DA
Routine. Caballero performs a
high backside sideways tweaker.
while casually sessioning with
Billy Ruff on his home ramp in
San Jo
Extra English, Danny Webster
contorts a backside air all the way
to the knee at Crystal Palace in
London.
マル
Walker
Boost air. Hovering high above
the tight channel af Derby Park in
Santa Cruz, Rob Roskopp
prepares for touchdown.
Two-fisted. East Coaster Steve
Herring doubles his grip on a
frontside at a New Jersey ramp
In the crazy days of barefoot
stylin', Skitch Hitchcock's
"Gorilla Grip" with the toes
was a legitimate attempt at
pulling some air, as was the
feet attached methods, using
sky hooks and such, by
Nathan Pratt and the Hackett
Bros. In pools, unintentional
'nay' wheelers, where the last
wheels edge would blow out
over the coping for an instant
only to be brought back in a
pure aggro commitment. "Just
get it up and out there and
hold on" became the name of
the game.
Early skatepark bred air
moves like the board grabbing
"Bunny Hops" and variations
of same (Jay Adams,
Carlsbad), gave way to
vertical airbornes (Wally
Innouye, Reseda). Pool
fly-outs over the coping were
common, the problem was
bringing it back in.
The first legitimate front-side
air is anybody's guess. We're
sure it was done by two
different people on opposite
sides of the planet, simultane-
ously (parallel evolution
theory). For the record, it
could have been Orton at
Skatopia, TA at the Dogbowl
or Martinez at Spring Valley.
At any rate, the mastery of the
frontside air broke things wide
open. Upland pipe flyouts ala
Wally were too rad and Tay
Hunt/Chris Strople backside
floaters took it to new heights.
When a kid named Alan "Ollie"
Gelfand came along and
slapped everybody with his
unassisted, no handed air,
they said it couldn't be done
while they watched him doing
Just about the time park
construction came to a halt
and park destruction began,
Pro heavy weights like El-
guera, Peters and Caballero
and young whippersnappers
like Hosol, Mountain, and
David Z were reaching the
height of their heights. Fence
high and above were com-
monplace and the skaters
were grabbing for more. Two
fisted, switch handed, switch
footed (varials, ala Grisham),
underhanded (Indy,, mute) no
handed (ollies, Caballerials)
all had become standard air
fare. At the same time,
though, some of the major
proving grounds were being
dozed, in some cases, even
as the skaters were still
shredding. Apple, Cherry Hill,
Winchester, Milpi and finally
Skate City, along with hun-
dreds of other parks were
crumbled.
Stair in. Peter Gifford uses the
coping as a launch over the stairs
and into the pool in his backyard.
Fake out. Neil Blender eyes his
re-entry at the Swedish Camp
Ramp