5 minutes with Josh Dunstone

Skateboarders Josh Dunstone and Lowani Maluna at the In Your Face Magazine launch
Josh Dunstone (left) and Lowani Maluna at the In Your Face Magazine Launch in Feb 2025. Photo credit: Ollie Fans Melbourne

It looks like you’ve had a busy year so far: you were photographed and interviewed for In Your Face and you’ve been preparing for a fast-approaching freestyle-skateboarding competition in Germany. How has that been for you?

It has been awesome getting back into the game after having some time off to work on myself. Getting back to having these goals and opportunities to be a part of has been motivating and exciting. 

With your goals, what was that like to figure out when you’re a highly skilled freestyler?

It’s humbling. More comes from within and it’s some pretty personal goals that go hand in hand with succeeding. Success or achieving my goals isn’t necessarily winning though, it’s more about being able to create what I envision and bring that to life. Being able to perform a routine, pictured and practiced every night, for an invested audience. 

Have you sought any help and guidance along the way?

I’ve been on a bit of a self-care journey and 18 months ago I made the decision to see a therapist. After a year, I felt my mental health was a lot better, although it still needs work, and that was when I wanted to work on the physical.

I made the decision 6 months ago to find myself a personal trainer to not only help with contest prep but also general health and fitness.

Skateboarder Josh Dunstone working with his personal trainer.
Josh Dunstone working with his personal trainer in the lead up to World Freestyle Skateboarding Championships.

The progress I’ve made and the help I’ve received after seeking it and seeing things through with an open mind has helped me tenfold. I feel I’ve gained so much knowledge on my body and mind and found the recourses continue to help me. 

What has been your biggest challenge preparing for this year’s competition?

It’s hard to list just one but I’d say getting over the mental hurdle of failure. Doing everything in my power this time around to train and prepare has helped give me that confidence in myself and my abilities again.

I also saw after reading In Your Face that you’re from Mordialloc. It’s not a good area for skating, especially freestyle. How has living much closer to the Melbourne CBD affected your skating?

Yeah, growing up as a Mordy boy and the only freestyler in that area was a bit of a hurdle but I honestly loved it. I made the most of the limited spots available, hitting the only lit-up car park every night as that was my only option, and I think that made me more dedicated.

Having the city at my doorstep now is a blessing to have. There are so many amazing spots which honestly I should take more advantage of, but old habits live hard and I mostly am at the training ground of Marvel Stadium as it’s closest to home.

'In Your Face' Melbourne skate magazine with a Josh Dunstone article.
Skate spot in front of John Kelly's 'Cow Up a Tree' (Docklands, Melbourne).
A freestyle skateboarding session outside Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria.

I grew up around Dandenong which is now much easier to at least freestyle in compared to back when I was a kid.

Surely there are other suburbs that are fantastic to skate in. Do you have any areas around Melbourne you would like to skate more in if you could?

Not necessarily. To me nothing compares to the concrete jungle known as the city. 

[But] as a kid I used to catch the train to random suburbs and look for different spots to skate.

Do you happen to have any funny stories from travelling around to suburbs to skate in?

Some of the most amusing moments for me is how people react to me doing freestyle in public regardless if it’s at a skatepark or a random spot.

Kinda funny, kinda concerning story: when I was younger I had a parking garage I used to skate super close to mine every night, I spent hours on end battling tricks and one night I ended up passing out from exhaustion. Woke up in a lady’s car. Thank God I knew her as she lived right behind the car park and was super friendly and understandably concerned. Her dog’s name was Spidey. 

And, of course, I need to ask, ‘Why freestyle?’

Endless creativity. The joy it brings me to have the ability to express myself on a board with complete freedom. The weight of the world off my shoulders when I’m rolling. Pure fun and creativity.

An older video of Josh’s freestyle skateboarding. You’ll find his more recent lines on Instagram.

Connect: Melbourne skater Josh Dunstone (IG: @josh_stinger_dunstone) first competed in freestyle skateboarding at the World Round-Up 2016. Since then, he’s gone pro, representing Maple Road Skateboards, invented a new rail flip (the Kangaroo flip), and raizor-tailed way too many skateboards (we’ve tried to get him onto skid plates but he’s not having a bar of it).

