Matt Hensley gets Legend Award by Transworld Skateboarding
Matt Hensley was one (if not the) of the most influential skateboarders in the late 80's to me and the people I grew up with.
Granted we all lived in the north of Sweden I'm pretty sure he had a significant impact on skateboarders worldwide.
Matt was the sole reason I bought a chain wallet and tried to learn no comply's and melon grabs (or ollie sad).
The fact that this kid from southern California could influence so many people around the world back then was pretty incredible.
Sure we had seen some American pros in videos before, but when the H-Street video Shackle Me Not reached the arctic towns in northern Sweden my life changed.
The way they filmed their tricks was so uncontrived compared to the other videos (Santa Cruz, Powell, Vision etc) back then. I was mesmerized by their skating, the spots, the music, the clothing, the weather, the mini ramps.. everything. It was like I had seen the future. And with the power of VHS tapes I started seeing Matt Hensley clones all over Sweden the next summer. Army shorts, chain wallet, shaved head and melon grabs became very popular, almost freakish.
When Matt and the H-Street crew came to my hometown in 1989 (or was it 1990?) we stood and stared at this kid who cruised around the ghetto street course provided to them. He did half meter high bs 180 melons on flat, bs kickflips, flawless no comply's and most importantly.., the 360 kickflip. A trick I'm guessing a handful of people on the planet could do consistently at that time.
I have this demo on video... I'm gonna locate it this summer and post it here when I get a chance.
The reason I posted this was because I stumbled across two articles about Matt this week.
One at Transworld mentioning that he will be honored with the 2010 Transworld Legend Award and one at the the Chrome Ball Incident (incredible blog for skate nerds over 25 years of age).
Enjoy.
After skateboarding Matt became an accomplished musician, most notably playing the accordion with Flogging Molly.
He currently lives in the Carlsbad area where he grew up and he also manages Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub & Grill.
So that's where i picked up my 180 no-comply's.