Welcome to the December 2011 installment of "The Freestyle Report". The first bit of news that we have is a staffing change here at Everything Skateboarding. For the last couple of years, our freestyle correspondent has been our good friend AJ Kohn of One Skateboards, and Performance Tip Technologies.
A couple months ago, AJ asked if he could take on more ambitious projects here at Everything Skateboarding, and hand off the compiling of The Freestyle Report to the current World Freestyle Association (WFSA) Secretary, Hans Lucas. Of course, I'm totally cool with whatever AJ's cool with. So if AJ had confidence in Hans, then who in the world am I to say "no"...?
Turns out that Hans Lucas already does a monthly freestyle newsletter for the worldwide freestyle community. The plan was simple enough: Hans would put me on the WFSA mailing list; I'd edit the newsletter down, and clarify it a bit for our non-freestyling readers; and then, we'd simply publish the revised newsletter. Perfect...!
What follows are the highlights of the November and December newsletters (in that order). I'd like to take a moment, and thank AJ for all that he's contributed to Everything Skateboarding... as well as to Hans for coming on board, and being a part of the staff. You guys rock. Thanks so much.
Lastly: Everything Skateboarding remains committed to supporting flatland and freestyle skateboarding in any way that we can. Even though it's largely ignored by the "mainstream" media, freestyle remains a vibrant and growing community of skaters that are dedicated to their craft. They deserve recognition, and they deserve coverage. Freestyle's impact on modern street skating cannot be emphasized enough. And if you want to see what street skating will look like in ten to twenty years...? Then stay tuned to The Freestyle Report. Because the future happens here.
Enjoy...!
New WFSA Secretary 2012-2015:
Currently, Hans is the Secretary of the WFSA until the end of 2012. Last month, he said:
"I'm prepared to continue to be the Secretary from 2012, through 2015. But if you're confident that you are more experienced, or have better ideas, or more available time that could benefit the freestyle community... then I invite you to nominate yourself as a candidate. Of course, I will continue to support the new Secretary, the WFSA, and freestyle if I'm not re-elected...!"
This month, I got an update:
"Since there were no other candidates who nominated himself/herself before 1st December for WFSA Secretary 2012-2015, I am willing and able to continue this position for 4 more years with the same dedication as during the past 4 years..."
Congratulations, Hans, on your unchallenged re-election...!
Freestyle Links:
As part of his monthly freestyle reports, Hans sent over, like, a million YouTube links to various freestyle-related YouTube channels. These were, by far, the best parts of the November and December reports. Here's a few that I picked out for our readers:
Dan Garb does so many flip-in,flip-out pogo variations that it's almost dizzying. You can see more of Daniel Garb's YouTube Channel, here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Doom1213
Hans also sent over the link for Rodney Mullen Skate TV Channel, which is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RodneyMullenSkateTV
Here, you can find pretty much anything and everything "Rodney Mullen" that you'd ever want to know...
This clip is of Rodney Mullen's finals run at the NSA Munster, Germany, contest, circa 1990. Notice how the "freestyle area" is actually in the middle of the street course. A harbinger of things to come, perhaps...? The description says that this was his last freestyle contest...but I could've sworn that his "last" freestyle competition was the "Back To The City" contest in San Fran later that year.
This is WFSA Board Member, and The Freestyle Report cover-guy, Terry Synnott. Terry Synnott also hand-shapes and screenprints dedicated freestyle decks under his brand, "Mode", for freestylers all over the world. This is just a recent sampling of his work (below):
This is just the sort of thing that I love to get from Hans: Bruce Logan's "inductee profile" video for the Skateboarding Hall Of Fame and Museum in Simi Valley, California. If IASC keeps supporting the making of these sorts of archival documents, I might just have to start supporting 'em.
This just might be the very best thing in the entire WFSA Newsletter. It's a clip called "Unseen- Part 1" from some freestyle prodigy named Matt Galizia. I don't know who this Matt kid is... I've never even heard of him. Nor have I seen any of his footage. But if this is "Part 1", then I'm really kinda wondering where "Part 2" is, and when I'm gonna be able to check it out.