For the love of the daffy

Predating Rodney Mullen’s professional skate career, the daffy is a rolling trick performed on two skateboards.

Four shots of Hitomi Komatsu on two skateboards.
Daffies by Hitomi Komatsu. Photo source: Freestyle Sk8 Magazine (2023).

A standard daffy consists of one foot doing a wheelie while the other foot does a nose wheelie. ‘Variations include rollerskate-like double-board tailwheelies and double-nosewheelies, but also crossfoot wheelies and spins’ (FSKB n.d.).

The daffy is also known as a ‘yeah right manual’, thanks to Tony Hawk’s games:

We’ll delve into the method behind this trick one day but, for now, we just want to make an appreciation post on the daffy and the skaters who own it.

Ellen O’Neal

Skating in competitions as early as 1975 (Porter 2022), Ellen O’Neal was a trailblazer for freestyle and women’s skateboarding. With a background in gymnastics and ballet, O’Neal had a ‘smooth, dancelike style’ (Gordon & Smith 2025). ‘She spun around on two boards at once: she resembled a figure skater, or an acrobat performing on a flat surface’ (Nusbaum 2020).

Warren Bolster asks Ellen O'Neal how she feels about 'two-board maneuvers'.
Skateboarder interviewer Warren Bolster asking Ellen O’Neal about daffies (1975).

Appearing in Skateboard – The Movie (1978), she inspired a generation of female skaters.

Lynn Cooper

Lynn Cooper started competitive freestyle skateboarding in the early 80s (Cooper 2021). Nowadays, he still competes and invents new tricks. Lynn is most well known for his Cooper flips, but he also daffies, performing them in runs such as the 1989 Savannah Slamma Pro Freestyle Contest and, more recently, the 2024 US Open of Freestyle Skateboarding.

One of our favourite Lynn Cooper clips is at Huntington Beach, CA; it showcases a fluid daffy style where tricks roll into the next and is a mesmerising watch.

Hitomi Komatsu

‘If you can’t ride one board, ride two skateboards’ was the advice Hitomi Komatsu received when she struggled to learn mainstream freestyle tricks like rail flips and caspers (Freestyle Sk8 Magazine 2023). Since then, Komatsu has focused on daffies, completing entire competition runs on two boards. Inspiration comes from not only other freestylers but also from inline skaters. Her preference for turns and gyrations and an aversion to banger flip tricks has resulted in long, flowing lines.

Isamu Yamamoto

The first freestyler to win a world championship using two skateboards (Surfer Today n.d.), Isamu Yamamoto is one of the most technical freestylers on the scene. His skateboarding is always innovative and it is the same when he is on two boards. Daffy lines feel less grazioso and more staccato with the liberal use of propeller pivots and two-board flip tricks (i.e. shuvits, impossibles, fingerflips). Yamamoto’s two-skateboard-trick bag is so varied that we’re going to have to leave more than one example from this Japanese maestro.

Special mentions

No daffy discussion would be complete without mentioning Kevin Harris: in 1979, a seventeen-year-old Harris completed 1032 consecutive two-board 360s, setting a new record (Guiness World Records n.d.). In a Ride Channel video, he talks about the experience and explains the mechanics of the trick.

Cheyenne Williams is also another skateboarder to watch. The amateur freestyler has been putting work into daffies and adding them to her competition lines. It will be interesting to see how far she progresses with these.

A final word

While some skaters think that daffies are dorky, two-board tricks are a part of our freestyle legacy and, when done right, can transform a routine. We’ve shared some of our favourite daffy clips from some serious daffy pros; if you think we’ve missed some hidden gems, please let us know in the comments below.

REFERENCES:

Carpet boarding for freestylers

Somedays skateboarding is not an option. It’s hot. It’s raining. It’s nighttime. You’re tired from work or the giant skate sesh from the day prior. You’re injured. Some days are just carpet-boarding days.

What is carpet boarding?

The name pretty much sums it up: stationary skateboard tricks on a skateboard deck, usually on a carpeted surface.

Carpet boarding is generally safer than skateboarding because there are no slip outs and it’s harder to roll an ankle or fracture a foot, making it a great confidence builder for beginners or for anyone learning a new trick.

