10.28.2009

chrome ball incident #369: the delta blues








"I just quit for a while and stayed out of the scene. It was too much hype. I was kinda glad that I stayed out of it 'cause my mind stayed fresh... I stayed original."

one of skateboarding's most truly innovative cats, Paulo always seemed to be on the very brink of blowing the fuck up (like we knew he could)...

unfortunately, we're always gonna have to wonder what could've been while admiring what we were blessed to have been given.

I bet he could still kill it right now as we speak.

12 comments:

Royce said...

I can hear the drums from here. 1up Chops.

Anonymous said...

Guy talked about paulo in his epicly later'd, that was well done. How rad would a little interview or comment from him have been? So proper though. He must be hard to track down.
I wonder where he is. damn. that is a mystery.

OaklandPete said...

Yeah, Guy's comments about running into Paulo while they were both looking to score crack were gnarly. With that much talent and creativity, to go to just being a common basehead... such a shame.
Somebody find Paulo and get him back on a board.

Keith said...

yeah... that Epicly later'd story was pretty messed up.

There was a pic of Paulo not too long ago with Gino. I think it was at the Janoski SB release party.

jamesinger said...

Paulo would not be too hard to find.

I still see him around Echo Park and East LA sometimes. He still skates a bit. One of the last times I saw him, he was skating alongside a few of us while we were riding bikes saying what's up, he was keeping up and all of a sudden, he just busted up onto a curb, did a super long manual and then popped back off while going down Sunset from Alvarado at about 15mph. For those of you that aren't familiar with that area, the curbs are at least shin high with big gutters, so showed that he still has his skills. You can't just do that kind of stuff out of nowhere.

The time I saw him before that, he was with a group of people that I was with at an art opening for 33 1/3 bookstore. After the show, we all went to go see the Body Worlds exhibit at like 3am for some special VIP museum night BS. It was pretty boring but Paulo made it super fun, he was yelling out all kinds of hilarious shit when the person showing the exhibit was talking. My favorite was when the curator was saying, "this is the respiratory system of a healthy man who died of a..." and Paulo just bust in, "HEALTHY OR SICK, THAT SHIT IS GROSS!!!" and just walked away. Everyone including the curator laughed for at least a minute at that one.

Paulo is an original no matter what he was doing.

Wasn't he one of People Magazines top 100 most beautiful people in 1993 or something?

In any case, a good dude.

josh said...

That hang 10 nose manny...holy shit. What a sequence.

Henry said...

I respected the guy for doing his own thing, but I was never really feeling it. That being said, the hang-ten nose manual is sick. I don't remember seeing that in the past. It reminds me of Danny Gonzales' kickflip to nose manual to hang ten... only I think to go straight into it is more gnarly.

Anonymous said...

Paulo is one of my favorites such a beast with that aztec style.
It would be my dream to see a new Paulo part or aleast a cameo in the new Chocolate video.

Anonymous said...

Found this one the other day... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcceiyHuLcw

K said...

HHQ Chops: Why does this dude always make such AMAZING music for his parts. Remember his little joint in Big Brother's "Shit"?

Anonymous said...

thanks for your paulo postings

well here's a recent interview w/ paulo with an annoying ass shock jock who kinda talks over paulo the whole time:

http://www.podfeed.net/episode/Show+32+-+Paulo+Diaz+Skateboard+Legend/2376258

anyways paulo's very talented, seems like a chill funny ass dude
amazing skating and loved his music
hope he comes back in some way

Animals and Children said...

does anyone remember the Thrashe "Somethin Else" with Paulo Diaz? He does a backflip while doing a kickflip...i 'm positive it was stationary, but was surprised to not find anything on the web...