Flagrant Délit - 2

Even the most underground rippers can be caught red-handed sometimes. Here, Dave Caddo offers us as 'steezy' pose after a 'steezy' wallride. I don't know what is going on with his hands, but it's definitely wrong and aesthetically unpleasant

Flagrant délit

'Flagrand délit' is an ambitious rubrique aiming at higlighting professional skateboarders accentuating their style to the point of ridicule.
First on the list: Tony Cervantes in Ride the Sky.



I shall do an 'Accessorized Kamasutra of Skateboarding' as soon as I stop being lazy...

The Self-Made Whiner

The Get By

In 1954, Irvin G. Wyllie published The Self-Made Man in America: the Myth of Rags to Riches. The intent of the author was to explain the concept of the 'self-made man' and to see how it could be perpetuated in a world of big corporation where the emphasis was on the group and not the individual. More than 50 years later, HBO published this piece of shit of documentary in which they tried desperately to attach the sociological concept of the self-made man and the American Dream with the snobbish and hypocritical world of skateboarding.



Far from being 'men in gray flannel suit', skateboarders are among the few who do not have to make a choice between their jobs and their lives considering that their jobs is their passion as well. Paradoxically enough, this fauna counts an anormally significant number of whiners, more hypocritical than two white-collars in competition for the same position.
The most poetic of us would say this documentary is an ode to New York, while the most pessimistic would say it is meant to disguise NY skateboarders' lazyness with architectural excuses. No need to precise where I stand. Gino, who basically never had any footage in NY, is one of the first to point out NY's roughness. He's quickly followed by Pops, who used to rip seriously back in the days and who has now found a good exscuse to justify his lazyness. Perhaps, a piece of shit of European skater like me cannot understand what those modern guerillos have to say. Or maybe if they went to other spots than Macba and Bercy during Euro tours, they would have an accurate vision of Europe and know that NY is not the only place with rough spots.
At least, one thing we cannot take away from them is the photogenic quality of NY.



Keeping with the whining part, apparently NY is the only place with clubs, drugs and alcohol preventing you from skateboarding. Here again, though everyone complain about their demons it is interesting to see that some of them such as Fred Gall never fell of the map.

I guess the part I enjoyed the most was when skateboarders talked about their standard of living. It was interesting to see my illusions shattered and to realize that some of them (the less whiners, paradoxically) had a 9 to 5 job. I guessed it would have been interesting to emphasize more on this aspect. The 5 Boro team might have had a lot to say about that.

The self-made man owes his success to no one, and he is proud of that. While we might see it as ironical to see Gino and Pops (who live only thanks to their past fame and faithful sponsors) talking about it, it seems more logical to see 'hardworking' skateboarders such as Eli Reed or Zered Bassett (who actually deserve to be where they are at) sharing their opinion.


The real self-made men of this documentary might be Jahmal Williams, Steve Rodriguez and Billy Rohan, respectively Hopps owner, 5 Boro owner and skate-teacher. Those are the actual ones who seem to have struggled to build something tangible in the skatebaording world. The modesty of their achievements is contrasted by the amount of energy they put in it, and we cannot but admire them for what they built with their own hands and time. It is sad that HBO had such amazing material and concept at hand, and that they came up with such a 'cliché' documentary devoided of worthy content. It would have been interesting to spend more time interviewing the actual persons qualified to talk about being a 'self-made man'. And if the editing were better, perhaps we could have had two full sentences in a row instead of a succession of catchy slogans such as "this is the best city in the world!"

LaLodge would like to point out MC Quim Cardona's amazing performance who definetely gives rhythm and a touch of crazyness to the documentary.

Poll Results + Anthropological enterprise

So, obviously the majority of people answered "is there a good part about Adio?" Can it be possible that a brand has sponsored so many embarrasing skaters by the past such as Adio? (Shaun White, Bam, Tony Hawk, Richie Belton...)

But I have to admit that the exact purpose of this pointless poll was to know the number of people who had enough spare time to spend five intense minutes watching my blog. Well, considering that there must be some people watching and not voting, it's not that bad. Even though, I'm considering switching back to French...

