Article / Know Hands
KNOW HANDS
Skating has never looked as good as it does today. The style icons of the early days set the standard, and in the present their contributions are still evident. So many tiny details make up what looks good; stance, posture, head placement, hands, everything.
Gonna pause on hands here. So much is said in just the hands alone. There’s a type of meter to gauge what might be going on in the moment of a trick that appears in the hands.
Clockwise: Antwuan, ,Cardiel, Nestor, Torey
Antwuan has the most relaxed example, Cardiel might have the purest of psycho energy running through his. Then on the other end of the spectrum, there’s this like randomized seized up contortion that can occur. See Torey Pudwill. Not dogging Torey here, where does the stamina when holding a 50ft backside tailslide exhibit itself?
Zach - Baker vid
So many examples of style in between. I distinctly remember trying to emulate Muska hands when I was a teen. My fake ass steez never coming close. Not to mention only launching off so much as a curb back then. There were no 12 sets or rails or boombox-backpack combos to compare, let alone legit “Muska hands”.
A short list of notables, and surely we all have our own style gods, but to name a few of the many-many-many goes: Scott Johnston, Nestor Judkins, Nik Stain, Marc Johnson (arms too), Jason Lee, Ishod (not so expressively, but everything looks fuckin’ perfect in dude’s make-up), Peter Hewitt, Alexis Sablone, these days I really trip on Troy Gipson, the list goes and goes.
Nestor - Away Days
Alexis - Thrasher Cover
Before the youtube age into the instagram onslaught of today, much of the hand captures were only seen through pictures. There must be countless examples of sequences where a retry was in order after poor hand placement, facial expression or other minute detail that the skater (and photographer) fussed over. Truth be told, this stuff did and still does matter.
Skating has never looked better, thanks to the fuss and madness endured by the older heads making sure it looked dope.
Cardiel - Kanights