Re-view - the Hoax
This is the first post of the re-view series where I rewatch classic videos that had an impact on my skating.
Hoax was our first exposure to aggressive inline. My friends and I were already playing roller hockey and skating around the neighborhood, jumping over stuff and doing spins. But watching the Hoax was like taking the red pill in the Matrix, you can't go back.
We had an idea that people were skating ramps, but grinding wasn't even in our imagination. The first clip with Brooke all busted up talking about stitches and fractures really put things in perspective. We'd thought we were pretty good, but these guys were on a different level. None of us had hurt ourselves like that before. (Come to learn that Brooke hurt himself like that fairly often, but I digress)
The first intro section was just incredible. It's only 4 minutes long so I recommend watching it if you haven't lately. It was by far the most impactful skating section of all time.
Did you watch? Seriously, it's worth taking 4 minutes out of your life to see the birth of skating.
Starting out, Arlo does a 360 over this double railing. Big gap but we've been doing 360s for a while, so it's no huge deal.
Then Chris Garett (I think it was Chris?) does a stale air on a half pipe. Ok, we don't have any half pipes here but I'm sure if we had access to ramps we'd be doing airs like that. Nothing crazy.
Then Arlo front sides a handrail.
Wait, what just happened?
Our minds were blown. A guy on skates jumped on a handrail, slid down it sideways, then rolled away. How is that even possible? Wouldn't your wheels stick to the rail? How'd he jump so high? Is this real life?
The section continues with a lot of ramp tricks and gaps, a few more rails thrown in here and there. Then the moment we'd been waiting for, Brooke does a frontside up a ledge and we were able to see his skates. What were those wheels in the middle?
While trying to let that sink in, just a minute later we get the perfect shot of Arlo's skates. Big wheels on the outside, little wheels on the inside and some weird rollerblade wrench in the middle. What was this crazy alien setup?
Another minute in we see someone rubbing a ledge with a candle. What the heck is he doing that for? Oooh, so he could slide down it!
This is incredible. Skating will never be the same. All we wanted to do was grind everything
The Hoax was more than just a skate video for us. It was an instruction manual. It taught us how to skate, how to dress, how to cut our hair, what music to listen to, everything we needed to know to become a real skater.
I highly recommend watching the entire video, but if you don't have the time, here are the most incredible tricks and sections you don't want to miss. (yes there's a lot, but it's totally worth watching them all)
4:54 Chris Edwards does a frontside and you see a flash. This would be the shot for a rollerblade magazine ad in a future issue of Box magazine that I put on my bedroom wall.
5:02 Chris Edwards does a soul grind on a ledge. Mind blown. Was he sliding on the side of his skate? How was that even possible?
5:27 Chris Mitchell does a 720 off some stairs. We thought 360s were hard, this guy was doing double?
5:32 Two girls are shown on the ramp. So far it was just guys but here's some girls. We didn't get to see them skate but it was assumed that skating was for everyone, not just dudes.
5:40 Chris Mitchell does a backside on a rail. So I guess you can grind frontside and backside?
5:55 Arlo does this gap and throws his legs forward like a long jumper. We used to emulate that style cause it was so cool.
6:00 Arlo front sides a kinked rail. Everything up to now was a flat rail or a stair rail. This was some next level stuff and we had just gotten started on level 1.
6:09 Arlo does a fakie to soul on a rail. Falls on his ass but this was the first soul variation we ever saw.
6:35 I don't know who this is, but he does a late 180 to stair ride down this massive amount of stairs. By far the most emulated style for us. We would do this stick like jump to late 180 over everything.
7:11 Pat Parnell with his first announcing gig, telling us that Brooke is about to eat shit. Pretty sure we have a few home made videos repeating that line and talking into the camera.
7:28 We get an instructional demo from Brooke showing what an anti-rocker system is. This is the first time the term anti-rocker was used.
8:15 Jess Dyrenforth gets an introduction. Little did I know that 5 years later Jess and I would running a skate company together.
8:30 Dave Cardoza, the first Fifty50 pro, does some incredible stuff on a spine ramp. We'd never seen a spine ramp before but he was killing it.
