Musings on Style

Byron “Lil’ B” Essert and Liam “Rir’ Riam” Morgan – check those back foot angles. Style for miles. – [o] – Blake Smith

Musing On Style

Skateboards are extremely finicky machines for having only two moving parts.  Compared to bicycles, they are infinitely simple – no gears, no cogs, no spokes, no gyroscopic effect for stability and you only require a simple 4 part tool to fix and tune your vehicle, as opposed to a full fanny pack full of allen keys and patch kit gear.  Once set up to a rider’s preference, the skater must then face the challenge of mastering a wooden toy.  This is obviously a very difficult thing – as difficult perhaps as graduating from the apprenticehood of a blacksmith or carpenter of yesteryear.  Unlike the mastery of a trade, however, we ride toys, pure and simple. Toys were designed for fun, even if you use your board for serious buisness, like commuting or making a living.

Byron “Lil’ B” Essert and Liam “Rir’ Riam” Morgan – check those back foot angles. Style for miles. – [o] – Blake Smith

To witness this ever-present phenomenon of grown-ass-men, women, boys and girls alike, one must simply visit the skatepark or your local heavily sessioned hill and behold dozens of people of all ages, creeds, backgrounds and states of mental health.   All of them are individually pursuing the mastery of style and grace of an object that exists entirely to provide amusement and fun, the Websters definition of a toy.  Skateboarding is an inherently individual sport – any concept of teams or comradery are just means to an individualistic end, either for the benefit of the individual who grows as a skateboarder by virtue of gaining inspiration from their peers, or the company who gives their team exposure in the public eye in the hopes that people will buy their product.  The media these companies and teams provide is important because it propagate the cycle of stoke and style, and allows the beginners to the sport to consume and study the style of skaters they respect, without having to invest financially in travelling to events they don’t have the skill to skate competitively yet.  

Flatspot Head-Dude Mischa Chandler knows how to lay down some ‘thane [o] – MIchael Alfuso (screenshot)

The effect of media in skateboarding is obvious – simply visit any slide jam or session with a bunch of groms and you’ll see Byron’s switch-toes, Liams circle-arm thing, AFB’s cowboy stance and Louis’ front 3’s, even if none of them actually make the comp.  Same thing goes in the in the park, you’ll see Mullens tre-flips, Peters’ front-rocks, Glifberg’s carve grinds and some very Gonz-esque bonelesses all over the place.  It all depends on who your influences are, and to find out, it’s usually pretty easy to just ask what videos they watched when they were coming up, and which skaters/filmmakers they respect the style of enough to seek out and watch.  People like videographer Dave “Guff” Leslie from Landychatz and photographer Jon “Hon Juey” Huey of SkateSlate have arguably done about as much to shape our niche scene in terms of shaping the style of the community as Stacey Peralta or Grant Brittian did for the then-burgeoning skate scene in the 80’s, and spots like the hills of West Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco are being sought out just as heavily as street spots like China Banks or the Big O.

Christian Hosoi, takin’ it to the streets, powersliding before you were born [o] – Grant Brittain

Nowadays, the amount of media is exponentially larger, with everyone and their brother holding a fig rig encased DSLR, or a Space Phone with Instagram, the quality of media has increased drastically but the effect is the same – the younger generation digests professionally made videos, photos, interviews and articles, and regurgitates the facets of style that appeal to them and their skating.  Without such fine institutions as Skate House Media and Wheelbase Magazine, or even the half hearted efforts of Concrete Wave and Silverfish we wouldn’t have the thriving industry we have today.  Without all the Tuna Canyon raw-runs (Max Dubler’s is my current favorite), who in their right mind would have thought it possible to complete such feats at such speeds?  Or, to go back, who would have even entertained the concept of skating a 12 stair set, or smith grinding a pole jam anything?  

Jon Huey’s got style on both sides of the lens, Matt K gets BGP’s, surfing a righty at BBDH ‘11 (RIP),  [o] – Bandy

Style is inherently a part of the collective unconscious of Skateboarding, and anyone you talk to could probably list off their most influential videos off the top of their heads, or at least a few.  Their list will probably depend on where they come from and what appeals to them stylistically, and might even feature some ripper you’ve never heard of.  With people pumping out their own amatuar edits or raw runs on the daily, you can now analyze your own technique and refine your style, whether you’re in the streets or shredding the park.  Just remember, imitation is the finest form of flattery, but nobody likes a copy-cat – like Big L said – “How come you can listen to my whole album/And tell where a lotta n****s got they’re whole style from“. Find your own style and shred it how you want it. Build your list of influences and beg, borrow or steal from as many people you can to look good and feel good doing it. ‘Cause if it don’t look good, it’s got no style, and if it don’t feel good then you’re not riding a toy, you’re just doing work with a tool – and, according to George Clinton (a very styleee dude) “nothing is fun unless you play with it”. So watch a video, read an article, get stoked and go learn something with on your favorite toy.

“Big” Dave Tannaci tosses out a Frontside Thizz Face with a side of Bonless for a very stoked Gromulin [o] –  Blake Smith

From Chinatown with love,

David Hiltbrand