As with older assholes like myself Natas was a huge inspiration. No longer were we relegated to slappying curbs, doing beanplants off car bumpers & electrical boxes, and walking around on our hands. He showed us that you could ollie as high as your waist, so the possibilities were endless. Also as more and more coverage came out of him & Gonz, we learned that there was more to tricks than just ollie grabs and bs boardslides.
I picked up my first Natas while on vacation with a friend & his family to Virginia Beach. It was my first trip without my family and I couldn't have been more psyched. My buddy Scott Barbieri had a ramp in his yard and dreamed of skating Mt. Trashmore, so he convinced his parents to take us there. It was perfect- they got their beach on and we skated around town. He was part of the older crew and ripped tranny. I was part of the younger "street dudes" but could rock fakie to fakie ollie all day long. My one friend Frankie tried to show off and try an under coping early grab fs 540, slammed his head on the tranny and knocked himself out. We laughed of course, but then we took him home.
Anyways, we rolled up to the 17th Street Surf Shop and dudes were skating the curbs out front. Scott & I showed off our slappy + 43 skills to try and be down with the locals. The guys were pretty cool and took us across the street for the 2 for $1 7-11 Corn Dog deal. So good. We skated the long cherry red double sided curb in the parking lot. It was pretty cool bec there was a nice dirt bank on the other side so you could do feeble transfers. This one guy pulled a fridge carboard box from the back and proceeded to boost right over it. It f'n blew my mind, so I pulled the kid move and had to ask what his set-up was. It was an purple wood stain SMA Natas, Indys with alternating yellow & pink OJ II Freeze Streets. I was sold. I had to dump my hand-me-down Dogtown Scott Oster for the real deal. Although the shop guy was pushing me to pick up the new G&S Neil Blender, I wasn't having it. They had a natural wood stain Natas on the wall and orange SlimeBalls in the case. So sick. F'n loved that board. I blew most of the money I brought & had to live off that corn dog deal & fountain cokes for the week, but I didn't care. So stoked. Even after I came home, I had to keep getting it board after board. And as long as I kept my 4.0 GPA, it was all good. Nerd.
