Robert Brink - Writer

Karl Watson on Manuals!

February 26, 2007 | Skip To The Comments (0)

Finally, I am getting back to these. As promised, Karl Watson from the the never-before-seen manual article interviews from a few years ago. Still to come are Henry Sanchez and Biebel!

Karl. My name's Robert, I'm calling from Strength magazine and we're doing an article on manuals.

On manuals?

Yeah, like the evolution of manual tricks and we wanted to know if you wanted to answer a few questions for us.

No problemo!

Cool man, let me just get right into it then. What would you say is or was your favorite place to do manuals?

Pier 7 and Fort Mason.

Who or what made you first want to try manual tricks?

Brian Lotti and Jovante Turner.

Yeah. That's the same answer Tim O'connor just gave me.

No way!

Yup.

Are you serious? Wow. That's rad.

What would you say was the first really hard manual trick you learned?

Um let me see…that's a good question. I guess switch heelflip to nosewheelie. That was the first hard one.

Which trick would you say you're most proud of?

Oh man…manual trick? It was the two benches with the gap in between. And it was nosewheelie, nollie 180 over the gap. Switch nosewheelie on the other one.

Oh, I remember that one.

Oh you do?

Yeah, was that an ad or a sequence?

It was an ad. It was in that IPath ad. It was fun.

What manual trick took you longest to learn?

The nosewheelie nollie cab out.

Oh really?

Yeah, that took me a while. That took me the longest to learn.

Anything you're working on now that you just cant land or gave up on?

Um...hmm...nah. Not really.

Who would you say is the king of the manual?

I mean, Daewon. He's the most technical, Mark Johnson you know, ooooooohh!

Smooth…

Butter! Mark Johnson is the modern day Brian Lotti, I think.

Definitely. What would you say is the most memorable manual trick ever done?

Jovante Turner in the World video. 360 flip to nose wheelie. Damn! He did it so good!

And finally, last question. What do you think is appealing about manual tricks as opposed to other types of skating?

It shows more of your style. It's more flowing. It has so much balance involved you know? I love it. I mean I like all the flip out stuff, but I prefer to see a clean manual. With either a turn out come out straight. But some people can do it real good though, like Brandon Biebel. I mean, yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, I'm about to call Biebel right now actually.

Yeah? Can you do me a favor? Can you tell him I give him props on the girl Euro tour video.

Oh the Harsh Euro Barge? What was it? Beware of the Flare?

Oh no, the new one.

Oh, I didn't see the new one yet. He has some sick shit in it?

Ooooooooh! The nollie flip nose wheelie to nollie flip out. It's super tight.

Well I'll tell him. Thanks for your time, man.

Cool! Thank you.