11 Favourite Tricks: Sean Ryan
Images by Josh Heffernan
Sean Ryan has one eye. He literally has an eye that he can take out…
He also happens to be one of the best skateboarders that I know. Like so good to the point where skating a park with him sucks because he just makes you feel like you cannot skate when he is out there skating as fast as humanly possible, switch back tailing the whole ledge then gapping to something that no sane person would ever think about, let alone try.
The last few years for him have been huge and he has been filming non-stop going on trips regularly, while also holding down a full-time job as a biomedical engineer, where he builds prosthetic limbs for amputees both human and dog. He’s a man of many talents and also a man with some hot takes so with the release of his incredible part in Cameron Fraser’s masterpiece, Arcadia, I thought it would be a great time to get his 11 favourite tricks.
He also has a New Balance Numeric part coming out in their video, High Noon, in a matter of weeks, stay on the lookout for that part too. In the meantime, watch his part in Arcadia over and over and here are Sean Ryan’s 11 favourite tricks ever done (in no particular order).
Corey Young: Backside 180 Reverse Nosegrind – Private Joy: HEAVEN [2019].
It is perfect. The music sounds so boingy, it perfectly matches the way he pops out into the bank. I’ve had it recorded on my phone since 2019 when that Private Joy Hawaii clip came out, which is such a good clip. Corey has obviously done a lot of backside 180 reverse nosegrinds but this one is so pleasing to my eye. My one singular eye.
Glenn Wignall: Crooked Grind – Forays [2005]
I love The Wig. I am a big Wig fan. I don’t know when this would’ve been filmed, I’m going to assume it was 2005. He is so far ahead of the trend. Rolling into a grass hill is not something people were doing in 2005. The spot is amazing, it looks like they had to move a pillar or something and I’d like to think that because Glen is a bit of a spot fixer. It’s a perfect spot. It’s a perfect clip. It’s the perfect trick for it.
Jackie Michel: Gap to 5-0 – Limosine: I Just Took a Bite of Dirt [2022]
I think this is so sick. When I saw this clip, I was like ‘Holy shit. That is amazing, I need to start doing that trick’. I’ve been rinsing this, just trying to gap to the end of ledges and rails to 5-0. All my friends in Sydney are calling it the ‘Jackie Michel’. I hope that sticks, calling any gap to 5-0 on the end of a ledge or rail becomes the ‘Jackie Michel’.
Bobby Dekeyzer: Back Nosegrind Revert – Quasi: BOB [2020]
This is a perfect part. There are a few perfect parts in my opinion, and this is one of them. There isn’t a single clip in this part that shouldn’t be in there. The music, b-roll and everything makes so much sense. The rumours of Bobby Dekeyzer being on Quasi had been spoken about for so long so when this part finally came out it was like ‘Finally thank god’.
Cameron [Fraser] and I went to this spot when we were in Toronto. It is actually impossible. The ledge is seriously less than ten centimetres wide. I don’t know how he did it. It’s phenomenal.
Nick Boserio: Gap 50-50 – Polar: We Blew it at Some Point [2018]
This part is amazing. The song ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ is so incredible, it’s Neil Blenders band. I love this clip so much because obviously it is such a crazy trick, and it looks terrifying but the drums come in when he lands and starts running down the stairs. It syncs up to the drums perfectly. It scratches an itch in my brain.
Ryan ‘Rhino’ Wilson: Ollie line – Skylarking [2008]
Obviously, the trick itself looks crazy, but it’s not until you go to the spot and try to roll down a bit of it you realise it is basically impossible. If you just drop in next to the ledge going down the hill, you get so much speed. Then to do that while going down the skinny ledge that isn’t much wider than a board and ollie those two gaps. It makes no sense. I also think it is so sick he does a fakie flip and just turns around before he does it. It’s so funny.
Rhino is such a good skateboarder, he is such a nice guy, and kind of like an enigma. He unlocked so many spots that people skate now and get buck on. He unlocked them with an ollie, but no one would’ve skated them if he didn’t do that because they are so gnarly.
Gilbert Crockett: Kickflip Nose Manual – Quasi: Mother [2018]
This clip kind of speaks for itself; it is a waist high kickflip over a barrier into a nose manual down a bank. Gilbert Crockett is one of my favourite skaters ever. He goes crazy in this part. I have never seen this spot before. It would be so scary going over that thing to nose manual and then to kickflip into it is crazy.
Ben Kadow: Boardslide Line – Supreme: Play Dead [2022]
I actually don’t know what to say about this clip. This part is so sick. He skates to Billy Joel. Obviously, he does some crazy skating in this part and it’s so insane to me that a boardslide on a ledge is what I think about when I think about this part.
Jake Johnson: Slappy 50-50 – Static IV [2014]
He levitates into the 50-50. He shouldn’t have landed it. It doesn’t make sense he landed it. The way he wallies up into the 50-50 makes no sense. He just levitates.
Riwaz Kazi: Bigflip – New Balance Numeric: Gazette [2022]
In my opinion, this is the best bigflip that’s ever been done. I might be biased because Riwaz is one of my besties, but I don’t think it could’ve been done any better. I wasn’t on the session, but I found out pretty soon after he landed it.
Whenever I think of bigflips I think of his bigflip in the same way that when people think of a frontside flip they think of an Andrew Reynolds frontside flip. Obviously, he’s my friend so I’m probably biassed but to me he has the best bigflip in skateboarding.
Rhys Grogan: Switch Flip Attempt – SONDER 04 [Year Unknown]
The clip is from a Newcastle video by Jesse Ambrose. Those guys just went down to Sydney one day and in the video, Jesse is just filming everyone try skate Aurora, someone’s trying to hardflip it, someone else is trying to half cab heel it, then Rhys comes out of nowhere and tries switch flip and lands on the bottom step. I didn’t know who Rhys was when I saw it and I was like who is this freak with blue grip, landing on the last step, this is crazy. In the clip he also stomps nollie backside flip. After moving to Sydney and meeting Rhys and all those guys that session came up in conversation. He told me he was drinking what they were calling his ‘magic potion’ which I think was a water bottle that had a beer, Monster Energy and a blue Gatorade in it. It was his ‘magic potion’ to skate Aurora. He has blue grip. He lands on the last step. It’s so Rhys.
He was saying recently that he wants to try it again which would be so beast because he is going to be 39 soon and he is actually better at skating than he’s ever been.
Closing remarks: I didn’t give this that much thought. They just popped into my head when I think about clips that I like. All these clips make me really, really happy when I see them. To me that’s what a good clip is, something that makes me happy.