First Aid Kit!
December 26, 2009
Figgy broke a kingpin the other night at the TF. He was bummed. Then Collin busted this out of his trunk. Haven't seen one of them in ages!
The handoff! Collin saves the day!
Nick Trapasso
December 12, 2009
Nick Trapasso
Words: Rob Brink
November 2008
This was the original 2008 Year's Best Am Nick Trapasso interview for The Skateboard Mag. When all was said and done, Nick asked that the interview be redone with someone he knew better and it ended up being assigned to Mike Sinclair. No hard feelings or anything like that. It's not drama. It just is. Nick's amazing. I'm a fan. Enjoy.
“I wish I knew Nick.”
-Ed Templeton
“Nick has been one of my favorite skaters since Suffer the Joy. It always confused me that I won Years Best Am last year when Nick should have easily got the award. If he didn't win this year I’d whoop someone’s ass! Well deserved. Congratulations, Nick.”
-Sean Malto
“Nick stands out from the herd because of how original he is. He's not a new version of this guy or an amalgamation of these two types of skaters or part of some skate trend movement—he's just Nick. Skaters, young and old, pick up on this refreshing originality and relish it.”
-Kevin Barnett
Nick Trapasso is a quiet fellow who doesn’t seem to trouble himself worrying (or caring, for that matter) about much in life. He doesn’t have answers to many of the questions presented to him… not because he’s clueless, but because he seemingly knows that none of it really fuckin’ matters in the grand scheme of things—which is somewhat admirable actually. It’s apparent he’d rather be kickin’ it with his crew or out skating than sitting on the phone talking about himself. Which is just fine, because in the last year or two, his skating’s been speaking volumes anyway. So make Nick proud: Grab a beer or twist one up and enjoy a glimpse into the modest world of 2008’s Year’s Best Am… “fo’ sho’.”
Delayed flight...
December 7, 2009
Killing time with some more Tampa Am crap. Ben Hatchell never misses this:
Check the catch on Luan's frontside nollie flip over the hip... the hard way. The landing point was usually just past the huge Gatorade logo on the far side of the bank... you know... on the metal lip. Just sayin'...
Just two more... for now...
December 7, 2009
Judging from how quiet it was when he landed this, I don't think many people caught it. Luan: switch 180 to 5-0 to bigflip out during practice.
Willy Akers. Wallie noseblunt.
Austyn...
December 5, 2009
Small kickflip
BS nollie flip
180 switch backside 50-50. The really hard way.
Peter Smolik
December 1, 2009
Peter Smolik
Words: Rob Brink
August 2008
Another one that was supposed to be for the Berrics over a year ago... enjoy.
Are you at The Berrics filming your part right now?
Ya. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m trying some tricks I’ve never tried before.
Back in the day, when people were doing stuff on ledges and flatground, Pat Duffy hitting huge rails and stairs... way ahead of his time... and some people didn't get it. By the time people were starting to do what he was doing you were in the midst of coming up with some of the hardest ledge combinations of the time. Flip in, flip out... tailslides to noseslides, etc. A lot of people are just now catching up to you. At the time, were there mixed reactions to your bag of tricks? Did people hate on you? Was it accepted?
It was definitely respected, because you can’t knock it. Once you spend that amount of time trying one trick you got to get respect for that shit, homey. ‘Cause that shit’s fuckin’ like a battle. It’s a mathematical equation to just deal with the weight, balance, gravity, speed... all that shit mixed into one thing... one moment of time... one movement. I mean, ain’t nobody really hatin’ on it, but it took them a little while to catch up and shit.
When you see something like all the ledge tricks in Fully Flared, do you get psyched? Get frustrated? Seemed like a ton of stuff in that video, you and Daewon and some other guys did ages ago.
All of that comes into play. And it hypes me up at the same time cause it’s like, “Damn I want to increase my skills and do some shit I haven’t done, and that nobody’s done.” And those motherfuckers in that video... they did some shit nobody’s done either. And that psyched me up because it’s always good to see a new trick go down in the vocabulary of skateboarding.
Daryl Angel
November 24, 2009
Daryl Angel
Words: Rob Brink
April 2009
About a year and a half ago, some people at The Berrics and I had an idea for me to do monthly "Clinical Research" interviews for their site. Well, sometimes people get busy, ideas change and things fall to the wayside. And that's exactly what happened. Not one to waste a good interview, I figured I might as well post it. So here's a Daryl Angel interview that was intended for The Berrics the week he got the boot from Skate Mental and got on Habitat. An unseen Peter Smolik interview is to follow...
Daryl! What’s up?
I just found out Michael Jackson died.
And Farah Fawcett…
Really? Both in the same day? What the hell? Everybody is dying. I’m so bummed, dude.
Were you a Michael Jackson fan?
Nah. Have you seen the Nike video yet?
Just downloaded it and only saw your part so far.
You liked it?
Hell yeah. You’re kinda hot right now.
I haven’t skated in a month. I rolled my ankle pretty bad.
Debacle, Nike ams "United Nations," Slap web interview, Crailtap guest poster of the week, Skate Mental-to-Habitat gossip and now you’re the first Berrics interview I’m doing.
Really? That’s pretty cool. I guess I should feel honored.
New Jack: David Reyes
November 23, 2009
New Jack: David Reyes
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, December 2009
Imagine you get called to the principal’s office one day and get told that your estranged father, who you hadn’t had contact with in years, has died. Then, a few years later, find out he’s trying to contact you. It happened to David Reyes. Isn’t that reason alone to continue reading about him?
If you need further coaxing, consider that David carries a dictionary with him at all times. He likes to look up words that he doesn’t know when he reads or hears them. The number of skateboarders, or even people in general, who actually do that can most likely be counted on three fingers. And no, Dictionary.com on your iPhone doesn’t count.
Contrary to much of what we see in skateboarding, you don’t have to go to great, contrived, labor-intensive lengths to be an individual. Sometimes it’s the little things that provide a world of differentiation. Here’s your chance to get to know a little more about David and a few more of those “little things.”
So Leo Romero is one of your favorite skaters?
Definitely.
I heard he just took you to Disneyland.
Yeah! Me and him and Julian Davidson went. It was my first time. So sick!