Taking it to impossible levels, Rodney Ollies to finger flip,
stalling in mid-air on the way
Freestyle is more for the person that can handle
being by themselves and has that kind of patience.
There's one parking lot that I skate where there's no
people. When I skate at the pier there is always.
somebody asking a question so it's hard to get in a
good session.
I like the continuous, harsh one to two hour full
blast practic session skating to music. And I can do
that in my parking lot. Nobody's there except me.
Self satisfaction by myself, no input except my box
and my own motivation. Just going fast, doing
footwork and getting tricks going. I can have the
raddest session going, stop for a second, and
realize that I hadn't ever skated that good and it
feels great. There is definitely a lot of practice
involved in freetstyle.
DIRECTION
A step further, and getting harder. There's a lot of
quick, snappy things coming out of freestyle right
now. I would say, though, the concentration seems
to go towards moving tricks. I tend to enjoy it more
when I do the rolling stuff and keep on flowing,
although I think you should be able to handle the
incredibly technical stuff standing still as well.
COMPETITION
COMPARISONS
I'd like to see street adapted freestyle tricks and
I'd like to see street adapted vertical tricks. It'll be
hard in the future, to judge; where's the border?
what is a handstand, what is a nose wheelie? what
is a 360° slide? How about if Gonzales enters a
freestyle contest and does incredible ollies in his
whole routine. 360° ollies, 180° backside ollies?
Ollie flips. That was invented by a frestyler, Rodney
Mullen. Where is it now?, it's ollie flips on banks.
I entered my first street contest and stayed away
from freestyle tricks. I'm a freestyler. If I go out and
do a handstand it's lame, because I'm a freestyler,
but if Hackett or Olson did it it would be rad and
would get a round of applause. I'm not putting them
down at all, they're totally cool. I stayed away from
that, but I'm working on tricks like kickflips into
slides and adapting. Freestyle has so many difficult
things that you can apply to the street. I want to
make sure I add a new touch to it. For my own
satisfaction.
I used to ride a ramp by my house in Sweden
when I started skating. Then I got into other kinds
of skating. I'd like to picture myself doing a 6 or 7
foot air just to see how it feels. I'm sure it must be a
great feeling, like pulling off a weird handstand
kickflip that you know pretty much nobody can do.
UP AND COMING
Don Brown, he's a skater that has style and also
incredibly hard tricks and that's the way to go. Jean
Marc, the French guy, skates perfectly and he has
really hard tricks. Pierre Andre, of course, has a
good style.
The only chance I'm going to have to beat Rod-
ney is on asphalt or a paved surface, that's what
I've grown up on in Sweden. I can pull all my hard-
est tricks on asphalt. I have a hard time with con-
crete, even though I've been here a long time. I
skate the best on asphalt most people consider too
rough. I'm not giving up though, I know I've beat
him once. Even though he's the best skater it
doesn't mean he wins every contest. Just put
together a good routine and you can beat the
best guy. Rodney has so many tricks and they are
unbelievable.
I'm surprised we don't have more people like
Rodney, he's only one of a few and you've to to be
fanatic to a point if you want to get good. Compare
skateboarding to other sports; figure skating, or
gymnastics, people that practice so much it's sick. I
can see somebody practicing much much more
and getting better.
NEW
WOOD
BETTER
QUALITY
JFA T-SHIRTS
BALDY
(STEVE SHELTON)
PHOTO: SCOTT BRANIFF
ALBUMS
JIFA.
JFA Paisley
4 Color
8.00
JFA
Jody Foster Armp
JFA 85-Skate Tour
4 Color
8.00
JFA 85-Skate Hell
4 Color
8.00
STICKERS & POSTERS
1984 JFA TOUR POSTER ($2.50)
1986 JFA TOUR POSTER ($3.00)
JFA BLATANT LOC (500)
JFA UNTITLED (50¢)
JFA MAD GARDEN (50€)
JFA SONG BOOK ($1.00)
JFA LOGO (75¢)
a. Purple
b. Red
c. Blue
d. Green
(Add $1.00 each for postage & handling)
THE JFA SKATEBOARD
THREE SIZES
a. 11" x 32"
b. 10" x 30"
c. 10" x 29"
$44.95 +5.00
Shipping
Free T-Shirt
& Sticker
PLACEBO PRODUCTS
P.O. Box 23316
Phoenix, AZ 85063
Send $1.00 for Catalog and Sticker
1981 JFA 7" Blat. Loc.
(3.00)
JFA
門
1983 JFA LP "Valley"
(6.00)
JFA
1984 JFA Untitled LP
(6.00)
New JFA LIVE 1984
20 Songs (6.00)
JFA
1985 Mad Gard EP
(4.50)
JFA VIDEO
LIVE AT CBGB's
$29.95
+2.00 Shipping