YOU LOVE TO HATE ME!!!!

Cause i speak the truth!!! Learn the names, tucking your knees matters and for God sake man, PULL YOUR TRICKS!!!
Surfers are Posers!!!

Tricks are for Kids.
Words and Photos by Jon Steele

"Which came first the chicken or the egg?" is always a good debate, but what happens when the egg takes forever to catch up to the chicken? Well that's finally happening in the surf world catching up to the real name calling of skateboarding and with great anticipation. It's finally posted in the newest hip surf mag that Dane Reynolds is tucking his knees in on his airs. Well yeah!! It's about time people started payin attention to style and and actually "poking" tricks out instead of hanging on for dear life and hoping for the best. I mean c'mon you guys are "professional" right? Take some pride in the tricks you are doing. The linkage between the 2 sports, surfing and skateboarding, and how important they are for the progression of both has always been overlooked unfortuantely until now!

If I see another slob air reverse I am gonna puke as it is a staple trick every 12yr. old can do now and unfortunatley most of the young groms dont know what a grab name is or much less know that a non tucked (or poked out trick ) skate or snowboard photo would NEVER get run in a mag...Double Grabs? You'd get laughed right out of the photo editors office showing "double grab" tricks to the respected publishers. Surfer's get it in their heads that their shit dont stink and that they are on the top of the cool food train. Well to bust your bubble, skaters and snowboarders in a whole take more pride in thier work and style in their photos, if they didnt pull the trick, it doesnt RUN in the mag..Tthere are no freebies, if thier grab is a tad off they take it very personally and dont want it run or if their fingers are alittle outta style for them its done. Each spot they surf or skate needs to be ante'd up one at a time and there is a lot of thougth and stategy that goes into their job along with pride.

The modern collective movie(Taylor Steele) was a great start at giving credit and pushing the real manuevers into becoming real manuevers, people are actually starting to give Christian Fletcher the well deserved credit for doing skate tricks on water that the top pros' stilll dont have in their bag of tricks nor most judges know what the name is . The music to the movie, well, not so much. Just look at the tricks that haven't been duplicated yet such as Fletcher back in the day was captured doing backside judo's, 360 varials at Pipe or ollie norths on his salt creek/Lowers platform or the gang that ran with the ball like Joe Crimo's shuvits and Matteson's "one motions" that spurred the Lost.... movies fame. Surfers need to step up their game and only a handfull like Josh Sleigh and his rail on water attempts as well as b/s 180 kickflips and Warren Smiths kickflip attempts are stepping outside the norm to push surfing to the level it should be at.

Skating can take up the flat days with excercise as well as help your fast motor skills and don't be scared, slams are the common place in both sports! Getting hurt in surfing is as equal to skateboarding it is a myth most people put up a mental block about. If you are progressing in your sport, you are going to get hurt. Ask any athlete in the surf/skate community and most probably the answer would be 50/50 on injuries incurred on land and water. It comes with the territory, if you are not getting hurt, you are not pushing yourself or your sport.

Many airs are classified in terms of where the boards is grabbed. The name of the the trick also depends on which hand is grabbing. They all have a building degree of difficulty with slob air being one of the easiest and good starting foundation. The harder the grab the greater instability and requires greater skill and control and thus should earn more points in competition. Many judges still don't know what they are veiwing when a surfer blasts it nor the name. I've sat next to them so many times and seen a great air with potential for scoring only to hear the old judges still say " whoa that was a good air thingy." So take some pride in your work and your surfing, learn the names and do something new that no one does. Frontside slob air reverses are being pulled by 12 year olds all day long at your sloppy beachbreak, what's gonna set you apart from that type of surfing or maybe you should just go skate.

So whether you are goin for evening session, mellow longboard session down the street, bombing a hill or an intense short board surf at Lowers, just go skate.... or surf.... Both equally are building muscle and keeping limber as well as benefiting balance and the learning curve as they both go hand in hand. Whether it be sidewalk surfing or gnarbuckle shredding just don't disrespect the athletes who have come before you, learn the names of the tricks then go poke it!