"ok... wait... where were we??"the chrome ball incident celebrates two years of nerding the fuck out today with everyone's favorite lithuanian devil worshipper, mr. natas kaupas.
a straight-up hero of mine since the 6th grade when I first saw this... after that, everyone else just kinda fell by the wayside for a minute.
and don't even get me started on when this came out.
i wonder how many people over the years have spelled out the word "sapuak"?
thanks to everyone out there that has supported this piece and kept it going for much longer than I ever thought it would.
thank you.
p.s. happy birthday greyman
21 comments:
Congrats on 2 years!!!
I always look forward to a new post and hopefully you continue make people stoked for some time to come.
Natas was always a hero of mine too. I got to see him skate in person a few times and every time I got to see something amazing. I had more than my fair share of his boards. One time I got jumped by a bunch of guys and I had just gotten a Natas deck from a friend of mine. I got the deck from my friend as a birthday present. So these guys end up surrounding me while I was waiting for the bus. I got away with the help of a girl that was with them that felt bad for me. As I'm getting away, they start to come after me again. I had my board with me, but as I start to take off I drop my board. They guys were too close to go back and grab my board. I took a few punches and lost my board, but got away fairly unscathed. Shitty thing is that it was a couple of days before my birthday.
Funny how that story will always be intrinsically linked to Natas for me. Every time I see a picture of him or some footage I'll always remember that time. Still always have good memories of Natas though.
Thanks for all the effort you've put into this thing, man. This may not seem like much coming from some random dude on the internet, but I really appreciate this website, and always look forward to another update. And if I may be so crude, isn't it about time for another Ed Templeton post?
Very good job. Always on the lookout for new posts. Keep on ! Peace from France.
Awesome.
Happy Birthday, CBI! Thanks for everything, holmes.
Congrats! Great job you have been doing for 2 years! Natas is the man!
Thanks for the hard work, Chops.
Natas has always been one of my favs. Rad graphics and 101 didn't hurt, either.
Sick post. Worth the wait.
Frontside 360 ollies, smith grinds on benches, 50 50s on handrails, backside tailslide to fakie... I don't think you could explain to someone who wasn't around then how absurdly good that guy was. It's strange to watch old "street" contests, because there were pros who couldn't ollie, were doing bonelesses and early grab airs... and Natas was doing sh-t that people would still be doing 20 years later.
congrats on 2 years! Has it really been that long already? I can remember the first time I saw this site... it was linked through bobshirt in the Pang interview.
Natas post seems perfect for this anniversary. Foot plant on the fence over a hip seems too bonkers! and that no comply sequence back then. amazing.
Great post. Natas was way ahead of his time. waist high frontside flips on quarter pipes,front feebles and many more key tricks done today.
Don't Stop. Appreciate the efforts.
Love this site chomps. Came accross CBI at about post #200 and been making it my first stop when at the computer ever since. All your hard work is much appriciated. thanks agian
Happy birthday!
Keep up the good work. I'm liking the interviews from time to time.
this site is so sick! i find my self not watching videos as much to get stoked on skating just comming here and looking through your archives is enough to light my fire and Natas was so ahead of his time and he always had that classy surf style happy Birthday chrome!!
Half-Life
Great post to come back with, I was riding my Natas only yesterday. My favourite tricks from the Streets on Fire section are the ollie to axle stall where he takes off about 8 feet from the curb and the one that with hindsight I can only call a footplant 360 flip on the lamp post, genius. I still love doing axle stalls like that now! Not to mention the tune, that always gets me going. I only found your site about a year ago and I've been loving trawling through the archives and always look forward to the new post. Top notch stuff, congrats.
thanks everyone.
jaycee, sorry homie. i think i had at least 4 different natas boards... loved all of them.
drew, another ed one is coming up most definitely.
lucien, 101 is probably my favorite company of all-time... which only adds to the natas mystique for me.
coals, i definitely think natas doesn't get enough credit these days for the amount of influence he truly has.
yeah keith, between natas and last year's anniversary post being animal chin... i pretty much have my grade school and junior high years covered. and i totally thought you'd call out that footplant pic as a bail. haha
thanks for the comment, Ronnie.
thanks Justin. Keep up the good work yourself.
most definitely, rob e beats.
mb, i used to try and do that same thing with the axle stalls when that video came out... but it was more like 4 feet away for me... and frontside... and yeah, it wasn't nearly the same. haha. i did break countless tracker ultralight hangers doing that though... not bad for a 120 lb. 7th grader.
thanks guys.
Four feet and frontside sounds about right for me too. Never did the tracker thing though, I wore one pair of ventures down to the axles over several years. I'm sure I did one of those footplant 360 flips once too, once.
Hells yeah, Chops. Another great post, this time of my all time fav Mr Kaupas. And how awesome is it to see a couple of features that I've never seen before. The Cadillac Tour era feature on him and the 50-50 rail page. Many thanks for these finds!
Yeah, a lot of kids today don't know the impact Natas had. Just the frontside 360 ollie alone - back in 87 - was mind blowing. That's still an insane trick that few can pull off today. Let alone everything else Natas did back then. I like what Ron Allen says about him in the Sick Boys DVD bonus interview, how you could think of some totally insane trick that Natas did, but then you'd think of another, and another, and another... there's no such thing as too much Natas.
Many thanks, Chops. Your efforts are much appreciated.
Natas cruising down the street with a smile on his face... the best!
why does everyone keep saying Frankie Hill was the 1st person to go big with gaps and handrails? Looks like Natas here has been doing them way before that clown.Just saying why the hoopla over Hill when guys like Natas and Gonz have been going big with rails and gaps way before hill came along.
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