Tube Tuesdays

Showcasing some massive switch pop and some interesting hardflip variations, Chase sent me this link of Aquil Brathwaite, whom I had never heard of. Doubtless, he sent me this link due to his love affair with hardflips and all things nose manual. I found it to be a pretty interesting link as far as random youtube clips go, and upon some googling he appears to be on the Famous Stars and Straps brand. Other than Darren Harper, whom I would never speak ill off and am actually fairly scared of, being on Famous seems like a bit of a questionable board sponsor. My guess is the baggy pants and the hardflips and the mounds of pop are the main reasons for his selection. Anyways, aside from some ugly sketch on maneuvers such as the double flip front board, his titanic switch ollies over that big white block and his hardflip backside rotations are nothing short of amazing to my feeble mind.



While questing for more of his footage on Youtube, I also found this Red Bull Mini Mania clip:



Now, this clip disappointed me. Although on the whole it was an enjoyable little video, not one clip in it other than Donny Barley's alley oop Front Disaster was out of the ability levels of myself or my roommate. I was somewhat elated to see some of the stalls that I do regularly committed to grind-form, such as the fakie back smith to fakie. I'm not claiming we could produce as smooth a style on the whole as these sponsored soldiers did, but damn if they didn't even attempt to push themselves. Barley's bigflip, hell Barley's footage as a whole, and Brathwaite served as highlights, with Zered and the Dompierre brothers both feeling unmemorable other than Nick's cab back disaster. While this may be a tad too much introspection on a simple mini ramp clip, I felt it was worth mentioning since I had so many thoughts on it.


In other much more fascinating news, Dave Bachinsky is rumored to be off Adidas..... for a real mini ramp treat, watch his Hubba clip from almost three years ago:



While the ramp is shallow, the extension smith flip and feeble back 180 and the ease with which he smacks down nollie back heel tail stalls and flips into noseblunts and front 180s back out is hard on any ramp. Not to mention feats like nollie bs flip tail bs flip and his ending clips. Although a Crockett-move would be nice resulting in a Vans deal, I see Bachinsky ending up with another corporate shoe as much more likely, perhaps DC. Hopefully he doesn't go Gallant and end up on Circa.

Anyways, Bachinsky off Adidas doesn't strike me as nearly the landmark as Adelmo's recent removal from Ipath footwear.... while Dave is undoubtedly the bigger name by now, Adelmo fits the classic Ipath mold, and this move is much more a shocker in my book. Adelmo in Supra's? Gravis'? Ugh. I thought Ipath was MADE for guys like him to ride for. I suppose I was wrong. I'm curious where both of these guys will end up.

On an unrelated note, check out Brian Anderson's boneless front smith ad in the new Transworld. One bonkers of a non-traditional handrail trick for sure.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to update, but with finals week and the tempting allure of living ten minutes from warm atlantic water I can't be sure this week will be productive.