11 Favourite Tricks: Pekka Løvås
Portrait by Mark Suciu
Pekka is the man behind basically every video to come out of Oslo over the past eight years.
From Tigerstaden, a video that featured parts from a young Heitor Da Silva, Hermann Stene and the infamous Magnus Bordewick part, to more recently he’s filmed and edited all the Deedz parts and a heap of his own videos that you may have seen on the Free Skate Mag YouTube channel. He could also quite possibly be the worlds best at filming with the HPX Xtreme fisheye set up. On top of his filming, if you follow him on Instagram, you know that he is one of the world’s best manuallers and has done manuals that I could only dream of (nollie backside 180 switch manual switch backside 180 out, like how).
Pekka was in Australia over the past month and a half filming with Tiago Lemos for an upcoming New Balance project. We ended up spending a bunch of time together going to see Kangaroos, doing manual challenges and quizzing each other on the absurd amount of skateboarding knowledge we both have. Making quizzes for each other that included questions such as ‘Name everyone who had parts in the Transworld video Sight Unseen’ and ‘What did Louie Barletta say while he is getting towed in to do the invert in Oververt’.
I thought it would only make sense to get the self-proclaimed biggest skate nerd in Oslo’s favourite eleven tricks ever done.
1. Arto Saari: Fakie Flip – Flip: Sorry [2002]
I’m just going to say upfront that some of these tricks are how it was edited, like where in the song it went down. If it is at the epic part of the song, it makes the clip ten times better.
It is just the best fakie flip ever done. Epic song, epic roll-up and epic roll-away. It is just Arto in his prime doing a really good fakie flip.
Nineteen years later I found myself in Arto Saari’s amazing house in Hawaii, in his sauna and that just shows you how crazy life can be [laughs].
2. Jerry Hsu: Switch Ollie – Enjoi: Bag of Suck [2006]
Another one where it was edited to be at the perfect part of the song. It’s filmed all sick from the top, the gap looks insane. I have never been there in real life, but I can guarantee that it looks twice as big from that angle. When I was a kid I thought it looked like the biggest gap that had ever been skated. The switch ollie is dope, the filming is dope and the song is epic. Jerry Hsu has probably ten clips that could’ve been on this list, but I wanted to only choose one per skater.
3. Heath Kirchart: Kickflip – Emerica: Stay Gold [2010]
The whole line is incredible, but the kickflip over the hydrant, the way he flips the car off and his all-white outfit make it. The tre flip off the curb at the start of the line is so beautiful too. When the car honks, he is like, who the fuck do you think you are I am Heath Kirchart delivering my last couple of clips just let me get my glory ride without getting honked at. Everything about that clip is so fucking dope
4. Pedro Biagio: Half Cab Noseslide 270 Nose Manual – Primitive: Encore [2019]
I usually hate slide to manuals; I don’t think anyone should ever do it but somehow this one is so good. My one rule is that if you have to do a slide to manual it has to be the on same truck that you were sliding on, but even on this one he changes the truck, and it still looks so good. It looks like the spot was made for that trick and the fact the way he goes out to fakie is perfect. It made me realise that you could do a slide to manual and make it look dope.
The first time I met him I was surprised at how mellow, nice and nerdy he was because he skates like the ultimate G, but he felt like me, a kind of shy, skate nerd that just loves to skate. I am always happy when I meet nerdy guys, it gives me hope that I can be as big of a G as he is on a skateboard one day [laughs].
5. Ethan Fowler: 360 flip – Stereo: A Visual Sound [1994]
There isn’t too much to it. It is just a really, really dope tre flip from a guy who used to be really stylish and then became pretty bad in his ‘rock era’. I love the way he kind of under-rotates the tre flip, he lands 270 and then turns the last 90 it makes it look so good. It makes it look like his trucks are super loose. Just an amazing tre flip.
6. Jason Adams: Slappy 50-50 to Switch Crook – Black Label: Label Kills [2001]
It was filmed cool. It is kind of random, it is cut quickly in the part. He does it so good. He has this crazy pointy nose that made me try to make an arrow-shaped nose myself just to look as cool as him. I don’t think anyone cared at the time, but the trick has become a cult classic. I’ve seen people mention it and Instagram pages repost that clip. I think it took people a while to realise how good that clip is.
7. Nick Rios: Frontside Lipslide – Polar: We Blew it at Some Point [2018]
The pole jam lipslide is just so beautifully executed. I like how it is filmed as well, it’s a clip that I think really benefits from being filmed in front, it kind of takes you by surprise. When this video came out, I don’t think many people knew who Nick Rios was – he quite literally sprung himself onto the scene with this one clip!
8. Gino Iannucci: Backside 180 Fakie Manual – Nike SB: Nothing but the Truth [2007]
It’s just on a volcano in a skatepark. It seriously looks fake. It is hard to explain. Just the way he goes back into the quarter pipe is magical. I was dumbfounded when I watched it the first time, I still think it is just as impressive and cool as the first time I saw it. I wanted to have some manuals in the list, and I would say this might be the best-looking manual trick that has ever been done in a video part.
9. Cyrus Bennett: Kickflip – Stussy: How Original [2020]
It's just the best kickflip that has ever been done. I love film and it is on 16mm. Usually on film you never get any gold, it’s usually just some weird run-up shot or if you get an actual make it is never the best looking one because you know the filmer is stressing about how much money they’re wasting. The fact they managed to capture arguably the best kickflip ever done on 16mm just makes that much cooler to me.
10. Jan Inge Janbu: No Comply 360 - Få Se
It’s the best no comply that has ever been done. It is just a no comply 360 on flat but he does it so well. It has the Oslofjord in the background and to me, it is a perfect clip, one that I could watch on repeat for hours. It has been my sig on my Slap profile as a GIF for years and I have been hit up by so many people asking who it is. I don’t think it is only because I am Norwegian, but I think that might be the best no comply 360 ever done.
He is one of the OG Norwegian skaters, he has probably been skating for forty years and he is still skating just as good as he was then. I think he is fifty-two years old now and he could probably still do a no comply 360 just as good today as he could twenty years ago. He is the nicest guy in the world, I can’t say enough good things about him, he is the best.
11. Jeremy Klein: Backside 360 – Hook Ups: Destroying America [2001]
The song that they use, the whole vibe of the trip, just looks so fun. Every clip makes me want to skate but that back 360 is so perfectly executed, the nineties one-foot steeze that a lot of people used to do, and a lot of people still do it but there is something about a good late nineties back 360 where the boards were a little bit bigger and shaped that gets me every time. That one is the best one in my opinion.
It is kind of weird to have three of my favourite tricks are in skateparks but that just goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you do your tricks as long as your tricks are done well.