i was lookin at this old interview over at Police Informer earlier today... reminiscing about when Freddie Gall went from just another little dude in the driveway to a grown, full-on ripper clobbering hubba hideout seemingly overnight. One of the first people to really take switchstance beyond curbs and flatground, Gall's always done his own thing with his own trademark style. and if you've ever seen some of the "spots" this dude skates, you start to get a real understanding and an even greater appreciation of how gnarly Fred really is. legendary status.
big-up to Justin over at Vert is Dead. i was gonna do a julien post yesterday and you beat me to it... i wasn't about ready to change today's for the second day in a row. keep up the good work.
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his epicly latered is definitely my favorite. his rookies section in 411 #8 with digable planet's "kb's alley" was one of my faves back when too. watched it all the time. i think that 411 single handedly made me buy blowout comb. my friend gave me the video for my 16th birthday but getting to meet and skate with willy santos that day blew his present out of the water. it did however take him quite a while to warm up to a backside 50-50 down the three stair ledge at love. that kind of made me rearrange who i looked up to in skating at that point. that was when i realized how good the philly cats really were. fred gall goes out to sf and just blows the hubba out with a switch 5-0 and willy santos comes out here and takes some pics of a 50-50 and 5-0 on a modest ledge.
I missed his peak :(
I remember seeing him in those Tracker videos and he was a teeny little kid, saw him in Underachievers and then nothing until Photosynthesis, which definitely wasn't his peak. Only saw Time Code in the past several months and he's amazing in that.
He went from little kid Gall to normal size Gall to thick Gall.
Take Willy to Webb Park or Jerebek back in the day, however, he'd land everything.
That's the Tracker ad.
partied and skated with freddy a month ago lives up to the the legend staus on and off board!!! 4a.m. that shit
btw i never said willy did not land everything. i just said it took him a while to warm up to it. at my age i had only seen raw street skating. just people going all out and killing themselves. willy comes into love with a gym bag. sits at the bench forever while i am talking to him as he puts on knee and ankle braces. he does of bunch of stretches and what not, maybe some roll up attempts. more like how i skate now as an old man i guess.
and a backside 5-0 down the three stair ledge was very decent in 94.
It's hard to say that Freddy ever peaked, he's just been dynamic. His part in Inhabitants rips, it's just different stuff than what he was doing in Timecode...Dill comes to mind as another dude that has been getting coverage for so long, and his interests changed, and it showed in his skating. Interests in beer and other "fun" stuff changes shit. Lord knows my interests have shifted form skating ledges to skating a miniramp drinking beer.
Perth Amboy!
Oh shit, yup the "stage" at Perth Amboy!
Growing up skating in NJ, Fred Gall was pretty legendary. I'd never actually see him skate (he was in Philly at that time) but you'd always hear a ton of rumors of the tricks that he was doing.
When that 411 came out alot of jaws dropped at the time it seemed as if only Gall and Agah were pushing switch at that level shit was crazy...and the Eastern Exposure shit spawned tons of kids trying to copy his style on the East Coast...I mean kids still rep the Dirt shit nowadays and thats pretty much all Freds influence.
And after meeting and chilling with him as an adult I can def tell you he parties just as hard as he skates but is a really cool guy. If you want to see some somewhat recent ill gall footage check out the Metal video..its ill..
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