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Ricky Oyola Footage Feast

Ricky Oyola has been synonymous with East Coast US street skating for a whole lotta time – from a brief section in the Spitfire video way back in ’93, (the Oyola footage starts at 11:11, but watch the whole thing for a John Cardiel opener, Ed Templeton, Jamie Thomas, Max Schaaf, Julien Stranger and Tim Upson’s saltine hustle…), he carried on to lay down a blueprint of stomped flip tricks, flowing lines, skating through traffic and hitting spots that were on the whole, a lot more weather beaten and crusty than those found on the West Coast.

With a new Traffic video incoming at some point this year, we got hyped on the quality output that the Mayor of Philly has dropped over the years. We can also highly recommend his Epicly Later’d for more of an insight.

Sub Zero – Real Life (1994)

Watch the opening car park line, then watch it again – the mach ten mob flip, a few rabid pushes, a quick manual and then straight into an ollie from kickflip to exit barrier – pure fucking street poetry which doesn’t let up as Ricky lets the undercurrent of the city’s streets and alleys pull him along for the ride. Ricky Oyola and Dan Wolfe’s relationship was a fruitful one and this was just the beginning…

411VM Issue 10 (1994)

The jazz-inflected hip hop of Guru’s ‘Down the Backstreets’ from the classic Jazzmatazz: Volume 1 was an inspired choice for Oyola’s first 411 section…having information about him scrolling across the top of the screen as an unwanted distraction definitely wasn’t. Watch it, then go buy all four Jazzmatazz volumes on record and don’t look back…

Eastern Exposure 2 (1994)

Another Sub Zero release, the first Eastern Exposure/Sub Zero video is a tough one to dig out of the vaults so we’re starting with number two – which sees full advantage taken of that classic combination, East Coast city streets and jazz…

Eastern Exposure 3 (1996)

Number three, on the other hand, went for full throttle thrash; which worked just as well.
This video will still be amazing in 50 years time. A true classic.

New Deal – 7 Year Glitch (2002)

I always wonder when I watch this section what it would have been like if Ricky had skated to Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Today’, which introduces the section. In my head it’s absolutely banging but, bar Manolo or someone of a similar ilk making that happen one day, we’ll never know for sure. As it is, the Latin instrumental which he does skate to works well with a section of crusty street cruising, with long lines which take full advantage of focusing on one of the best pushes in skateboarding. How much does that last park look like The Ripped?!?

Static II (2004)

The original edit of Ricky’s section from Static II isn’t available on Youtube, so you’ll have to content yourself with this re-edit – which luckily is more than capable of bringing the necessary levels of hype, Dinosaur Jr. never goes amiss!

Traffic Skateboards – Via (2006)

The first release from Oyola’s company should show you exactly why you should be hyped on the announcement of a new video…

Death Skateboards Big Push (2006)

The 2006 Big Push offered the surreal viewing experience of watching Oyola hanging out in the Death van, getting sheep shit on his wheels at Welsh Wallows and arm wrestling Lee Dainton. This segment has Rob Essex included for added legend status, while the rest can be found in the usual Youtube sidebar area!

Vox Footwear – Black & Blue Vol.1 (2007)

Vox Footwear got off to a promising start back in 2007 with the whirlwind of gnarliness that was the Black & Blue series – Drehobl, Hewitt, Navarette, JT Aultz, Emmanuel Guzmann and more joined Oyola on the original team, who skated in Vol.1 very fast down the street to GBH…”Give me fiiiiree”!

Traffic Skateboards – Moving in Traffic (2008)

Oyola only has a couple of tricks in the ‘Moving in Traffic’ promo, during the montage, which kicks in around the four minute mark, but we’re including it anyway because it’s DOPE – a full Jack Sabback ender and full Bobby Puleo skating to KRS-One opener should be sufficient to have you sitting through a measly ten minutes. In an ideal world Puleo’s middle name is Dave or Doreen, making his initials BDP and adding another layer of meaning to the song choice…probably not though.