Leonardo Bodelazzi – Leozinho
It’s funny how the coolest slide you can do on a skateboard is also one of the most confusing to describe: fakie ollie to frontside bluntslide. The only other ledge move that’s even remotely as tricky to wrap your head around in terms of nomenclature is probably the fakie ollie to backside nosebluntslide, which let’s face it nobody ever does because it’s virtually impossible (if you’re reading this and can think of 3 examples of it being done from the side, on a ledge, in the streets, DM us and we’ll send you some sort of prize).
What does it mean then that Leo has both of these in his part on spots located thousands of miles away from his home in Santo André, Brazil? Mainly just that on top of being unbelievably gifted he actually uses his brain. Imagine getting flown to New York and being taken to the Pyramid Ledges, a spot that you’ve always dreamed of skating but where ‘everything’ has been done. You’d have to come up with some sort of NBD that’s on par with whatever fucked up shit Suciu did last week, but then you’d probably also want to stay well away from all the dodgy flip in flip out shit there may still be left to tick off… Well then that’s the perfect one. It doesn’t really get any harder than popping fakie off that grate and sliding the most backwards slide there is across the whole of that thing, AND you get to remain a man of impeccable taste. Same goes for what he did at Uni: it’s obviously unbelievably difficult to straight nollie over anything of that length but then there’s also something extra neat about him choosing to do it there, at the one spot where you simply can’t ‘cheat’ and shifty it. Same with what he did at the ledge to bank in Lisbon, that thing’s been murdered but what he got was both choice and arguably the hardest thing done there. I don’t know if you ever fantasise about what your trick selection could be like if you had someone like Nyjah Huston or Aurelien Giraud‘s abilities (as in if you could essentially learn whatever you want) but I do, and it looks something like this.
Filmed by Anthony Claravall, Eric Iwakura, Matt Schleyer, Alex Kissinger, Dave Hoang, Tanner Rowe, Daniel Galli, Rodrigo Penteado, João Paulo Cunha, Lucas Marquês, Mario Cano and Telmo Gonçalves.
Edited by Anthony Claravall
Artwork by Sliks.
Music by Pizzol
Special thanks to New Balance and Tyrone Romero.
