12.17.2008

chrome ball incident #189: short people











I admittedly went a little overboard with this one but I forgot how much I used to really dig this guy's skating. Dude had style (he could even make pressure flips like good) and always came up with some great flicks.

Getting paired with Twist and HBomb43 on the art direction tip throughout his career doesn't hurt either but I think the clean look that would emerge within the almighty Mad Circle seemed to be a direct extension of Justin's style and tastes. Classic material.

While his career will probably forever be in the shadow of his infamous spawn (one of my favorite companies of the 90s and a big reason I started Chrome Ball), true heads respect the architect: Justin Girard.

10 comments:

Benson said...

now it's all about the....

Royce said...

J. is one of the most down to earth guys. He does web design now.

Keith said...

Always liked Justin Girard as well. Those 2 sequences in the new deal ads were really great for the time. fs half cab to fs board pop out the other side (funny they include a bs smith in it... like he's in a grind for not even a nanosecond! LOL) and nollie fs board.

I can remember seeing him at EMB before pressure flips even existed. He wasn't even really skating. He was just popping his board with his back foot in different positions on the tail. Months later, when I started seeing pressure flips in videos, it dawned on me what he was doing that day... figuring out the footing for pressure flips.

Mad Circle was also one of my favourite companies in the mid 90's.

AE said...

i saw girard shredding the kcdc ramp a few years back (2004ish?) when he was working for zoo. not that i usually notice gear that dudes are wearing but he was wearing the tightest black pants - like corey duffel tight. it was totally weird because the dude came up during the big pants era and i've never seen another dude from that era flip the switch that drastically...

Anonymous said...

Ah the days of 10 inch boards....

Anonymous said...

I always thought girard was dope as well. It also reminds me of how many great skaters dogtown had for a bit there around 90. Markovich, girard, speyer, karma, jj rogers, probably some others I'm missing. I really liked his part in "da deal is dead" He had some really weird obstacle kind of stuff in it.

chops said...

benson, that intro is up there for me with 101's trilogy intro and the chase scene in goldfish as some of the best, most-get-your-ass-hyped intros in the game.

I saw him at a justin once but he was too busy skating. seemed real laid back though.

another amazing/envy-provoking story from my man keith.

damn, ae... mega-tight black pants!?! say it aint so!

dogtown circa-90 had justin, cardiel, jj, cao, speyer, markovich, karma... that's no joke. some straight legends on that squad... not sure how they went from scott oster's g-turns to cardiel's kill-mode but they rocked it!

JayCee said...

I just went through the site and I have to say, you're doing a great job man. Keep up the good work. I was just chatting with Justin and I remembered that I saw your post on him and sent him the link. He got a good laugh out of it and was kinda expecting you to be bashing him. But he's just like that. He especially liked the Dogtown ad cause it had his board's dimensions in it. Looking back he thought it was kind of embarassing. From what I remember, he just moved to SF at the time and I think they asked him to take photos for an ad. Bryce (Kanights) used to have a little jump ramp that he took around in his car and that's what they used. I've probably got anecdotes for about 90% of the skaters you've posted about on here. I'll have to share them with you sometime.

chops said...

jaycee, thanks for sending that to justin... feel free to share any/all antecdotes. thanks holmes.

Suzie Switchblade said...

They tried to talk me into being in the doghouse for that ad!

Whoe are you JayCee?!