By Justin Lynch - 01/24/05

Dave Leroux is easily the most under rated Pro Vertical Skateboarder in history. The first time I ever saw him skate I was amazed at his abilities. At any point in time Dave could unleash complete sickness from a never ending bag of tricks that to this day will not be duplicated in style or execution. Dave was a technician, I would often see him fiddling around with something on vert or mini ramp that looked pointless or a waste of time. He would start off small and build his way into his tricks, then he would polish them with an artists touch. Simply put, Dave could do any air variation conceivable at the time with grace and tweak it like a yoga instructor. This was only one side of his skating, he could also cut the lip apart with every imaginable nollie lipslide or grind and spin around the ramp with head high alley oop gay twist variations better than you even if you had twice the hang time! He was the only person I had ever seen fly around the ramp doing nollie everything and then tweaking after that on re-entry. Let me remind you this was 1990 and doing a nollie of any kind was an achievement, he was basicly doing them on every trick in the air or on the lip back to back. How about Alley oop nollie indy tuck knee tweak to disaster? Or Alley Oop Nollie to goofy feeble grind the wrong way slapping disaster on re-entry? Did you follow that? You will not see even the best vert pro's doing that stuff and that to me is why he is a legend because much like an artist there work can only be appreciated and understood when after 15 years it is not being duplicated.

I just get all pumped up to skate thinking about the things this guy did. I never would have been as good if it was not for Dave. I distinctly remember one day in the middle of a session wondering why he was holding back so much only to watch him crank anything he did up 5 feet higher any time he wanted and go off of the ceiling frontside. It was never a question of what Dave could do, but when or how good he wanted to do it. What amazed me was his complete control of his skateboard; at times he almost made it look too easy. I often think back to some of the unbelievable sessions we had together pushing each others skateboarding and I was blessed to have such an un-believable talent constantly setting the bar.

Dave was humble and always played his skateboarding down, he never wanted to be part of the contest scene and boy was I glad for that being that was one less guy I knew could beat me at any time.

A loyal Santa Cruz Rider and in my eyes, and the eyes of his peers, never got the props from his sponsors that he deserved. He was there flagship talent and should have had much more coverage in video's than he got. Dave LeRoux is a bonified skateboarding legend and if and when there is a Skateboarding Hall of Fame would be my nominee as the most under rated talent the sport has ever had. No one will ever ride like Dave Leroux, many of us had the privilege and experience to ride with him every day in his prime and get sent to school every day. I was one of the lucky few that he helped to push my limits and looking back those were some great times. May his legend live on forever.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT LEROUX'S WEDDING (DEC 29TH, 2000)