While I've always been an agnostic about the roll-in at Wallenberg because the OG (and now defunct?) roll-up was just so great, nothing detracts from the above (the roll-in to quick setup might even make it weird, I'll ask
Nesser sometime).
Of course there's Forrest Edwards and the already-out-there switch flip, in glasses, no less. Much of the skate-speaking Internet asks why that guy can't get on the straight and narrow with a board company and some free shoes, and while I definitely subscribe to the "dudes that are dicks mostly won't get hooked up" idea, Mr. Edwards strikes me as less a dick and more a misunderstood misanthrope, a more ornery Eyore. The success is probably right around the corner and the dude deserves it. Of cours he did it in glasses.
If memory holds, the four stairs that make up Wallenberg proper are something along the lines of five feet tall and 17 or so feet long. The Wizard measured it at some point and told me that one time at the shop. In 2001 or 2002, Joe Blum tried to run-jump-throw-down down the three section and it was a long shot. The "steps" all together are big and neither video or photograph do them justice; we've all been to spots that are unimpressive in person, Wallenberg exceeds expectation.
Switch backside 180 kickflips are possibly rare and a good-looking trick as well. There's no illusionary variance like their frontside cousin; jumping down they ensure the possibility for riding away with comfort and all that. Chad Knight, not necessarily known for his finesse or that appearance on the short-lived-exhumation of American Gladiators, generally lived in the brutal realm of skateboarding and totally had surprises. At some point before the release of Maple Skateboards' Seven Steps To Heaven he crazy trained an ender-ender of a switch backside 180 kickflip down the San Diego Sports Arena double set. He had the comfortable ride away. That building is now called the Valley View Casino Center; a post about spots changing names and how that matters/doesn't matter is forthcoming.
All of a sudden, DJ Guadin is here, there. Does some photog or spot-handler tell him to chill on the switchflip because "Forrest has got that shit"? Does he suddenly remember Chad Knight's exploits from circa 17 years ago in a video he's possibly never seen? Did he do it in three tries as the video suggests [can we read the marks on the white t-shirt? (Shroud Of Gnar?]? Of all the stunts down Wallenberg, Guadin wins most casual.
That was done, and done well. Who is that guy, any ways?
