There’s no possible way I could continue to look back on 20 years of this blog’s history without acknowledging Covpark. The skatepark, found at the War Memorial Park, is the place where Terribleco began, and since 2003 I have filmed a ridiculous amount of skateboarding there.
For a long time Covpark was the home of Coventry Skateboarding. Most skate sessions began there, ended there, or some days sessions would just exist there all day. Before The Herbert provided a central street spot that was accessible to Cov locals from all over the city, people would make the journey to Covpark.
It’s the place where I met some lifelong friends, and it’s the place where I learnt the basics of skateboarding. I wouldn’t be the person I am today with the existence of Covpark, so its contribution to my own life has been massive. When people slag it off, and point out the obvious flaws with how poorly it is built, and call for its replacement – All of these comments are deserved, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a soft spot for that specific skatepark.
This means that I have been behind the lens for a lot of awesome tricks at the skatepark. At first I thought there were too many to whittle it down to a Top 5, but somehow I’ve managed it.
5. Tom Albrow – Rocket Blunt to Fakie
From Corrosive Materials (2007)
I have to admit that Tom Albrow was one of the wildest skaters to come out of the Covpark scene. Whilst he might not be the most technical, or even have the level of style, finesse and clean skating of some other locals, Tom’s creativity and purely daft trick selection always made him entertaining to watch.
This particular trick might be my favourite thing I have ever seen him do. Adept at most lip trick variations, Tom always had a knack for taking a bog standard bread and butter lip trick, and adding a little spice to it. This Rocket Blunt, where Tom rode into and popped out of the trick whilst in Rocket position is a trick that is far scarier than it looks, and once again proves Albrow’s ability to commit to something incredibly dumb, but incredibly awesome at the same time.
4. Matt Aldersley – BS 5050 to BS Tailslide Shuv Out
From Corrosive Materials (2007)
Covpark was Matt Aldersley’s park. There wasn’t another skater who knew how to flow around the place and hit everything up with complete and utter confidence as much as Matt. His brother, Tez, got close, but Matt spent many, many hours honing his craft within the confines of Covpark’s shitty, green fence, and it showed.
Whilst Matt could blast the hips and gaps higher, faster and further than anyone else, my favourite clips of Matt were when he got technical on the ledges at the park. In particular this cheeky move on the small funbox is the trick I always go back to when I think about Matt’s skill level – starting with a BS 5050 and then tweaking it gradually into a back tail, kicking a quick shuv out at the end.
3. Dexter Gonzales – FS Air over the flatbank to flat
From Guitar Solos With Skateboards (2009)
Dexter was this quiet little kid who very quickly got very good on a skateboard. He was a regular down at Covpark for many years as a teenager, and then I remember one summer a switch flipped and he was suddenly doing some incredibly rad skateboarding. On one occasion he started getting a tow from a BMXer to try and fly out of the 4 ft quarter, not just content with landing on the bank, he wanted to go to flat.
This gap is hairy as fuck and most skaters I know wouldn’t even dream of it. There’s been a handful of BMXers who have done it, and even on the very rare occasion someone cleared the fence and left the park on a bike – but for skateboarders this level of speed is hard to come by at the park, even to clear the bank. Seeing Dexter roll up and get it done is one of the fondest memories I have from the park.
2. Ryan Krusts – Heelflip Mute to fakie
From Rushed Goods (2006)
This trick was a complete and utter surprise, as is often the case with Ryan Krusts. He has a lot of good tricks, but every once in a while he just busts out something so utterly mind-blowing out of the blue that you are left scratching your head wondering if you imagined it.
That was the case with this Heelflip Mute grab, which ended up being his final trick in 2006’s Rushed Goods. Ryan’s Heelflips were always boosted, popped high and caught with textbook precision, so you combine that with a grab to fakie on a quarter, and then you’re in business. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do a flip to grab quite as good as this one since, so it’s most definitely one of my favourite Covpark tricks.
1. Ralph Cooper – Switch Murderflip
From Batface (2009)
This opening trick from Ralph’s closing part in 2009’s Batface is my favourite flip trick ever witnessed at The Coventry War Memorial Park Skatepark. I’ve seen a lot of flip tricks go down on this funbox hip (especially from Ralph), but nothing makes me repeatedly go “DAMN” every time I see it like this.
Listen, I’ve talked at length about Ralph’s technical prowess on a skateboard. Late flips, forward flips, weird shit that nobody even has a name for: Ralph can do it all. And, for the most part, he studied in the arts of completely mad flip tricks on this funbox hip. This switch murderflip is the best of the best of his deep bag of flip tricks on this specific obstacle, and what I think is the best trick to ever go down at Covpark. There, I said it: prove me wrong.
Honourable Mentions
Tony Lui – Boneless to Fakie – Cannonball Holocaust (2012)
Joxa – Axle Stall to Lipslide down – Storybook (2008)
Rosko – Boneless to Flat down the hubba – Batface (2009)
Frocker – Nollie Shuv Front Rock – Corrosive Materials (2007)
Ant Smith – FS Lipslide to FS Smith 270 out – Cannonball Holocaust (2012)
Chris Mander – Boneless 270 dressed as a Ninja – Guitar Solos With Skateboards (2009)
I also wanted to do one more special honourable mention here:
Tom Birchall – Pretending to fire a bazooka
From Consortium Pink (2004)
Tom is my oldest friend, and together we started mucking around on skateboards in the early 2000’s, before Tom gradually fell off of skateboarding. Tom was part of the original crew who filmed the very first Terrible Company video, and at the expense of insulting him (sorry Tom) at the time he wasn’t very good on a skateboard. Having said that, there are two things to mention: This blog’s aim was to always try and surface the underdogs who might not ever get the spotlight of the UK Skateboarding Industry otherwise, and in general skateboarding is all about creativity and bringing your own ideas to whatever obstacle is in front of you.
In that regard, this fun, silly, daft move, which was effectively just riding down a bank, is a trick that has a soft spot for me, and is a perfect fit for what The Terrible Company is all about – especially considering some of the other tricks mentioned throughout this blog-post. Tom pretending to fire a bazooka whilst riding a skateboard down a rain soaked bank is just one of those fun memories of old times that I always remember of when I first started skateboarding, and for that reason it has the most honourable of mentions. Cheers Tom.
The Terrible Company 
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