11.18.2009

chrome ball incident #383: desaturate









another outspoken innovator whose current outsider status in skateboarding is an absolute mockery of his contributions to the sport.

a friend of mine once told me that he considers ricky "the east coast henry sanchez". my initial reaction was that my man had lost his mind... until i realized that he was kinda right.

this is easily in my top 5 parts of all-time. (the closure version will have to do).

the first time i ever saw ricky skate in person was at a silverstar demo where he didn't like the set-up. what made it interesting was instead of just settling, he decided to leave the park and shred everything within a three-block radius surrounding it... all the time with about 300 stoked kids chasing after him. he found so many lines on the fly that the locals had never even imagined. it was incredible.

in the spirit of ricky's hometown pride, the shop on my block recently finished their website so I thought I'd give 'em a link.

big up to plank eye and also to my peoples at one-up.

18 comments:

Royce said...

"another outspoken innovator whose current outsider-status in skateboarding is an absolute mockery of his contributions to the sport."

hit it home chops.

Anonymous said...

that part is amazing. He really has contributed so much to skating. His way of skating street back in eastern exposure was the blueprint for that raw east coast skating street. He laid it out early.
Did i mention how good his push is?
Top 5 pushes anybody?
i'd put him in. no doubt.

Anonymous said...

This is good.

Thank you.

Hamza said...

Chrome ball makes my day everyday
Thanks

Henry said...

There was an Eastern Exposure video, with a line by Ricky Oyola. I forget which one it was, but Wolfe used a Superchunk song for that part. Oyola did a line, and then ollied out into the middle of a busy street... with a car coming right at him, that had to slam on the brakes.I thought, Whoa! That dude's gnarly!

sprntrl said...

im pretty sure that was EE3 where he did that ollie into traffic. i think everyone here can agree that ricky is truly an east coast pioneer and may possibly be the most influential skater from the east coast. the guy pretty much put a city/coast on his back. when the media wasn't giving the east any love, ricky was the guy that actually went out of his way to contact the media and let them know that skating exists east of the mississippi. it's a damn shame that he never got his proper dues

Terry said...

This guy's the Rocky Balboa of skateboarding....plain and simple.

dylan said...

what i wouldn't do to be riding another set of those oyola first divisions right now...

peel said...

Hell, I was routing for the Phillies to take the World Series just for Ricky's sake. Super nice dude.

E.Ricks said...

His part in underachievers was so raw and powerfull it definetly changed the way i looked at skateboarding...(in a good way)Ricky is a true legend...Thanks for the nollie shifty one of my favorites to do...lol..

Chops yes the demons are there you just make friends with them...lmao....

Anonymous said...

Chrome ball is one of the things I look forward to doing in my morning routine. get coffee, eat oatmeal, and take a glance at chrome ball, check emails, then off to class. Mornings wouldn't be as enjoyable w/out a glance into the past w/chrome ball.
your hard work is much appreciated.

p.s. ricky's shiftys in that underground parking lot in EE3, real nice.

Keith said...

z-roller Ricky!

That first 360 flips at the start of the clip is one of the best. The colour in the video threw me off... why is there a version not in b&w?

chops said...

thanks Royce. Working on some more Reason.

Anon1, when I think of classic pushes, it doesn't get any more textbook than Lance Mountain in my book. The hand on the knee... timeless.

sprntrl: exactly.

dylan, I'd actually love to have that silverstar chair board he's riding in that ad. had one of those myself... probably one of my all-time favorite boards actually.

cheers to underachievers.

e.ricks... i just meant that after all your years in the industry, I'm sure you know more than your share of friends that have fallen victim to it... not you yourself. as an outsider, I mostly catch only rumors about the whereabouts of some of these guys but i've heard some pretty surprising bits. thanks for the comments... i'm always interested in your take on stuff.

keith, that's the color closure version... couldn't find his o.g. b&w version online.

Thanks for all the support and kind words guys...

Keith said...

oh yeah... that bs 180 backward nose grind is switch. That shit is really freaking hard.

Anonymous said...

Great post. Oyola is in the top 5 for me. I had those 62mm wheels too.

ANGE261 said...

I miss skating with this guy, allot.

Anonymous said...

Haha! You got a shout out on the Traffic site.

Petunia said...

is there footage on youtube where he ollies up the block kickflips off, then ollies into the middle of traffic then does a 3 flip?