It also requires less space. A couple of square metres is usually enough room for some carpet boarding.

However, carpet boarding isn’t necessarily easier than regular skateboarding; ollie kickflips, for instance, can be a challenge due to the reduced pop.

Additionally, carpet boarding is not risk free. As per video below, falling still happens. Sometimes you even land in rail (which is really not fun while carpet boarding).

Failing and falling from fingerflips.

So before your carpet-boarding sesh, clear the area of obstacles. Wear skate shoes. Use protective gear if you think you’ll need it. If you’re already injured, you may want to check in with your doctor or physiotherapist to determine which tricks are okay to do.

Most skateboarders will be familiar with practising street tricks on a carpet board. Shuvits, ollies, kickflips and heelflips are all fair game.

But can you freestyle on a carpet board?

According to YouTuber Midnight Snack Skateboarding, you can ‘pretty much practice any trick you want to on a carpet board [but] just know that some are going to be way harder than others’ (The Best Carpetboarding Techniques! (Skateboarding in the Winter), 30 Jan 2023).

Freestyle is definitely possible on a carpet board. Freestyle kickflips, caspers, yoyo hops, and fingerflips all function on a carpet board.

Many stationary freestyle tricks can be done on a carpet board.

It is also possible to practise freestyle footwork such as monster walks and endovers, smoothies and jaywalks, walk-the-dogs and walk-the-cows.

YouTuber Sarah Park-Matott is a fan of carpet boarding. Her freestyle footwork tutorials often recommend carpet-boarding as a footwork improver. In this video, Park-Matott demonstrates ‘walk-the-cow’ carpet-boarding.

However, some stationary freestyle trick categories are incompatible with carpet boarding, chiefly rail tricks and truck tricks. These require trucks and or wheels to function.

Without skateboard trucks and offset wheels, rail tricks are impossible.
You thought you could rail flip without these? Nice try.

What carpet board should I use for freestyle?

Freestyle decks are expensive and hard to come by, so it’s okay if you don’t have a spare freestyle deck that can be used for carpet boarding. Any type of skateboard deck will do as a carpet board.

Just be mindful that the more different your carpet board is from your freestyle skateboard, the more adjustments you need to make when switching between carpet and concrete. For instance, a wider carpet board will flip slower for freestyle kickflips and fingerflips. Differently angled kicks or switching between double and single kicks will make caspers and fingerflips feel different. A change in concave and or wheelbase will impact footwork.

Both new and retired decks can be used for carpet boarding. New decks are great for footwork and tricks like tailstop underflips, since there won’t be any casper griptape (griptape on the graphic side of the kicks) catching the carpet on the pivot or scoop. Retired decks with attached griptape and skid plates will be the best approximation of actual skateboarding for tricks like caspers and fingerflips.

A retired Freakstyle Ghoul Witter Cheng skateboard deck.
The casper griptape on a carpet board will help caspers and hinder pivot-like motions.

Need more inspiration?

Back in the COVD-19 days, Waltz Skateboarding’s Mike Osterman did a freestyle carpet-boarding video. As well as caspers and freestyle kickflips, he attempted nosehook impossibles, varial tail underflips, varial fingerflips, 360 fingerflips, kickflip to casper, and some very sketchy tailstop to rail things.

Phillip Wingett of Plus One Skateboarding also made a freestyle carpet-boarding video. In it, he messed around with freestyle kickflips, shuvits, caspers (including caveman to casper), fingerflips, hand flips, popcorn stomps, walk-the-dogs, switchblades, and some other cool stuff.

Both videos are testaments to how much fun freestyle tricks on a carpet board can be. So, next time the weather sucks or you’re needing a lighter sesh, why not give carpet boarding a go?

How to not ‘fall out of rail-stand’

If you’ve attended one of Josh Dunstone’s freestyle sessions outside Marvel Stadium (Melbourne, Victoria), you might see him teaching new-to-freestyle skaters basic rail tricks, including heelside rail-stand dismounts.

In an earlier post, we explained the difference between heelside and toeside rail stand. Heelside is when the rail of the skateboard sits closer to the heels of your feet. Toeside is when the rail of the skateboard sits closer to the toes of your feet.

