Welcome to TibisWchRadio episode number 68. In this episode, we're going to be doing a lot of Battle Barracks' talk here. Battle of Barracks' 12, Community Edition. So it's the pros, jos, influences and icons.
Me and Will are going to go through the brackets and have some predictions. Let's play the theme tune. Here we go. Thanks for tuning into TibisWchRadio.
I'm Ryan Dodds and long side me. As always, Mr Buckfield, Will Hickey. How's it going mate? You're good?
Yeah, doing sweet mate. How you doing? Very good. Very good.
Excited for Battle of Barracks, mate. You know what I mean? We've always liked Battle of Barracks and we've been waiting a long time for this one. So I'm quite excited that it's finally here.
So we've got the four categories. We've got pros, jos, influences and icons. So the first match up, we've got Chris Chan versus Aiman Samoja or Samoja. Hard name to pronounce, but Samoja.
Next match up after that, we've got John Hill versus Andy Schrock. We have Sunny Soljek versus Eric Artega. We've got Garrett Jenner versus Roy Purdy. We've got UK's Jamie Griffin versus Aaron Cairo.
That's a good one. I'm excited for that. You're excited about that, mate? Yeah.
Vinnie Barn versus Shane Bowyer. June Sayato versus Spencer Barton. Tony Manguchi versus Johnny Geiger. That's some good matches in there, mate.
What do you reckon? Good ones for sure. Yeah. I reckon it's going to be an interesting one.
Yeah. I mean, the stand out one to me, there's a couple of stand out ones, but I suppose the stand out one to me would be the Jamie Griffin versus Aaron Cairo. Obviously, everyone knows Jamie Griffin. But if you don't know, I'm going to check him out on Instagram.
He's allowed, I think he's got some sort of like little shared or little outhouse that he's got a ledge and a sofa and he just does the most incredible flipping flip out tricks on both of these ledges and the chair and whatever. You know what I mean? He does whatever, but he's also a very good street skater as well and park skater. But he's all round good, but he's got some really incredible kind of flat ground flip tricks.
He's up against Aaron Cairo, who is from Braille Skateboards, right, mate? Is that right? Yeah, that's right. I think I can't remember if he's pro or skates a Braille or a bow, but yeah, he's the head hunch of the Braille.
The Braille, you do. And he does a lot of the trick tips and all that sort of stuff. So we know that he's got the tricks. You know, I didn't watch a lot of this shit.
I've seen a few other videos where they get like a glass skateboard or skateboard has got nails through it and that sort of shit. But when he does the trick tips, mate, he knows what he's talking about. So I'd imagine consistency wise, he's going to, I think his basics are going to be pretty good. That's my prediction on that.
I think he's going to have most of the kind of the standard tricks. I think he'll be able to get him first try. Yeah, exactly. I think he's definitely a consistent guy.
But is he as technical as Jamie Griffin? Is Jamie Griffin as technical as Aaron Cairo? We're going to have to find out. Funny one.
I don't remember bringing him up in some episodes a while ago. I can't remember when maybe even a couple, because he was running for the hot king. I think recently, maybe even last night, they turned in pro. I think he released the street part.
Maybe I haven't watched it yet. Don't know if it's like. Oh, well, nice. Nice.
Me talking about him, I said, they've been posting some videos of him. It's fucking really interesting. And you were saying, yeah, we'd like you'd like to see him on the back of the barracks. And I never really thought about him being even possible to be able to get on there.
And here we are, another UK guy on there. So I'm actually really excited to see how far he gets. So you saying, mate, that we actually created that. We kind of stretched the universe and twisted it around.
And we got Jamie Griffin into about the barracks. That sounds like what you're saying to me. Yeah, we put a little bit of manifestation out there. And obviously, we're doing my bow.
Yeah, yeah. If you do win, Jamie, you can thank Turbo Sports Radio for getting you there and putting you through there. Anyway, let's run through some of the matches, mate. So let's go straight away with Chris Chan versus Ammon Somalia.
Somalia, apologies for the pronunciation of that. But I don't know, Ammon. I only know Chris Chan. I'm not going to deepen up into the Instagram influencers world to know Ammon Somalia.
Well, you got any kind of information on this, oh boy? Yeah, no, I'm exactly the same with you. I only really know a little bit of what I've seen of Chris Chan, all the highlights. I think he does some of the crazy challenges and definitely has a lot of consistency and some good skaterics.
Was he previously in, has he been in about the barracks before? Has he just kind of occasionally hopped on the barracks scene? I think he's been in one before. Yeah, he might have been on the Joe's one or he might have been.
He's been, I think he has been in one before. Right? And if you know listeners, right? Now, let us know.
Tell us what you think of Chris Chan's been in there. But I'm sure he has. With this one, mate, I'm just going to back Chris Chan. You've got to back the person you know and what he's capable of.
And I think he's got a lot of consistency in his tricks. So I'm going to straight up say Chris Chan's going to get through there. He's going to be able to do the basics and get himself through. Kind of like the old Molto.
He'll just get through. He's got some of those tricks as well that I'm sure he's maybe he's going to throw like a full cab double flip or just some tricks like that that, you know, that not everyone has in their collection. So I'm going forward as well. Nice.
