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Josiah Gatlyn
Goldsboro, North Carolina
Fifteen-year-old Josiah Gatlyn is the kind of skater that I remember being when I was his age. Josiah lives in a small town, so there are probably not too many spots that are easily accessible to someone who isn’t old enough to drive. You just gotta skate what you can. Josiah has a wide variety of footage in this video, which is always a good thing. It's edited pretty well and the filming is decent. He also has good board control, which is obvious by his flip trick variations. I like Josiah’s 360 flips, he does them really proper.
One thing that I noticed about Josiah’s video is that the tricks he does, even though they are good, are done down fairly small rails, gaps and drops. If you’re trying to get sponsored, you really need to do your tricks at the same level or beyond the average amateur skateboarder. Doing tricks down six stairs isn't really cutting it when everyone in the videos and mags are doing the same tricks down much bigger obstacles. That being said, I realize that Goldsboro probably doesn’t have a bunch of perfect 10 stair sets or the best spots. My advice to Josiah is to take some risk, charge it and go bigger.
I can tell that Josiah really enjoys skateboarding, and if he sticks with it, he’ll naturally progress and skate more challenging spots. Thanks, Josiah, for sending in your video this month. Enjoy your free pair of Emerica shoes!--Jeff Henderson
