It wasn’t so long ago, I said that Mini ramp skating needed to make a comeback and I guess someone was listening. Being a young and trend heavy culture, skateboarding can sometimes lose itself and forget the various aspects that give it’s character depth.
Mini ramp skating is a staple to the culture and has established itself as a fun part activity throughout several decades. Essentially, no matter how shit the area is, or how fucked the dimensions are, nearly every town has been donated a mniramp along with the mandatory un-fun box and wonky flatbar set-up.
Well, it’s time to stop searching for marble plazas and get yourself down to the local because mini ramp skating is back again- and you’re going to need to brush up on those skills if you want to ride the transitions like Almost’s Chris Haslam and Daewon Song!
Why they decided to call this ‘snack size mini ramp video’ Cheese and Crackers, I have no idea, but when two of skating’s most innovative and well balanced individuals decide to team up for a thrash around, the end product can be called whatever they like – the end result is beast!
Basically the story goes: Daewon and Chris wanted to brush up a bit and have some fun on transition. Somehow they ended up building their mini ramp in one of the ghetto-est burnt out meth labs in Southern California. Along with the ply wood, they figured they could knock together some quirky obstacles for their ramp with all the tires, doorframes, bike racks and random crap that was strewn all over the place. The end result is one short video for skateboarding and one fucking massive step into the future for transition skating!
I couldn’t list all the never Been Done tricks and hijinx Chris and Daewon get up to because it would probably read like A Stephen Hawkings check list for Relativity ad Black Holes, but here are a couple to give you an idea:
Chris manages to front side ollie to tail on the rising edge of the extension to then flip to fakie back into the ramp. Then there are Chris’ take on the blunt to fakie combos c.f. kick flip double flip, triple flip, switch front side flip… As for Daewon, well a sweet front side pop-shove-it to blunt fakie flip in makes an appearance, as does a half cab blunt 540 big spin in. The mind boggles… Did I mention most of these tricks are done in lines?
Once your head starts hurting and the adrenaline nears climax levels, you eyes are held open by the likes of new Almost rider Lewis Marnell, Chris and Cooper Wilt actually getting some real tricks down with a jacked up dirt board and a healthy friend section on the ramp.
This friend section sticks out for several reasons: First, there really are friends in this section and not just a melange of the hottest skaters on the block, there’s proof that photographers can skate as Giovanni Reda gets his ramp skills out, and last but not least please take note of the last skate in this section, Luis Cruz. You might have vaguely disturbing memories of Luis in a XXL Basketball top skating greasy picnic tables somewhere in Los Angeles circa 1995. Well don’t spit on the dark horse because this kid has got sick switch skills on the old mini ramp.
Cheese and Crackers is fittingly one of the best skate videos released ever. Go out and buy it today, don’t download it off the web.
I can’t wait to hear what Greg Nowik or Todd Falcon have to say about this!
www.almostawebsite.com for more.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
11/8/06