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Mike Frazier Footage Feast

Cover image courtesy of Transworld and The Chrome Ball Incident

Big airs, tweaked inverts, lip trick innovation and switch madness – Mike Frazier was at the forefront of vert skateboarding’s development throughout the 90s and 2000s, keeping the flame burning when others were declaring vert dead and dropping more than a few sections of brutally powerful shredding.

An on-the-edge, yet somehow controlled style would make us happy to watch him just do frontside airs, so the fact that every new section seemed to contain various mind-boggling new tricks as well is the icing on the cake.

On top of this, he has one of the best front blunts in the game – the footage of the teetering Harrow outing for the trick can be seen in the opening credits of 411VM Issue 2, way back in ’93. Enjoy our ode to one of vert skating’s finest, the Mike Frazier Footage Feast.

Powell Peralta – 8 (1990)

Ben Raybourn’s choice of a ‘classic’ for a reason – insanely tweaked inverts, nosegrind stalefish tailsmacks, boosted fastplants and savage air/hang up variations that Chris Russell undoubtedly paid close attention to…

Powell – Celebraty Tropical Fish (1991)

A rare outing for the front rockslide revert, as far as we know only fucked with by Tom Boyle and possibly Ross Goodman. And that’s just the second trick…

Powell – Chaos (1992)

One we missed from our Motorhead in skate videos post, ‘Jack The Ripper’ is a solid accompaniment to high speed shredding at both a vert ramp and incredible looking vert ramp/bowl set up.

Birdhouse – Untitled (1992)

An early Birdhouse project saw Mike move to the team and share a section with Big Tone himself, throwing down some brain melting lip tricks – the cab blunt revert and front disaster backside revert being particularly aesthetically pleasing. There’s even an appearance from the lesser seen Street Hawk!

Chuck Powell’s Eastern Vert Files (1993)

Get to 0:38 in. Watch the pivot ollie nosebash to fakie. Rewind a couple of seconds. Repeat this action for awhile…

Birdhouse – Ravers (1993)

“The following segment contains vertical skateboard riding which may be deemed offensive to certain skaters” may be tongue in cheek, but probably isn’t far off what the skateboarding landscape would look like for the next few years. Here, two of the finest Mike’s (Frazier and Youssefpour) to get above the lip show why anybody pushing the ‘vert button’ was blowing it.

411VM Issue 5 Pro Files (1994)

By 1994 and this 411 Pro Files, Mike was looking more solid on a board than ever (unlike his kneecap), beginning to consolidate his reputation as one of the best front blunters to ever front blunt.

Stereo – A Visual Sound (1994)

https://youtu.be/Fd8YIYZtfz0?t=15m13s

The first Stereo video ‘A Visual Sound’ is legendary for its portrayal of street cruising and often credited with playing a large part in dragging skateboarding out of the tiny wheeled triple flip era. As a result it seems as if Frazier’s section is slightly overlooked which is a shame as, in a video which places as much importance on style as trick bag, he has plenty of both.

Transworld – Uno (1996)

A short section in Transworld’s ‘Uno’, where even very questionable editing can’t completely kill the stoke as Mike keeps it simple and tears into two ramps hard.

Stereo – Tincan Folklore (1996)

Mike’s section in the second classic Stereo release ‘Tincan Folklore’, showing his heritage and mixing (at the time) modern vert tricks – tre flip grab fakies, cab flip indys – with technical lip trickery, powerful andrecht fakies and Elguerials and even a rarely seen switch sal flip to tail.

Element – Third Eye View (1998)

Mike hits Camp Woodward’s indoor and outdoor vert facilities with the expected maximum aggression and obscure trick bag – from alley-oop slob fastplants to kickflip indy hang ups.

Josh Stewart – Cigar City (1998)

Its Mike Frazier, in a Josh Stewart video, doing a varial invert to fakie while Firehose plays in the background. Josh’s pre-Static ‘Cigar City’ is an oft-overlooked part of his catalogue and we highly recommend you hunt down the whole thing.

Element – Element World Tour (2000)

There’s something about Mike Frazier’s style that helps to translate more technical flip/grab variations on vert into visual layman’s terms – flailing arms and legs and razors edge style undoubtedly playing a large part. The nollie 180 switch nosegrind 29 seconds in also warrants a mention/

Santa Cruz – Uprising (2001)

Switch rodeos, 360 eggplants (these days officially known as a ‘Munson’) and technical lip trickery charged into at full speeds – Frazier joins Santa Cruz with a bang.

Santa Cruz – Guarte (2005)

Mike’s second and last Santa Cruz section before they blew it and gave him the boot. Best names for the trick at 0:16 on a postcard to win a year’s supply of Special Brew. Now go get padded up and find your nearest vert ramp.