having done the trick once on flat. He prolly never did one in his life before that. Hardflipped into courthouse just cuz I told him he wouldn't, no camera. In 2011 the kid who we'd film with's computer crashed and he lost all the clips we had filmed up until that point, including loads of young TJ footage that will unfortunately never see the light of day. Basically everything he had done prior to the shared part he dropped with Frankie Spears was on that kids computer. Regardless, nothing could compare to watching that shit in real time. There are traces of skatepark footage from that era but really nothing from before he properly started getting hooked up at Supreme (although he was getting some Emerica's and Toy boards at the time, I still have no idea how he facilitated that as he was super young and had really only been skating for prolly a year or two at most, but I guess you could say it was pretty evident he was a next-level talent)
And fuck anyone that has anything to say about Tyshawn. New York is crusty as shit, the spots suck, there are cracks everywhere, traffic will smoke you, people will smoke you, security will smoke you. It is not easy at all, and going pro after growing up here was and still is a one in a million ordeal (no pun intended :P)
EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm almost positive he was the first one to do a backside noseblunt on an NYC handrail. That clip is in the shared part I mentioned above
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I don’t know if anyone said this yet but Kyle Nicholson is the best skateboarder to live.
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I’ve been to many Tampa Pro contests and the best part is watching the guys skate during practice.
two stand outs:
Austyn Gillette. flowing around the course and landing everything first try with mad style and grace.
Perfect tre flips both fakie and forward just floating. It was inspiring
Chris Cole. The bag of tricks were so deep. Did a line: kick flip krooks, then airwalk Sal flip, then back nose blunt on a ledge, straight goofing off. It was impressive.
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Provost, berle on foundation, then again on chocolate, and Victor aceves come to mind
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I have seen pretty much every big name pro in the late 80s early 2000 era, from Hosoi to Hensley, from Mariano to Cardiel, from Burnquist to Boulala, and pretty much everyone in between.
Top 3 that blew my mind:
Penny
Salabanzi
Creager
This was mostly at contests and demos so I most probably didn't even see them at their best. Still they stood out then and also now from my clouded memories, they just seemed insanely good at skateboarding.
Honorable mention to MJ, I cant remember as much from him but I always loved the way the skates.
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wandered into the session in (I think?) Harlem where Josh Wilson fakie big flipped that 3 block where you have to pop up and over the first one. A bunch of the Bronze dudes were there, including Jacopo who was doing laps around the park with looooong noseslides, probably warming up for his line, and John Shanahan.
We were posted at the other side of the spot where trapasso does kickflip back tail in and now, skating the ledges over there and trying not to kook it. We had our backpacks on the roughly mid thigh to lower waist-ish high (on me, I’m 6’2”) ledge and Shanahan cruises over and while asking politely if we could move the bags so he could skate the ledge off the drop, proceeds to ollie up it effortlessly. It’s something a lot of people could do, but he did it in a manner that made it seem less than second nature. Kinda like how tons of people can shoot a jump shot but when you see a pro shoot a jump shot it’s obvious there’s a level of talent difference.
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McCrank is the only pro I've seen skate up close in person and that guy can destroy any skatepark with ease. Other than that I'd only ever seen pros skating from a distance from the stands at a couple of Slam City Jams in the early 2000s.
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wandered into the session in (I think?) Harlem where Josh Wilson fakie big flipped that 3 block where you have to pop up and over the first one. A bunch of the Bronze dudes were there, including Jacopo who was doing laps around the park with looooong noseslides, probably warming up for his line, and John Shanahan.
We were posted at the other side of the spot where trapasso does kickflip back tail in and now, skating the ledges over there and trying not to kook it. We had our backpacks on the roughly mid thigh to lower waist-ish high (on me, I’m 6’2”) ledge and Shanahan cruises over and while asking politely if we could move the bags so he could skate the ledge off the drop, proceeds to ollie up it effortlessly. It’s something a lot of people could do, but he did it in a manner that made it seem less than second nature. Kinda like how tons of people can shoot a jump shot but when you see a pro shoot a jump shot it’s obvious there’s a level of talent difference.
Yo, I was in Brooklyn at the the House of Vans during winter a few years ago and Josh Wilson, Andrew Wilson, Nik Stain and Mark Humienik were absolutely killing it. Nik Stain skates so fast it was reckless.
