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.)
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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!