“Harold Hunter was the Mayor of New York skateboarding. He touched people’s hearts within seconds, where I’ve seen people almost fight trying to claim they were his best friend. That’s how amazing Harold was. He was the go-to guy to have a good time skating – comedic and super charming. Harold had one of the smoothest Nollie Heel and Backside 360 ollies. If Harold was still walking these streets, I can see him have a successful Skating TV show on the travel channel.” – Alex Corporan
Harold Hunter Day is this weekend. Not that you needed a reminder of why Harold was so influential, but check out his part in Zoo York’s Mixtape from 1998.
OK, I’m going to call out the emperor to say he’s not wearing any clothes: sorry if I offend anyone, but I’ve never understood why of all the dead skateboarders Harold Hunter should be the one to be called “legendary” much less have an annual day commemorating him. I’m not ‘hating’ here – I never knew the guy personally – but I’ve genuinely never understand the whole phenomenon of dudes who would have been wearing diapers when Mixtape dropped rocking T-shirts with Harold’s face on it. I mean I’m sure he was a nice, or at least highly popular dude behind the cocky exterior ( I always suspected he was pretty much playing himself in KIDS) but is that enough to make you a ‘legend’? I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t exactly blown away by his skateboarding at the time. Yeah, homie could nollie heel, three flip on flat, do a back tail and then a noseslide on a knee-high ledge. Come on, even in 98 you’d generally have to bring a little more to the table if you were serious about going pro. Why was he so ‘influential’? I mean speaking of dead 90s East Coast skaters, somebody like Matt Reason would seem to have been far more influential: dude pretty much started the (switch) wallie/pole jam, tech-gnar in the streets-thing that is the template for street skating today.
Most people would agree that it was Harold’s humor & personality that made him legendary.