Alex Willms Cruises In OJ Wheels’ ‘Keyframes’ Video
Back in 2016, we first featured a 17-year-old Alex Willms on the site, and today the OJ Wheels rider is pretty much everywhere. When legendary photographer Dave Swift sat down with Willms for his ‘20 Questions’ interview in 2019, one of the topics was his amazing bar balance—which is demonstrated pretty frequently in OJ’s latest ‘Keyframes’ video (above), covering the length and breadth of San Diego’s many rough and rugged streets/parking lots/rocks/dirt trails. In the interview, Willms revealed his secret to standing up on a flatbar, which is kind of the best grind hack we’ve heard in a while:
“I noticed a while back if you want to sit on a rail you need grooves. I love doing slappy grinds which dig into your trucks a lot.”
So, get out there and start slappying until you feel a noticeable indentation on your hangers. In no time, things will just lock in to place. We know what you’re thinking: “Well, if I can’t skate like Alex ‘I roll with the Mafia’ Willms?” True, Willms can slappy on command with no hesitation. And the way he bashes his trucks just can’t be immediately taught, but with practice you can get it like that. If you need pointers, just search “Slappy” on The Berrics site… it will eventually just slide into place. (Check out one of Eric Koston’s many no-ollie slappy opuses, below.)
Just remember: It’s all about the motion of the ocean, and in this case a curb is a wave, and your skateboard is a surfboard, and your skate shoes are flippers (that’s how you surf, right?). Watch Willms’s Bangin, which aired in January, and his ‘One Day’ from last August, below:
