Tag Archives: Thrasher

“You can outrun and outsmart the cops at the same time” – Fred Gall in Brutality, Ipath, and more.

The latter half of the first decade of the 21st century is fuzzy time in skateboard video history. It is after the decline in dominance of VHS tapes but before the birth of the stand-alone online part. Internet video content was mostly contest footage, tour edits, or Ask the Phelper. The real heavy tricks were saved for the few and far between DVD releases. Sure, we got some classics like Mind Field or Ride the Sky in that mix, but a great deal of decent parts have just been lost in the mist of shop videos, second tier video magazines, and low resolution uploads to early youtube.

It is in this fog that Fred Gall released part after part, about 2 every year for several years in a row. Freddy’s chief collaborators through this period were Habitat videographer Brennan Conroy and Andrew “NJ Scum” Petillo, who could be described as Fred’s primary filmer from Inhabitants onward. While Habitat would release plenty of Gall footage through a couple of videos and many, many internet ‘Field Log’ cuts, NJ Scum would bring us the majority of Fred footy sliced and diced into various projects.

Ipath ad in Transworld, 2009

Further exacerbating the blurring of all these parts is the fact many tricks are used twice (or even three times) in separate projects. Other times it is a different variation on a previously seen trick, or unrelated tricks at the same spots during the same session. While the overlap might not have been disorienting when these videos were being released with limited reach and and big enough gaps in between, but when one is surveying All the Gall consecutively, the results are a not-unpleasant haze of graffitied ditches, noseblunt stalls, and crusty frontside ollies.
I’m not gonna lie, it was a bitch trying to log all these tricks for our statistical analysis of all these parts over at 4plymag (article coming soon). Just as we thought we had witnessed every drop in and yank out, a new part would pop-up from the aether featuring wonderful new footage with stuff I swear I had seen elsewhere… or had I? You will forgive me if I get confused. Such were the wondrous days of digital video before instagram let you post videos, not that shit got less hectic from there.

This whole odyssey of lesser known parts starts with a real treat: Thrasher magazine’s rarely mentioned 2008 video, Brutality, of which Freddy had the opening segment.

Clocking in at nearly 3 minutes and over 50 tricks, Brutality is the third longest part Freddy has made, which is saying something considering it came right on tail of his mighty efforts in Inhabitants. In fact, it is much more of a companion to 2005’s Decade of Destruction (of which it shares a couple of clips). And it certainly isn’t just Habitat leftovers. There are some sweet tidbits in here.
We got a couple of pole jams, which is a surprisingly rare trick from Fred. That nose grab blunt to fakie on the parking garage bar is fucking crazy. Have you ever tried to skate one of those things?!? We also get the only Fred Gall Burnside clip ever released here, another oddity considering Fred is an honorary member of the “Nobodies” gang of local PNW Burnside toughs.

Also coming out in 2008 was Joe Perrin‘s full length Last of the Mohicans, a video that started out as just a made-up title for a non-existent project but eventually blossomed into a classic of New York skating. Freddy has a solid 90 seconds of footage as part of the first “Loose Cannons” montage. The whole video is tops.

Let’s round out this era of Freddy with Ipath’s 2009 Promo video. Around this time, as clear as I can tell, Ipath released the signature Gall Jersey Devil mid-tops. I have no recollection of this shoe, but maybe it was just me not inspecting the velcro-strap section of the footwear display closely.

The later-era of the Ipath team was pretty tight, featuring Matt Rodriguez, Adelmo, vagabond Kenny Reed, Danny Dicola, a few tricks from Richie Jackson, and a young Ben Raybourn. Fred’s gets his licks in with a rooftop backside 360, the wall-footplant-Sal-flip-to-fakie, and plenty of crust.

Freddy’s part is at 6:15

There was yet another full part by Freddy that was released in 2009, but that one is so special I’ve decided to wait until next episode to dig into it. Check back soon, you won’t regret it.

Bonus Fred:
This 2-part ESPN.com interview with Freddy from 2009 is good. Read it before it gets lost to the internet black hole of dead links.

Bonus Bonus Fred:
Searching around the web, I’ve found a grip of images of Fred’s Ipath shoes from 2009:

NJ Skateshop collab

Bonus Bonus Bonus Fred:
I also found some evidence of the Fred Gall Low Life shoe from a 2010 Ipath catalog PDF.

Heading even further down the rabbit hole, I found this image, also apparently from an Ipath catalog, on an old SLAP thread. It appears that the Gall Mid came equipped with Fred’s ‘personalized stash pocket’. The quote to go with this photo is a classic, but I really don’t see Freddy ever actually saying, “If you are smart and want street cred, buy my shoe…”

I don’t believe the Low Life or the updated Gall Mid ever got fully produced, and consequently Fred, and countless others, did get busted.
Ipath switched ownership in 2010 and dropped a bunch of their team along with a nearly completed video. Fred did remain on Ipath into maybe 2013 when it fully died, and that video with another full Freddy part did get released eventually, but that is a tale for another time.

Bonus Bonus Bonus Bonus Fred:
The plot thickens: After I did a social media post about the Gall Ipath shoes, the good folks at Metal Skateboards clued me into the Derelict, Fred Gall’s low model that was around from maybe late 2010 into perhaps 2012. The 2011 Ipath catalog highlights that the Derelict features “…our advanced More Cushion for the Pushing footbed”.

Kyle Frederick – 12 O’Clock Karl

From out of nowhere with little more warning than a Thrasher Magnified and Hall of Meat and a nod from Chris Cole’s clothing brand Omit, Kyle Frederick arrived, laid down one golden track, and disappeared in a puff of cigarette smoke. From his T-shirt logos I assume he was sponsored by Mystery skateboards, but I’m not really sure. I’m also not sure why he rides a quizzically old school shape (before that was really a thing), why he immediately fell off the face of skateboarding right as things were getting interesting, or what a 12 O’Clock Karl even is.

But I really, really like this part and I think it holds up pretty well after five years. So if this is the extent of Kyle Frederick’s skateboarding legacy, I gotta tip my hat and and take it for one more wheelie popping ride.

Evan Smith – Time Trap – 2016

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.

Bobby Worrest’s Hometown Turf Killer

Tom Remillard’s recent Thrasher video filmed entirely at the Los Angeles Court House brick transitions got me thinking about the time back in early 2014 that Bobby Worrest filmed a full legit online part for Krooked entirely at Washington D.C.’s Freedom Plaza.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N9mjjDY4_0?rel=0]

Known mostly for Pepe Martinez, Reese Forbes, Eastern Exposure 2, and a few tricks here and there since, I was pretty confident Pulaski Park had been remodeled or skatestopped or somehow rendered completely useless for skateboarding long ago, but not a damn thing changed.

Hometown Turf Killer is a unique concept for a full part and stands up as a strong part and not just a novel gimmick.  It was the #1 video part of the year according to Boil the Ocean and, I thought, combined with the Quartersnacks and Luxury & Loudness parts from that year, he had a legit shot at SOTY in 2014.

What other parts feature more or less one skater at one spot?