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Vincent Touzery. 2017ish
He had that “I don’t really need to try very hard but everything works out if I give it a few tries” type of deal.
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I saw Tom Penny skate the HB park on a trip to Cali in 95. On everything, he did not miss a trick in the 30 minutes he was there. Absolutely nothing I’ve seen since compared.
That’s where I saw him frequently. Also got shot at there by skinheads. Fuck HB and Orange County in general.
HB has been historically known as a skinhead hotbed
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/police-discover-more-than-50-firearms-while-serving-search-warrant-at-huntington-beach-home/amp/
https://orangecounty.adl.org/news/from-the-kkk-to-skinheads-a-century-of-fighting-hate-in-orange-county/
For sure. It’s the Deep South of SoCal. So many trash humans.
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Chris Cole, zero demo, 03. I was 10. He frontside flipped the pyramid to flat and the park was an ex WinnDixie, he almost hit his head on the overhead hanging ceiling light. Lindsey Robertson was killing it too.
Grew up skating around GT, he has been fucked since he was like 9. We built a shifty ramp out of plywood and a table, I rolled down it, he did a boosted kick flip off of it.
McCrank was at a demo and did like a darkslide stall forward flip out on a sawhorse. Mike Mo and a few other guys were all battling for.it as a joke but Rick just busted it out and looked around with surprise and a sly smile. Also did some fucked switch shit on the mini ramp
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wandered into the session in (I think?) Harlem where Josh Wilson fakie big flipped that 3 block where you have to pop up and over the first one. A bunch of the Bronze dudes were there, including Jacopo who was doing laps around the park with looooong noseslides, probably warming up for his line, and John Shanahan.
We were posted at the other side of the spot where trapasso does kickflip back tail in and now, skating the ledges over there and trying not to kook it. We had our backpacks on the roughly mid thigh to lower waist-ish high (on me, I’m 6’2”) ledge and Shanahan cruises over and while asking politely if we could move the bags so he could skate the ledge off the drop, proceeds to ollie up it effortlessly. It’s something a lot of people could do, but he did it in a manner that made it seem less than second nature. Kinda like how tons of people can shoot a jump shot but when you see a pro shoot a jump shot it’s obvious there’s a level of talent difference.
He’s such an insane skater to watch in person. My man popped the most perfect shuv off a bump to bar over one of those huge guard rails. He definitely has a snowboard style in the best way
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TX and Heitor are incredible good. P-rod is true consistent.
I saw Jake Donelly in demo and he kinda boring in person.
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Also Plunkett is a magician, no wonder he is such good homies with koston, similar goof around land anything type guy
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Living in Finland you never really see any big time pros but seeing local guys like Eniz Fazliov and Jaakko Ojanen is pretty cool. Eniz can skate everything and lands his tricks very quickly. Jaakko is a guy who seems to be usually just messing around. He can jump onto any grind like a fs croocked grind on a flatbar and just sit on it as long as he wants to and then pop out.
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I've never seen McCrank skate in person, but I think his name might be the most frequently mentioned in this thread and that's heartwarming.
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saw andy macdonald do a flyout kickflip indy when i was 11. changed my life forever
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Nick trapasso was dope to see in like 09
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Chris Senn and Eric Ricks in Rochester NY way back around the Samurai Skates era. First pro skaters i ever seen in person let alone met and talked to. I was hyped.
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Saw Yuto, Shane and Ish at Stoner Park a few years ago. Some of the most impressive skating I’ve seen first hand.
As a kid I attended XGames Philly and saw Bob Burnquist’s legendary vert finals run- that was truly mindblowing.
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Saw Yuto, Shane and Ish at Stoner Park a few years ago. Some of the most impressive skating I’ve seen first hand.
As a kid I attended XGames Philly and saw Bob Burnquist’s legendary vert finals run- that was truly mindblowing.
The fakie 5-0 fakie flip one?
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Saw Yuto, Shane and Ish at Stoner Park a few years ago. Some of the most impressive skating I’ve seen first hand.
As a kid I attended XGames Philly and saw Bob Burnquist’s legendary vert finals run- that was truly mindblowing.
The fakie 5-0 fakie flip one?
https://youtu.be/vXy2mhW9Cwk
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Watching Chris Cole in 2004 at a demo was crazy, he has board control that is out of this world.
