Thursday, January 24, 2019

Paul Grund.



The Polar Vortex.

For 2018, I stuck by Polar for boards. I've ridden the same 8.125" x 32" shape with a 7" nose, 6.75" tail, and 14.25" wheelbase for the last four years now. The decks feel right, although honestly I'm crappy enough that it probably doesn't matter all that much what I ride. At any rate, I still dig what Polar is doing. I'm also at this point where I don't want to ride anything I'm not stoked on because having to settle for stuff back when you were younger sucked. I did slim down from 56 mm to 55 mm Spitfire Classics. I do think the yellow and black graphics on the wheels are a little more colorful than the blue and black of the 56s so I'll probably stick with the smaller size. The 55s will maybe wear out a little quicker, but new wheels are always a nice treat.



Paul is from Bordeaux, France. Pontus Alv upped him to the professional ranks this last year. He has been on the team since 2012. Paul also rides for Converse. I don't know much about him beyond that.



My favorite video of 2018 was Kuba Kaczmarczyk and Pawel Piotr Przybyl’s Neverwhere. The duo are documenting the finest of Polish skateboarding with the proper mix of raw shredding and tasteful artiness. It's reminiscent of a Polar video or Nikola Racan's Solsticij. And at 37 minutes, it's completely watchable in one sitting. Michal Juraƛ surfaced with the last part after dealing with injuries for the last few years. I'm a big fan of his skating so it was great to see new stuff from him.

Paul's photo is by Alex Pires.

The Polar ad is from 2012. The photo is by Nils Svensson and the art is by Stefan Narancic.

Thrasher - July 2018 Volume 39 Number 7

3 comments:

Nonickname said...

That Blockhead sticker is a sweet touch.

Unknown said...

Ha so true, settling when I was young sucked. I had some pretty bad gear

Anonymous said...

My worst deck of all time was a Zorlac Metallica. It was my third of fourth board and I knew something wasn't right. Everything was so hard to do.

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