adidas Skateboarding Presents /// Mike
Bristol's finest Parkour enthusiast Mike Arnold is officially welcomed to the adidas team and, in being so, has pretty much put the idea of landing tricks bolts well and truly to rest.
Fast, loose, free flowing and not afraid to jump without popping, this is a very different kind of section from the Isle Skateboards pro to those we've seen in the past. Though his Skate Cafe and Lloyds clips were no doubt mindblowing, there was a certain standard conformity to the traditional 'video part' model. This piece, filmed by Jacob Harris, may at first seem to fit a hackneyed approach but it soon becomes apparent Mike has chosen not to adhere to accepted criterion.
His first line isn't actually landed, numerous other tricks are very close to not being makes (and routinely would have been redone to a higher standard no doubt) yet somehow it really, really works. The filming is spectacular, the smiles wholeheartedly genuine and the moves mesmerising, even when his feet are nowhere near where they really ought to be.
Sometimes shifts in what society deems acceptable come slowly, often long thought and considered. Other times a rad weirdo mixes everything up without really thinking and all of a sudden the zeitgeist changes right before your eyes. Has that happened here? We don't really know and it's not our place to say. All we do know is Mike Arnold put out a part with tricks that aren't necessarily makes and we kinda like it.