1.13.2009

chrome ball incident #200: gigantic















what can you say about this dude? leaping tall buildings, surfing tidal waves, and blowing little kids' minds... the clark kent of skateboarding, kingsize jeremy wray.

thanks for all the support everyone has given chrome ball over the last 200 posts. i can't believe the response this thing has gotten. big up to everyone that has sent me emails, posted a link, left a comment, or hooked me up with whatever... it really makes diggin through these damn magazines all the time worth it. and big up to police informer.
thank you neil blender and thank you andy jenkins.

i'm taking tomorrow off. next post will be on friday.

21 comments:

Keith said...

I was always blown away by where his front foot is on his board when he does any kick flip variation.

He's one of the only guys who's footage from the early 90's doesn't look extremely dated.

This 411#1 part was great at the time.

Perfect #200

Anonymous said...

Dope dope dope - fair play to all your hard work digging through the mags. great post bro. My daily ritual upon arriving at work is to open chromeball.

Anonymous said...

Great post for 200. I feel like even though the dude is a legend, that he really still hasn't gotten his due in skateboarding history. Maybe it's just that I haven't heard his name in a while. I agree with keith that his footage is timeless, Especially Second Hand Smoke and the Revolution.

SKEEM said...

your blog is amazing, and Jeremy Wray is like you said, Gigantic.

Peace!

Anonymous said...

damn jeremy wray! he does it so proper. clark kent is right, he is so good for skating, it'd be neat if he'd reappear. your blog is so great, i like how you are true to the golden era.

Brad K. said...

Thanks for all your hard work. I'm here everyday.

K said...

I don't care what anyone says, Jeremy Wray's best part was in Plan B's "Second Hand Smoke." The addition of him, Pat Channita and Ronnie Bertino to Plan B just about made up for the exodus of all the guys who went to girl. I mean let's be real. Compare "Goldfish" to "Second Hand Smoke," and SHS CLEARLY COMES OUT ON TOP.

Remember the first time you saw Wray's line at the start of his section in SHS? Oh my goodness, that 360 flip while wearing the white Sal 23s (those shoes were and still are the joint). And then he keeps pushin and pushin and then that BEAUTIFUL f.s. flip over carlsbad. It was the final nail on the coffin of sloppy, wide pants, no sleep, mob kickflip nonsense of the early 90s.

You know what, not to derail from discussion of Mr Wray, but I'm a say it now: The first Girl video was not that impressive. In fact, I believe that most of those riders had better parts in the previous Plan B, Blind, World, etc videos. I was rather dissapointed with parts by Rudy Johnson, Tony Ferguson and others. Mike Carroll and Eric Koston measure up, but MAN dissapointment.

Then again, at least the soundtrack was extra tight. Tim Gavin skating to the remix of "Oh My God."

Anonymous said...

Jeremy Wray, the guy killed it. The style. The way he caught his flips. Makes a man want to cry like a little baby.

disco boy said...

good catch with the wray. you do great work, looking forward to the next 200.

hairfarmer said...

Thanks for the shout out! Great post. I hate to use the phrase "ahead of his time" but in Jeremy's case it really fits. Switch backside flip a double set in 1995? Fakie flip a street gap? 360 flip the bench at Union Square? So utterly mind-blowing. Also, I maintain that frontside 360's are the best looking trick to throw down a huge gap, and Jeremy definitely owns that one.

K - Didn't Tim Gavin skate to "Instant Karma"? I wouldn't say that SHS is better than Goldfish either. Apples and oranges. Plan B videos are all about no-frills progression whereas Goldfish definitely has a way different vibe; easier for the average skater to relate to or something like that.

K said...

hairfarmer:

word word, you're right! it was jeron wilson skating to "oh my god."

i'm trippin' in my old age.

AE said...

perfect 200th post. jeremy wray is well deserving of the spot...






and speaking of a j. wray, i'm thinking jonas should get some love too. its gotta suck to be in a your brother's shadow when you yourself are a pretty good skateboarder too...

Sarge said...

Sick man! Super good post. It looks exaclt like the wall in my bedroom when I was 15. Every single one except the Spitfire ad, somehow I missed that one.

pdx503 said...

I remember seeing that ad where he did the back healflip over the car and being blown away. So big but so damn smooth. great style

Anonymous said...

Yeah - I don't think you'll get much milage comparing "Goldfish" to "Second Hand Smoke" since Goldfish was in a way a reaction against the high-pressure/production of the earlier Plan B movies.

chops said...

thanks for all the comments fellas.

and yeah AE, jonas totally does need a post of his own. dude busted out some sick shit... just sucks his brother was a superhero.

and if i have to weigh in on this controversial shs vs. goldfish dilemma... i do believe it is largely apples and oranges, but i do prefer goldfish just cause i'm a bigger girl fan. i like the skits and the soundtrack... plus always loved MC skating to Oodles of O's. But I will say that between the two videos, Wray's SHS Smoke part is by far the best part... by far. But other than Bertino, I don't remember much else from it other than being kinda disappointed in duffster's part (after his previous 2 plan b parts).

And that last anonymous post is dead right... goldfish is a direct reaction to a virtual reality.

thanks k... ya big "jock"... haha. that's ridiculous.

DLTDA said...

this is honestly one of the sickest posts. Jeremy Wray is a dude that never got enough props. So sick. I remember watching his Plan B second hand smoke part and being blown away. Dude is just amazing and ultra gnarly.

Anonymous said...

Any chance of getting a scan of the J.Wray TWS interview - i totally missed tha one, love to read it. brooks900@yahoo.com cheers

Anonymous said...

made the most insane tricks look like it was no thing. so much steez. super nice guy too.

poteznido said...

Superman. Couldn't have expressed it better. No matter what came out after his 2nd Hand Smoke part, whenever i'm asked what my favourite video part of all time is, i answer "Jeremy Wray in 2nd Hand Smoke", even though i can't AT ALL relate to the way Jeremy skates. He's also, by axiom and without question, my favourite skater of all time.
"Even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil, for you are with me". Jeremy Wray could even make me learn a psalm (probably dedicated to Ternasky though).

Greatest blog ever, by the way.

shiftace said...

when dudes saw him catching flip tricks that early, it shut down alot of peoples style. I mean POP....FLIP....CATCH.....STOMP. every trick, every time. The guy is all legs too so his flips are so clean and forget about f-side 3's, nodoby does em better.