UNM Spot #2: Nuclear Engineering Hubba

Rowan Zorilla, Barley grind 

The latest Baker ad I found in The Skateboard Mag issue 123 came with pretty awesome timing for this blog post, along with the release of Shep Dawgs Vol 4.  Most recently at the Nuclear Engineering Hubba, we have Rowan Zorilla, Baker's newest am, nicely adding to the spot's trick list with this sick Barley grind. The trick also happens to be his Shep Dawgs ender.  A Barley grind doesn't seem like the craziest of tricks to end a part with, but when you take it to a tall hubba like this, the ante is upped considerably.  Not too long ago there was also Leo Romero's kickflip front board at this hubba as seen in Made Chapter 1. (I didn't see the trick in his B-Sides so here's the clip straight from the epic Emerica video itself. Sorry Emerica, had to.) 

 

                                          

For what I believe is the only fliptrick onto this spot, Leo knee bending when both getting on the ledge and riding away helps show the height to this hubba, and the gnarliness of the trick in general. Then there's Albuquerque's finest, Daniel Lutheran, nailing two tricks at this spot in his Brainwash part below. With only a gnarly 5-0 grind in between the clips, Daniel effortlessly pulls a 180 nosegrind at 1:19 and then follows up with a sweet back overcrook at 1:27 (in a mini-line nonetheless!)

Again, please comment if I've missed any important tricks at this Nuclear Engineering Hubba. And refer to the picture below for my reasoning behind this spot's name.

The 10-stair itself is a pretty long gap. I'm not too surprised I haven't seen any fliptricks down the stairs, not only because of the limited run-up and long set, but because you don't go to the Bahamas to go skiing, if you're picking up what I'm throwing down.

 Now you can kind of see how far the run-up actually is in the picture above, as it extends just about to the doors to the building. But what's also noteworthy is the brief rough patch on your way to the ledge. There's easily enough space after the patch to get ready to pop, so as long as it's not a mental roadblock then it's really no big deal. The rest of the run up is as smooth as can be. And of course there's the classic sign trying to deter us from the spot. I give UNM credit for its placement though.

 Like I mentioned before, this hubba is tall. The handrail that runs down its side is probably close to the ideal height you'd wanna ride for most grinds. But that extra foot up makes quite the difference. You can really tell how the skaters need to pop up and out to ride this thing from watching the 4 aforementioned tricks. Even just the drop off at the end of the ledge seems daunting.

The ledge itself has definitely been waxed and grinded down pretty well before, so there shouldn't be too much forcing going on here. Though, as I'm not one to really grind hubbas like this, I really can't say as an expert.  

And just a couple more pictures to get a feel for the spot. 

And of course for the spot-searchers! This spot is in the SouthWest corner of the Central UNM campus within the group of engineering buildings. There's even a basketball hoop nearby randomly if you and the homies need to let off some steam from the session or something.

UPDATE: Upon rewatching A Happy Medium 2, it turns out Tyler Franz does in fact skate the stairs themselves and not the hubba. His half cab flip goes to show that once you see a spot in person it becomes instantly recognizable in almost every video you watch thereafter. 

UPDATE 2: Just as Taylor Smith goes pro for Foundation, coming off of two sick parts with Shep Dawgs Vol 4 and Tee-Hee, he was interviewed by Thrasher to show us this gnarly and super tall back tail down this very special spot. 

 

UPDATE 3: As Blake Carpenter goes pro for Toy Machine, he unleashes another crazy trick on this spot that looks way too easy when he does it: heelflip noseslide.

UPDATE 4: Nike released some unseen footage from filming during Chronicles 2, and Justin Brock gets a smooth front noseslide down the hubba.

UPDATE 5: Never noticed in my earlier days that Caswell Berry back smithed this hubba back in 2007 in his Feed the Need part.

UPDATE 6: Jordan Maxham gets weird and creative while keeping the gnar level high with whatever you would call this combo grind of a willy and a 5-0 seen in The Skateboard Mag 147. So psyched that he's finally pro and for his Sun Machine part!

