Slick Rick

I always try to find parts of dudes who were underrated in my opinion that had some kind of impact on my skating. Rick Ibaseta doesn't get a whole lot of credit. This was my favorite part in this 1281 New Deal video. (that featured the one and only Cuzzo in his first video part by the way.) Anyway check this out. First guy to do a 180 nosegrind, frontside 180 out with the juicy double flip. You can thank this guy for the frontside shove it to nosegrind. The switch 180 to smith grind is the one that gets me pissed. Everyone calls the 180 to switch smith a Barly grind ala Donny Barley, but this came out way before Barley was doing them. Ibaseta was locked in that smith. If you check his Underword Element video he also invented the backside 180 fakie 5-0 backside 180 out and the frontside shove it to frontside 5-0. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to it, but I think certain dudes needs to get their just due.

Natas

Natas is one of street skating's pioneers. For you younger folks he didn't get famous only for the Natas spin on fire hydrants. He along with Mark Gonzales pushed the realms of what can be done on a skateboard. He gets a lot of recognition for his Wheels of Fire and Streets on Fire video parts, but how sick is this Speed Freaks part? First of all a lot of it is demo footage. I remember watching that frontside flip on the quarter and not being able to comprehend it. To my knowledge this was the first one ever recorded. He may be skating a low sliderbar but bluntslides, front feebles. Back feebles across into the other bank. Damn! The dude had some skills. The frontside grind on the bank to wall at the end is sick. If I'm not mistaken he had a serious knee injury that sidelined him.
If that wasn't enough check this out. Tom Knox rules but at 1:45 Natas lays down some serious hurricanes. Even grabbing his rail.

Bullshit

A very long while ago my friends and I made a video that never got finished. I don't know how my buddy Glen got a camera, but we started filming. This was when Cuzzo was already on New Deal and I believe Rob was in the works of getting on at this time. I don't have the means to digitize the VHS tape so I did it the low budget way. Enjoy what you can make out. Appearances by Cuzzo, Odom, Sea Urchin Chin, Ol' Dirty Hoppsta, Sweet Child Omine, Paul Higa, Happy Man, The Skate Nazi and yours truly.

Smoke on the Water

Dan Peterka was one of those guys who broke in and broke out.  The dude killed it with a lazy man style.  The inventor of the krooked grind.  Yes I said it.  It's been disputed that Eric Koston came up with it and I really don't know who did it first, but when my friends and I watched this video he was the first one doing it all over the place and had it on lock.  We used to call it the Paterk grind because there was no name for it yet.  I trip out on some of the shit he does in this video like half-cab noseslide to 50-50's and boardslides.  Nollie krooked grind hop overs?  Please son this guy was doing it when nobody even did krooked grinds.  Yet for some reason this dude chose to break out of skating and do snowboarding.  I don't know how good he is, but I can't imagine him being anything but sick. On an interesting side note this video came out right after dudes like Danny Way and Mike Carroll broke off to do Plan B. H-Street still had a young Eric Koston who eventually got persuaded to go to 101. After that Rocco basically had a choke hold on the industry and H-Street slowly went downhill.

Mike Daher - A Visual Sound

I don't street skate much anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it.  I figure I'd shed some light on my time in the 80's and 90's skating and try to convey what it means to me.  Before Stereo came about the state of skateboarding was big pants, small wheels, tech tricks.  A Visual Sound was a breath of fresh air.  It was Jazz themed, arty all about cruising down the streets doing simpler tricks on bigger ledges, over bigger things like benches all done with style and flow.  Mike Daher had the first part and it set the tone for the entire video to me. Everyone had rad parts, but this is one that stuck in my head. Watch and enjoy.

The Hensley Effect

Darin said he actually checks this blog.  I said I was done with it since I have my instagram which is 100 times easier. Anyway I just might update it from time to time.  I recently got this Black Label Hensley deck.  Sooooooooo swwweeeeeeeettttt.  If you don't know about Matt Hensley let's just say he was one of the most influential skaters of all time.  I know this may be debated, but for my money he's easily in the top 5 of all time.  If it wasn't for him H-Street would not have been as big.  Thousands of copy cats wouldn't have shaved their heads and dyed it blonde, wore cut off cargo shorts, hooked on a chain wallet or have worn chukka boots.  I would suspect almost all of my compatriots who skated during that time had done at least one of those things.  This graphic is iconic.  Do I dare ride it or not?

Helmet Law For All?

According to Hawaii News Now lawmakers are thinking about making it mandatory for all skateboards to wear helmets. Where do I begin with this one. First of all I sympathize with those families that lost their loved ones, I really do. I can understand to an extent why they would want to prevent others from suffering the same fate. However, from what I have gathered these people who died were not avid skateboarders. It looks to me like they were inexperienced and tried to make it down a hill not knowing their abilities. Let me just say that I believe that all young and inexperienced skateboarders should wear a helmet. You need to learn not only how to balance, but learn to fall correctly.

If you are a skater and trying to justify your reasons why you shouldn't wear one please don't say because it is uncool or cumbersome when I skate. The person who doesn't skateboard will never get that. The best thing I can say is to put it in terms that they might understand. I've been skating for over 25 years. The whole time I was skateboarding it was never mandatory to wear a helmet. Now someone is telling me that I have to wear one. For the person who doesn't understand I say this. There are many car accidents in Hawaii every day. Car crashes have had their share of head trauma too. Now if someone proposes a law that everyone who steps in an automobile has to wear a helmet, please tell me how you would feel? You drove for many years. You know the dangers of stepping in to an automobile and possibly getting into a fatal accident, but do you think someone else should tell you to put on a helmet now after all your years of driving? It's the freedom being taken away to make our own decisions that's at stake.

Skateboarding continues to get a bad rap. There are many dangerous activities out there. You could rollerblade, razor scoot, ride a bike, moped or even a motorcycle and not have to wear a helmet, but if this bill passes only skateboarders would need to wear one. I'd be interested to see the statistics on the number of head trauma cases for skateboards compared to motorcycles and mopeds. Yet skateboarding always somehow is more dangerous than anything else. Education and knowing your abilities are key. If someone is learning how to surf, it's pretty obvious that you would not paddle out to Pipeline as a novice. (My friend theskatenazi brings this up all the time.) With skateboarding you don't see the dangers as much when you're a beginner. You think you might be able to ride down the hill and the next thing you know you're going real fast and in over your head. I believe this is what happens to most inexperienced skaters that fall.

 So you think a law for all skateboarders to wear a helmet will make us wear one? All this will do will make avid skateboards get tickets in skateparks where it's a controled environment where there the police can easily see them.  There will still be those kids in residential areas (where police don't patrol) that will continue to pick up a skateboard and try to make it down a hill without a helmet. One because they don't own a helmet and two they think they know their abilities but really don't.  Sadly in my opinion, this law if passed would not help these skateboarders who need it the most.