Tag Archives: 2016

TJ Rogers – the most underrated skater of the recent past of the future

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In the not so distant future, when we all continue our never ending critique/celebration of skateboarding on whatever media formats will have replaced Instagram and the Slap Message Boards (some virtual reality gathering where holograms all just yell at each other, I imagine), I have no doubt I will contribute mightily to the ‘most underrated skater of the 20-teens’ argument with a quick mention of TJ Rogers.

While he might get a little moment of sunshine for a massive switch frontside 360 here or there (Wallenberg here, Hollywood High 16 there), nobody seems to notice that he just finished top 5 at Tampa Pro, or released easily one of the greatest skate parts of 2016.

Ladies and gentlemen, TJ Rogers in Enter the Red Dragon:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp4KMFuw84k?rel=0]

This one checks nearly all the boxes for a legendary skate part:

Four minutes of footage with minimal 2nd angles and slow motion congratulatory hugging. Even the end zone dancing and bird flipping clips are rapid enough to keep the flow going rather than interrupting.

Boatloads of illmatic tech skating with nary a park ledge in sight. Front foot late flips, manuals out of ledges, and of course with all the spins and shoves.

Big gaps and stair sets: Fakie, nollie, regular, and obviously switch… TJ even drops a varial flip with style. He loves skating!

Street gaps, flat rail to drops, no push bump-to-bar lines, blind-side rotations into crusty banks, famous Philly ledges… and he even manages to keep the omnipresent Red Bull logo somewhat incognito.

And all this is held together with the perfect wrapping of a Masta Ace song that has been begging for skate video usage for 20 years. So, c’mon, you brainiac dumb dumbs, add Enter the Red Dragon to your playlist and let’s promote TJ from underrated to properly rated.

Fuck you and have a nice day.

Evan Smith – Time Trap – 2016

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With all respect to long quintuple-kinked handrail 50-50 grinds, Evan Smith was robbed in 2016.

While not quite on the scale of the handing of Guy Mariano’s trophy to David Gonzalez back in 2012, Evan Smith handed the world a basket of amazing skateboard parts in 2016 (plus lots more) and should’ve been crowned. More footage than many pros will log in a career. On Thrasher’s website alone he dished out three full parts that year.

While Evan might not seem to care about the missing trophy for his mantle, we are blessed to witness the psychedelic innovation, baggie shirts, street 540s, and Kenny G hairstyles over and over again. Even better, the carnage continued into 2017, and Evan finally seems willing to drop parts he didn’t score himself. [Note: that linked Spitfire part came out on the second day of 2017, and can practically be grouped with the rest of his dominance of the previous year.]

For your consideration, the opening volley of Evan Smith’s assault on 2016 AD, from January: Time Trap.