Luis Tolentino in 2009-2011 was crazy. He is mad short and had ups like an NBA player. Plus he was really nice.
Morgan Smith has board control like Chris Cole. Super nice guy. No ego.
Same thing is true about Silas Baxter-Neal. Super nice dude.
I went to a demo at Hollenbeck for the Alienworkshop team and took my roommate in 2010. He doesn't/didn't skate, so I didn't tell him anything just to see who he was into. AVE was his favorite.
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Willy Santos - randomly seeing him effortlessly destroy a skate shop bowl in the early 90s in upstate NY after driving across the border to shop was an eye opener about the true levels of pro skating.
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Watching Wade/Morgan Smith fuck around at Dunbat makes me wonder what went wrong with my physicality. Morgan deserves Creager-level respect.
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Living in Finland you never really see any big time pros but seeing local guys like Eniz Fazliov and Jaakko Ojanen is pretty cool. Eniz can skate everything and lands his tricks very quickly. Jaakko is a guy who seems to be usually just messing around. He can jump onto any grind like a fs croocked grind on a flatbar and just sit on it as long as he wants to and then pop out.
Back in the day when companies did euro demos still we had so many good tours in Finland, got to see plenty of my favorite pros. Like Black Label just after Label Kills, Enjoi when Marc was still on etc etc but still most amazing skater I’ve ever seen live is William Phan, dude did the hardest tricks first try with pure style.
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Watching Wade/Morgan Smith fuck around at Dunbat makes me wonder what went wrong with my physicality. Morgan deserves Creager-level respect.
He got it. Unfortunately prematurely kicked off blind then given nothing is the respect creager got
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Saw Yuto, Shane and Ish at Stoner Park a few years ago. Some of the most impressive skating I’ve seen first hand.
As a kid I attended XGames Philly and saw Bob Burnquist’s legendary vert finals run- that was truly mindblowing.
The fakie 5-0 fakie flip one?
https://youtu.be/vXy2mhW9Cwk
Being an adult and being able to recognize switch makes this pretty impressive. As a kid, I just saw people flying around a half-pipe and didn't understand anything I was looking at.
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Saw Yuto, Shane and Ish at Stoner Park a few years ago. Some of the most impressive skating I’ve seen first hand.
As a kid I attended XGames Philly and saw Bob Burnquist’s legendary vert finals run- that was truly mindblowing.
The fakie 5-0 fakie flip one?
https://youtu.be/vXy2mhW9Cwk
Being an adult and being able to recognize switch makes this pretty impressive. As a kid, I just saw people flying around a half-pipe and didn't understand anything I was looking at.
I've never appreciated vert skating but switch BS Lipslide on a poper half pipe is insane. I got no shame in admitting that watching vert on X-Games on ESPN is what got me into skateboarding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM3lTnirMlY&ab_channel=coribald
This is also insane.
Edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6t5_sLPfk&ab_channel=ReclaimedVHS
"Andy MacDonald produced several tricks with names longer than a long thing....."
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Chris haslam. Unbelievably consistent and obviously creative.
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Chris haslam. Unbelievably consistent and obviously creative.
Years ago there was a contest where thrasher made two huge sets of stairs Infront of the Sydney Opera house. Haslam was just standing at the back of the stairs and some kid asked him to sign something and he took his time to talk to the kid. Then another kid came up and same thing and then another kid and so on until he had a decent size crowd. He talked and was nice and signed stuff for every kid that came up for seriously over two hours (basically the entire contest). Best guy.
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tj rogers shocked me the most when i saw him at the marble benches in berlin. he was just fucking around with a line, no filmer, i don’t remember the whole line but his first trick was a switch pop shuv nosegrind 180 and he did that trick every single try, literally he didn’t miss it once and i saw him do it at least 10 times. these benches are kinda tall too.
other than that ishod, zion wright, mason silva
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A few years ago th DC team came to my town to skate some local spots, Wes, Evan and Tiago were all mind-blowing.
Ben Koppl was a sleeper for me, I'd seen his ig thought he was just about cool goofing around in bowls but I kid you not I've never seen anyone skate street like this guy, he's tall, skates really fast, and just goes. He skates things other people wouldn't and seems to make up tricks on the fly but still just cruises confidently landing 1st t.
Nick Dias has the best pop I think I'll ever see.
