Pro skateboarders don’t usually “retire.” More often, they keep their name on a board for as long as possible (long after we’ve basically forgotten them) and pick up some hobby—photography, real estate, or CBD—that they can turn into a job once their sponsors quietly forget about them too.
But as the Zero team finished filming their latest video, Damn It All, James Brockman decided to officially call it quits.
If you don’t remember James from his early parts in Osiris’s Subject to Change or New Blood, or being one of the top bald skaters, he’s basically been chomping and eating shit on handrails for the past 15 years.
So in recognition, our friend Joey Sinko arranged this ode to commemorate James’ reckless style.
We wish the best to James in his retirement. Obviously, nobody who has skated for more than a decade can truly stop skating entirely, but at least now he can enjoy the more mellow things in life (curbs, curb cuts, and all-organic curb-ohydrates).
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February 24, 2020 4:07 pm
this ode series is awesome – most outlets these days wait until people die to pay tribute to them – jenkem rocks
February 24, 2020 11:22 pm
Dang. So sick. Watching all this together, it’s amazing how hard this dude put it down. Always respected his switch 50 and switch 5-0 skills on rails, especially.
February 25, 2020 5:24 am
Brockman was an underrated beast!
February 25, 2020 7:30 am
Damn! Was there anything this guy did that wasn’t a complete risk of life and limb? What a legacy of gnar, danger, uber rail tech, and bodily brutality! Congrats to James for killing it for so long and knowing when to step back. I wish this guy the best!