The shopping cart/push manual, the fakie sweeper, the pendulum f/s rock, and on and on, all done by a 6-foot+ man on a three-foot mini while wearing full pads.ĩ) “Trip out, trip out.” Another moment I cannot explain my fantastic attraction to, and another phrase I utilize regularly whenever something is supposed to be weird but actually isn’t.ġ0) The scene in the shop where he analyzes a few graphics. If I could choose between doing the tricks he does in this part or the tricks Daewon and Haslam do in Cheese and Crackers, I would not hesitate a moment to take Blender’s quiver. He does tricks that nobody ever did before and nobody has done since. Why does he do this? Why do I need to see it over and over? Why is it so captivating? It’s like a scene out of Twin Peaks or something.Ĩ) Back to the mini. He moves like a graceful hunting cat, and the children are actually frightened. When this video came out, my parents had just gotten a new VCR that had a slow-mo function, and I used that button literally hundreds of times while watching this scene. People were not doing this in the streets yet.ħ) OK, now the incredibly quick scene where he walks up, drops his bag and gets into an attack crouch in front of a group of young kids… this might be the single most mesmerizing thing in a skate video I ever saw. I call to my two daughters this way at least once a week.Ħ) Fakie manual on a mini-ramp. He had the weird, vaguely eastern European accent down pat a solid decade before Borat emerged. Have you ever tried this? Just thinking about it is difficult.ĥ) “Guh-duls… guh-duls!” Imagine trying to use that call to actually get girls. Anyhow, the top goes into the water, and his reply: “I hate that game.” What? This is a game you’ve played before? So many questions! How is the water supposed to factor in? Argh, the mystery has already begun.ģ) “That’s the stuff people put in their coffee.” Lighting non-dairy creamer on fire in the street? Enough said.Ĥ) Rocket tailblock on the ramp in the woods. It’s these little moments that become the nuggets of both confusion and attraction for me, as memorable or possibly more so than most tricks in video parts. Rather than partying, getting chicks, shopping, buying weed, or whatever else most pros on the road would do with their precious down time, Blender has chosen a toy, a cup and a sink full of water. This is obviously down time on some tour. I want to pause on this fact for a moment. Some notes from the epic and savagely under-appreciated seven-minute part…ġ) It opens with an illustration of possibly a seated kangaroo playing a lute for some cats? The tone is set.Ģ) Scene two finds him in the bathroom at a Super-8 motel with some cheap toy top, a cup, and a sink full of water. That’s kind of a cliché, but he epitomizes it. Blender seemed like he couldn’t care less about being cool or doing anything related to what the cool guys were doing (note that this part was post-Hocus Pocus, post-Rubbish Heap), and as a result, he was the coolest ever. What all that seemed to add up to was a part featuring some of the most “I don't give a fuck” (in a good way) skating and speaking ever captured on video. He was a vert legend by the early ‘80s, contributed OG street innovations (no-comply, anybody?), ushered in the era of mini-ramps, been a figurehead in the DIY board graphics movement in skating, given all the best names to all the best tricks, and generally been a unique and ultra-creative personality for years upon years. But I’ll do it with focus- his part in “Footage” from G&S.īy the time 1990 rolled around, Blender had already been there and done that. “That’s what we call gearing up for getting down.I know, I know, each dot should lead to another new one, but there’s just too much beauty and mystery and straight-up magic in Neil Blender for me to just move on immediately. Manhead found me and escorted me back to the hotel. Moments later I was in a broom cupboard puking up what I thought was blood (it was undigested steak). I threw a whitey during a screening of the Bones Brigade doc whilst sitting next to Steve van Doren. Later that night I made the mistake (?) of getting hammered with TP after eating a steak. I rambled on uncomfortably throughout in a similar vein to the chrome blog post above. Neil Blender’s G&S Footage section is the most important video part of all time” I walked on stage and said, “My name’s … and I’m an alcoholic. Some years ago during the Vans Downtown Showdown event in Amsterdam (the one with the Palace ashtray/spliff obstacle) I, along with Rowley, Churchill and a couple of other people were asked to go on stage and talk about our favourite video parts. This is great, reactions etc to his Footage part : ī) I’ve just broken up for Easter holidaysĬ) Neil Blender is the most influential pro skateboarder ever - this is a fact - you can argue with that statement but it doesn’t make it any less true.
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