Words by Rob Meronek

The Shorty’s How to Go Pro video features the Shorty’s ams and some of their pros. It includes Rodrigo Lima, Torey Pudwill, Fabrizio Santos, Brandon Turner, Chad Muska, Andrew Pott, and Sam Baptista.

Sam Baptista opens it up for the first part. It seems like most of his part is switch. He threw down at least three switch flip backside tail slides, switch flipped that big four set that’s in Barcelona, and did switch manual switch flip out on that one stage that everyone’s done stuff on. I was kind of feeling the crazy Motown music he used.

Torey Pudwill is up next. I remember when Torey used to ride for Arcade Skateboards back when we did a Damn Am Contest at his local park in Simi Valley - Skatelab. I remember Jason Rothmeyer and Mike Sinclair, two of our judges, talking like, “Who the hell’s that kid?” Emails went back and forth and suddenly he was on Shorty’s. One of the best things about the Damn Am Contests is getting to see these up-and-comers before they’re on every other page in skate mags. Torey ended up winning the Contest at Skatelab. Yeah, he had the back-to-school, Supercuts special haircut back then, too. Anyway, his part in this video was pretty good. A back smith on an incline ledge to shuv it out, a back tail on it to kickflip out, and a nollie flip crooked grind shuv it out on a bench shows he’s got the tech on lock. He skates a little slow, but he’s still young. He finishes out his part with a kickflip crook on a seven or eight stair rail. He used Interpol for his music.

Brandon Turner, Fabrizio Santos, and Chad Muska share a part. Brandon Turner did a nollie double flip out of a kickflip nose manual. Footage of his switch hard flip down the Dobstaff triple set is in there, too. He finished up his part with a nollie boardslide down a huge rail. I’m not skate nerd enough to pause it and count. The Breeze had a short, but pretty decent part. He finished his part with a big backside 180 over a rail and thankfully kept the one foot crooked grind out of his part. All I was waiting for in Muska’s part was Paris. There was no Paris Hilton cameo in Chad’s part – damn. He was rocking some funky-ass kicks to go with a funky-ass mix of music which included Nirvana and that one “whoo-hoo” radio song. You’ll recognize it when you hear it, or if you’re lucky, you won’t. He did a frontside boneless and threw in some mediocre pool skating. Hmmm. He finished his part up with a 'shakka bra' pinky and thumb in the air hand gesture.

Next up is Andrew Pott. Andrew Pott blew up after Bill Dorr paid all his expenses to get him to Tampa Am 2004, where he placed 3rd out of 106 skaters in the Qualifiers on Saturday, causing the whole building to be like, “Who dat?” Andrew’s got the big flip completely down like Bastien. He mixes the tech stuff like that with big guns like frontside nosegrinds down a 15 or so. He hard flipped the Venice triple set, then closed out his part with a switch frontside flip down it.

Rodrigo Lima’s up last. Rodrigo dropped everything and came from Brazil when he was 15 and started entering every contest he could, including the Damn Am and Tampa Am events, so I’ve been watching him skate for years as he’s gotten better and better. I can’t name names because I might get beat up at the next skate contest, but you know there’s a lot of Brazilians with busted style. Rodrigo’s not one of them. I like this guy. He skates fast and tech with stuff like switch flip front boards. He finished up his part with a switch flip backside 50-50 down a rail – whoa. Rodrigo also used some Motown-ish music for his part that fit pretty well.

Thanks for thanking Skatepark of Tampa in the credits, Benny. Thanks right back for all the support you’ve given us over the years.

What happened to “Muska Approved” Victor Fonosch?

Special features on the DVD include bonus footage, something called “T-Stance Espresso,” and some Muska stuff, but I didn’t check it out because I was getting hungry and had to cook dinner.

We have the video playing in the Shop so check it out next time you’re at the Park or pick it up right here: Shorty’s How to Go Pro DVD.

Rob