SAFETY FILM So
KODAK SAFETY FILM 5063
TAKING IT ONE STEP BEYOND, CHRIS LIVINGSTON POWERS A SEQUENTIAL OLLIE-TO-
NOSE GRIND REVERT (LEFT). ON AN EARLY FIBERGLASS/NO-FLATBOTTOM EXHIBITION
HALFPIPE, DUANE PETERS (BELOW), STOKES THE MULTITUDES WITH A PRE-HISTORIC
ROCK-TO-AKE. JIM THEBAUD SHUFFLES A LONG AND CREAMY OLLIE-TO-NOSE SLIDE
(BELOW), AT EMBARCADERO.
"Is this a crank call?"
Winchester
Skatepark
ground ollie over objects. Enc
NASH: Lipslide on a curb. Nose
grind crap with the tail grab
thrown in on vert. Jer Grosso: "1
gave up learning tricks...it costs.
too much money and, well, you
know." CHRIS ROBson: Frontside
olle. ERIK JUEDEN: "To enjoy myself
more while riding." BRETT THOMP
SON: 50-50 over spine. Scorr
DUNLAP: 30 foot curb grind on D/K
curb. STEVE KEENAN: Fakie hang-up-
to-backside Smith. PUPPET:
360°layback backside grind. SAL
Slob air over Kelly's channel. T
GALVIN: 50-50 fakie. STEVE DOUGLAS:
Sugarcanes-frontside ollie to
back truck. Backside air-to-disas-
ter. SALMAN AGAH: Ollie late big spin
frontside. CRAIG STECYK: Heelle
shove-it M-180. MIKE VALLEY
Front foot ollie impossible. NEAL
HENDROC Frontside olie tailgrab
over-rotated. MARK HOZTMAN:
Frontside grind-to-frontside big
spin. 180 body/360' board.
What trick has had the most
Influence on today's skating?
Many people would say the ollie
here, but remember, there are no
right answers to any of these ques
tions. When Alan Gelfand did the
no-hands aerial on vertical, it
changed the face of skateboarding.
So did the flatland kickturn. And
what about the fakie? The
straight-arm invert has got to be
one of the gnarliest things you can
do on a skateboard, yet it gets no
respect because it's a non-rolling
trick and basically, it looks so ugly.
Rational analyst Steve Caballero
cites the kneeslide as the trick that
changed skating. It allowed skaters
to progress on a daily basis, try
the impossible and live to tell
about it. Ten feet of air is not pos-
sible without those knee pillows to
land on.
Of the forty-four all-terrain ter-
rors who answered this question.
52.2727% said the ollie had the
greatest effect on today's skating.
An impressive 9.0909% said the
revert. Another 6.8181% said
grinds, and 4.5454% said 540's
and high airs. As for the rest.
2.2727%, or one person each.
voted for the following trick or
tricksters as having a large influ-
ence on today's skating: fakies.
freestyle on vert, Ben "disco lip
king" Schroeder, knee slides, mag-
azines and videos, Texas plants.
varials, frontside air disasters, rock
fakies, 360' ollie tall-grab nose
grind-to-nose grind ins, hand-
stands, four-wheel slides, Jeff
Grosso, carves, rock 'n' rolls, olle
impossibles and blunts. Badland
man Erik Jueden made the cutting
observation. Tricks don't have
effects on skating, people do."
Do you think freestyle
Influenced street and vert or
vice versa?
Skate sages remember the days
when it was all just skateboarding
You grabbed your deck, took off
down the road and dealt with
whatever was in your path; flat.
hill, curb, pool, pipe, ramp, what-
ever. You were game and come
what may. Freestylers were freaky
guys with tight shorts who didn't
skate-they trained. Slalomers
were another breed apart. Heavy
guts (as in stomachs) for that
down-the-line speed, specialized
equipment that made it awkward.
for them to ride anything else. Not
to mention high jumpers, down-
hillers, pool riders, ramp rippers
THE FOUNDING FATHER OF A GENERATION, ALAN "OLLIE GELFAND (ABOVE),
UNLEASHES HIS NAMESAKE NO-HANDS MANEUVER ON AN UNSUSPECTING
CROWD AT THE WINCHESTER OPEN IN A LEGENDARILY SMOOTH, PERFECT
POOL. THE WORN SIDES OF HIS SHOE TESTIFY KAREEM CAMPBELL'S MODERN
OLLIE TECHNIQUE AS HE GUIDES A TAILGRAB NOSESLIDE AROUND FOR A
LANDING (LEFT), IN THE SHADE OF A SCHOOL COURTYARD.
and, all of a sudden, the street rat.
What comes around goes around.
The street skaters of today are the
closest thing to the sidewalk grem
mies of yesteryear in the sense
that they go right back to the
basics of "you, your board and
whatever gets in your way." When
all else fails (skateparks, public
ramps, backyard minis, etc.), you
still have the streets.
Canadian freestyle tycoon Kevin
Harris says, "Freestyle made the
street skaters know what was
going on in the flatland. Freestyle
and street are combined now:
street boards are smaller. Vertis
influenced somewhat from street.
but not as much as mini. Kids learn
on minis and move it to vert."
Micke Alba asks, "Where would we
be without freestyle?" Neal Hen-
drix takes a wide-open view, say-
ing. "Influence flows through
every type of skating. Freestyle
was influenced by vert and
freestyle has influenced modern-
day flatland streetstyle. Vert was
influenced by street with the kick-
flip grab. Lance Mountain says,
"Freestyle hasn't influenced street-
style. People just freestyle now on
their street boards. Now it's cool:
before it wasn't." John Fabriquer
concurs, "I think freestyle is street
skating only that in streetstyle you
use a better area." Steve Salisian
looks at it another way, "I think
street skating is freestyle in
disguise. Ollie impossibles and
stuff, it's all freestyle. It's even
Influencing vertical tricks as a
freestyle esthetic redefined in a
vertical setting."
What is the most insane trick
you've ever seen?
There's a doozy. A good gut
reaction was the 900' twister. Very
few have seen it, many talk about
it. The same thing was said about
the 720, the 540, the 360° and
the frontside air. But what goes up
must come down. Here today.
gone tomorrow. What really makes
a trick insane usually has nothing
to do with the trick itself. It's a
combination of terrain, the individ-
ual, the madness of the moment
and the situation at hand. It can
happen anywhere, anytime, any-
place. Duane Peters locking up his
front truck on re-entry after a
high backside air to fully recover
and beat Caballero at the Whittier
Pro/Am in 1981 comes to mind.
More recently, Chris Miller's now
patented Buster grind, a backside
ollie over-rotated into a frontside
grind, takes "the most" honors
every time you see it. In the
streets, another stair is added to a
giant ollie, cars are leapt with ease
and wheelies are now called
manuals because most kids can't
do one unless they land from a
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