Penny skating Radlands ‘94’ish, style and just being next level.
Seeing John Cardiel Ollie the South Shields donut gap!
Carl Shipman at Wakefield.
Rick McCrank & P-Rod éS demo.
Heath Kirchart getting out of the van doing one 360, on the BMX rhythm section, then getting back in the van for the whole demo, as the rest of park was too small.
Alan Petersen skating vert, no pads or helmet.
Jerry Hsu, best style.
So many great American pros passed through South Sheilds in the 90s … Gonz, Salman Agah, Keenan Milton(rip), Colin McKay, Kris Markovich & Henry Sanchez to name a few… all super chill and friendly.
Brian Wenning at MACBA in 2002, I was lucky enough to witness a few lines he filmed there for the DC Video. He was incredibly consistent and very systematic in his approach.
GT skating the ideal mini was special. Didn’t skate for long and didn’t do much that mind blowing, but just the way he skated was so wild. Accidently ending up on the shelf next to the extension and just ragging back in is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. It was like he wasn’t skating he was just doing. So rad!
We skated with (near ) Wenning at Fondo. He was definitely ‘systematic’. He was popping into stalls before going for his trick. Nollie crook of some description.
When he finally went for it, he slammed and lost some ink from his wenning tattoo and gave up.
I think it was the same day Chris Jones was with us and he smashed out some absolute hammers. Chris Jones is another one for this list.
Each trick for one particular line was practiced to death at the spot, excluding the final one, he’d do them over and over until they were beyond nailed. I don’t recall a single flat ground trick being missed. Then he put on a Habitat t-shirt over his vest, filmed the line very quickly and the only time he tried the last trick it was landed first try.
Puig in Newcastle for a cliche demo either 2011 or 2013 I can’t fully remember, just rifling off tricks on the flatbank with impeccable style. Reynolds too, 2013 Emerica tour again at Bridges - fs flip out the kicker over the hubba and just made the entire object look tiny when in actuality there’s only a handful of tricks been done over it. Barney Page ripping back 5-0 alley oop 270s in over the moon quarter pipe channel stands out too. Obviously you’ll watch parts and think “yeah this guys good” but when you have physical context and know the spots or how in the norths case bad/rough they are it gives you a whole new degree of appreciation. There’s a couple spots in Hartlepool been doing the rounds and showing up in vids, photos etc the last year or so and I hit a few of them up today which again gives a new appreciation for them (how the fuck anyone has done anything on cannon banks is beyond me).
I’d also give our own @42069666 honorable mention, Bridges polejam rock yank to fakie is mental enough on its own letalone doing it twice! Madman.
I only saw MW skate once - he was doing laps of the empty tennis court next to Hyde park skatepark, doing every flat ground trick known to man first go
Echoing what loads of people have said already - peak Stereo Shipman at Wakefield was shocking.
Tom Penny and Geoff came to Rehab (wakefield park) really early on, probably 92/93 and I genuinely don’t think Tom bailed a single trick for hours. First time I’d seen proper nollie hard flips etc. Mind blowing that one.
Lutszka (spelling) on that Almost tour where he 270 fs flipped Meanwhile second try was insane. People still liked him at that point and he was insanely consistent.
Mike Carrol skating everywhere on that huge girl tour where Rick Howard got the Sidewalk cover wall riding down the stairs at the side of Shell was equally nuts. Remember seeing him doing switch big heel to manual on that road gap to manny spot by SOAS and he did it first try! The footage ended up on yeah Right I think. I can remember wondering how many other things he did like that.
Peak Mike Wright era - my God. Any trick no matter how obscure every try. I remember a sesh with Mike and Shipman where Carl wouldn’t shut up about how scarily good Mike was. ‘Who the hell is this kid? Why isn’t he in the States?’ Etc
There are plenty more but will need more time to think
Both tricks are in Fully Flared. Would love to have seen Carroll skate in the flesh.
First trip to Copenhagen and Malmö in 2014 and we end up at Stapelbädd one evening. Dusk has descended and some kid turns up and starts floating huge airs in the deep transition they have there. Turns out it was Oski.
Carroll is incredibly consistent. His runs at the GP were always fantastic, you wouldn’t really know what to expect, he’d just cruise around doing everything so perfectly.
BA. His footage is always rad but there’s an aura around him or something when you see him in the flesh, he’s so hench yet so smooth, it’s really special.
Brandon Westgate turned up randomly at my local. I obviously know of him and have seen some of his parts but didn’t truly appreciate how good he was until I saw him skate UP things I’d struggle to skate down.
Also had the pleasure of watching Daewon skate at Harbor City skatepark, which speaks for itself.
Racking my brains on this, it’ really hard! Seen so many people in so many situations (and some not at their best)
Like first time I saw Penny at Harrow on that big tour the US pros did in what, 91? Mind blowing. Then next couple times skated ‘with’ him in a comp (infamous st albans mushrooms), then on brighton mini, just me him and another dude (Earl?), and he was completely wasted. Like, absolutely fried. Really killed the mystery.
Rushbrook was amazing when I first saw him, just massive massive floaty ollies everywhere
Saw Rattray at the St albans comp he won. He’d been skating the mini for ages and got called in for his run and I hadn’t seen him skate the street course at all whilst I’d been there for warm ups. And he came in and did his run and it was crazy, ended with a nosegrind bs revert down the rail iirc. Blown away.
One other time I ended up at a comp at Malmo early 00’s and the cliche heads were there. I thought I might enter until I saw them skate. Bressol, Mendezbal and Rousseau iirc. Completely another level.
) Wenning at Fondo. He was definitely ‘systematic’. He was popping into stalls before going for his trick. Nollie crook of some description.
