DC on the mind

Usually if I'm down on skating or have a bit of a regressive period I like to sit down and watch Shaun Gregoire and Randy Ploesser's parts from Birdhouse's "The Beginning". So I was gonna post both their parts for lack of time for a true update, but when youtubing Gregoire's part, I stumbled across some Washington DC footage that I had not seen.

The aforementioned Birdhouse part:



There's alot to love about this part. The candycane bank was a steep bastard, and he front 3 bigspinned it. Wallie Church is also steep, and mad thin. Note the front blunt. Georgetown Quarterpipes...... well, there's a slew of things wrong with those, and he chooses nollie bigspin nosepivot 270 as a trick on it. Easily the techiest trick I've yet to see on that thing. The bent pole is gnarly, the nollie heel bank is sketchy and ghetto, the Gold Rail and Welfare easy busts..... So much about Gregoire's spots and trick selection make his footage appealing. I'd be willing to call him the master of DC skateboarding in the present without a doubt. With a unique style that really doesn't seem industry correct, I'm sure some out there would disagree. But anyways, fuck them.

This part is the first I stumbled upon after looking up his birdhouse part. Much of it seems to be throwaway from his birdhouse part. The nollie into the sketchy bank, the smith on the bent pole, and the smith on the bank to dock ledge. There's other stuff that I can't justify as throwaway for any reason. Ollie up courthouse, backside flip down? The nosemanny shuv line at wallie church? The tre flip front crook stall on white walls? Damn.




Some of the footage in this old Bradley Rosado compilation has some ridiculous clips on some of the city's more famous spots. Weitzel switch big heels the courthouse four and noseblunts down Red Rail, Jack Curtin shuv nosegrind reverts off the Freedom ledge, Gregoire's effortless blunt flip on Georgetown QPs (which I'm probably gonna make a whole post about later), his varial flip and nollie heel down the pit, and the kickflip front board line at Gold Rail.. Another thing I like about this montage is the quality of footage and the presence of most of the names I know of from up there and elsewhere on the underground East Coast. Two good Pete Broderick clips, Daniel Kim footage, Jack Curtin, Jimmy Macdonald, Zach Lyons, Gregoire, Billy Roper, and Alex Hanson. Hanson in particular has a knack for interesting tricks, such as the back smith pop to rock fakie on Georgetown, the tremendous switch ollie, and the ride-on switch fifty big heel. Oh, I wonder if Weitzel thinks he's doing hardflips? Because he's not.



Lastly, the oldest clip I came across, from the first Static.


John Igei is undoubtedly a monster. The switch hardflip down the white steps is really something I can't understand. How people line that spot is completely remarkable. The murder of Freedom Plaza even in that era in the form of nollie front noseslides and nollie front heel tailslides is in a league all it's own. Skating these spots like we did last weekend and then looking at years old footage like this has my respect for DC skaters at an all time high. Regardless of the year, those guys have been there pushing the limits on federal buildings, rounded marble ledges, ghetto concrete, and all kinds of odd findings (note the out-of-fountain kickflip, Bloomer's mailbox wallie front 180, and all footage of the pigeon bowl). In my opinion, DC footage is probably the most interesting footage of any particular metro area to watch, due to it's unmistakable nature, it's architecture, styles, and closeness. DC is wack as fuck, but it's one of the sickest scenes on the East Coast aside from the little manual wankers at the Archives.