So let's move on to John Hale versus Andy Schrock. Now Andy Schrock, he is the owner of Braille or the owner of Revive. Is that my right? Is your bike?
Yeah. Well, maybe he might be the car owner, but he's definitely the full face of Revive for sure. And is he a good skater? Because again, all I've kind of seen with that shit is Aaron Cairo and what's his name?
Geiger knocking about when it endures and doing some shit. But I haven't really seen much of Andy Schrock. He's not pro skater or anything. He definitely is a skater.
Maybe he's not a shredder. I don't know how old he is. Maybe he was a bit better than he has been before. But I think he's there for the fun.
You know what I'm saying? He's not necessarily throwing down the heavies. He's throwing down some just classic standard tricks. Some 50-50s and whatnot.
But he's having a good time. He's more of a straight influence, I guess. He's in the right category there. Yeah, because I'm just going to put out there.
I don't know John Hale though. Unfortunately listeners, I know a couple of people in this bracket, but not enough to kind of give you insight on all of them. Could have done it if I did my research, but I'm not going to do that. I've got enough knowledge on the other ones to go for that.
But I'm just going to say by looking at that, mate, I'm going to stick with John Hale to go through in this one. Don't know John Hale, but just out of two, just the way you're talking about old truck and how I haven't really seen much of his shit. I'd probably say John Hale might be going through in this one. Yeah, 100% mate.
On this one, if I had a million turbo dollars and I had to make a bet, I would throw it straight on John Hale and I know that I'm saying I'm going to double and turbo dollars. You know what I'm saying? Nice. And those turbo dollars, mate, they were more than real dollars.
So... Yeah, do you double the price, mate? Right, let's move on. Double jic versus Eric Artiega.
Now again, mate, I've watched the intro videos for Battle of X12, where Steve Bearer and Costan are breaking down some of these skaters. I think Sonny's quite a young lad, isn't he? Am I right and saying that, Sonny's quite a young lad? So just on that, I'm swaying the other way.
What are you saying? Yes, have you seen that film? Is it the one that John Hale filmed about skaters or? Mid-90s.
Yeah, mid-90s. Sonny's that kid in the film. Right, well, I'm just going to put it out there right now. The Eric Artiega is winning that battle.
You know, all those turbo dollars you just put down, mate. I'm putting all my turbo dollars down on Eric Artiega, because I just... If he's a small... You might have some of the basic lip tricks, but when it comes down to some proper kind of real shit, I think he's probably going to fall by the wayside on that one.
So I'm going to slip him out of there. Do you agree with me? Yeah, I think I'm going to agree with you there, too. Let's move on.
So we've got Garrett Jenner against Roy Purdy. Now, only know Roy Purdy is, if you don't know Roy Purdy is, go on Instagram, check him out. He wears some like pink and green sunglasses, doesn't little dancers, but he has a very good skateboarder. So I know that he's decent.
I don't know Garrett Jenner, mate. You got any scoop on Garrett Jenner? Garrett Jenner is that, to me, is that like annoying YouTube skater. But he does throw down on Hanrais X and etc.
And has always been fairly well sponsored for like a YouTube skater, as such, you know what I mean? There's more of a YouTube skater. So, Ron Purdy is good, but you've only known... I haven't seen anything recently.
So I don't really know what else he's got out of his bag of tricks because I can only really remember him doing like nice trays, down like four fives, kickflips, backslips, and more of it was just him doing the dance since. I can't really remember. So it's going to be an interesting one, but my money, I think, would be on Garrett Jenner. But it's a tough one.
Okay, well, I'll back you up. Like I said, I only know Roy Purdy. I don't think I've seen any of his shit for a long time. I mean, I don't obviously don't follow him.
But if he puts out enough skating, I probably might have seen it, whereas I haven't seen any of it. So I'll go with you, mate, and we'll stick Garrett Jenner up there in the next round. Also, I haven't seen the video, but he said, I think that Garrett Jenner's got his own little skate park in his bag. And so, unless that Roy Purdy's got a skate park as well, you know what I'm saying?
It's going to help your consistency. Yeah, Bob, too right. I mean, talking about having your own skate park, mate. Next match up.
So you've got Aaron Cairo that's got a skate park, where whenever he needs it. And Jamie Griffin's got his little shed in his garden. So, you know, it's a proper match up here. This is a hard one to call.
What are you saying, mate? Well, I have actually watched a lot of Braille videos through the years. I quite like watching the game of skates, because I like watching skate. And Jamie Griffin, I've only seen like 10% of the game of skate videos and him doing stuff compared to Aaron Cairo.
But the level of tricks Jamie's doing and the way he's been landed, I'm like, I just not the norm. Like, they're not the, you know, you're going to do a trade for like, the Faeke trade, the K flip, the K flip. He's been important. Who fucking knows?
The problem I find with that, though, mate, is that, you know, can he do a trade flip front foot, late flip? You know what I mean? Can he do that under pressure with people watching or people, you know, however they've got the setup. But can he do that first, you know, first attempt?
I know he's obviously going to have, you know, warm up before the game and everything, but that seems, these tricks are easy to know. I don't know, they're pretty technical. And I'm surely you in London knows bolts every time. That's all I'm saying about that.
100%. If I had money, I think, oh, I don't know where I would go. I'd split my money in half and I'd put them on each go. Fuck.