8:40 Arlo uses his hand to boost up to a high rail. This was our entry to skating rails. We would watch this clip over and over trying to figure out how he got up there, how fast he was skating, anything that we could learn.
9:44 Mark Heineken showing off the Roces vert skate. Big wheels, integrated plastic grind plate, aluminum frame. Not sure I ever skated a pair of these.
10:20 Dave Cordoza comes up a hip ramp and flies across backside on the coping. We wanted to find a ramp setup like this so badly.
10:40 Angie Walton skating vert at a trade show. This was the first time we'd seen a female skater and she was killing it. 17 year old me didn't appreciate it, but 40 real old me with two daughters thinks this is amazing.
11:54 Chris Mitchell does a soul grind and we got to see it from behind. This was probably the best shot of a soul grind there was for us to figure out how they were doing it.
12:35 Brooke jumps over a rail and we see this weird brake thing on his toe. Months later we see an ad with Brooke using that weird toe thing while boosting off the side of a wall. Not sure they went anywhere.
12:42 Arlo with the fastest most stylish soul grind
14:09 Arlo climbed a swing set and frontsides down the sides into the sand. Not only was this not a handrail, but there's no way he was going to roll away.
15:01 A skit with Brooke and Chris doing a rail. So many quotable sections in this video.
16:42 Arlo frontsides up a ledge and does a 360 off. He was so far advanced back then.
16:54 Arlo front sides the top of a bike rack. We saw this a few times before but always dropping down on to it. This time he jumps from flat. Realizing you could grind just about anything.
19:07 Chris Mitchell steps up to soul. This is how we learned to soul grind, one foot at a time. It wasn't until I skated with the San Jose people until I learned to jump up.
19:20 Another silly skit, but you see Arlo with his horns haircut. Jason Marshall tried to get this style, grew his hair out and everything, but the lady at the hair salon cut them too small. Wish I had a picture of that.
20:00 Commentary while Arlo and Chris try to frontside a kinked rail. This was probably my favorite section. It was real, no edits, you saw personalities and people missing and falling off. Arlo falls off and hits his head, ask people to make sure he's ok, they all make fun of him. Just a classic skate session.
21:49 Chris Edwards with a skit making fun of the movie Airborne, which he did the stunts for. We didn't see Airborne until after watching Hoax so it was completely lost on us.
22:59 Not really sure what Arlo was attempting here. I'm sure we assumed a 360 backside but looking at it now you'd think he was trying topside. I can't see that being possible back then though.
24:56 Not sure who but they're jumping over a tree onto grass. Another thing I just loved, they were having fun with it. There wasn't any polish or objective, they just wanted to jump over the tree.
25:25 Another great closeup of the skates they were using. You can see extra holes were drilled for the anti-rocker wheels to give them a larger gap. Then they're using a belt sander to create a groove. Skaters have it so easy these days.
26:50 the beginning of the crash section. Probably the first crash section in any video. This was a big trend in skating videos for many years to come.
29:05 Still in the crash section, but Arlo does this incredible trick. Gap over the bush down to a skate tap on a bike seat. The guy saw things nobody else could see.
29:20 Arlo tries a soul on a rail. Remembering he wears a size 8 skate, and these were probably stock Rollerblade 303's, there's like an inch for him to lock on. And the soul wasn't flat, it had this little fin thing at the heel. Skates weren't design for soul tricks back then, but he was doing it anyway.
32:40 Arlo front sides a kinked rail and slides his back foot all the way to the end. Unreal.
33:55 Jill Schultz talking about safety. She is the daughter of Charles Schultz and was really big into ice skating. There was (is? ) an ice skating rink in Santa Rosa with a Peanuts gift shop next door. She also used to host Camp Rollerblade up there. Really devoted a lot of energy to growing the sport
35:48 Arlo again. 360 to what I'd call a backslide. Nobody was doing anything one foot back then, especially on a rail, especially with a spin.
37:28 Arlo with the first wall ride.
39:34 Another classic Arlo soul grind, but then he does some soul stalls up the stairs to 360 off. Really progressive stuff.
40:26 Final skit and the first time we hear the name Senate. We always thought that Pat owned senate based on this.