The Triple 01.01.21

New year, new Triple. Here’s a New Year’s Day selection of my favourite clips from the last week of 2020, to kick off 2021.

3. Maite Steenhoudt’s Street Quarter Session

I had a hard time picking either one of the tricks in this clip for The Triple, so I just decided to put the whole clip in as Number 3 this week. This clip comes from Maite Steenhoudt, who has come extremely close to having a clip make my top 3 practically every week since I started this feature. She’s quickly becoming one of my favourite skaters with some fresh, quick footed street moves and a deep bag of rad transition moves that remind me of Ben Koppl.

The reason Maite finally broke into The Triple this week is that this clip kinda combines her broad range of transition gnar in one clip, and it takes place at a street spot, which makes it even radder. We’ve got a backside layback Tailslide (with a little kick out to Madonna for extra flair), extended and stretched out with style, followed by a snazzy Backside New Deal Revert out (a backside nose pick with no grab). Both of these tricks are just nailed with absolute perfection and are textbook examples of both. Sick stuff!

2. Shawn Hale’s BS Roll-in Wallride Hillbomb

Forgive me for being the ten thousandth skateboarding publication to share this video with you, but Shawn Hale’s insane Backside Roll-in on a wallride is most definitely this week’s “You gotta see this” moment that the internet collectively rallied around. This thing is a triple threat – it’s a backside roll-in, it’s a wallride, and it’s a hillbomb. The trifecta of gnar.

Hale hits the Backside Roll-in into a near enough vertical 8 foot wall, then rides down off the wall onto a long, thin bank that runs off down the rest of the wall and onto some grass after. He picks up some serious speed bombing down this thing, and gets some mad speed wobbles. I don’t know how he does it, but he re-gains control and holds on long enough to take the board onto the grass, where he flies off into a commando roll!

1. Michael McMaster’s “Thread The Needle” FS Tailslide Shuv-it

If I’m going to be honest with you, Shawn Hale’s roll-in wallride hillbomb was my number 1 pick for this week, until this absolute gem popped up on my Insta feed earlier today. The lesser seen “Thread The Needle” is something I honestly haven’t seen in a skate video since Ragdoll’s part in Pig Wood’s “Slaughterhouse”, and Mr Scalamere’s version didn’t occur mid-Tailslide, that’s for sure (his one was done whilst monster trucking his way down a set of stairs).

Michael McMaster’s take on this obscure move has some added tech bonus attached, as he navigates a Frontside Tailslide through a handrail, before a Shuv-it out of the slide. I love the shuv at the end, because as if this move wasn’t bonkers enough already, McMaster adds an extra sprinkle of “Taking the piss” by adding a trick out of the slide. As I said, totally bonkers.