You are What you Roll With

Photo by Karol Kaczorek on Unsplash

At the time of this post, I have not checked out the latest episode of The Nine Club, but it definitely sparked something in my crazy little brain.

The latest rider to grace their presence with Chris Roberts and crew is Chad Muska. The Muska as most people call him. I don't know him personally so I'll just stick with calling him The Chad.

Chad Muska has been a name in the game for decades. He has always stood out from the crowd with is wicked style and huge portfolio of tricks. In fact, one that comes to mind and inspired this post is the grind he did with a boom box in his hands. I think it was a crooked grind? I'll have to double check, but nevertheless, the dude busted out a trick with a boombox. A freaking boombox.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I skate I need to focus all my attention and ability on the trick. I don't even like riding with headphones. Yet alone, holding onto a speaker or a baby or some shit. There's just so much that can go wrong in any given day on a skateboard. It's enough having to worry about pebbles, cracks, etc. You get my point.

But I think Chad takes the cake in regards to riding with accessories. Only a couple other riders come to mind. Actually, I think even clothing accessories can hinder a rider's performance too so I've made a list of some of the one's I've seen over the years.

Here are my top 5.:

• Steve Caballero rocking white suspenders in Ban This. Not only did he don them, he didn't even wrap those bad boys over his shoulder. Talk about being gangsta! I'd be worried about them getting caught in my arm or something, but he handled it well while flying around the ramp at the old San Jose Warehouse park. I'm surprised this look never took off. Maybe with small wheels making a return it just might. Count me out though.

• ​Christian Hosoi is so stylish he never really needed to wear a shirt during contests. I'll never forget when I first saw him on an old OP Pro Contest on TV (circa '86) flying around this shirt tucked into his shorts. It was so damn mesmerizing to see. Especially, during McTwists and huge airs. His poor shirts were always flopping around in the air back in the day. Not too many riders could pull that style off like Christian. And it only works if you are flying high like he did/does.

• Chad Muska, AKA The Chad, actually did a crooked grind with a boombox AND with a backpack on. I just found and watched the clip again. I totally forgot about the backpack as well! For me, this one takes first place in regards to skating with accessories. A boombox and a backpack? On a rail? So much could go wrong. Well done, Chad. Well done.

• Drake Jones also comes to mind whenever I think of tricks and backpacks. Dude threw down one of the best backside flips while rocking a backpack. If you don't know who this SF OG legend is look him up on the interwebs. Just search Dugout Skateboards and bam! #stylematters. Drake even has a solid golf swing too. Go look the guy up ASAP.

• ​Neil Blender makes it to my Top 5 list and comes from the same movie Cab was in, Ban This. Neil is right up there in regards to being one of the most stylish and hilarious riders ever. There are only a handful of skaters that have made me literally LOL. He is one of them. I'm just bummed that his soundproofing foam getup he briefly wore in Ban This didn't take off. He did a very safe and proper sweeper to make this list.

So that's my list of skaters who either wore or had some "interesting" accessories during their parts. What about you? Who would you add to the list?

Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash