these are my skateboard friends #890

Another one of those ultra-talented LA Boys who just seemed to find this skateboarding thing entirely too easy. The science of Paulo Diaz.

Look how high he cleared that bench by in the nollie heel sequence. Bonkers.

Originally slated to have a part in A Visual Sound... hard to imagine the magnitude that would've made had it actually gone down. Most of the footage didn't even come out until 2 years later and it was still a classic.

Big up to my man Jake and his experiments. And special thanks once again to Jim Thiebaud.

chrome ball incident #572: over the horizon radar

does not like contests
does not like demos
likes to skate with friends

the majority of these flicks are almost 20 years old... and still hold up today.

i suppose the danger of being so far ahead of the curve is that one can go wander off the path.

a truly amazing and progressive skateboarder, paulo diaz.

p.s. the impossible over the barrier is from 2001... not bad.

chrome ball incident #369: the delta blues

"I just quit for a while and stayed out of the scene. It was too much hype. I was kinda glad that I stayed out of it 'cause my mind stayed fresh... I stayed original."

one of skateboarding's most truly innovative cats, Paulo always seemed to be on the very brink of blowing the fuck up (like we knew he could)...

unfortunately, we're always gonna have to wonder what could've been while admiring what we were blessed to have been given.

I bet he could still kill it right now as we speak.

chrome ball incident #171: que onda guero

granted his career was about as all over the place and unpredictable as his skating, but i don't think paulo diaz gets the credit he deserves for being such an innovator in the early and mid-90s. holmes was straight up droppin science back then... whenever he was actually skating anyway.

heard all types of rumors about this guy, but you know how that goes...

one thing is for sure though, dude can pop some crazy shit.

chrome ball incident #109: i vitelloni

Guy and the crew from back in the day... Stacy Peralta on some straight-up Maurice Starr-type steez.

Video clips:
Powell magic... and the worst song ever.
all A's > all B's
Santa Barbara
Gabriel making it look easy, Frankie Hill making it look hard

chrome ball incident #23: dig deeper

Paulo Diaz during his phase at Lockwood where he seemed to be changing the world with every photo. Switch ollie off flatground over one of this kiddie picnic tables. 1993. Beautiful layout.

Read this but never saw this.

You can laugh at some of those musician kits he rockin in there but its still better than playing 1977 rock-n-roll dress-up like some other pros be doing. Give me some Paulo over Corey Duffel anyday. Plus, dude was on Beck's Odelay and Guero... so that pretty much gives him license to wear as much crazy shit as he wants.