Anyway, this week's poll will have the same anthropological purpose. My purpose being to know more about my awsome readership. What kind of skateboarding do you guys particulary affectionate? To that end, I have selectionned 4 skaters that I consider representative of a particular trend in skateboarding. Giving your vote to one of these professional stuntmen does not necessarily mean that you're sexually found of him, but more that you appreciate his style or vision of skateboarding. Thus, if you vote for Bobbly Puleo, you're showing you love for cellar-doors and pretentiousness, and not much more.

So, this week's champions are:


- Bobby Worrest: graciously hugged in his Dickies pants and recently fit again in Yougatgetthat, Bobby transcends coastal barriers. He does not give a shit, his trick selection, thought improving, remains unaffected by the various trends raging in the higly conformist world that skateboarding is.


- Lucas Puig: The French cupsoles afficionado might be under the influence of combo-skateboarding, but we have to admit that he is often one of the innovators in that matter and that his technical level is always on point.


Shinpei Ueno: knowing the hold of Japanese skateboading on Bordeaux skaters, I guess it would be legitimate to put this modern urban samuraï as amassador of skateboarders eager to make love to architecture. Shinpei's flip tricks might not have the lightfootedness of Lucas' but the rest of his tricks is likely to make your panties turn brown.

- Grant Taylor: the former kid and newly tall and lanky tranny-dog's skateboarding transcends time's barrier. He can actually be called an 'overall ripper' because no type of terrain seems to be able to resist to his wrath, from the radest bowls to rails with holes in them.

(I have recently learned to make hypertext links, so don't forget to watch the clips, pigé?)

Day in a life with Billy Rohan

Day in the life with Billy Rohan from Jesse Fritsch

So, he is a skate-teacher for high-school and rides for Element. Is it that bad?
I don't know if I say that because I'm a fan of his skating, but it seems that he has found the right balance between mainstream and hardcore skateboarding without compromising himself.
Teaching skateboarding to kids is not that bad if you let them understand that it must be enjoyed outside of any kind of structure as well. From what we see here, the skateboarding class is mostly about putting kids on a skateboard and letting them have fun the way they want. I guess it's better than the GI Joe style: "Alrgith freshers, 20 ollies for everyone!"
And on the other end, Billy is very active in the NY skate community, from taking care of the 12th & A to filming dope parts for the Green Diamond video. Moreover, he is not getting caught into stupid trick and style trends: his 3-6 flips are OG and his ledge tricks are worthy of a 90s Girl video.

Let's hope for a full part in the next Element video now.

PWBC

English skateboarders were known for their phlegm and refinment and impeccable tricks and spot selection. Now they are famous for being crazy and obsessed by gansta skateboarding.

pwbc - pwbc 36 Mandem on MUZU

Figure-skating

This past week I have been watching various video clips of the recent edition of the Tampa Pro. I don't give a shit about contest's results and I find it rather stupid to judge skateboarding like ice-skating, but I have to admit that I love to watch the skating.
Anyway, this got me into thinking about contest runs. I don't know how come it's always the dudes who cannot stay on their board during 45 seconds who always end up winning. Take this run example:

Alright, I am willing to admit that it was pretty amazing. But who the fuck skate like that, honestly? Do you guys take you board in hand after every single trick? Personnally I kind of enjoy the cruising part of skateboarding and I feel like these dudes skate with a sort of check-list in mind: "Okay, anihilating the rail: done. Now let's move on to the hip. Let's not worry with a kickturn on the wall, it's lame anyway." You know it's like when you watch figure-skating: nobody gives a shit when the dude is cruising and everyone is just waiting for him to throw a "buttery" triple axel.
Don't get any ideas on me watching figure skating, ok? Well, I do sometimes but that is mostly for the ladies in tight leotard. Now that this point is cleared, let's move on.

Now that's what I call a run. Thank you my dear Swedish exhibitionist fellow, I appreciate that.
If I were a judge that is the kind of skateboarding I would reward. I like that the dude is all over the place: from tranny attacks to neo-oldschool tricks such as the boneless fs tail on the handrail, no obstacle is spared Pontus' wrath. He even makes the cruising in between tricks interesting. Rattray's, Trujillo's, Busenitz's runs are often as much arousing. Even if some of these dudes have already won Tampa, I feel like it was much an exception and that actual good skateboarding won't be rewarded as it should be before long.
Maybe we should get figure-skating judges for Tampa after all...