Talking about skateboarding is stupid, but we all do it. And the premise of a magazine is that although photos are a powerful force, the word, when used correctly, will always hold its own. There’s a lot of skateboarders in the world, but everytime I pick up a skateboarding magazine, I see many of the same faces. Much of their life is in the pages and before you ever meet these famous personalities, you know a ton about them. But there are guys out there who rip and no one knows anything about them. The guys who show up at a session, start skating, and everyone says, “Who’s that?” People mumble their name, “Oh, that’s Jikky Jack, he’s from Sacra-rosa-visalia-eugene-ville. Yeah, he’s a ripper.” The session goes on and then you part ways, never really getting to know that person. We tend to refer to these guys as Darkhorses. The Darkhorse rarely gets a mention in a mag, let alone a photo or story. The Darkhorse can skate anything. The Darkhorse is always broke. The Darkhorse will show up to a ramp jam and make everyone yell. The Darkhorse will enter the skatepark and skate like a pro. The Darkhorse also comes in many forms, not just Hessian as you may be thinking. There are flippity Darkhorses too. Casey Lindstrom is a Darkhorse.
Skating with Casey is really fun. With Nor Cal style, he skates like a pitbull: tough with finesse. He skates hard all the time and skates because that’s what he was born to do. Will he ever win Slam City Jam? Maybe, but not likey. Will he ever be a character in a skateboarding video game? It could happen, but I doubt it. Will he ever get the cover of TransWorld? It’s possible, but probably not. Will he continue to rip street and transition alike? You bet your sweet ass, captain.
I could interview my friend Casey and tell you his sponsors, how old he is , where he is from, who his idols are, who he skates with and who he looks up to, but sometimes, talking about skateboarding is stupid. In this case, I’ll let the photos do the talking. Keep ripping Casey. You rule.