Five Favorite Parts With Josh Kalis

Photo by Mike Blabac

As a coincidental addendum to the “Life on Video” series that has been going on all week, here’s a quick rundown of what gets one of the greatest champions of classic plaza-based street skating hyped. Stoked he included a certain two-song part from a personal favorite in there ;) Have a good weekend everybody.

Matt Hensley — H-Street: Hokus Pokus (1989)

Before that part, you had Shackle Me Not or the Powell videos; they were cruising, but they weren’t really cracking tricks off. You would get little bits of like, Steve Ortega’s tre flips. When Hensley came out with this part, it took everyone’s pieces and combined them. Before Hensley, one dude would have tre flips, one dude would do impossibles, another would do backside flips. Hensley, as far as I can remember, is the first guy who was doing all of those tricks together in one video part. That video part was the most influential to me until Carroll’s Questionable part.

Mike Carroll — Plan B: Questionable (1991)

That part was an example how it looks to skate in the city where you’re from. You’re skating the spot that you represent every day. It was amazing how natural he looked in that environment, all while being so innovative at that time: bigspin heelflips, tre flip noseslides, everything. It told a story to me that was sick.

Kareem Campbell — 20 Shot Sequence (1995) & Trilogy (1996)

Those parts were huge, because he skated off a ton of bumps and that’s what made bump tricks a big thing for me. He did the most stylish tricks off of bumps and over shit — like the tre flip over the table was G as fuck. [20 Shot Sequence] also has one of my favorite lines of all time, with the nollie flip on flat, tre flip on flat, then back 5-0 and back tail in that white starter jacket with the white shoes. His aesthetic was crucial to me.

Flo Marifang — Puzzle #13 (2001)

That part had me on the floor. I saw he was riding Alien boards, so I called Alien up being like “Who the fuck is this?” They told me “Oh, it’s some dude who’s on flow in Europe.” I told them to send him out to the U.S. They flew him to Philly and he stayed at my house for three months. He couldn’t speak of a lick of English, but we became homies just off that video part.

Zered Bassett — Zoo York: Vicious Cycle (2004)

The shit he skated in it was so heavy. Those gap out to tailslides and all that crazy shit he was doing were so out there for the time. It wasn’t really the sort of the stuff that I personally skate, but I just have so much respect for how raw that part was. I didn’t know him back then, and I had instant respect for Zered. Plus, the old Jay-Z song he used, “Streets is Watching” or whatever went so well ♫ doo doo doo…doo ♫

Previously: Sean Pablo, Wade Desarmo, Chris Milic, Chad Muska, Hjalte Halberg, Danny Brady, Bill Strobeck, Aaron Herrington, Jerry Hsu, Brad Cromer, Brandon Westgate, Jim Greco, Jake Johnson, Scott Johnston, Josh Stewart, Eric Koston, Karl Watson, Josh Friedberg, John Cardiel, Pontus Alv, Alex Olson, Jahmal Williams