Good, Crazy, or Crazy Good?

I just watched Corey Duffel’s Checkin’ In at Strange Notes and it makes me wonder about that eternal question all skaters ask themselves at one point or another “Are these pros really that good, or are they just crazy enough to try anything?”

Most of you know the feeling. You lay awake in bed dreaming of that trick you’re going to do down that six-stair. In your mind, it’s so easy. You’re so stoked because you know you can land it. You go over it time and time again. The next day you go there, and suddenly your knees are wobbly and you think “There’s no way I’m trying that.” Then you get depressed and go watch some skate videos with newfound respect for the guys who do that trick down 15 stairs like it’s nuthin’.

Corey Duffel is one of those guys I look at and think “I think he might not really be that good, he’s just crazy.” That is, I’m not sure if he has a natural talent for skateboarding, or if he just has so much fun and is so crazy that it makes up for any lack of talent he may have had to begin with. Dustin Dollin is another one. On the other side of the spectrum are guys like Koston and Paul Rodriguez who I’m not sure are too crazy, but they seem to have a talent that makes skateboarding come easy for them. Their brains and bodies work so well together that they’re confident and can do anything they put their minds to and make it look like it’s simple.

And of course there are people who may be a mixture of both. I think Greco is crazy, but I also think he has natural talent in spades. In other words, he’s crazy/good. I could go on with name after name and try to categorize who fits more on the crazy side, who’s more on the good/talented side, and who straddles both, but you tell me what you think.