A heelside rail-stand dismount is the transition between heelside rail stand back to being on the skateboard with the feet on top of the griptape and or bolts. Other skateboarders might label this trick a ‘primo-stall dismount’, but freestylers generally do not for reasons explained by Stewart Storrar below.

Scottish skater Stewart Storrar explains why freestylers don’t like the word ‘primo’.

But I digress. Back to Josh Dunstone teaching newbies how to heelside rail-stand dismount. His first piece of advice is to ‘just fall out of it.’ In other words, wobble the board a little with both feet until the stupid thing plops down onto all four wheels so that you can aim to land on bolts.

While falling is core to the skateboarding experience, deliberately falling out of rail-stand is as clumsy and unpredictable as it sounds. The board resists tipping out of rail because the tight trucks and offset wheels provide too much stability. For a moment, you’re suspended in coconut-wheelie-like stance where you’re not sure if you’re going to fall on your face or your behind. A jolt runs up your legs as you land because you didn’t have enough time to remember to bend your knees. You land bolts but your feet are way too toeside, with only your heels resting on the griptape.

Falling out of rail really feels as awkward as it sounds.

Why fall when you can jump?

There is a better way to heelside rail-stand dismount: add a little hippie jump.

Heelside rail-stand dismount frame by frame.
Heelside rail-stand dismount frame by frame. 1) Knees are bent in preparation for the jump. 2) Downward pressure applied through the balls of the feet makes the board tip out of rail. 3) The body travels upwards. Legs extend out. 4) Legs are fully extended. Board has transitioned completely out of rail. 5) Feet catch the board. 6) Soft knees and ankles help absorb the force of the land.

To warm up, do some stationary hippie jumps on your board. When you jump, keep your gaze on the bolts. Focus on pushing through the balls of your feet, with the toes being the last part of your body to leave the griptape. When you land bolts, think about absorbing the force of the jump with loose, bent knees.

Mitchie Brusco talks a lot about how hippie jumps help ollies. Put aside the ollie talk and just look at how his toes are the last thing to leave the board. Take note of those soft knees and ankles.

Once this feels comfortable, get into the heelside rail-stand position. Stand with the balls of your feet on the wheels and the arches of your feet resting on the rail of the skateboard.

Push off, just like you would in a hippie jump. Because you are driving force through the balls of your feet into the wheels, this knocks the skateboard out of rail, ready for you to land back onto it.

At the start of the heelside rail-stand exit, pressure builds up toeside, tipping the skateboard out of rail.
At the start of the hippie jump, pressure builds up underneath the balls of the feet. This toeside-heavy force makes the skateboard tip out of rail.

This jump technique gives you extra time in the air to spot and cushion your landing. It also prepares you for rail flips; the additional air time is essential for makes/bails or extra rotations (double flips, triple flips).

Needing extra help?

If you’re still very new to rail-stand dismounts, jumping will seem intimidating at first. Don’t be afraid to break things down into more manageable steps. For instance, you can start off going from heelside rail to bolts while holding onto something and or while being on carpet.

Whatever you do, don’t practise deliberately bailed dismounts as this encourages bad habits. You need to attempt to land bolts in order to learn where to position your shoulders (roughly above where the bolts will end up) prior to and during trick execution.

Heelside rail-stand dismount (side on) frame by frame.
Heelside rail-stand dismount (side on) frame by frame. Notice how the shoulders are always positioned where the skateboard is expected to end up.

Wanting more homework?

Once you are comfortable with the basics, you might want to start fine-tuning individual elements.

  • Jumping higher. Later on, you’ll need the extra air time for rail flips, so jump as high as you can go.
  • Floating. Start trying to keep your knees tucked while you’re in the air. This skill will help you later on when you start to learn rail flips as it gives the board space to rotate beneath you.
  • Landing in different foot positions. Not only does this exercise mimic the unpredictable landings that you’ll experience when you start doing rail flips, it also allows you to seamlessly transition into the next trick.
Here are some heelside rail-stand dismount drills.