Let's just skip that round. We'll carry on and we can finish off with that round, can't we? Let's just skip that for a second. So the next match up is between who we've got.
We've got Vinny Barn and Shane Bowe. Don't know either of these old boys, mate. I think Vinny Barn and Vinny Barn is, he's a heavy hit, mate. He's a heavy hit.
Let's go for Vinny then, yeah? Yeah. Let's stick Vinny in. Let's get Vinny in there.
Nice. So Vinny's in. Yeah. Well, yeah, maybe, but it could be unfortunate for us.
It could be unfortunate for him, but whatever. So let's, we've got June Seito again, Spencer Barton. Again, don't know either of these old boys, mate. You got any insight on either of these two?
The name Spencer Barton rings a bell, but I really don't know these guys. I don't know. Okay. Well, let's just, let's just randomly go for it.
And I'm going to go for, I like Spencer Barton, mate. I like that name. It's a strong name in it. Yeah.
So let's get Barton through there. Right. Now, next matchup is Tony Mangucci versus Johnny Geiger. Now, I don't think you can bet against Johnny Geiger.
I don't know how good Tony Mangucci is, mate. You might be awesome, but if you know anything about Flackground Skating, you know, Johnny Geiger is a fucking impressive individual, and he can pretty much hit anything. And I think he hits him consistently wise. I think he's got the real flair tricks, but he can hit him most times.
Most of his videos are of him skating and he puts pretty much, you know, all of his bales in there as well by the looks of it. And he is fucking consistent. I'd definitely be, uh, definitely seeing what Johnny Geiger's got. Happy with him going through.
Oh, yeah. Nice. Let's go quickly go back to Jamie Griffin versus Aaron Cairo. Now, it's a tough one and I want to back Jamie Griffin, obviously being fairly countrymen, everything, but I just think Aaron Cairo is going to be landing.
You know, if they start off a kickflip and play it that way, obviously it depends on when it's a row, so I'm blowing everything. But if they start off a kickflip, heel flip, you know, little shove here, you know, hard flip inward heel, I think Nolian would heel, faking with it. I think I still think Aaron Cairo is going to be landing most of that shit. If he's, you know, hitting him first or second, I still think he's going to be landing more shit consistently than Jamie Griffin.
That's my two cents on it. It's so hard. Yeah. So it depends on the day as well, really, like, because Aaron Cairo, I think basically just skates his own warehouse where Jamie Griffin skates London, which can be a bit intimidating for some people if you're if you're a bit newer, but I don't think Jamie Griffin's that new on the scene.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you.
I probably has a mix of just everyone skating it. But Aaron Cairo's been skating for a lot longer, so he's probably been involved in competitions and just hitting a lot more different places as well. So one of them could fold under the pressure real quick, but it could be over. Who knows?
It's tough, isn't it? Because we know Jamie Griffin's got those super tricks. You know, we know we know he's got those in his locker, but landing those shit, mate. I just I just not too sure if he can be landing them, you know, when he needs to land.
I mean, if he's, and I think if Aaron Cairo gets hold of the game and he's dictating the pace, Jamie's going to have to be landing all the other shit. I mean, I'm sure he's got them, but you know, he needs to be landing, you know, probably like a switch, switch, burial flip, you know what I mean? So just dirty tricks like that, you know, like a nolly burial heel, just, you know, cheeky little tricks that I reckon Cairo might have. But Jamie might not have that, but obviously he'll have the, you know, the switch front foot impossible, won't he?
You know, obviously he's got that and Cairo probably doesn't have that. There's one thing I'm going to say that puts Cairo, he probably has over like 100 videos of him having game skates against Johnny Geiger, John Hill, literally probably Chris Chan as well, and like hundreds of other people and the regular people he skates with. So every day, Jamie Griffin and Cairo hits the same, he's got his own specials. He'll do a trafer, trafer, rebirth and stuff like that quite often, maybe trade double rebirth.
But Jamie Griffin could look at all those tricks and practice all those and outside of them as well. So we could be ready. Ah, I see. That's a bit of a disadvantage, obviously, Aaron's got to be a switch out, but you know, everyone's specials, everyone's specials, right?
That they're what, win the game and it's going to be a good healthy. That's a good cool wheel. So do you know, if you think Aaron Cairo's going to potentially win, we can have two different decisions. Oh, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going Cairo, I'll go Cairo and you go, yeah, and you go Griffin.
Any way are we happy, I guess? Well, you've got the Johnny Geiger match, haven't you? So if you get Aaron Cairo, then again, Jamie Griffin versus Johnny Geiger would be a decent match up. I'd like to see that.
That'd be a good, yeah. There's going to be some fucking interesting ones in the finals, mate. Yeah, when it all comes, yeah, when it all gets down to the, you know, down to Nitty Griti, it's going to be impressive because there's some, I mean, you know, obviously you've got the pros, some decent shows out there, but some of those icons in there, mate, you don't want to be fucking with them. You don't want to be fucking with them.
There's some names in there that are going to, going to be most people, you know, I'm just flicking down through the icons names and this, yeah, some heavy hiss. Oh, just the first name on the icon. So, Andrew. Exactly.
