If you were to glance at any of the above frames on its own, possibly in a moment of quiet repose, what trick might you guess Nick Tucker is whipping down those well-trod Hollywood steps on behalf of Supra shoes — fakie 360 flip? Half-cab kickflip? Tweaked switch backside heelflip? Backside 360, or something far more ominous? If you guessed “switch inward heelflip” you may legally change your name to Pat Canale. While John Igei continues to hold the title for the best switch inward heelflip ever performed, over the Pier 7 block just a bit up the road in SF, a persuasive case maybe could be built for Nick Tucker to hold a spot somewhere in the top 10 off the strength of this outlandish sequence alone.
The ‘outdated’ Brian Clarke dons his 1995 uniform for this one from the Caples/Lopez TSM, which also features a backside noseblunt from Guy Mariano that appears unhampered by any lazer flips and a really cool story about John Motta spelunking for spots in sewers.
In a tumultuous year for British skating, what with the mass exodus of the Blueprint roster and international monetary policymakers airing concerns around a potentially destabilizing bubble in Palace-branded asset prices, it fell to London stalwarts Slam City Skates to re-center the 2012 scene and Rory Milanes to deliver the closing argument. Rory Milanes did one of the best parts in 2010’s “This Time Tomorrow” and steps up here in decidedly U.K. fashion, kickflipping brick channels and wearing stripedy sweaters to properly downbeat music and overcast skies. Straight off the bat he spins a nollie twister across a street gap, skates some high ledges, has a beauty of a switch backside kickflip, full command of the frontside 180 fakie manual/5-0 and a danger poke over the final bump-to-bar. For me this section took a little while to sink in, given Rory Milanes’ tricks don’t hit with the bombast of a Chewy Cannon, but I think he comes in as a solid bridge to some of the best skating of the now-closed Blueprint chapter.
We begin again, year’s top ten video parts in terms of tickling this blog site’s fancy.
Macrobrew flavoring for a limited distribution release, Zach Funk in this vid brings what you’d maybe call a skater’s skater something or other, starting with the first backside flip on flat. Which is to say there’s not a lot of flash to this part in terms of tricks, or spots or production value and for its purpose on this list that’s maybe a lot of the point. The woozy lean on the front blunt kickflip out stands over a million cleaner versions at better-lit spots filmed in HD and the floaty frontside pop-shove it reminded me of an old World Industries video though I couldn’t put a finger on which one or why exactly. Wrist cast, step-up rings, baggy hooded sweatshirt, he grasps the gangster powers of a frontside flip nosegrind and this dude also can do a good backside tailslide. Not knowing a lot about this vid I’m hoping it really did come out in calendar 2011 or else this year’s edition of the list will be off to a particularly rough start.
In keeping with the cosmic balance, Maldonado pops up in this Kerry Getz-themed clip today, click toward 01:05 for the relevant backside tailslide variant.
Just the actual construction of this Minnesota-made berg block is post-worthy, but then the so-icey boys are kickflip frontside blunting the thing and whatnot. They should’ve probably saved this for one of TWS’s “Skate and Create” things, but you know how they get into the season up there. Actually this post can serve double-duty as a request for Police Informer or Chrome Ball or Vert’s Dead to go on a scavenger hunt for a pic that popped up in the “Somethin’ Else”/equivalent sometime in the early (very early) 90s, featuring a dude performing an ollie on a board outfitted with ice-skate blades. Anybody else remember this one? I wonder if you’d have to skate such a thing with cleats.
boil the ocean 