Spange

In high school, this meant spare change. Trivial, I know. But in some ways, the change in skateboarding since Mike-Mo's Forecast debut is seen in the same way; insignificant. However, it's QUITE the opposite. Usually I don't like doing this; drinking while typing distracts me from drinking, and I end up typing. Which is a shame. But I was watching Forecast about five minutes ago and marveling over how such a shitty video could still remain relevant in lieu of such temporarily interesting but now foregone films such as Jereme Rogers Neighborhood and other Pro-supported independent ventures. Forecast gave us two things, Mike Mo Capaldi and Ronson Lambert. One a curse, and one a gem. And no, I did not use those words in that order by accident.

Looking back on P-Rod's creation (Yes, I have been on his nuts lately since his Me, Myself and I part), I notice how many of the songs from his video ended up on my iPod throughout the years. I also notice how I still don't give a flying fuck about Nick McClouth or Mike Barker, and how despite back nosegrind lazerflipping a bench in a line, Jason Wakuzawa has been doomed by his short stature and his footage in Etnies Callicut's to fade into oblivion beside other smaller and better figures as Flip's Lopez kid, Daniel Castillo, and uh, Daewon Song. Not to mention Cody Mac. Unfortunately for Jason, it seems as though the skateboarding world is not quite ready to take on an Asian Invasion, which is a fucking shame considering some of the Japanese footage I've been watching lately.

But I'm getting side tracked. Mike Mo's opening part is not nearly the behemoth that his Fully Flared part is, but he still shows a mean switch tre and nollie front heel amongst numerous textbook landings and alot of switch back tail bigspins. Other than overall quality of trick performance, the biggest contrast from Mike Mo then to Mr. Capaldi now is his baggy pants. That's right, this video was somehow still produced during that day and age, and people still talk about it. Strange, to me. Lots of RJD2 and some progressive footage from Ronson, Capaldi, and what I would argue is P-Rod's best part up until the last month is actually a very good thing; but the time period and the filler skaters within it should have doomed it.

I guess this is really because of Capaldi. People, especially after Lakai's release and even still, a good three years later, can't let go of what that kid can do. I don't personally blame them, but he isn't Jesus. He doesn't skate the crazy shit Jake Johnson does, he doesn't go as fast as Wes Kremer, he doesn't go as big as Grant Taylor. He's just a formerly-more-interesting Paul Rodriguez. So that underlining factor, the discovery of Mike Mo before his first major video part, is my guess(and probably a damn good one) at why people even remember the name Forecast. But as far as what we actually gained from that video, I do believe it's Ronson Lambert. Long a man on my hate-list because of his obviously fake style up until recently, he does some absolutely mind-boggling technical things in this part, without any recognition. In fact, every part of his has been above the norm as far as skill, but he's been hurt by his speed of crawl approach to everything. Ironically, he seems to couple with Chris Roberts in a way, who also appears in the friends section. C-Rob had that wonderful Hot Chocolate part, then never learned anything new. But how easy he made everything look with that superb balance let him get away with some not-too-hard tricks done with textbook execution. A man before his time, I would say. A man with style, whose execution fell by the wayside of progression. He's kind of the anti-hero to Ronson Lambert, who at the time garnered comparisons to P.J. Ladd, which although forgotten, is not THAT far of a stretch. Ronson was doing incredibly difficult and strange ledge lines before the Flare attack on skateboarding. Again, a man before his time. And yet his style took away from it. Interesting, to say the least. Had Roberts' style and execution been coupled with Lambert's tricks, maybe Fully Flared wouldn't have had such impact. Who knows. But anyways, from this little ramble, check out Ronson's part and Chris Roberts' Hot Chocolate part and consider what I've said. Hopefully by any miracle you'll be able to appreciate them both a little bit more.

R-Lam

(notice the crook late flip (P-Rod, anyone?), bigspin front blunt on a bench, 5-0 switch crook 270 which is hot now, etc)

C-Rob(see what I did there? P-Rod? D-Gonz? What's next, D-Bach and M-App?)