FLIP AMS
Feature: 6.3SE
Skate
FLIP AMS GET BALLISTIC
wordsby rhianon bader photosby ryan allan and tommes gentsch
Flip skateboards has always had a knack for discovering and recruiting mindblowing young guns for their am team. Meet Luan, Louie and Curren.
By Rhianon Bader.
Quito, Ecuador, is far, far away from the epicentre of the skateboarding industry. The downtown streets are always packed with assorted vendors, bumpin’ salsa music, heinously decorated buses and gringo tourists like myself. There are not many skateboarders, and the street spots are fun in a run-down, security-guards-with-machine-guns sort of a way. There is, however, a pretty fun skatepark called Parque Carolina… This is where I first saw Flip’s newest pro, 18-year-old David Gonzales, skate a few years back. He was probably 12 or 13 at the time, visiting Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia on a skate trip with some older compatriots. A crew of us went skating around the city, and it was quickly obvious that Gonzales was oozing ridiculous talent that you could spot a mile (or a continent?) away. I wasn’t really that surprised to learn he was getting stuff from Flip, but I remember thinking “how the hell did they find this kid?”
