Get ready for some ledge dancing in this especially tech heavy edition of The Triple for 11th June 2021.
3. Korahn Gayle’s Switch Heelflip BS 5-0
If you watched the new Nike SB video “Constant” this week, you’ll no doubt be on the Korahn Gayle hype train. The UK part in that video was basically a full Korahn section with some buddies popping up, and he continued to destroy all terrain laid before him throughout his time on screen. I was already amped up on Gayle, and then he dropped this sick clip of him locking down a Switch Heelflip Backside 5-0 repeatedly on his Insta.
I liked this clip for the consistency and the textbook example of this trick. The heelflip is flicked super quick, and caught nicely before locking into the grind – and it’s a perfect example of how dialled Korahn can be on the street (seriously, go watch Constant right now).
2. Didrik Galasso’s BS Smith Impossible
Yes I know we’ve got 2 out of 2 skatepark clips here – considering I said this would be a tech heavy ledge dancing Triple, some of you might be expecting these tricks to be done on real street. Sorry to disappoint, but this Back Smith Impossible from Didrik Galasso was too good to ignore.
The Smith Grind itself is super dipped and tweaked. I throw the term “textbook example” around a lot, but this is how you Backside Smith Grind a ledge: no feet caught on the ledge, back truck locked in proper, front truck dipped real low. The best part is the super popped impossible at the end. It’s not a Templeton style vertical impossible (moreso a modern 3 shuv style interpretation) but the wrap around the foot is still there, which is the important part.
1. Ruben Spelta’s 43 Comply Tailslide to 360 Shuv (to potentially a Losi grind?)
This trick comes from a part that dropped mid-May, but this clip cropped up on Insta this week, and it’s new to me, so it’s still eligible. Honestly I had to find this thing on Youtube, slow it down to 0.25 speed, and watch the trick over and over again to figure out what happens at the end. It comes from Ruben Spelta‘s pro part for Magenta Skateboards, and it crops up basically at the end of the part.
For the uninitiated, a 43 Comply AKA a Natas Comply (after Natas Kaupas) is a No Comply where you powerslide your skateboard instead of pop it. Here, we see Spelta use it to get into a super long Tailslide on a ledge on top of a wall. It’s so long that the camera gets right up close to Ruben’s board, practically touching the nose, and then backs out just in time for him to 360 shuv his way up onto the end of the wall.
What had me re-watching here is that the end of this trick leaves so little room that I’m not sure whether Spelta does a quick ride-on/ride-off on the board length bit of wall, or whether he pops the 3 shuv into a Losi grind (a kind of Willy grind with the front truck locked in, and the back truck on top of the ledge). Seeing as the front truck kinda graces the ledge for a split second, it’s hard to determine – either way it was incredibly rad and I watched this thing over and over again.
The Terrible Company 
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