Ode To The A.B.D.

By Reuben Barrack

In order to alleviate some of my boredom during the first wave of quarantine, I made a mini-montage for insta last year featuring clips I’ve done over the years that I also share with some of the top ams and pros in skateboarding. Not to clown or poke fun at them, but rather pay homage to having completely different backgrounds in skating yet similar ideas when it comes to spots and tricks. In an effort to revisit this topic during our second chapter of the pandemic, I wanted to delve deeper into this somewhat heated debate and discussion. How do you classify a trick that has already been done, more colloquially known as an ABD?

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A post shared by Reuben Barrack (@_mazeltuff_)

Some skaters do their research tirelessly to make sure they’re putting out new tricks on old spots, as shown by Manny Santiago’s recent California part. Others may be fully aware that the trick is ABD and don’t care, because it simply hasn’t been handled by them firsthand. And in most cases for the majority of other young skaters coming up these days, they just aren’t aware that the trick they’re trying has already been stomped a decade prior. Ignorance can be bliss, but there’s something about creating an archive for ABD maneuvers that interests me, being the inveterate skate nerd that I am. Which is why I really appreciate the work of IG accounts like @samespotsameangle in the pursuit of bringing awareness and respect to certain ABDs both past and present.

So, building off this ABD concept and taking it a step further, I compiled a list of songs for video parts that have already been used to add more layers to this piece. I also wanted to pose the question surrounding tricks done frontside and backside on the same obstacle. Although they’re different skaters with an opposite stance, would you still consider each move technically the same trick? Again, maybe none of this matters and you might share the same mentality as the words mentioned in Ragdoll’s Slaughterhouse intro: “Who cares. It’s just skateboarding.” Or maintain Reynolds’ thoughts from his Life on Video that “…if it’s an unintentional ABD, and you don’t know, then you’re fine.” Whether you’re a skate historian, spot enthusiast or just completely apathetic, please enjoy these classic clips from each video part presented below as we visually deconstruct the notion of ABDs.