“Yeah, I voice my opinion. I say what I want because that’s what I feel. I’m not going to hide it. I’m not going to keep it inside if it bothers me. I’m just gonna release it. I’m gonna tell the people who need to be told and it doesn’t really make a difference who you are. It’s my opinion.” -Ricky Oyola
In this first “Classroom” post I’d like to tell you about Ricky Oyola. If you are looking for a definition of skateboarding, Ricky is the definition.
A while ago he was featured in Epicly Later’d's third season. I bet plenty of you haven’t seen it yet, so above I’ve embedded the first part for you.
When this was released I was very inspired to do something about all the shit that’s going on in the skate-world. As I can relate to him and his opinions a lot.
So I came up with the idea of starting this section on the website. And here is the first post.
I intended to write a lot more than I’m actually doing now. As I realised that all I really know comes from the things I’ll link to you in this post.
Above image of Ricky – doing a Frontside Ollie – comes from 48 blocks. They did an interview with Ricky a long time ago and a click on the image takes will lead you towards it.
More recent he was featured in “Trajectory” on The Berrics, with his brand – Traffic. Again the above image leads to it.
Ricky stands for something, unlike many of today’s so called top-skateboarders! He and the community that’s related to his skateboarding are a community that has defined the core of skateboarding, in my opinion.
Though, this scene is very under-appreciated and underrated. By paying attention to these individuals and communities I’d like to get people to recognise them.
Following up are articles about Jake Johnson, Fred Gall and many others.
Spread the world and help skateboarding to stay away from the hands of big corporations.
“Don’t be a downpressor man. Money is just paper. It’s just money. Don’t sell your soul.” – Peter Tosh
Archival photos take from The Chrome Ball Incident.