this one's for all the older heads out there... cause this joint's gonna go over like straight kryptonite for those that weren't around during ron knigge's brief rise to fame. its all here, fellas: little ass wheels, little ass curbs, big ass clothes, bridge bolts, video captures, indecipherable tricks and bouncing boards. this is about as early-90's as it gets... and anybody under the age of 25 is straight heading to the exit, never to return to this site ever again. i gotta admit that i was happy to have so many people request knigge for the 100th post. people tend to frown on this era.... and it can be a little rough to look back on some of this shit... but fuck it, man. it was a fun, albeit awkward, time. it was street skating, still in its infancy, trying to define itself while exploring the possibilites of what one could do on a skateboard outside the confines of some kid's backyard vert ramp. people were doing shit on the daily that had never been done before (for good or bad).
just look how much street skating changed from Public Domain ('88) to Questionable ('92)... immeasurable. and that's only 4 years! once people caught up to the framework that had just been laid down by gonz and natas earlier (with the nod to mullen), shit just exploded. and knigge had a hand in that progression... Odd Numbers soundtrack and the whole nine. Dude wasn't around that long... '90 to late '93/early '94, but he was most definitely doing his thing for the time. Holmes was like a flatground wizard, for sure.
Maybe some of the jersey heads will know of his whereabouts these days... last i heard he was a pool cleaner or something.
Useless Wooden Toys (w/ Armando)
Whatever
damn, no 1281... no da deal is dead either.
19 comments:
Thanks for the Knigge post, great stuff! I remember taken him round Tasmania (Australia) when he toured in 91-92. Guess who he toured with...Cardiel (what a contrast). I heard he works for his fathers hardware business in Canada, but not 100%.
still got "children of the sun" in the collection. knigge's part was always my fave.
I was gonna say ; his Children Of The Sun part ! Not that much foot-knitting stuff but real, bolted style.
found children of the sun on youtube but it was loading mad slow so i skipped it... what happened to knigge after that one? he was really coming on strong with that one and always had a strong push from new deal but he just fell off the map.
knigge definitely upped the style in 'children' from a '92-steez to a cleaner '94-type style (again, funny how much a difference 2 years makes) and I was curious to see where he was gonna go after that... still surprised his career got cut so short
Children of the Sun here. A bit more refined. I'd love to see his 1281 part in 08 to see how bad/good it is. I remember a bunch of EMB footage in that one. He was pretty good in it for that time from what I can remember.
speaking of children of the sun... whatever happened to rene mathyson (sp?). I remember both him and rob carlyon killing it in that vid (rene skating to "Quinton" for god's sake). i know carlyon ended up on ATM Click but where'd rene go? seemed like things were just starting to happen for him and he peace'd out
and damn jason... cards and knigge. that's just nuts.
Rene. I'm not sure if it's possible to skate more upright/no-knee-bend than him... maybe Kanten Russell. It seemed like all the early 90's New Deal guys just disappeared. That hard heel is sweet though.
I used to love Knigge, I always remember that 360 inside heel to jump in to snow, incredible. I mean, who has done that since?
I had the exact same tan long-sleeve New Deal Neil Hendrix tee that he rocks in Whatever too, loved that thing
Knigge had so much control...I bet he still skate on the weekends. You can't be that good and just not continue to skate for your own enjoyment....can you? Definetly stoked on this post.
rene runs a store in hawaii called fitted hawaii
http://www.fittedhawaii.blogspot.com/
always loved knigges parts. Rene even more so though. wonder what happened to Rob Carlyon as well?
Looking back it seems bizarre having cards and knigge touring together, but at the time it was super rad. I've got heaps of footage i'll try and upload soon. I was working at a skateshop back then in Tassie so I was lucky enough to show them the spots.
tues/Koston to wed/Knigge. What is this world coming to. And way more comments for Knigge! How do you pronounce that shit?
ka-niggy
ka-nig
ka-nidge (rhymes with ridge)
ka-nidge (rhymes with oblige)
i always pronounced it "niggy" i don't think thats correct though...
also, frog and toad board is tits!
i used to skate with ron at this underground parking garage in roseland, nj. i heard he stopped skating to smoke pot and tour with the dead. the fire blazed away, the kitchen porch was all that remained.
G's are always so hard to pronounce. Always pronounced it knidgey myself.
As to where all these guys went. I think it was your statement of " a frowned upon era" that summed it up chops. It was a tough time to be a skater. Everybody hated on it. You had to be pretty hardcore just to call yourself a skater back then yet alone do it for a living. Especially if your were from the east coast. A whole lot of people who I knew quit skating in that time period too. Now if you lasted till the mid 90's then that was a different story.
Da Deal is Dead. kanigge closes out the video at 17:40. Pretty terrible stuff going down. If you think about it, da deal is dead and whatever both came out in the questionable/virtual reality years. That Plan B shit was on another level. ND was scraping shit at the bottom of a garbage dump while the Rocco riders were lounging in a penthouse.
FROG AND TOAD!!
my kid loves those guys.
I was there when he shot that "Jack Frost Nipping At Your Nose" ad. It was at a bank on South Orange, NJ right near Cheapskates (If your an older nj head you know that spot). And it was def. freezing out. My other friend who was on flow for New School filmed it.
I skated with Ron alot around that time..he was always really cool and friendly to everyone and at the time the stuff he was doing was pretty sick! His dad was paid up and owned gas stations or something in nj so Ron was always driving a Cadillac or an Explorer.
But I think his last ND ad was his illest one...a clean backside lip on the high ledge at Whitehall (is that spot still around)? Too bad you couldn't post that ad up!
Also in Children Of The Sun he filmed some at Lockwood and when he got back he told us about how intimidated he was skating in front of Guy Mariano who just kicked back and watched him the whole time.
But Ron was one of the cooler pros I met so I'll always give him props. Last I heard he was working for his Dad but that was years ago.
"bridgebolts" heh. Nice post- the early 90's were harsh, but funny to look back on.
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