10.11.2011

#701: welcome to flavor country













"I'd say by this point in the filming of the new Chocolate video, MJ is probably sitting on a solid 12 hours of footy."

Dude is bascially able to do anything he damn well pleases on a plank. Pure magic.

...the A-Team was a rough one though.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

one of my favorites for sure. Bald guy pride! Congrats on 700 chops. Get a sesh in and grab a few cold ones.


Adrian

Anonymous said...

This guy reminds so much of Jason Lee. I love it.

Barney

Matt said...

I remember that cool interplay of the 2 Hubba tricks (k/f nose and nose k/f out) were in the same issue of Thrasher, I'd forgotten about Direction wheels though

Five-o Cheapster said...

Before seeing him actually skate at an A-Team demo in the U.K., I have to honest a slept on him. But, after seeing his flawless smooth style and the most perfect killer 360 flips over a large picnic bench on top of the large drive way thingymajig - I became a true believer. Awesome post as always Chops - keep it up.

Anonymous said...

great post, great skater.

do you happen to have the marc johnson lakai ad from the early 2000's with drawings depicting characteristics of mj?

smorales said...

My friend found "this month's enjoi ad" at 3rd and army shortly after it came out. Pretty rad memorabilia. Thanks for posting it.

K said...

You know what, I prefer Maple era Marc Johnson. E.g. that sick part in Seven Steps to Heaven where he skates to Lee Hazelwood's "Some Velvet Morning" or 411 issue 20, skating to Stereolab's "Ping Pong."

Also did this dude run away from home to go to California and turn pro. His backstory's a little murky.

Anonymous said...

...& let's not forget his closer in NC Boardshop's "Montage". Dude shut '96 down with style.

Bad News said...

Etnies Intercities & Dickies? Yes please!

The Chez said...

I never fully understood why A-Team didn't make it. Too much tech? Rodney nerded out too much? Just plain dorky? That team was stacked with legends(Thomas included).
It's good to see MJ gettin his due these days considering he's basically been killing it since the mid 90's.

Anonymous said...

Matt,

those two tricks were at least 2 years apart. Carry on.

Dave said...

Great post, Chops. Although I really enjoyed his 411 part, I never really got hyped on MJ until the Tiltmode stuff ("he burnt me in the butt with a crackpipe") and his Modus Part.

On the topic of the A-Team, I used to think it was so tight, but in retrospect, and especially in light of MJ's comments on Epicly Later'd it really was sooooo contrived and lame with all the conspiracy theory crap. It made no sense. They just threw together this dream team, that didn't really seem all that cohesive. It was like a bunch of really good dudes needed a board sponsor, so they threw it together. The trick contest they ran was pretty dope though. Wasn't there some decent cash prize if you completed one of the tricks? I think Gershon had that weird pogo thing over the pyramid, Mayhew had a k/f nosegrind k/f out, Rodney's was maybe a nose manual nollie three flip out, and I'm sure Chet had some hardflip trick (maybe hardflip b/s nosegrind). What was MJs? Switch nosegrind halfcab flip out? I can't remember if all of them were completed at the time, but I vaguely remember hearing about Cole doing Rodney's trick.

Dave said...

Great post, Chops. Although I really enjoyed his 411 part, I never really got hyped on MJ until the Tiltmode stuff ("he burnt me in the butt with a crackpipe") and his Modus Part.

On the topic of the A-Team, I used to think it was so tight, but in retrospect, and especially in light of MJ's comments on Epicly Later'd it really was sooooo contrived and lame with all the conspiracy theory crap. It made no sense. They just threw together this dream team, that didn't really seem all that cohesive. It was like a bunch of really good dudes needed a board sponsor, so they threw it together. The trick contest they ran was pretty dope though. Wasn't there some decent cash prize if you completed one of the tricks? I think Gershon had that weird pogo thing over the pyramid, Mayhew had a k/f nosegrind k/f out, Rodney's was maybe a nose manual nollie three flip out, and I'm sure Chet had some hardflip trick (maybe hardflip b/s nosegrind). What was MJs? Switch nosegrind halfcab flip out? I can't remember if all of them were completed at the time, but I vaguely remember hearing about Cole doing Rodney's trick.

Keith said...

Super technician. I was always a fan ever since the Maple days. He had so many super good Maple ads in the early 411's.

A-Team seemed to be a second try at a super team with Rodney (along the lines of Plan B).

Henry said...

MJ's trick: Frontside nosegrind to nollie 180 flip out. Cash prize was $1000. Danny Garcia did said trick, but didn't get the money because he was already sponsored. It's amazing the useless shit that stays in your memory.

Ginger Stu said...

Nollie heel - nose blunt on a picnic table, Rodney vs Daewon pt 2. Instantly sold.

Anonymous said...

my first board was a johnson maple deck.

Anonymous said...

what the mj a-team trick actually was supposed to be was really murky and kind of debatable at the time -- i haven't seen the ad in 13 years or whatever, but it was something like he actually did a s/s nosegrind half cab flip out and it was labeled incorrectly, OR it was labeled correctly at the sequence was accidentally mirrored. my hometown hero at the time, johnny 'blaze', did it at esplanade elementary school in orange, ca, collecting his G in due time.

and chetty's trick was a fakie hardflip revert - the suburban bird - on a skatepark bank.

does anyone remember the actual name of that yoshi kobayashi trickthat gershon did, the ollie to pogo air?

Anonymous said...

Modus Operandi still makes me want to skate. It holds up to current skateboarding

F. said...

Great post, I love this site so much. I have been a Mark Johnson fan since his early days on Maple, he always reminded me a little bit of Brian Lotti and Jason Lee. Yeah the A-Team was a weird one though. My buddy Andy Westhusing who is now a co-owner of Tribute skateboards out of Portland won the Rodney Mullen contest and got 1,000 bucks for doing a nose manual nollie 360 flip. He actually had done that trick way before that ad came out and just refilmed it for that contest. I found that ad with him and Rodney doing the trick, it was pretty sick. Here's the link http://skately.com/library/ads/a-team-skateboards-1000-winner-1999

Joshua said...

So hyped on the MJ love. His intro/part in Modus changed the way I viewed skating completely...as did his Yeah Right part...and then again in Fully Flared. Just curious chops, who is being quoted at the bottom of the post? And of course congratulations on the big 700. Please keep it up.

chops said...

thanks guys.

anon1, I can see it. Looks like a few other commenters agree with you as well.

anon3, I'll look and see what I can find.

K, definitely a little murky. I actually looked for that ping pong part as well but couldn't find it.

Chez, I always dug the team but all the camouflage and the military graphics... and likening the riders to animals (Rodney = rabbit?). It just seemed so forced. They could've just made it mellow and let the skating speak for itself, ya know?

Good lookin' out, Coals.

Joshua, that's from an interview subject I talked to about 6 months ago who wishes to remain nameless.

Thanks everyone.

Andreas said...

Wasn't it Cole that re-did the fakie hardflip revert?

Dave said...

@Coals: AMAZING how much useless shit is in my brain, but I can't remember "important" shit.

@F.: Nice link! it's all coming back to me now. Nice story about your friend Andy. Also cool to see some old A-Team ads.

K said...

Marc Johnson 411 Issue 20 PRO Files

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VbYT5E2jI

Anonymous said...

Has so much finesse. Kind of like he chooses which tricks he wants to land, and how to land them at will. Modus Operandi was definitely one of my favorites from him because of his commentary and the amazing skating.