Clipper #1: Brian "Slash" Hansen

Slash's ender for The Deathwish Video has so many levels of awesomeness and gnarliness. The trick by itself, caballerial frontside noseslide back to regular, is easily one of the craziest tricks to go down the Clipper ledge. What puts Slash's trick over the top for me is twofold. The back foot coming off of the board for essentially a one-footed noseslide, which appears totally accidental, showcases Slash's crazed board control and makes Slash's already sick style look that much cooler. The second aspect of this trick is the fact that with the curvature of the Clipper ledge itself, Slash actually locked into somewhat of a nosegrind. Caballerial backside nosegrind. Think about how many times you've actually seen that done. I can only remember Raul Navarro doing one in his latest Adidas part, and he is a supreme ledge technician. So to think that Slash basically cab nosegrinded the gnarly Clipper hubba, even if the lock-in was unintentional and more of a switch Suski grind to get really specific, everything going on in that one clip is crazy. Slash takes the Clipper cake with this one for sure.
(Though I can't post Slash's Deathwish part, the trick is actually discussed in an episode of the Weekend Buzz and you can see the trick itself there as well!)

Next Week: Dudes with Nicknames

Skateboarding terminology naturally accommodates shortening words and names to make the lingo more efficient. It's a lot faster and easier to say "kick back tail" instead of "kickflip backside tailslide", and both are easily recognized.  Same goes for a lot of skaters' names. "P-Rod" is snappier and flows better than saying the full "Paul Rodriguez", eliminating unnecessary syllables.  You got The Chief, The Boss, The Mutt, etc. And then ones like Slash, Jaws, or Spanky. All nicknames that easily point to the full name of the skaters we watch so much. However, all of these are just nicknames, used on occasion (maybe even frequently for a couple) for the efficiency in speech. Even so, the full names of these guys are synonymous with their nicknames, if not used more. This week I'm going to look at a group of guys (and some of their skating) whose full original names are on the verge of disappearing completely in the skate industry. It's at this point when you know you have a good nickname.