Chase Cruz recently spent a few days with Blast Skates‘ Transatlantic connection Ben Koppl, channeling the results into two minutes of the kind of creativity and fun that Koppl has become known for courtesy of his Instagram handle @rollersurfer. Ben is someone who has ridden the social media wave in the most legit manner possible, regularly dropping clips of head scratching skateboarding which combines a deep knowledge of 80s transition tricks with modern terrain and, dare I say it, a dash of freestyle for good measure.
This footage is no exception, with casper stalls on DIY quarterpipes, shove it layback grinds, body varials in and out of stalls and a frontside boneless to layback switch nosegrind revert down a handrail (you heard right) just as few of the readily rewindable moments with in. Guaranteed this will have you aching to get down to your local miniramp with the crew and try some of these out – undoubtedly helped by the fact that all of these obscurities, which could be oh so wrong in the hands of many, are ones that he manages to make look stylish. Press play and get inspired…
Blast Skates and their stoke inducing combination of skateboarding, art and accessories firmly aimed at the ‘hoarder’ end of the skate market have been keeping us entertained since the murky depths of 2013, growing from a bunch of mates loosely based in South London to a worldwide phenomenon boasting riders in the US, Japan and Europe. The ubiquitous Blast Skates figure can also be found inked on various people’s bodies (including yours truly), a sure sign of something with staying power.
The South London scene video Blokes, when it comes together, will have plenty of clips from a wide array of Blast Skates riders and friends, but until then you can scratch your Blast itch by perusing our website’s Blast tag at your leisure…