Being a “creative” skater can easily be a cop out for being “not a very good” skater. Conceiving of the most non-trick tricks, finding the least skateable spots, and praying to land on your board can be fun for a minute, but it gets tiring quickly.
But Ben “Rollersurfer” Koppl is both creative and talented. He puts real power into all of his tricks, and he can take all the gimmicky things people love right now (running instead of skating into tricks, powersliding vertical walls, and firecrackering up stairs) and make them look as impressive as they should.
Ben is basically a master in what we’re gonna describe as “goof gnar,” and we love it.
“Goof gnar” is like laughing and shouting “oh shit!” at the same time. “Goof gnar” is wearing out the 5-second-rewind button on YouTube. “Goof gnar” is like Fancy Lad but faster and with less hardware. “Goof gnar” is like if Eric Koston’s only video part was in Chomp.
Make friends with “goof gnar” and make friends with Ben. Then when you’re fully aroused go check out the full personas vid and accompanying zine here. (JK it’s actually over here.)
The Shop
Related Posts
-
MEET THE SEATTLE ARTIST WHO DESIGNED A BACON ’N EGGS INSPIRED SKATEPARK
Breakfast-obsessed skaters rejoice!
-
ALLIES: CALDER ZWICKY OF MOMA
A look at Calder Zwicky, the skater who has been working with the Museum of Modern Art over the last decade to incorporate skate-centric programming for the city's youth.
-
CHECKING OUT THE HISTORIC SPOTS OF ATHENS, GREECE
Get a skate tour of one of the most significant cities in human history.
-
MEET THEO HAND, THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO SHOT ALL YOUR FAVORITE ’90S PROS
Theo helped shape how skateboarding looks in the modern age, documenting names like Chad Muska, Tom Penny & Ali Boulala, all in their prime.
-
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE IN THE WAY: A LIST OF ICONIC SKATE VIDEO PEDESTRIANS
Whether mildly famous, drunk, or boiling over, these pedestrians left their mark in the skate videosphere forever.
-
PREMIERE: “700K” A VIDEO BY DALTON PALACIO
After the Illegal Civ debacle, a bunch of the kids broke out and are proud to present their first full length independent video.
-
WE TRIED FOODS FROM ICONIC SKATE VIDEOS
We ingested an ungodly amount of calories worth of "food" for your viewing pleasure.
-
PREMIERE: YAJE POPSON’S “BELO HORIZONS” PART
Yaje spent 2021 down in Brazil connecting with local skaters and filmers to produce this project in his beautiful home country.
Comments
Popular
-
TRACKING DOWN THE GIRL ON THE DEFTONES’ ALBUM 28 YEARS LATER
Shot by skateboarder Rick Kosick, we went to Seattle to meet the woman on one of rock's most iconic covers.
-
HANGING OUT WITH ANDREW HUBERMAN, SKATEBOARDER TURNED NEUROSCIENTIST
Curious what it would be like to hang with this guy outside of a stuffy podcast studio? Us too.
-
ANGELA WHITE IS BRINGING SKATING’S MOST ICONIC CAMERA BACK INTO PORN
Her 2000s, gonzo-inspired tour de force was filmed completely on the sleek, sexy, grainy VX2000.
-
JENKEM PRESENTS: THE 9TH ANNUAL SKATEBOARDING SUPERLATIVES
The good, the bad, and the ugly of skateboarding in 2025.
-
CHEERS TO ANOTHER YEAR
Some small talk, some 2025 highlights and plenty of links to keep you busy.
February 25, 2019 5:07 pm
Somebody watched Vic’s Market!
February 25, 2019 6:28 pm
full shred
February 25, 2019 9:14 pm
Urban Urinator’s club is finding new ways to prevent gentrification.
February 25, 2019 9:17 pm
The first sentence of this article is the absolute truth. It’s good to attain a certain ability before you get weird. Ben Koppl does it right!