First time that he made an impression on me was when I saw his Look it Up segment. At the time, I remember thinking to myself that he was "great for his age" I don't know how old he was when that was filmed, but I'd guess 15 or younger...or he just looks young for his age.
In any case, the thought that kept occurring to me was that his style was so refined and distinctive for being so young. I know a lot of kids who are talented athletes at a young age who are capable of hucking themselves and carry an impressive bag of tricks, but they almost always have that "I'm going through puberty and I don't quite know how to work all of my limbs yet" style. There's a shot in Look it Up where Dale tail presses a c-box that is just dirty...don't know if anyone remembers that or not, but it was honestly one of my favorite shots from the whole flick..even if it wasn't necessarily technically of the charts. You could just tell that he "got" it.
After seeing his segment from Metropolis, my thought was that he had matured into a phenomenal park skier, but not necessarily anything overly special. Meaning, nothing suggested to me that he might emerge as one of the best in the world, or as a legitimate consistent podium threat/segment of the year kind of guy
Well...
I just watched the Spring edit, shot and edited by the highly underrated and under appreciated Evan Williams.
I'm now prepared to say that it's obvious that (heaven forbid an injury) he is on his way to the top in a hurry. That was one of the most impressive pieces of park shredding I've ever seen. That edit—shot over the course of 2 days—absolutely annihilated pretty much every superunknown edit of this season; which are typically the culmination of a season's (sometimes half season) worth of riding and filming.
His repertoire of both left and right tricks, his rail game, and his style are stupidly good. If he is given an opportunity to get some shots this spring at either PBP or Level 1's annual park shoot, he will easily upstage some of the topguns from either program.
I'm calling it now: This spring edit will be a turning point in his career and will be similar to how Wallisch's SU entry signified his coming out as an absolute force.
Watch out.
