This is always a very heavily discussed topic among skateboarders. There are hundreds of skaters that are killing it right now, of which some are in the industry's spotlight and sponsored by some well recognized brands. Some have been killing it for quite a while but for one reason or another have not finally passed that last industry barrier into professionalism. A lot of my interest in this subject over the past year or so was because of one guy: Moose. I became a Moose fan ever since he came out of nowhere in Thrasher's
Bust or Bail contest with that gnarly back 360 at 3:36. Since then, he's consistently put out quality footage over the past few years including his
Berric's Recruit part, a solid minute of footage for his
Omit Apparel introduction (2:58) (RIP Omit), footage in Shake Junt's Chicken Bone Nowison, his Mag Minute, a super sick part in the Bones video
New Ground (25:54), some more darn good clips in Ambig's
Modern Art (4:52), and of course his nutty display of gnarly and technical skating in the Deathwish Video. Somewhere along that path of destruction that Moose left behind him I would have expected him to go pro, especially considering Neen went pro within a year of getting on Deathwish I believe and Jon Dixon getting on after Neen and going pro right after the Deathwish Video dropped. No disrespect to either of those two, cause I must've rewatched their parts at least 5 times, but I felt like they hadn't put in the time with Deathwish like Moose has. (Same thing goes for the 3 Trunk Boyz that recently went pro, but I digress.) So when Deathwish finally took some hints and turned Moose pro a week ago, I was elated! Though I wouldn't be able to complain about him being am anymore, I was still pumped that he finally has his name on the bottom of a board. Along with that, shoutout to Julian Davidson who I'd say also deserved professionalism after dropping 3 absolutely stylishly banging parts with his
Cons x Thrasher part, his Future Nature part, and most recently his Perpetual Motion part.
While I can no longer use these two guys in this week's postings, I would also like to go through a few names that could definitely be in the running for professionalism pretty soon that I won't be dedicating a day to this week. Youness Amrani's has had 3 key video parts (
Welcome to Almost,
SB Chronicles Vol 1, and
Marrakesh Express) that are so ridiculous it's like playing a video game; but I think being on a legendary team like Almost requires putting in a little more time to turn pro. Trevor Colden has been on a serious tear over the past couple years with stuff like his
Color Theory part, tons of web clips like his
Spitfire Wheels Introduction, and most recently his
Stone Colden part for Thrasher. However, it may just be me but Mystery is not looking to be in the best of shape, especially after losing Jimmy Carlin, so I have my doubts for turning Trevor pro for them just yet. I also need to mention Madars Apse from
this part I still don't know the full origins of, his
Future Nature part, and most recently his shared part in
Hold it Down. With his one of a kind style that is quite possibly the most fun to watch and his infectious positive attitude, I would love to see him go pro for Element but I feel like his roots in Europe unfortunately do hold him back in that respect.
Now that I have finished my ramblings about some key guys in the skateboarding world that are either just over or just behind the line of professionalism, this week I present to you 5 guys that I think should be over that line already.
