the Four: May '25

dial over die

Jun 01, 2025

So a pretty vicious little dovetailing of professional and personal problems has led to some vexing times on the board; I’m terribly vexed. Basically, a good skate can provide a lift like no other, but a bad skate will make me auger in. A lot is going on that is beyond my control, but my relationship to skating is, so I’m taking a new approach and sharing it with you b/c a) maybe it will help b) I’m channeling the confessional spirits of the aughts, xoJane bb and c) I didn’t have any other ideas. All that said, here’s a shift in philosophy for the sluts …

Look, generally speaking, this whole thing of ours takes on a selachian tint; we move forward constantly — we desire to progress, and through that progression acquire more ways to create. That’s pretty much the whole fucking thing, if you’re into it beyond A to B. And learning a new trick is this idea in its most beloved form: we’re chasing them, fucking constantly shifting flicking watching listening asking yelling smiling trying crying cursing until something alchemical happens and desperate hope and motor control and physics and courage all align and it’s fucking landed (2 to make it true).

Here’s the thing tho: skating is motherfucking difficult, and learning a new trick is among the purest forms of frustration I know. And as I know from brutal experience, it’s even harder when you suck.

Which I do.

So, in pursing progression and joy, in trying to add to the bag, I’m usually instead sent spiraling into some sort of existential crisis on how knowing only shuvs somehow equates to brining nothing to the universe.

So I’m not gonna even fucking try to learn new tricks for a bit. Maybe a couple months? Instead, the plan is to focus on what I can already do. I’ve got a nice ollie; let’s work on making it faster, higher, more comely, let’s make sure we can go up down over whatever the fuck we want, first time most of the time every time, let’s just develop feel and fucking have fun. The idea is that by the time I want to work on new stuff, all my old stuff will be automatic. It’s already working; I did the fastest, highest ollie I’ve ever done in my life last week, one that popped so perfectly and felt so good I needed a fucking cigarette after. If you’re killing yourself on some new shit, maybe give this a try — maybe just for a sesh or two, a few days or weeks.

Dial in, not die for.

Here’s the ‘reasoning’ behind the Four, which is more written-in-lipstick-on-a-coke-mirror than it is set in stone. Special shout out to Lord Rockwell & Dr Logan who are moving to Kremer Country. Go Padres!

the Four: May ‘25

la table,‘el punky skate en argentina’

The perfectly corny first song — that’s right, we’ve got a two banger at three minutes, audacious & earned — is fitting, b/c Juan Diaz is a fucking. monster. dude. Everything is fast and high as Hunter Thompson in a chevy spider, all surgical flips and absolute barges; fucking hammers and scalpels sent.

aratufubananã, ‘barretos’

Something we adore — and has a pretty good chance at the Four — is diversity, not only of skaters and spots and tricks but skill level, too. Maybe it’s bc of all I said above, but few things get me more excited to skate than seeing some stuff that feels more like what my friends and I would be able to do. A crew cut is normally the way to go here, and this short and tight one has variety to spare in any way you want it.

kiernan mcginnis, ‘serial experiment’

Woozy and floaty, a scoop of ice cream in promethazine/codeine

ben broyd, ‘meander’

Broyd’s got all the street transition and send-em-to-the-bible trick selection you’d expect from a Blast dude, hands all over like Twister and laid back on some sharkskin spots.