Pros/Ams You’ve Seen In Person That Blew Your Mind

[Dark Knight]

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

[Itsyaboya]

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
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[PatrickSkateman]

The lines I’d see Anthony Pappalardo do at Love on a daily basis from ‘00-02 were absolutely nuts.

[Yakusoku2]

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.

[Dark Knight]

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

[KGB]

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

[Dark Knight]

Oh yeah there was a Fourstar demo at Southside in HTX and Bledsoe and Puig were fucking insane

[Terminal]

Carlos De Andrade was amazing in his consistency, beastly 360 flips to fakie on transition too.

[Coastal Fever]

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.

[PatrickSkateman]

Also saw Henry Sanchez at Pier 7 and he ripped.

Watched Kareem and Natas rip a demo in 1995.

[thebacker]

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

[Mean salto]

I think anyone who's seen Brophy skate in person doesn't talk shit on him.

[Newphone]

Matt beach
Reynolds
Alex Olson

[thebacker]

I think anyone who's seen Brophy skate in person doesn't talk shit on him.

GANG!

[jorge]

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.

[manysnakes]

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.

[ohtight]

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.

[MtnDoucheBag]

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

[MOE SYZLAK]

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.

[TwisT]

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.

[SatanicPanic]

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.

[Tom Pearl]

j cassanova at a girl/chocolate demo in 06, he just rifled off trick after trick on a handrail like it was nothing

[Dark Knight]

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

[Fartknocker415]

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

[boi-cuzudo]

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.. 

[Newphone]

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.

[doublesteveburger]

he may not be heavily regarded as a transition skater but watching sammy baca skate a skatepark is incredibly entertaining

[douchenozzle]

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

[Beeda Weeda]

McCrank, in his prime and well after his prime. Amazing.

[JMSneep]

Leo Romero at a demo before he was well known. Flip into everything on rails, that was really crazy to see at the time.