its impossible not to like ray barbee. he's one of those dudes that makes you want to go skate cause you can just tell he truly loves it. always with that trademark smile, looking like he's having the time of his life. ray was the first pro skater i remember that i felt i could relate to and kinda identify with. i don't mean in a 'street vs. vert' way nor do i mean in some kind of racial thing, ray just seemed like an ordinary dude that just happened to be really good on a skateboard. he dressed like us and skated the kind of spots we skated... hell, i actually think he idolized gonz almost as much as we did. there was no pretension with him. he's wasn't a rockstar and he wasn't larger than life... ray was just a normal cat, kinda like one of those older dudes in your town that you look up to as a grom when you're just starting out.
its funny seeing him in some of these old magazines, standing quietly next to some obnoxious old vert pro. while said pro had no idea his days were numbered, it was obvious from the second the rubber boys hit that ray represented the future. one of the true street pioneers.
25 comments:
Lost count of many times I watched their part in Public Domain. One of my all time favs.
The post that would never end, so good. I love Ray "Barbie". That frontside heel is art!
his parts in public domain and ban this are total classics and are two of some my most favorite parts. those parts showed such an easy effortless style, especially in the lines he did. his flow was incredible. i wanted to skate like that - instead of being confined to just one spot, i wanted to skate down the street doing tricks. maybe that's the biggest reason why i don't like skating in skateparks as much as other people. there's just no where for you to go!
anyway, ray had a tremendous affect on the way i skated and dressed those first couple of years of my skateboarding. thanks for the post!
that last powell ad of ray pushing is so sweet. Do christians believe there is skateboarding in heaven?
I felt the same way about Ray back in the day! Still have mad respect for him. I second "smorales" that heel flip is jst too sick!
check the toe bend in the front board pic, so sick!
backside nose pick. Sick!
frontside board on the rail. Sick!
He's one of the only dudes that could make those Vision Street Wears look good.
In Public Domain, he does that kickflip 5-0 stall on the bank to bench, crazy fast ninja flip. So good. And those lines in Ban This... so smooth and stylish.
Hey CHOPS, awesome BLOG!
AE put me onto it.
PEACE!
he inspired me to learn no complys!
oh yeah...now "the ball"s warming up...
love the barbs...but im right on the vert vs street tip on this one...he stood out as being diff to guys at the time. Instead of wearing crazy shorts and sleveless gaping holes shirts, he wore jeans...he deff created the look early on
i have the same transworld feat with pic 3 bones bearings ad, along with rays check out page that chops posted earlier...
CHOPS-
theres atually a really good john lucero pro spotlight in that same issue (i think)...mines missing a couple of pages to some wall action back in the day. due...you should post it..its pretty epic
thanks fellas.
anonymous #3, didnt ray invent no complies?
julianjason, i'll see what i can do.
Not sure who invented them but, Natas was doing them before.
damn... you're right. now that i think about it, i even remember Natas's trick tip in Thrasher for them... one of the steps he wrote was:
pop the tail and scream "afghanistan bananastand"
but was natas doing 180 no complies? cause i always thought of that as a signature barbee move. i only remember natas doing those straight joints over curbs. doubt we'll ever know for sure.
not that it really matters.
neil blender invented the no comply....mr sadlands
right again. even says it in that article i posted in #135.
not sure where its come from but i guess over the years i've just come to associate that move with ray. kinda weird how shit just gets jumbled in your head and then become cemented that way over time.
my bad. thanks fellas.
Yeah Natas was doing them 180.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRkLUQknXeM
Frontside at 1:25
and
Backside at 2:28
yeah, but that clip is from streets of fire that came out almost a year after ray and the rubber boys part in public domain.
now to further get my skate nerd on, i went and checked wheels on fire and natas doesn't do any no complies at all in that part (which pre-dates public domain). but, however, i do remember natas doing the aforementioned straight no-comply over a high curb (awesome) in sick boys, which came out around the same time as PD.
natas may have done some 180 no complies in that one, not sure. haven't gotten my sick boys reissue yet. i know its online somewhere...
who knows. rodney probably invented 10 years prior...
rodney did invent most things...
on a similar tip, if u havnt chked out already, neil & lance's part in ban this...some serious curb fun in this clips...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=dTu3-Dn88-A
I definitely don't think of Natas when I think of no complies.
Top 2 names that come to mind are Ray Barbee and Matt Hensley. Public Domain and Shackle me Not both came out before Street of Fire.
My memory is a bit fuzzy but I thought the "afghanistan banana stand" was a trick tip of a fs board shove on a double sided curb, written by Natas, executed by Thiebaud.
could've been both, keith...
i definitely remember the no-comply one though just because it was in the first thrasher i ever bought... and for some reason, maybe because I was in the 5th grade, i thought "afghanistan bananastand" was the funniest thing ever.
hosoi was on the cover... wish i still had those.
keith, youre my man.
nobody else on earth would argue about the wording of a trick tip from 20 years ago. haha
hahaha
Natas must have used the banana stand line more than once.
I can remember trying the trick, whatever it may be, whilst saying "afghanistan bananastand". I swear I was trying a fs board shove on my coping block. lol
sick! Reda with a no comply Trickipedia at the Berrics.
l love Ray. I remember running into Ray here and there throughout my years of skating and then one Summer we both worked as counselors at the YMCA Skate Camp. Salman was a counselor that year too. I remember we talked about music and he turned me onto to some bands that I ended up really liking which in turn helped me discover more bands that I liked. How can you not love this dude?
Ray was one of my heroes before we met and he became something more than that after.
Best Frontside board in the business.
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