Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Alan Losi.



Thanks to the Crailtap Couch we now know that Michael Burnett was a bigger fan of Alan Losi when everybody else liked Matt Hensley.

I don't know that much Losi, except that he started entering contests and getting coverage again in 1990 and people were stoked. Two of my friends spent a lot of time doing Losi grinds on the fun box in my driveway. I'm sure the PVC made the grind nice and easy. The trick is like a lipslide, only you are grinding on your front truck with the rest of the board over the obstacle. It was seen in some of the H - Street videos and occasionally makes a rare appearance these days.

Thrasher - October 1990 Volume 10 Number 10

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see tons of unintentional Losi grinds everyday, since kids try overcrooks but can't hold it and hence the Losi grind.

But if that's the Losi grind, what is the baglady? My friends would tell me about doing bagladies, but I had no idea what it was since I had just started skating. Maybe it was just a regional term for a trick, but some insight would be great.

But as to Losi himself, I remember my friend got an Alan Losi deck as a prize for winning a contest. It was sitting on his shelf in pristine condition. If he still has it, I'm sure he could probably eBay it for hella cash.

—Rikku Markka

justin said...

A baglady is the same thing. I forgot about that.

iSapien1956672 said...

I always called them Losi's because he was the only one I ever saw do them. I was having this conversation not too long ago with my friend Marfa and he and his friends called them bagladies when they were growing up in Chicago.

justin said...

I want to say that Jason Carney did one in 1990 or 1991 and that was where my friends picked up on it. I thought it was for his Check Out in TWS, but that was a backside lipslide.

I could see street skaters wanting to give it a different name to distinguish the trick from the vert version.

There are frontside and backside versions on street and I'm guessin that holds for ramp, too. I tried to find a photo online without luck. There wasn't even one of Alan doing his own trick. I really need to scan new stuff and I'll look around tonight to see if I can find anything.

Old School Sammy said...

Losi grew up in skating---his parents owned a skatepark (pretty sure it was Colton in Cali), and when skating vert started to fall out of favor, they switched it up to one of those radio controlled car courses, sad...

He was one of the last Variflex studs before the pro team drifted away, along with Steve Hirsch, Lance, Eric Grisham and the incredible Eddie Elguera.

Justin said...

I knew that he rode for Variflex.

In the November 1991 issue of Transworld, there is a trick tips with Tim Brauch for a blunt to Al Losi to fakie on a mini ramp. Tim stalls a blunt and then goes backside to front truck, like a disaster. He then does this weird shuffle thing and pivots around to fakie off the front truck.

rustic_fences said...

I thought a Losi grind was a lipslide while grinding the front truck and a bag lady is a Willy Grind? My friends called Losi grinds "novacanes"

Justin said...

This is getting complicated.

The trick my friends did was the lipslide grinding the front truck - the Losi Grind in other words. They called it a baglady. Maybe my friends had the name wrong. I've never heard it called a novacane, although that does make sense since the sugarcane is an over rotated 180 to smith grind. They were not doing Willy grinds aka the failed crooked grind.

Where did the Willy grind come from? Is it from Willy Santos? I don't recall seeing him do one. There were a few pictures back in the 1990s of good people like Duane Pitre doing them.

Jason said...

Fat Al ripped. Econo beer is right, The Losi grind is also called a "Novacaine". There is a pic of him doing one in an later 80's/early 90's Transworld. It was in his comeback contest. I think he was also the first person to do lipslides without grabbing the tail for reentry.

Old School Sammy said...

Sorry Freakbeatfuzz, but plenty of guys, pro and not did lipslides minus the grab before Losi---no offense.

greg said...

Willy Grind: Named after Santa Cruz Derek Williams, who used to do them hauling ass over the vert channel at McGill's Skatepark in Carlsbad, circa 1990. Man why'd he quit...

greg said...

meant to say Santa Cruz rider Derek Williams...

Anonymous said...

losi did the lip slide first. ask any one who was there. kook.