Yeah, Mr. Paul Rodriguez. To me, obviously you've got, I've got Aaron Cairo is a, is a, you know, someone who I think is going to be a steady, steady horse in this race, but I can't look past person. I can't look past Geiger.
I think he's going to, I think he's going to, he's going to win. He's going to win the influences. No problem. No questions asked.
I think he's going to get there. Johnny Geiger is the man you've got to beat and I just don't think any of them have got anything that's going to just going to touch him. That's a good guess, mate. After seeing what, what Johnny can do, you know, I've seen the comments that people are saying that they've already called and winning.
And who knows? He is a man of technical maneuvers and just solid fucking tricks. Like, I think he is up there with one of the nicest flat ground nolly flips ever, but he's just got it. So that'd be a good one to see.
Yeah, we need him against Shane O'Neill, don't we, for a nolly flip off? Jeez. Yeah. Who's your guest for the influencers, mate?
Let's not go for every single bracket of these old boys, but let's, you know, from the boys that we put through, who, you know, who used to come out there? I'm probably going to have to go with Johnny Geiger as well, just because how long in the whole scene he's been around for, he has always been, you know, almost in my eyes, like a more technical European mike moe for flat ground doing the extras, similar style, you know, same influence of era and skaters and that type of skating when, you know, that was kind of started was more, you know, people who were doing their tricks were really fucking knuck on down and doing their tricks. Like, they were long consistent games. You know, you got to see almost, you know, every basic trick going and at a great level of tricks.
So he's up there, and he's going to be up there with some of the big boys. So, but I think there's going to be a couple of people in the influence of bracket Christian, John Hill, maybe an Enchiro, Jamie Griffin could surprise any of us who, who fucking knows, maybe some of these guys, we don't know could surprise us. Maybe they're a bit on our radar already, but facts, some people these days are on another level. So it's going to be a good, it's going to be fucking good to see it.
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for it. I'm excited for it. Let's just jump over to Joe's because I think, again, I know a fair few of these are boys, not all of them. Let's have a little rundown.
So names we got for this, we've got Tyler Peterson versus Ebon Martinez, Dion Harris versus Marcus Montoya. I'm interested in that one. We've got Justin Ladner versus Mikey Whitehouse. We have Ray Corrie versus Becca Dunne, Dylan Jay versus Donnie Hickson, Sean Davis versus Sean Hoover.
We've got Nick Holt versus Chris Pierre and Eric G. L. X versus Felipe Motta. So, some decent names in there, mate.
Like I said before, the name that stands up to me is Marcus Montoya. I'm sure he's a flip skater, right? I can't remember. I've definitely seen clicks from him and definitely grace here.
He's the guy out of all of them that I've seen enough of him to think he's going to set a precedent here against most of these are boys. We've got Dylan Jay as well. He's a decent skater. I can see him doing pretty good.
Is there any names in there that are kind of sticking out to you? Yeah, I was thinking Dylan Jay as well. I've definitely seen a lot of him on Instagram and Nick Holt, I think, will do pretty good. He's a fairly clear as well, obviously quite a bit from him.
But we don't normally see him in any boys solidly skating in the flat ground. But solid skater, so it's going to be a good one. I think Marcus Montoya's going to win this and get all the way through to the Jove's final. He's going to win the Jove's championship, if you will.
Yeah, I can't think of anyone else. I'm going to be with you on this one. I don't really think any of these. Marcus Montoya's name is a much bigger hitter and stands out a lot more.
I don't think of him right now. So we jump to the pros now, mate. Let's go straight to the pros. We'll be able to figure this out a little bit easier.
We've got a little bit more knowledge on this. I'll run through the names and then we'll go through them again. So we've got the Juan Aloeira versus Tom Asta, Alex Midler versus Calvin Hoefler, Jagger E. Inversa, Sean Jordan, Carlos Rabrero versus Chaudhwaer, Cody Sapeira versus Gustavo Rabrero, Felipe Gostado versus Seva Crotoff, O'Rolian Giroud versus TJ Rogers, and Leandra Sanders versus Chris Jocelyn.
There's some big, big hitters here, mate. Very hard versus battles as well. It's going to be sad to see some big names leave straight away. Yeah, mate.
The fact that Tom Asta is going up against Luan straight away is just harsh, isn't it? On either one of them, because either one of those two can win it. Luan is the champion, I'm sure he's the reigning defending champion of Batler of Barracks. Yeah, obviously you've got Chris Jocelyn here who's a B.D.
winner as well. Has Seva won Batler of Barracks before? Or if he's come in the finals night a few times. And then I know if Chaudh hasn't won a Batler of the Barracks, but I know he's come really high up in, I think he didn't want of the dying game of skates and he was playing way to sound like, I don't think he won, but he has got a huge category of flat ground.
Seeing him up against Carlos Rabrero, mate, again, Carlos Rabrero is one of the best skaters on the planet. Who's more informed than Carlos Rabrero? When you see his trick selection, mate, and you've seen what he did in the recent Nike video that we will be doing a chat about in a future episode. But I can't look past him.
Obviously, Seva is Seva, Orion, Juru, he's the next up and coming motherfucker. So he's going to be hitting something. We've got Chris Jocelyn, previous champion. So he could, and he's got some dirty tricks, you know, that's switch front, shove, late for whatever he does.
That's a dirty trick that he can beat most people with. And let's not forget we've got Cody Seva and Aaron there as well, mate. Obviously, previous Jo. Kind of past him.
He's going to be some fucking interesting matches to watch. Some of these could really go off and some of these could just be a quick whitewash for a few people. Yeah, Felipe Seva versus Seva, Crowe Toff, mate, is like, tech heaven. I mean, these two, just everything bolts, probably both of them by the skinny, similar sort of size board, punchy tricks, you know, fishing movement, that's probably a match up that I'm really looking forward to.
Let's just run through it, and let's see if we can just get to the final. I'm probably going to say, I'm going to put Tom Astor through, even though people might be saying, what the fuck are you talking about, mate? Tom Astor just lands shit. I think, LaWanne, because he skates that fast style.
If he's not on it that day, it's the wiggle room in there. You know what I mean? You could easily mess up some tricks, whereas Tom Astor, he's methodical. He's got that Tom Penny sort of edgy, and he's just, obviously, he's just got the he just lands shit.
He just stays on his board a lot. So I'm back in Tom Astor there. Yeah, I would like to see Tom Astor go through over the land. And then I have a land's great skater as well.
But I think Tom Astor just has that little bit more solidness with it. Let's go to next match up, mate. So we've got Alex Midler versus Kelvin Hoeffler now. Can't remember seeing, I know, Midler's quality, you know, Midler's brilliant skater.
Kelvin, I know for him like the deuter, and he's very, very consistent. But I can't really remember kind of his last outing about the barracks or in a flat ground game that I've seen. So it's a hard one to go with. So no Midler's, you know, Midler's just got flaring.
He's a really good ball round skater. But Kelvin, if he's got that competition to kind of standard, mate, is he going to mess up some tricks? And I think he's, you know, he's got an awesome frontside flip as well. I might have to be back in Old Kelvin to go through on that one.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Obviously, Alex Midler's good, and he was a young competition guy. I think that's, I think he's more of a, he's going to be grinding. He's going to be sliding.
You know, he does that a bit more, I would think, I guess, than do maybe big heavy flat ground and ledge sessions and stuff like that, where he keeps on a little bit more tighter than when you try and stuff with more room to have a better play. So next match up, mate, we've got Jagger Eaton versus the Sean Jordan. Now, that is a decent, decent match up there. I'm going to stick with the Sean here.
I think he's going to have too much consistency and flair, you know what I mean? The Jagger deal with Jagger is a very, very good skater, but I just, the Sean's all round pro. He's a legit pro. You know what I mean?
He's got all, he's got everything he needs to get in terms of being a skateboarder. He's something special, so I can't. And putting out some decent parts recently, I'm saying the Sean is the man to watch in that one. Yeah, exactly.
It could be an easy one for him. It's what I'm thinking. Yeah, he's just quality, isn't he? He's a great day fucking five-star skater.
You know, you can't knock the Sean. He's just very, very good. Carlos Rabrero versus the Shod Ware. What are we going in, mate?
What are we going? I'll let you chat on this one. What you saying? I know that Carlos Rabrero is going to have a more appealing style of tricks for me and more probably you.
Everything is going to be parked. Everything is going to be caught. Everything is going to be bolts and put down. Is Shod is going to have that super chill style.
He's just going to flip the trick. He's not, he might not pop it. He's going to play safe, but he is going to fucking land everything. Like, that's from the way D, like every big spin hill, everything, but it isn't as pleasing.
And you know, when you see a good all-round skater, they might not, they're playing it safe with their trick selection, not with how they're popping or how they're doing their trick. They're doing their trick near enough to their best ability all the time. Not necessarily going as hard as Luan, but more of that Tom Astor, a solid pop flip catch style, which is going to be coming from Carlos, but maybe a little bit too much where Ish or is playing the whole thing safe. His feet aren't really leaving the board.
His board is not really leaving the ground, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I know. It's like the switch front side flips. We know both of them got a nice switch front side flip and good front side for that matter.
Carlos is probably going to look nice. Obviously, a Shod where if he's going to do it down something, it's going to be a heavy hit and beautiful front side. He's got one of the top front side flips going at the moment, but Carlos is going to be that perky, ping flip real quick, probably with an ounce of reverb in there as well, just to start it out. But like you're saying, a Shod where he's going to flop that motherfucker over, and you know you can flop him over, can't you mate?
And he'll just get on it. He'll just get it flopped over and he'll get on that board. He ain't going to worry about it being a perky, beautiful front side flip, even though we can do it. He's just worried about staying on that big boat that you know, there's underneath him.
Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. He's playing a win. There's nothing wrong with that. But obviously we're not playing and we're watching.
We want to we want to see what these guys got. So, fuck, this is this is flipping a coin, I'm saying. But I think I'm with you though, mate, that a Shod he's going to land shit, you know, probably going to appreciate Carlos more. And if he's having a good day, I'm sure he could be anyone on the planet, but there's something special about a Shod wears.
I think I'm going to stick with him. So, is he a two time? No, not two time. He's always up there.
Yeah, he's a they're both high class skaters. So that one's a hard one for me to say. Who would I like? I don't even know who I would want to win.
Yeah, that's a tough one. Because I'm a big fan of Carlos Roberto. He's sort of skating really kind of his fulfillment factor when I'm watching him is just it's just bang on this. Like he does everything that you want him to do.
He'll kind of pop out early on a ledge when you want him to do it. You know, I mean, like he's just got certain little nuances I really like. But a Shod wear is undisputed, possibly one of the great skateboarders of all time. I mean, obviously give him another 20 years to get to earn that mantle.
But he is something special. You're going to put your neck out in line there, mate, and have a little pick. Oh, I just think if I pick one guy, I doubt it. Even guy I pick.
I'm just kidding. I can't do it. Okay, well, we don't have to worry. We don't have to worry.
We don't have to worry. We can get through this and we can kind of figure it's a rough little guy anyway. So let's move on to... No, I'm going.
I know Gustavo Rivera is a very good skater, got some flair, but I think Cody's paid has got to... He's got to be coming for a win again. He's already won it and I think he wants some more. So I can't really look past him.
Yeah, some of the tricks Cody has as well, as just like I'm saying, it's that early battle, the barracks D is where just tech was just crazy. Tech was just a part of the standard vocabulary. So he knows how to play as well. Yeah, exactly.
And it would have been nice, mate. It would have been nice if we could get Gustavo Rivera versus Felipe Gossabo, the name off there in the battle of Eric's. See, that's a hard one as well. And Felipe Gossabo can beat most people.
I'm just skipping here a little bit. I'm just going to bounce back into it. But I think Seva's probably going to do him. So we're going to be seeing some like Seva versus Cody Sapeta in that one, even though Felipe Gossabo is one of my favorite skates to watch in terms of the flipping leg tricks, small board, good pop.
That's a shame about it, isn't it? We're going to be losing somebody who's good skater straight away. Yeah, that's it. You want to see him versus some of these other guys, so that's what it is.
It's a fucking harsh line up. Yep. So let's just keep jumping through here, mate. We've got obviously Aurelian Drew, who's been up and coming star at the moment in the skate world.
He is someone to watch. I don't really know how good he is. All I see him is doing massive trade flips and kind of the hurricane flips and stuff like that down big gaps. I haven't really seen much of him just landed shot flat.
Have you seen much of him on flat, mate? I've not seen any sort of game escape, only for nearly like I said, it's more of just the big, the headies, which are great consistency. But when you're in that level, everyone can pop an ice pick, train, make an ice good as he can. But we all know TJ Rogers has been skating for a long time and he's very consistent.
And he's been back more than ever, I guess, recently with his street skating escapades. He just looks like he's been really getting out there and pushing himself. Yeah, exactly. He could be taking Old Drew out quite easily if he's having a good day.
That's a decent matchup. Let's move over to the next battle here, mate. We've got Leandra Sanders versus Chris Jocelyn. Is this scapegoat?
That what he goes under? Yeah. So again, great park skater. Got such good kind of flair and it just looks natural on the board, almost surfing.
When you see him skating around Venice Beach, the park down there, he's just absolutely gliding all over the place on that ship. But unfortunately, he's found himself against the former champion, Chris Jocelyn, who again is five-star legitimate pro, who will land everything he wants to land. So unfortunately, for Old Sanders, I think Chris Jocelyn is going to do him over in that one. Yeah, I'm saying without Adele, Chris Jocelyn's not be losing his first match.
He knows how to go for the throat. He knows how to land everything he wants. He's going to be going for it. You've got a back-of-all-very, ain't you?
You've got a back-of-all-very. If you had a turbo-dollar's mate and you're sticking your name on one of them to get through to the end of that bracket, who are you going for? Yeah, that's a good one. To be fair, just because we know we can do it, it's Jocelyn.
Cody Coderber could do it. If you have the other guys on there, could do it, but the turbo-dollar's going to be there about. I also think whoever wins the win or their own top-master match-up, that's probably the one they're probably going to go and win the whole thing anyway, or they're going to end up going against Chris Jocelyn. That's a hard one to pick, but whoever gets it, it's going to be a decent final that they get to.
It's going to be some specials mate. We're talking about specials mate. Our next group's got the icons, so these are just pros that have been doing it for a very, very long time. We've got some special manoeuvres in this.
First match-up, you've got Paul Rodriguez versus Nigel Houston, Tori Pudwell versus Sean Molto, Stevie Williams versus Ronee Krieger, Chris Roberts versus Kelly Hart, looking forward to that one little nightclub battle there. She's got Mike Moversa's costume, one of the first games of skates that would be ever played at the barracks, Chazzle Tees versus Shano Neale, Mike Bali versus Ribsman, and Chris Cole versus David Gonzalez, the rock battle there mate. I like what they're doing there. Let's go down a list there mate.
P-World versus Nigel. That is an icon versus icon battle right there if I've ever seen one. Two big Nike guys going at it and two huge icons. We know how that one's going to end well I think.
We all know how that's going to end. We really disappoint a little bit of Nigel B's P-World. I don't think P-World's going to happen. P-World's come off a bad injury the last couple of years, whatever, and he's been strengthening conditioning and he stays on the board.
I know Nigel does and Nigel goes down hand rails and he's got a crispy fucking tray and that sort of stuff and he's knocking Nigel at all. But when it comes down to that flat bit of concrete mate, there are many people better than Paul Rodriguez. Nigel's definitely not going to be going out easy. Yeah, we're talking about going out easy mate.
