Sean Malto was my best friend in 4th grade in Leavenworth KS. He was actually into rollerblades when I met him haha... We started skating together and he immediately surpassed me, even though I had been skating for a year or two before him. I remember the day he learned kickflips. Some older kid told him that next he should learn to heelflip. Sean didn’t know what it was and asked the guy to explain the heelflip. So he did, and no fucking joke he tried and immediately landed it. First fucking try. I should have known right then man...
We both had military parents and I moved away after a year in Leavenworth, but it’s been awesome to watch him progress so much over the years. I should try to catch up with him sometime. He’s probably a little too big to contact easily.
I had a friend who was just like that.
I started skating one year before him and could do some kickflips, boardslide, noseslide, heelflips, shuvs etc. Just the basic stuff any normal kid would do in early 00s.
So he starts skating and learns 180s both ways in a week. And then kickflips. One day I landed a heelflip and he was like "so you kick the other way?". And boom - landed. First time he had seen the trick and first time he tried.
A couple days later we were skating a ledge - it was his first time. What did he do? 50-50 and tailslide - first fucking try.
It was then that I saw how much I had no skills. Once time I traveled with my parents and was out of my town for a week. I go back to the streets and what is the fucker doing? Lipslides, bs/fs crooks, fs/overcrooks and noseslides on a handrail his father made.
I quit after that for some long years. He went on in a contest and got 6th place - landed a noseslide in a massive downward ledge he had never skated. A couple months later he also quit - apparently he lost all interest in skateboarding. Sometimes I wonder how far he would have gotten.
Yes, not a weird story about a pro, just a story about some no talented random guy.