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clas⋅sic
–adjective
of enduring interest, quality, or style

Trends in skateboarding come and go all the time, and I’m not even talking about the crusty punk rock pirate look that was real big a couple years ago. Popular tricks and terrain are constantly shifting and changing. In the late 90s and early 2000s, it seemed like the only thing worth skating in the entire world was huge handrails. Now you’ve got mind-blowing parts coming out from kids like Mike Mo that have only one fairly routine handrail trick throughout the whole fucking thing. And nobody complains! In 2001 people would have called him a “fag”. Well… probably not, because anybody who thinks that part is bad, even if they were from the idiotic past, is, and will always be, fucking retarded.

Some trends come back, like bell bottoms or the flip-in, flip-out craze that marked early 90s SF street skating. And others, like pressure flips or slappy grinds have only just begun to escape skateboarding’s closet full of skeletons and reenter the slightly more respectable realm of “fun stupid shit.”

Nonetheless, there is a certain level of skateboarding that will always be cool. This video featuring Windsor James is what got me thinking of all this in the first place. It’s a perfect example — the trick selection may be incredibly simple, but focusing on fundamental tricks with textbook execution and style for miles will always be a winning formula, no matter what era in skateboarding it might be.

Cory Kennedy’s switch 180 front foot impossible may be jaw-dropping to behold, but it’s the flavor of the week. Style on the other hand? It doesn’t matter what trick you do — it’s timeless.