For those of you who are looking for a challenge, try

  • One-footed jumpy exits for extra style points
  • Landing cross-footed, varial, or into stationary wheelie for extra (x100) style points.
Josh Dunstone demonstrates cross-footed and body-varial variations of the heelside rail-stand dismount.

5 minutes with Simon Ingels

Why freestyle?

The first time I was introduced to freestyle was watching the Bones Brigade Video Show when I was ten years old. I remember seeing Per Welinder in the Venice Beach scene and he was doing his freestyle routine in front of this random local crowd. Like they just gathered to watch. There was breakdancing going on, hip-hop music, [and was] just such a ghetto street vibe!

Per Welinder skates at Venice Beach in the Bones Brigade Video Show (1984).

For some reason this looked like the coolest thing in the world! So I was always fascinated by the freestyle concept, and always wanted to learn it from then on.

What was the first freestyle trick you learnt?

I’ve been a street skater my whole life so there is a fine line between defining street-style tricks from freestyle tricks such as a kickflip, etc. I’d say the day I learnt a switchblade on a freestyle deck was when I felt like I had landed something freestyle for the first time.

Do you combine street tricks with freestyle or do you keep them strictly separate? And if you do combine them, can you give us an example?

Things like shuvits, manuals, nose manuals and big spins I love doing and it works with freestyle too. Doing a g-turn to shuvit out is one of my fave flat ground tricks to do for sure. I’ve still never done a kickflip on a freestyle deck, it seems completely different to a standard street board. I need to work that one out still!

Can you tell us a little bit about your setup?

My deck is a reissue Powell Peralta Per Welinder freestyle which I put a custom old-school-style griptape job on for the vibes. I also had to have custom skid plates made for it because no one was selling the plates to suit this shaped deck. A guy in Australia made them for me and sent them over. My trucks are the Independent 109s with the T-hangers. Wheels are Mode 55mm freestyle wheels with Bones Reds bearings. I’m also running some big 1/2″ riser pads but I’m thinking about putting thinner ones on to mellow out the ride height. It’s actually the most expensive skateboard I’ve ever set up!

Someone in Australia makes custom skid plates? Deets please?

Haha yeah!

There’s a guy I found on one of the Aussie skateboard collectors pages – his name is Davert Skate (I think). He makes rails, copers, lappers and more, mainly for old-school boards…[Finding him] was pretty cool because I did buy some modern-style skid plates from Mode but their shape was a little different to the old-school Welinder. The guy had to measure up the Welinder and design a template to fit the actual deck which I approved first so he could make them. I got my very own red ones. Now there is a template for them in Oz! I believe Powell may have released a few complete freestyle decks lately which I assume have their own skid plates nowadays too. But a few years ago I couldn’t find them.

Yeah, freestyle is still so niche in Australia, which can make it hard to find parts or even other people to skate with. Have you found many other Adelaidians who are into freestyle?

We do have a little crew that catch up every couple of months or so. My old school mate Ben freestyles a fair bit so him and his girlfriend Tanya started the Adelaide freestyle group!

A freestyle skateboard meet up in Adelaide
Simon and the Per Welinder (second from the left) at the inaugural Adelaide freestyle meet (Jan 2024).

It’s been great to hang out with friends and inspire each other. Myself, Blocky, Jason, and Tom Liggins are the older guys. Then there’s Jamie who is a teenager and his freestyle is amazing to watch!

Having a crew must be so helpful. Are there tricks that you’re all working towards at the moment?

We all have different tricks so it’s more like we all fire each other up, try and teach different things, and it also keeps us motivated to keep freestyling. Skating with your friends is always fun.

Final question. Who rocked it better: Per Welinder with the headband or Rodney Mullen with the white socks and shoes?

Now that’s a tough question. Welinder def brought the more punk feel to skating but I’m going to give it to Mullen for the perfect 80s ‘I’m here to kick ass’ skate nerd look.

Rodney Mullen skateboarding in 1988.
Rodney Mullen nerd rocks the white socks and shoes in 1988. Photo credit: Don Walheim.

Connect: Simon Ingels skates with friends in Adelaide, South Australia. They don’t just skate freestyle, but if they do, you might find them at the courts of the SA United Church Netball Association. You can also see Simon DJing around town; check out the deets on Instagram, @simon_fiction.