If you don't recognize who this is, don't worry- I'm about to tell you: It's legendary freestyler Rob Rodrigues, from New York City. In 1990, Rob was part of the "next wave" of freestylers that started going after Rodney's crown (along with peers like Cameron Martin). Rob had a bold, brash, street-influenced freestyling style. He skated fast, he skated smooth, and he made no apologies whatsoever for breaking the "freestyle mold". He was destined for great things... that is, until the NSA and Powell-Peralta (his sponsor at the time) permanently pulled the plug on freestyle forever. And then, poof: He was gone.
Rob's a true East Coast legend, in every sense of the word. His reputation was known everywhere- even to kids (like me) all the way up in New England.
Last year, I actually got to meet Rob at The Worlds in Philly. He wasn't skating much... apparently, he was too injured to make the comp last year. I was so, so bummed. Here I was, hanging out with the man... and I couldn't even watch him skate. Damn...
This year, though, Rob was back...! Skating! And that's always a great thing to see...
Here's some footage I found of Rob Rodrigues, circa 1990. Now, you know what I'm talking about. Check it out, man: Anybody that skates to "Axis: Bold as Love" is pretty fucking bad ass.
Do yourself a favor, and go learn how to skate like Rob. Now...!
Ahhhhh...! Joe Flemke. AJ warned me about this kid a couple years back. He described Flemke as a flatland machine, a singular talent, a total freestyle threat that skates faster than anybody else, and does completely ridiculous combinations of absolutely impossible stuff. Basically, the kid's nuts. And after watching this video three times back to back, and being horribly confused every single time, I must say that I'd have to agree.
You can probably guess that Joe won the US Championships in Philly this year. Well, you guessed right, kid. He did. And now, you can see why.
There was an extremely large Japanese presence at The Worlds in Philly a couple years back, and AJ explained to me a few weeks later (when I finally got around to asking) why that's the case: Freestyle is actually pretty popular in Japan. Oh, well... that does make perfectly good sense, now doesn't it...?! From what I saw, the Japanese blend a very "traditional" freestyle worldview, with a very smooth and precise execution, to create a strange, new, modern hybrid. This is Toshiaki Fujii from the Japanese feestyle video, "M80 Crossover". Yes: Even freestyle videos flourish in Japan...
... and Hidemi Ohishi, also from the "M80 Crossover" video. Check out how crazy fast this kid skates. Damn.
Upcoming Freestyle Events:
_______________________________________________
April 14th, 2012-
Freestyle demo, as a part of another event.
Ollie's Skatepark in Florence, KY (near Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)
Indoor flatland area - about as large as a full-size basketball court - with a polished concrete floor.
May 18th - 21st, 2012-
"The World Round-up":
A series of skating demos and a battle format.
Everybody can register for this, but only the top 30 freestylers can enter the event.
Cloverdale Curling Rink - Cloverdale Exhibition grounds, 6050A 176th Street, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
June 21st, 2012-
"Go Skateboarding Day"
Create your own event to promote flatland and freestyle skateboarding.
July 7th - 8th, 2012-
World Championships 2012
(a.k.a. Freestyle BBQ Contest) Goldgrund Skatepark, Paderborn, Germany
Masters, girls, am, pro
July 6th - 8th, 2012:
NASS, Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, U.K.
This is a large 3-day annual extreme "relentless" sports festival and the entry fee includes free camping and free transport to the nearest train station (Castle Cary).
Format: Jam
Camping times: Fri 10am - Sun 6pm
Entry: £72.00 + booking fee
August 23rd - 27th, 2012:
Flatcamp 2012
Rollerskating rink, Schillerplatz, Schweinfurt, Germany
Welcome To America, Kilian...!
As our last bit of news for this month, we here at Everything Skateboarding would like to welcome Kilian Martin to America. Kilian made the voyage from his native homeland of Spain, to bright and sunny California on December 10th, to further pursue his skating career with Powell-Peralta. Hats off, buddy! We're glad to have ya...!
If you'd like your own, un-edited copy of the WFSA Newsletter sent to your e-mail in-box every month, simply send an empty e-mail to wfsa-join @ mylist.net. Hans will take care of you from there.
"Thank you...!"
Hans Lucas
WFSA Secretary
WFSA Mailinglist Administrator
World Freestyle Skateboard Association"
(For those that are curious, the WFSA web address is: www.wfsafreestyle.org)
