allow me to cut to the chase on this one... skipping the typical early career praise, post-world criticisms, and modern day what-the-fuckery and just say that at the time when this classic interview came out, Mike Vallely was one of the most innovative and respected street skaters in the world.yes, even with all that poetry... which for some reason was not uncommon for skaters to do back then.
so sit back and disect the contradictions or just reminisce over how amazing mike was before he started doing ho-ho's again.
11 comments:
Sick how did i forget about this interview - went crazy at the time trying find this transworld - hindsight I'm not sure why? Anyway chance of throwing up that TWS Jeremy Wray Pro spotlight?
"I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry Mr Shankly"
That's all I can think of when I read Mike's poetry. Sorry.
Lucky for him he could ride a skateboard well. How awesome were the song selections for his parts? Everything just worked out perfectly.
I loved that interview, almost every pic and sequence from it were on my wall B in the D, he still rules, just so long as I don't have to hear his BS about brotherhood.
I vaguely remember that interview, wasn't really psyched on the Q & A. Some of the photos were great at the time.
Used to LOVE this guy when I was starting out... probably because I sucked at "popular" street tricks so all his crazy boneless variations and step off tricks were really appealing to me back then. Although in retrospect, I'm really glad I never quite got the hang of street plants and moved on.
His creativity is still inspiring a lot of times... but yeah... "modern day what-the-fuckery" pretty much sums up my overall feelings on Mike V these days. He's still doing some cool shit, but it's buried under layers of shit that makes you shake your head.
i forgot dude rode trackers. that would've been enough to write him off right there. cept for that public domain(?)part where he kills shit goin so fast. 'wanna go skate? let's go skate"
Tracker had a pretty sick team then. Even die hard Indy guys like Gonz and Alva switched to Tracker for a while. Plus, it pretty much guaranteed more TWS coverage (back when Spike was the photo editor--when it was briefly a good mag). I think I purchased my one and only pair of Trackers then. Money down the drain.
His poetry is appalling. Transworld also ran some of it in 1993 as part of another interview. One of the poems was about his dad, and in one stanza he tries on his work clothes.
"They were three sizes too big but they fit just right."
Delayed response to Jaycee: I think you're right. It would be like saying, "There's no modern equivalent of Picasso". Well, no... how could there be?
I would give Vallely a pass on the poetry. I'm sure everyone has written / drawn / made something when they were 18 or 19... that probably seems a lot different now. The difference is Vallely's artistic endeavors were published in a skateboarding magazine for posterity.
At the time, I thought the guy was sick. He was sick. He seemed to be on the level of Natas or Gonz- or at least in the vicinity- at a time when no one else was. And he was innovative- after a Savannah Slamma contest, he was doing switch ollies down stairs; he did some switch tricks on a mini ramp in Speed Freaks, and was doing manual variations at a time when you really didn't see that from anyone else.
Now, he is what he is. There's a video online of him skating with Jeremy Klein, a sort of jokey Rubbish Heap reunion. To me, it's fitting in a way- two guys who were amazing at one time... and that time is over. Now it seems like a completely different person.
thanks for the scans - this issue was the first skate mag that i ever picked up and i read it religiously over and over. and i liked mike's poetry!!!
Anyone know what month/year this issue of Transworld was?
Post a Comment