It sounds simple, right? To go out there in the world today and just express yourself however you want? But it’s not so easy anymore. There are so many false standards in this world, and kids today are plagued by the media, especially social media, to try to live up to the standards they believe other people are going to accept.
But where are the leaders? The innovators? The ones who walk tall and do whatever they want, look however they like to and stand out in the crowd, instead of just doing what it takes to fit in? These are the people that change the world. Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Bob Marley were all great singers who sent messages with their songs, but it was their overall presence that will be remembered forever.
Skateboarding has been around for a long time and has seen many evolutionary changes throughout each decade – from showing off how many 360s you could do in the ’70s, to seeing how high you could ollie in the ’80s, to learning all the flip tricks invented in the ’90s and nowadays doing them with ease over 12 stairs. The impossible has become the norm. Across the world, millions and millions of skaters can perform the norm, but who are the ones that stand out?
“You can watch 10 different people do the same trick, but only like the way one of them made it look,” says freestyle legend Kevin Harris. “It’s the style that matters more than the technicality.”
When you watch someone who is fairly new to skateboarding at the skate park, you sometimes see them learn new tricks but not be happy with the way it looked. They will say yeah, I landed it, but it didn’t feel as good as the other guys make it look. But style comes from doing; it is natural, and the more you practice something the more confident you become, and with confidence your style will prevail.
Freestyle skateboarding is all about style. Every freestyle skater you see has his or her own distinct style: the way they dress, the way their hair and clothes are, and especially the way they move. And you can be sure that they all have grace in their movements. With only a few hundred freestylers in the world, they have to be unique, not just in their skating but in their everyday presence.
In 2012 an annual contest named the World Freestyle Round-Up was created in Vancouver, Canada. It invited top freestyle skateboarders from around the planet to come and show off for a random audience at the Cloverdale Rodeo & Country Fair while also competing for $10,000 in prize money. Hosted by Kevin Harris, one of the most stylish freestyle skaters ever, it gained recognition quickly and has had a great base of competitors each year.
From the legends like Russ Howell, Gunter Mokulys, Lynn Cooper and AJ Kohn to the younger new generation like Mike Osterman, Ryan Brynelson and Isamu Yamamoto, the World Round-Up is full of skill, excitement and especially style. “Style matters; it shows personality and mind,” says Stefan Albert from Germany. “It’s what you do and how you do it, and what you choose not to do. Skateboarding is expression. You’ve got your ideas, abilities, taste and mindset. Freestyle just means a guy with a board on flat ground, pure – never as fast, radical and spectacular as other aspects of skateboarding. It’s the dancing material art side of it.”
“Style matters…It’s what
you do and how you do
it, and what you choose
not to do.”
Stefan was the second recipient of a prestigious new award at the Round-Up, the Henry Candioti Skate-4-Fun Award. It was created to recognize the person at the Round-Up who best embodies skating with style – the one who just goes out and expresses himself (or herself) and shows their true style, without regard to winning the competition. Henry was one of the most stylish freestyle skateboarders of the 1980s; his way of moving from trick to trick with ease made everything he did look smooth, which attracted the eyes of many audiences. Henry always lived by the motto, “Do it for fun, or don’t do it at all,” says his brother Alejandro, who named the award in memory of Henry.
That’s the best part about freestyle: There are no obstacles, so your routines are a full expression of your inner self. When random people watch, they will appreciate smoothness and flow over the most technical trick you can do. “Style makes a freestyle skateboarder’s routine visually attractive, distinctive, appealing,” says Alejandro Candioti. “Whether it is smooth or aggressive, a freestyler with good style is always remarkable and surprising. Style adds beauty to a freestyle skateboarding run.”
“Do it for fun, or don’t do it at all.”
Alejandro’s statement shows why the first winner of the award was Japanese skater Takashi Suzuki, who flows around the surface with unique and impossible maneuvers that hypnotize anyone who looks in his direction. No one can watch Takashi skate without being blown away by how he does what he does. In today’s world it can be difficult to find your true self, but the World Round-Up allows people from all around the world to come out and express themselves for four days straight. True, it is a competition, but in the end it really doesn’t matter who wins… as long as everybody goes out with style.