Polar Opposites

Helped out by Oliver Barton's top 5 Youtube feature on Transworld's website, I came across exactly what I was looking for: Chris Pfanner footage I hadn't seen.



Ironically, I find this one day after I spot Nesser's street gap shuvit as one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen. And here we have THREE, count 'em, THREE, amazing pop shuvits. Pfanner is no tech wizard; he's much more a practitioner of mastered basics. But in his case, it's not about the trick selection so much as how each one is done and the amount of pop vested in his spindly legs. Note the extension on the fifty kickflip, and how he rolls through that grind like he's riding on concrete flatland. Also notice the launch (pop isn't a good enough word) on the late backside shuv down Macba, the tremendous triple set cab, and the snappy backside flip melon. Unfortunately, he suffers from a lack of variation.... all his rail tricks are either front boards, front smiths, or front lips, and he has ALOT of back 180s and cab/half-cab variations. Oh well. I feel like he is the ultimate advertisement for Anti-Hero boards... how the FUCK he doesn't snap a deck each time he sticks a trick is beyond me. Sure, he's probably about 120 pounds. But being a downright gnar-hucker, I'm still utterly surprised. He's like a less techy, more interesting Willow.

Two clips above my Pfanner discovery was a unique and very modern part from Erik (j?) Pettersson. Although I'm unsure why his middle initial matters, it's how his title shows up so whatever. As an obvious techy, he's about as opposite as possible from Pfanner's part.



Polar might not be the best word for this comparison, since they're both from Europe. But I digress. There's alot to like about this part, even more so than Pfanner's part. The complete lack of arm movement on his flatland nollie flip, the proper varial flip in the first line, the unfortunately-spread-eagled-yet-very-well-controlled switch tre on flat (three spread-eagles in one part? pushing it, Mr. Pettersson), the fs smith bs flip, the launched backside flip out of the bumpy brick bank that I have never seen before, the ultra clean nosegrind pop over..... etc etc. His style is clean and loose, yet he pulls off the bullshit move of 180ing over a bench into switch manual, which I had previously thought was only a trick for the guild of the tight trucks, since everyone else seems to touch their wheels accidentally or break their board's nose putting it down under so much gravity. This part is probably the best thing I've watched all week, save Nesser's blue collar welcome clip. And even then, the geek side of me likes this more. Good shit, good shit. Thank you, Oliver Barton.