Edit: I often run into Tom penny, it feels like being in church or sthg
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Molinar flip fs tailslide at 4:43, popwar demo 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqpjnHmz5c&list=PL39F968DE1C327592&index=5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqpjnHmz5c&list=PL39F968DE1C327592&index=5)
Despite living in a big city in the south of France, pros almost never visited, and still don't, or sometimes did but it was poorly advertised so we'd knew after the fact.
Seeing that contest at 28:25 would have been huge but I missed it.
Arto, O'connor, Koston, McCrank, BA !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-dxKD7PnU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-dxKD7PnU)
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Molinar flip fs tailslide at 4:43, popwar demo 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqpjnHmz5c&list=PL39F968DE1C327592&index=5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqpjnHmz5c&list=PL39F968DE1C327592&index=5)
Despite living in a big city in the south of France, pros almost never visited, and still don't, or sometimes did but it was poorly advertised so we'd knew after the fact.
Seeing that contest at 28:25 would have been huge but I missed it.
Arto, O'connor, Koston, McCrank, BA !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-dxKD7PnU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-dxKD7PnU)
Damn didn't know this Popwar tour video existed, there is never enough Popwar footage in the world!
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definitely rowan zorilla. seeing him skate in person shows off his loose fluid style so much more. he was doing that no one else was doing at demos
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Only pro I've seen live is Enid, but I'm suprised nobody has mentioned Cookie Colburn.
Lookin at his insta, he seems like he'd blow everybody's mind who sees him skate
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at tompkins i saw BA frontside flip off a kicker over a barrier that was cool cus i didnt realize how tall dude was, with a huge board and huge wheels.
nik stain and troy gibson i saw in/around tompkins just flowing around, troy was smooth and nik just skates fast it looks good in person
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Lots of Brazilians rippers, to name a few:
Luan de Oliveira
Nilton Neves
Rodil Ferrugem
Carlos Ribeiro
Alex Carolino
Andre Hiena
TX
Tiago
Formiga
Luiz Apelao
Akira Shiroma
Klaus Bohms
Wilton Souza
My favorite in particular was Akira Shiroma, very creative and has a lot of fun on his board. Formiga is incredible, amazing pop and very consistent, can skate anything. Alex Carolino is incredible to watch as well.
A few Americans...
Gravette
Kimbel
Emile Laurent
Lockwood
Raybourn
Cairo Foster
Mark Scott
Frank Shaw
Monk
Alex Foy
Grant Taylor
Sebo
Josh Falk
Brent Atchley
Tony Ellis
Boserio
Tony and Ben were my favorites by far, Tony skates like a war tank. Emile too, very powerful and fast. Josh Falk impressed me as well.
Edit: Adding Henry Gartland to the list, RIP...saw him skating at that CSS event where they built a miniature of hubba hideout, he was killing it..
Klaus Bohms is insanely underrated even in brazil, insane bag of tricks.
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Enrique Lorenzo… unbelievably smooth
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roman livinska at macba winter 2015, he's still gnar now but I feel he never got to the spot he deserved. The line I saw him trying was nollie fs nosegrind nollie flip out mid ledge, push, nollie inward hell front nose to regs, turn around the statue and change stance, sw tre to end on a fakie nosegrind kickflip out. Dude did all the tricks separately and then tried the line, I remember him missing last trick 4-5 times, he was going through the ledge holes like nothing.
aurelien giraud in CPH OPEN berlin 2018, dude flipped his board on every obstacle he touched at dogshit, and that place its hard to skate, super tight.
danny fuenzalida We were skating a long chunky ledge in Valparaiso, I was trying a line that started with a crooked grind but sometimes the ledge was so fucked up it made the board bounced. It was a battle I couldnt win. 10 minutes later danny and the gx-1000 crew showed up to the spot (JJ, a davis, dela and the filmer), it was a downhill plaza so they appeared from the top and were trying shit going down, danny comes fast straight to the ledge and does a 15 feet crooked grind no problem, you could see his truck moving and screaming for help but the dude kept had his weight on top and kept sliding, popped out and rolled away like nothing ;D
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roman livinska at macba winter 2015, he's still gnar now but I feel he never got to the spot he deserved. The line I saw him trying was nollie fs nosegrind nollie flip out mid ledge, push, nollie inward hell front nose to regs, turn around the statue and change stance, sw tre to end on a fakie nosegrind kickflip out. Dude did all the tricks separately and then tried the line, I remember him missing last trick 4-5 times, he was going through the ledge holes like nothing.
