Classic Styles for Miles

So I haven't had time to update for a couple of days with trying to find places to live and shit like that, but after watching State of Mind parts this morning I tried searching for an Eli Reed pro intro part, since I figured there would be one somewhere in compliance with the rest of the online industry these days. I didn't find one, to say the least. But, I found a pretty interesting Flushing Meadows Park clip featuring Rodney Torres on the Zoo York site, as we see in clip 1:



While I'm not sure how old the footage in the beginning is, I found his lines to be pretty damn good regardless of how old they are, especially considering I haven't seen much footage of him pretty much... ever. Notice his grainy nosegrind flip, and the kickflip/tre flip combination into the Courthouse bank I mentioned in the Rodrigo/LRG post. The feeble to 180 nosegrind line and the backside flip fakie manny were both pleasant on the eyes, particularly the feeble variant since I had not yet seen one of those. The big varial heel over the rail, the table tre flip noseblunt, and the line-of-the-solid-landings, aka the fs flip nosegrind line ending in fakie 5-0 flip out, all surprised the hell out of me considering how modern the spots and tricks were, and also considering the 4 or so year old DVS' he's sporting. Anyways, for once I found it entertaining to watch some baggy pants footage, and since all the tricks were interesting and his style was nice and relaxed, I decided this little clip should get much more attention than it probably has (not that me writing about it will help, though.). Enjoy a throwback. The Flushing history, brief though it may be, is interesting too.

Classic Style video 2 is coincidentally, a welcome video. It features one of my early favorites (and a national favorite, apparently), Expedition/Circa's own Ryan Gallant, after his pretty spectacular sponsor change-up a few months back. Although his under-2-minute part contains 8 ledge variations involving the backside tailslide and back 180 switch fs crook and five bluntslide/nosebluntslide variations, and that parking garages typically don't have benches unless you're pressed to come up with throwaway footage, his little intro-diddy still oozes with his style, as evidenced by the kickflip nosegrind line with no push and the hardflip manual with his front foot battling to hold on. I'd say the kickflip nosebluntslides (backside in the ditch, frontside being the real highlight), the aforementioned hardflip manny, and the GIGANTIC backside flip over the bench are the real tricks of mention here. Hopefully he still has the variation he has shown in all his previous parts, and hasn't gotten so caught up in his now-signature back 180 switch crook to fore-go his steezier standards.



Note that he doesn't have the new era in many of his clips. I'm not sure how I feel about this, because that beanie looks awkward. Regardless, skating to the diplomats and not moving his arms gives me a breath of relief when viewing a rare bit of Gallant footage, no matter how repetitive. Let's start building high expectations for his Expedition Part? Whatever happened to his Plan B footage, I wonder.