Because of AJ Kohn's recent addition to The Solitary Life staff... and, to make damned sure that I didn't sound like a complete dumbass whenever I talked with AJ about upcoming articles and features... I spent some time last week Googling "freestyle skateboarding" in a vain effort to do some long-overdue self-educating about the past, present, and future of freestyle. Unfortunately for us all, this is much, much easier said than done...
It seems that there just are not very many fully comprehensive, all-encompassing resources out there, regarding the history of this niche within skateboarding. Well, when we see a problem here at The Solitary Life, our first inclination is to fix it. If there's no documented history of freestyle on the web?! Then, gawd dummit, we're gonna write one...!
The best place to find "historical" archives these days are on YouTube... but, knowing where to look, and what to look for, can be a mighty challenge. Here's some contrived "footage" from 1965, posted by some dude named "takapaiki". As you can see, the history of freestyle goes all the way back to the very roots of skateboarding, itself.
But, there's a problem. Outside of AJ, there's not a single freestyler on the staff. Doh! And, we're pretty sure that AJ doesn't have the sort of time on his hands to write it all down, himself. We think, at least. But, AJ has surprised us before. So maybe, he'll do it again...?
In any rate: Sooner or later, we're going to need the help of the freestyle community... past, and present... to get this thing done.
Was this one of the last full-length freestyle video parts ever...? Rodney Mullen, circa 1989, in the first World Industries video ("Rubbish Heap"). As you can easily see here, the freestyle tricks of the late '80s became the foundation for what would become the technical street skating of the '90s, and beyond.
We've decided that, in order to recognize the vast and immense contributions that freestylers have made to the world of skateboarding, we're going to make September "Freestyle Month" here at The Life. Hopefully, if we don't go totally ADHD on this project, that'll include:
- Comprehensive coverage of The Worlds in Philadelphia (which happens to be September 18th and 19th, in Philadelphia... clearly, "freestyle month" is intended to coincide nicely with The Worlds...)
- A comprehensive "History of Freestyle" article...
- The first-ever Solitary Life-sponsored and organized event: A home-grown "King of Flatland" comp, right here in Indianapolis, Indiana...
- AJ's usual Freestyle Report,
- A guide to some of those nutty tricks that you guys are doing these days ("Coconut Manuals"...? Seriously...?!)
- Interviews with freestylers of the past, and present,
- Product Reviews on new freestyle gear, and,
- A round-table with ten of the best up-and-coming freestylers, from around the world.
Killian Martin came out at the very top of AJ's "Freestylers To Watch" list, and the reasons why are pretty obvious to me. This goes to show just how far freestyle has come, in spite of the industry's claims that "freestyle is dead", and "there's no progression going on in freestyle". Well, I happen to disagree. Here, we have a perfect marriage of speed, style, confidence, creativity, and cinematography... all blended together to create a whole that's far, far greater than the sum of it's parts. The differences between Killian's part, and the Rodney footage above are subtle, yet dramatic.
We're definitely going to need your help to pull this off. So, what do we need, you ask?! Photos. Memories. Stories. Recollections. Names, dates, times, and facts. Spreading The Word. But maybe, most importantly: Your Participation. We wanna get everyone involved, to make damned sure that this becomes an accurate, impartial, and definitive history of a key part of the skateboarding legacy.