aurelien giraud in CPH OPEN berlin 2018, dude flipped his board on every obstacle he touched at dogshit, and that place its hard to skate, super tight.
danny fuenzalida We were skating a long chunky ledge in Valparaiso, I was trying a line that started with a crooked grind but sometimes the ledge was so fucked up it made the board bounced. It was a battle I couldnt win. 10 minutes later danny and the gx-1000 crew showed up to the spot (JJ, a davis, dela and the filmer), it was a downhill plaza so they appeared from the top and were trying shit going down, danny comes fast straight to the ledge and does a 15 feet crooked grind no problem, you could see his truck moving and screaming for help but the dude kept had his weight on top and kept sliding, popped out and rolled away like nothing ;D
Roman is a personal favourite of mine, he rips!!!
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Ben Koppl was a sleeper for me, I'd seen his ig thought he was just about cool goofing around in bowls but I kid you not I've never seen anyone skate street like this guy, he's tall, skates really fast, and just goes. He skates things other people wouldn't and seems to make up tricks on the fly but still just cruises confidently landing 1st t.
Ben is a very conventionally good skater, too; he's got the whole bag of "normal" tricks and can drop them effortless. I once watched him casually and first-try float a Penny-style mellow but big frontside flip over the split sections of a ~5' QP before returning to do weird shuv-it variations on a bank.
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definitely rowan zorilla. seeing him skate in person shows off his loose fluid style so much more. he was doing that no one else was doing at demos
I've never seen him skate in person, but he's so graceful in videos that I assumed as much, and you will often hear some big name pro skaters talk about how impressive he is.
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Living in Finland you never really see any big time pros but seeing local guys like Eniz Fazliov and Jaakko Ojanen is pretty cool. Eniz can skate everything and lands his tricks very quickly. Jaakko is a guy who seems to be usually just messing around. He can jump onto any grind like a fs croocked grind on a flatbar and just sit on it as long as he wants to and then pop out.
Also Alex Carolino and JB Gillet. Carolino was doing switch varialflips up the three stairs just for fun, it was amazing.
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Raven Tershy at a creature demo around 2009 or 10 in Orlando. He fucked up that skatepark and was cool dude too. Nobody knew who he was and kids kept calling him Gravette lol.
I’ve never seen someone go that fast on a skateboard. That alley-oop front 5-0 is so fucked in person.
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Raven Tershy at a creature demo around 2009 or 10 in Orlando. He fucked up that skatepark and was cool dude too. Nobody knew who he was and kids kept calling him Gravette lol.
I’ve never seen someone go that fast on a skateboard. That alley-oop front 5-0 is so fucked in person.
Saw him at my local park like 6 years ago while he was travelling to, iirc, his cousin's wedding in GA. Dude barely tried anything, but blew me away with his board control. Never seen anyone skate that park that fast in my life.
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roman livinska at macba winter 2015, he's still gnar now but I feel he never got to the spot he deserved. The line I saw him trying was nollie fs nosegrind nollie flip out mid ledge, push, nollie inward hell front nose to regs, turn around the statue and change stance, sw tre to end on a fakie nosegrind kickflip out. Dude did all the tricks separately and then tried the line, I remember him missing last trick 4-5 times, he was going through the ledge holes like nothing.
I really like that dude.
Is he still on Primitive??
Kinda strange he wasn't on their last full length video.
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Raven Tershy at a creature demo around 2009 or 10 in Orlando. He fucked up that skatepark and was cool dude too. Nobody knew who he was and kids kept calling him Gravette lol.
I’ve never seen someone go that fast on a skateboard. That alley-oop front 5-0 is so fucked in person.
wish I got to see raven in his prime skate bowls IRL. Must've been such a treat.
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Another vote for Tom Asta. Super smooth…looked effortless. Even gave me a tail tap after I did a stupid 5050 on the park curb.
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I saw Greg lutzka once and that was enough to blow my mind
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Saw Rodney at a demo in the early 90's and he did his ender from Rubbish Heap second try. Landed it first try, but it was sketchy, so he did it again clean while chatting people up. He was incredible. Saw him again years later and he killed it, again. People went nuts when he would switch from street to his freestyle routine.