This next one again is such a hard, who's going out easy in this one? Tori Pudwell versus Sean Molto. We know Tori's got some more flair than Sean, but Molto lands his tricks. Tori is my favorite.
I think he's going to win. Oh, Sean, but it's going to be a tough match. It's going to be a real tough match. I'm going to talk as well.
I think sometimes I've seen battles with Molto and he's a bit more happy go lucky in me. If he's not really in it, he's not really in it. But if he gets in it, he's feeling that day, it's a tough one. But I think Tori's got some more super tricks and he can pull out some real wild card tricks that Molto isn't going to get.
So I'm going to back you and I'm going to yeah, I think Pudwell is going to be your man on that one. Let's move on to this next one though, mate. This is an icon again, you know, not the state as they once were, but pull them into a different era. Stevie Williams, possibly the greatest skateboard of all time in my personal opinion against Ronnie Krieger, who at one point in time was definitely the best skate on the planet.
You know what I mean? Don't think Craig Raver got a skateboard year or anything, but he was, when he was skateboard blind at his best, his kind of his tech, his tech was absolutely undisputed mate. 100% work on that one. I don't know if Ronnie Krieger has Instagram or anything.
I don't know if he does, I'll have to get on it. But I only really see what Stevie puts out or what DJ came out of him, just getting around. And obviously he's a shadow of this former self, but he still does have a good amount of tricks in his bag. So it's going to be a good one to watch.
I really don't know what Ronnie's pushing like these days, but I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited for that one. I personally think that Krieger's going to have him because Krieger's got that, you know, again, he's Williams style trick selection, all that stuff probably goes more in his favor. But in terms of again, just flipping your board around in an interesting way and kind of putting some shit down, I think Krieger's going to have it.
Because he's a bit of a, you know, he skates a bit slower. You can just get that board around underneath your mate. You know what I mean? So I'd probably go for Ronnie on that one.
But you know, I'm not saying Stevie's out of this by any stretch of imagination. Next up, we have got the nine-club battle of Chris Roberts versus Kelly Hartmate. Now this is interesting. But if you've been listening to any nine-club recently, Chris Roberts is up to his board size to an 8.3, and the 8375 or something, he's been skating the curves with Bagley a little bit more.
He's obviously Kelly's looking to fit motherfucker. He's doing his jump rope. He's pushing he's looking fit and strong. He's got the best build he's ever had in his entire career, I'd say.
And also he's got better training him. I know Chris Roberts can probably do some dirt, but if Kelly Hart wins his rojumbo, he's going to skunk him. Yeah, I'm saying all my money's on Kelly. Chris is a great skater.
But I think he's kind of, you know, he's got more important. He's on his nine-club mission where Kelly is always going to have that Kelly Hart skate style, which like he said, he's been working on himself. He's come back from his injury, fucking strong as fuck, and healthy as fuck. And he's been getting at it.
So, that course, mate. That course. He's going to be showing everyone. So Mike Mo versus Kosten, mate.
Orson Bat was good to see these two back together again. And obviously it's going to be a nice, nice watch. I still think Kosten's probably going to have this, mate, just because of Mike Mo's injury. Mike Mo's obviously can still do a lot of his shit, but Kosten's going to be able to do some dirty maneuvers.
I think it's going to put Mike Mo out. Yeah, exactly. We all know Mike Mo has injury, and he just doesn't have anywhere near the the amount of movement he once had. But he is still very good skater, but Eric Kosten obviously is very technical and has a lot of flat ground and just has that advantage.
He's a crafty veteran, mate. Any Kosten is just a crafty veteran. He can just get shit done. Oh, Frosty's going to come out.
Exactly. Yeah, you know it. You know it. So let's next match up his Chasel Tees versus Shano Niel.
I feel bad for Chasel because Chas is a good consistency skate. I really like, does land on the board quite a lot, but he's found himself against Shano Niel. If you're asking any of these pros who don't want to play, I'd probably say Shano Niel is going to be the top of this for all of them. Yeah, let's say we take about four or five of these guys out the mix, or four or five of these guys from the icons to win.
He is in the top three. Yes. Yes. You know, you never really see him not landing anything.
So, you know, we're going to be seeing some nice switch everything from him. So next match up, we've got Mike Valle versus Ripsman. You know Ripsman, mate, you watch Nine Clubs. I imagine you've seen Ripsman on there.
He's your boy, just skeleton boy. Any? I've seen a bit of Ripsman, but I've only seen more of the park side of Ripsman. That's all I've seen as well.
That's all I've seen as well. But Mike Valle, you know, he's doing bonuses and fucking hand plants, mate. So you've seen what they're trying to do it. They're trying to get it.
So you could possibly have Mike Valle versus Chris Cole in the second round here, mate. And then it'd be a round match of the previous battle of the barracks. I see what they're trying to do then. And Ripsman might let him do the hand plant ship, but I don't think Ripsman's going through.
And then I think it's going to be the Cobra versus the skeleton. You know what I mean? The Zero Skater versus the skeleton, the skull. You know, there's a good little story there, mate, they can play.