Next Week: Pro Too Soon

Turning pro is quite possibly one of the biggest accomplishments in skating and definitely the biggest sign to tell someone "you made it" in skateboarding. It can be a very touchy subject because there are multiple viewpoints: the skater's, the board sponsor (forget anything shoe-related, board companies are where the real act of turning someone pro belongs), the board sponsor's marketing management, and the general public like us. Then you have to take into account the experience or years a skater's put into a company, his loyalty to that company, his actual level of skating and progression, his ability to produce footage at a professional level, and of course his marketability to help the company profit. The list intertwines and extends on for a while, but the basic idea is there: it's not so simple anymore to turn someone pro.
I've already gone over my top 5 skaters that have been putting in plenty of work but have been slept on in terms of going pro, not including Felipe of course now that he has finally been given the nod from Plan B. (That really is quite the hard-working-skater story if there ever was one.)
But there are some companies that have turned some guys pro WAY too soon. Whether it's just because they have some extreme marketability or the company just needs a new pro model on the shop shelves, there are a few guys in the industry that could/should arguably still be am. This week I'll give my Top 5 guys that went pro too soon.
Before that, I feel like I should mention two dudes: Riley Hawk and Dakota Servold. Both are super sick and shred extremely hard, don't get me wrong, but there's still a feeling that they haven't been around too long. It could just be my personal perspective and how I've uncovered their skating, but they both still feel a tad young in the industry. Riley, I've been hyped on since his Shep Dawgs parts and he is one of skateboarding's best footage machines right now, but he really hasn't seemed to be on Baker very long. It could also be a bit overwhelming after he won Year's Best Am on his birthday and turned pro that very same day, but I'd say it's still worth bringing up. Dakota, I never saw before WTF, which was a little over a year and a half ago. Even though he's been on an absolute tear since then, it still feels somewhat early in the scheme of things for Foundation to step him up, especially with other dudes like Ryan Spencer also killing it. Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily mind if those two were still am. But thinking of the Top 5 I have in mind for this week, I would gladly turn Riley and Dakota pro today over those 5.

Video of the Week: Dee Ostrander Baker Part

First off, Aidan Campbell's new part that came out today was pretty awesome. Ever since his sml wheels intro, I was hyped on him and wanted to see more. His new part for Etnies (between AB&A and David Reyes' new part and all the other commercial features Etnies, Etnies could've easily worked towards a full length team video!) was exactly what was needed to bring Aidan to the spotlight. His style and smile make everything he does look super fun and easy, not to mention the really great editing we've come to expect from these Etnies videos. His trick selection is great and mixes in some pretty gnarly spots with some classy tricks. And the knee bend as he holds onto the boardslide at the end is priceless.

But even with that, I simply cannot look past Dee Ostrander's new part that he dropped for Baker. The Baker vibes always make you feel like you're with the homies, so when Dee starts casually ripping everything up for 6 full minutes, the destruction is too good for words. Dee skates some huge, gnarly spots, from rails to gaps to street wide grass gaps from huge ditches (aka the insane ender). So the skating itself is enough to amaze anyone and get skaters psyched to go shred the streets. The taildrop boardslide at 3:16 hyped me up so much! But the fact that everything is done with an apathetic ease left me in awe, which makes sense since Dee just so happened to drop a 6 minute part full of bangers completely out of the blue. Anyway, this part is nuts and deserves plenty of re-watches.

Yoshi Tanenbaum has been killing it lately and doesn't seem to be slowing down after his sick Mag Minute came out.
Though it will be taken down soon, Ben Hatchell's part from Cold War was released on Thrasher showing that anything he puts out is all-terrain gold. Seriously though, the quality of the gnarly footage in Cold War is ridiculous. It might be on the shorter side but I'll take nonstop thrashing footage over an over-edited piece any day.
After Dan Murphy's shared part with Dave Bachinsky in Natural Selection came out not too long ago, he's now releasing more solid footage as a commercial for his truck sponsor, Theeve.
Almost Skateboards is one of my favorite companies because their team is nothing short of legendary and every single one of those dudes skates super creatively (to say the least) and has a blast while doing it. So this new feature from a good group of guys on the team was awesome, not to mention basically a full new part from Youness, yet another footage machine.
The LRG Europe squad is darn talented, like extremely talented, at skateboarding and it shows in their sweet tour video through Cyprus.
Nice NYC vibes throughout this video, Off The Braxx, with a crazy ender part from Dylan Witkin, who somehow managed to find loads of big handrails in the city.
There have to be hundreds if not thousands of dudes that are under the skateboarding industry's radar, but Chris Luhring and Julian Klein both came out with tight parts this week for Creation/Satori and Atlas Skateboarding respectively that should definitely help with that. Haven't heard of either of them before but their names will stick out after seeing their skating here. 

Mid-Line Trick #4: Laser Flip - Theotis Beasley

The 360 flip is likely the most used trick for the middle of a line. Everybody loves a smooth tre because we're all used to its rotation by now and it's a convenient trick to keep your flow going in a line. However, how many times have you seen its heelflip counterpart, the laser flip, in the middle of a line? Heelflip variations (regular, not necessarily nollie) in general are less frequently used than kickflip variations, but even the regular heelflip or varial heelflip for that matter have been tossed around here and there in the middle of a line. When it comes to laser flips, they're typically used as the banger of the line, thrown down a set of stairs to impressively finish the clip. But I can't remember any instance other than Theotis Beasley above in his shared Bake and Destroy part at 2:34 casually put down a flatground laser in the very middle of his line. We all know Theo's got some sick fliptricks, heelflip variations included, but seeing a laser not down some stairs or across a gap is actually quite startling, in the good way. Props to Theotis for a sweet and very memorable line in Bake and Destroy!

Slams #4: Figgy

Justin "Figgy" Figueroa without a doubt skates some gnarly rails. The fact that I've seen him in more torn up, shredded T-shirts than whole ones should demonstrate that. Not only that but his hands are always cut up from the battles he must go through for his difficult tricks. He's a pretty big dude so when he's tossing his carcass down some hefty rails and something goes wrong, the results are rather sketchy.
Though the clip is fairly old by now, the video above from a Skate Rock tour gives a nice view of the bone-jarring thud you hear when Figgy slams hard. Ankles, face, just a full body blow. Try not to grimace.
Figgy's stand-out part in Stay Gold was extremely rad because he skated so hard to get his gnarly tricks. All of Figgy's B-Sides from Stay Gold are great to watch for both the makes and the bails, but the main falls for me include the couple harsh and fast slams on the long tre flip at 1:51, the broken ankle and weird bending of his leg while trying to switch flip the ATL 5 block at 3:28, and the horrible sound of the bashed head on the front feeble bail at 4:19 where he just so happened to get a board to the head as well. Insult to injury. There's also a smith grind from the part where Figgy sacks the curved rail rather nicely that's fully explained here; the spot is also carried into the next part...
From Stay Gold to Bake and Destroy, Figgy didn't stop working and skating really hard. Right away you see the cut up arms and hands at the start of the part immediately followed by two gruesome bails involving some skidding on the ground and that impactful thump that never sounds good. The giant gash in his hand seals the deal. Getting totally flipped over the rail at 0:46 to the point where his legs just add to the weight crushing his head and neck into the ground adds to Figgy's list of rough bails.

Video of the Week: Kevin Phelps

There were actually quite a few solid videos that came out this week, from the awesome team vibes and moments of the Pretty Sweet Tour, Vans release of Gilbert Crockett's part in Old Dominion to show the crusty East Coast spots, and even Ben Raemers' very fun and loose skating his Tiltmode part.
I'd also like to give an even more supporting nod to Tristan Funkhouser (aka T-Funk) with his first part for Baker Skateboards. Dude fits with Baker perfectly and already has a sick bag of man-style tricks at his age, which I respect a lot because the grom-style is not very appealing. His ender wallride is absolutely nuts, but I must say I would've killed to have seen that huge hippy jump from about 0:50 in his trailer for the part though...
Also special mention to Alain Saavedra for being welcomed to Consolidated with an extremely gnarly and just raw part. Big gaps and a really rugged style go together really well here.
And last special mention to Dustin Henry for a sweet On The Radar part for TWS. I'm a fan of anyone getting hooked up by Cliche, but it doesn't even matter because Dustin's quick feet and kickflips are very entertaining to watch.
The main video of this week goes to Kevin Phelps (above) with his part from Culture Shock. Hitting East Coast spots with West Coast tricks is really awesome to watch. It's really cool that Kevin has good pop, a lanky style that can still take some really solid impacts, a great bag of consistent tricks (that somehow kept getting larger throughout the part), and a unique take on well-known spots that lets him add memorable tricks to their histories.  Some of cool clips from the part include the smooth cab flip back disaster revert at 0:43, the front board at 1:37 mainly for the really cool look of all the red bricks at the spot, and the line at 2:17 because of the surprising half cab late back foot flip in the middle of two other really nice tricks. At 3:51, every clip becomes a banger pretty much: tailslide big flip on the NYC courthouse ledge, followed up by a nollie hardflip into that bank! Then Kevin goes to the other coast to double flip the Santa Monica triple set, which is super awesome. Then he stylishly lands a huge 50-50 drop off as well as a long noseslide big spin out on the same long ledge I remember David Gonzalez first lipsliding and then Eli Reed switch lipsliding. Later Kevin visits the huge brick double bank at 6:42 and skates it like no one else before with a giant ollie past the second bank to the flat below. And since 3 is always a lucky number, Kevin nails his third trick of the part at the NYC courthouse bank to finish things off: a ridiculous caballerial kickflip off the top shelf, somehow pulling out the switch drop and rollaway.