Could Be, Should Be.

First off, Chris Roberts has learned a new trick. First time since, uh, Hot Chocolate, unless I'm mistaken. Front board nollie back heel ad? Very cool, it's even a trick I haven't seen. Who woulda guessed.

Anyways, I've been watching videos from the '09 that I haven't watched in quite some time, partially spurred by seeing ads and a check-out on Ben Skryzpek, who I'm not even a fan of really. Considering that my first thought on watching God Save The Label last year was that Peter Raffin and good ol' Ben had no future in todays skateboarding. Sketchy styles, boring tricks, goofy all around appearance. Now, Peter Raffin is in TWS and Skryzpek is getting compliments from the industry. Big what the fuck? BIG what the fuck.

Ben's part:


After watching this the other day, I grew to appreciate a sort of Fred Gall/Steve Durante beautiful bruteness in his skating, perhaps caused by his upbringing in Maine. To my knowledge, not much related to skateboarding comes out of, goes into, or has anything to do with that state. I'm actually pretty sure even the news doesn't care about Maine, nor the elections, and possibly not even it's inhabitants. Now regarding Inhabitants, I realized that Ben's style of grimy skating on perfect spots would be far better suited as a member of the Habitat squadron, particularly considering his surprising Mag Minute:



Maybe his board is still a bit small for him, but at least those hideous, obvious-flow-box converse's from his Label part aren't there, and in their place is a beautiful fakie flip fakie manny clip, a boosted fs flip and fs heel, a buttery kickflip back noseblunt, and a downright naughty flyout kickflip. Coupled with some eerily missed fakie mongo (Ryan Decenzeo in Hallelujah brought me to this particular emotion), I have hope for him. Regardless tho, I say he belongs on Habitat, or some kind of Kayo company. He doesn't skate fast enough or grimy enough for Label.

In the same vein of thinking, I've consistently noticed Chet Childress has a bit of a short arm on one side. I wonder why this is, and I can't find anything on it. Clues would be appreciated, if anyone still reads my bullshit. Oh, and while watching his black and white depressing Burnside session of a Label part, I realized he is undoubtedly the master of Back Disaster variations, although perhaps not the base trick itself.

Last random thought involving tranny and moving us to my next point, WHY have I never seen footage of a proper, hell even improper, grinded back smith back 270 on tranny? Seems like a beautiful trick in concept, and the stall variant isn't only mildy cool but also fun as shit. Let the hunt for footage begin.

Finally, I've been watching obviously too many videos lately and I've compiled a little list of tricks that really should just not be done, or should have become obsolete by now. I'll do this in two parts for the sake of uh, readability. Basically because I'm tired of typing and need a cigarette. Perhaps next time I'll include prime examples.

-----The TRICKS that should not be COOL List-----
(TTTSNBCL? Everyone else is using acronyms... reference Blueprint's newest vid)

1. Boardslides/Lipslides over to bluntslide on the opposite side of a ledge. I believe Shuriken Shannon does one well in his Label part, forgive my redundancy. I think the only viable execution of this for anyone else though would be back lip to front blunt, but seriously, anything else doesn't look at all appealing and honestly the idea isn't even that crazy for it's execution to warrant it's ugliness. Evidence: Tyler Bledsoe's Front board over to back noseblunt in Hallelujah. Hated that trick.

2. Nollie Varial Heelflips. This bitch is seriously ugly. Can't scoop a switch varial heel right? WELL THEN, just charge something nollie and flick your back foot back. Every time I see this trick, it isn't even caught, it just drops. Plus, something about the general rotation just looks sloppy, even compared somewhat mysteriously to fakie varial heels, which actually look sick and are considerably rare, even more so than the fakie hardflip. For a good one, check out basically any >30 sec clip of Chico Brenes. Back to the nollie ones, something about African American stair jumpers seems to coincide with this one, and while Antwuan and several others have pulled this trick for parts multiple times, a particularly bad aftertaste exists on Kevin Romar's one down the Sacto triple set in Digital's Smoke and Mirrors. Ew. Good spot though, Don't get me wrong. Oh, and they're still awesome into mannys and grinds. Just not as a flatground or gap trick.

3. Frontside 180 Nosegrinds, Fs 180 out. Seriously. It looks like a more rotated noseslide. Probably feels like one too. Seems like a good way to do something on a hubba if you're scared to go for something more than a boardslide/noseslide motion.

4. Bank Frontside Tailsides. Aren't even hard. Yet they pop up in parts ALL the time. At least go like 10-15 feet. Or do it on a quarterpipe or something steep.

5. Switch crooks on handrails. They never lock in, fall out of place, and look pretty much accidental every time. Hubbas, please. Or Fakie ollie in, at least that way it'll lock in AND look sick.

6. Layback Front Boards. If you can't do it without touching your hands, then don't do it please. Hands are meant for grabbing coping, occasionally pushing away from wallrides, and grabbing boards mid flight. Not touching the hubba. Like.... Ever.

7. 360 backside shuvits. Nobody can tell if you're doing a bad impossible, or a good 3 shuv. Or even what trick you're trying. Plus, they don't really pop and catch that well, unless you're Shane O'Neil.

8. Smith to 5-0s. You don't even have to do anything other than lean back like you're popping out. Looks stupid. I think to actually look cool, a rail combo either has to involve a pop into the second trick, or the board has to transfer onto the other side of the rail. Ie, crook back lip(shut up, I like them), Feeble tailslides (Carroll and Mikey Taylor), Feeble smiths, Feeble lips, smith to boards.

9. Switch backside smiths on ledges. Or anything, really. Rarely are they done on anything long enough to lock in, and doing them off the end of a short ledge looks lazy and ugly. A smith, much like a feeble, isn't truly a smith unless it's locked in. Otherwise you're just angling at the ledge and glancing your back truck on it on your way back to Earth. Sorry, Pete Eldridge, but that one in your Hallelujah part in the line was the reminder for how much I hate this one.

10. Novercrooks. Oh, sorry, overcrooks. I've seen like, three good ones. Two of which were done by Taylor Bingaman (Halfcab overcrook, which I still wonder if it was supposed to be nosegrind, and backside overcrook down Hollywood High 16, again wonder if it was supposed to be nosegrind). Much like salads and suski's, I don't even think it's really possible to control your tweak on nosegrinds and 5-0s down a handrail to the point where you're doing a 'tweaked' version of the trick. Why not just call it a tweaked nosegrind, since it's not truly locked in like a crook should be, so no one will freak out about how awesome it is? Novercrooks for president.