So that's how I think it's going to go. Yeah, I think you're right there. I think Mike Valle is a great skater, but his time was kind of different. And the way skates was different to the standard game of skates.
It's not the style of skating. It's good for going into a game of skates. Yeah, everyone wants to see what he's going to throw down anyway, see what he's capable of. See if you picked anything up.
Yeah, well, you never know, mate. You never know. So obviously we're going to stick Chris Cole through here. David Gonzalez is a great skater, but Chris Cole's fucking Cole.
So, you know, I don't think David's going to get past him here. What do you recommend it comes to it, mate? Chris Cole, Shana and Hill. It's going to go there in the rounds.
I know. I know. I think Shana and Hill, but then again, you've got to think Shana and Hill is up against Chris Cole and he might get a little bit of a you know, a bit of a rising stomach. So Chris Cole could do him there.
He gets some jelly legs and a couple tricks. No, you know, because you only really see Shana and Hill doing a push. You might see him do like a trade double flip or a switch trade double flip. Otherwise, he's you normally see him doing the standards, but obviously just completely flawless and perfect.
And where you see Chris Cole would be doing more of the some extras as well, or the full 360s with the flips. And you might not always see him. Not done when he hasn't got it, but you see him more as a I've seen more as a backside spin. I flip I wear Chris can spin outside and flip regular and switch.
So this is the different ball game for some people. It's tricky. You get yourself in all sorts of bob, I can't you with a switch backside maneuver because that spin, anyone that does a switch back when you know it's a really nice trick, you know, even BAM, you still have a real nice kind of signature maneuver one back in the day, didn't you throw one of those down and cut some quite big stairs sets, but that switch backside when you make it's the one, you know, that side of spin. It's the one trick that you land in regular, but you still feel like you're you've landed in the switch because it still whips you out for some reason, like you're you know, having that heavy leg leading and then pulling it round to be on the back of the ball when you've completed the one that you just I don't know you might feel differently, but I always feel it's a bit weird.
You can probably get whipped out in regular, which doesn't really happen. You know, you only get whipped out when you've done a look at a spin that you land in veggie or switch away, but it's the one spin that kind of just throws you off a little bit. Yeah, it almost like pulls your shoulder round super heavy, give you a bit of G-force in there. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
You're fighting against it. I think it's just the way you approach it, but the way that trick happens, it makes you want to lean over your shoulder kind of. Yes, it's a weird, it's a weird one. Yes, your head kind of isn't over your body as much as it.
You kind of you kind of already tucked it somewhere else and we all know that you can keep your head above your shoulders and above your hips. You're always going to be in a stronger position when you kind of stick your arse somewhere and your head's in a different position. It might look you know, sometimes it's nice to put it a little bit style in there, but landing on the board when you do that changes the whole kind of spectrum, doesn't it? Because you're not you're not at one, you're a bit twisted, you're not kind of fully over the board.
Yeah, exactly. Pull me some names out of that then. Who do you think is going to be up in a semi final place? Who do you think is going to be kind of leading the way in the icons?
I'm saying nitrogen is going out in the first round. I'm hoping so Paul is going to be in the top. Yeah, even Paul, if he goes up against kind of Molto and Tori, I still think Paul's going to be going through. Do you know what I mean?
I think Paul's got a decent way to fight and then his next round there. He's got, you know, I'd say Paul's stuff is bad with either big against Molto or Pudwell, obviously, but then you've got the Kelly Hart Chris Roberts, Craiger, Stevie Williams round and I think he'll beat any of them as well. I'm going to stick my neck up. I'm saying out of all of these, Paul gets close to the final.
You know, you know, he can turn up when he's under pressure. He's like a diamond, you know what I mean? You put him under pressure. He comes good and I think P-World could be surprising and he's got a lot, you know, he probably wants to prove himself a little bit.
He's still fucking there. You know, I mean, people are saying he's a little bit older these days. He's probably what? 30 fucking six, 35.
You know, he's not old by any stretch of imagination. He might be a little bit older, but you know, whatever. He's in good, he's in good neck. So I think he could he could do some damage all the way through it.
So let's pair this up. Let's pair this up there, mate though. But if you put Paul Rodriguez up against like Johnny Geiger, for example, it's P-World if obviously P-World gets a Roshan bow, I think he'll be able to wear Geiger out by just methodically just going through the whole catalogue of Skatrix. If Geiger gets in there, mate, and he does one of the Super Saiyan tricks, can, you know, we know Paul's can do a lot of tricks.
We've seen it when he's up against people at Chris Cole, but can he do a Geiger maneuver? But imagine though, I don't really know Geiger's lifestyle. Just imagine your Johnny Geiger, right? You win all those influencer battles.
There's big names, but there's not really any big name in there. And then the first person you go against is fucking P-World. Probably a decent amount of eyes there. You might be shitting yourself.
Because that's going to be on finals night as well, mate. You know, they'll do that on finals night, all of these last battles. So it's going to be a daunting task for anyone. You can definitely have Jelly Legs, all of them are going to have Jelly Legs, but you've been there before.
You might have less Jelly Legs going on. Did he win the first battle box? That might be one of the first ones, didn't he? I think Mike won the first battle box.
But P-World's got it. He's been in the final against Chris Cole. I'm sure he has won one. So he's got one under his belt.