FRAMEWORK: Erik Mangal "Collective"

I met Erik 2 or 3 years ago. Before I really got to know him I would see him at Wedgewood with all the local guys. He was really intimidating haha. He was super tall and really good and didnt really go out of his way to talk to new people at wedge haha. But I understood, he saw it as the more people came to wedge the more chances there will be problems and stuff will get ruined.

I would hear all these stories from my friends that already knew him. One of my favorite stories was one that my friend Devon Curry told me. Devon was skating the Souderton Highschool one day when Erik and one of his friends showed up. Devon had already knew him and told him to try something down the 11 stair. If you grew up skating in the Harleysville or Souderton area the highschool 11 was something everybody talked about. I dont think Erik was really feeling it so Devon said he would buy him some chicken nuggets. So Erik went up and fs 180d it first try haha.

I still remember the first clip I filmed of him in the winter of 2007. It was a nosemanny revert to switch manny on the high pad at wedge. It was freezing and he had his glittens on haha (A combo of mittens and gloves). I remember he couldn't really try the trick that many times cause he was weak from the chemotheraphy. I found out Erik had cancer before I met him and I felt sorry for him. The only thing he wanted to do was skate and the cancer was keeping him from it. But Erik was always positive. I couldn't believe it. I thought about what if I was in that situation. I would be so depressed and bitter. But he never complained. He barely even brought it up. It really inspired me to see someone in that situation with such a positive attitude.

When me and Erik really started skating together a lot, he was already going through chemotheraphy. These regular treatments really take a toll on a persons body. They would make him really weak but he would always come out skating and still blow me away with his tricks. Eventually Erik was going to have to have a Stem Cell transplant that was gonna put him in the hospital for at least a month and he probably wouldnt be back to his full strength for about a year. Before he went into the hospital we tried to film as much as we could. Because of the lack of time we had we really just stuck around wedgewood and other local spots.

I remember the last two weeks before Erik went to the hospital I was going to wedge whenever I could to film Erik. Even if it was for a quick hour before I had to go to work. We tried to get as much footage as we could before he went into the hospital. Erik went into the hospital Late June and was in there til mid July. While Erik was in there we tried to gather together all the footage we could of Erik. We wanted to combine the new footage we had of Erik with some stuff from the past few years that he had filmed with other people. Thanks to Anthony Travis, Brad Allen, Brian Panebianco and Collin Welch for getting us footage of Erik and letting us use it in our video.

After Erik got out of the hospital he could barely walk let alone skate. But as time went on you could see him getting stronger and back to his old ways. Its been over a year since Eriks stem cell transplant and Erik is doing great. He is still killin it at wedgewood and has been cancer free since his stem cell transplant. If thats not an inspiring story I dont know what is.

I cant say enough about Eriks skating. I love Eriks part. His manuals and lines are so effortless. My favorite is defitely the bs smith on the white bench tre flip manny on the granite pad line. That is a pretty old clip that Anthony Travis filmed. I was blown away when I saw that. How perfect both tricks are.

Eriks part in our a video is just a small section of the things he is capable of. Its not like he asks me "Hey I wanna try these really hard tricks do you want to film them?" Most of the stuff in this part is stuff he does on a regular skate day. I would usually ask him if I could film it.

Erik kills the granite pad. Thats his favorite thing to skate. Brian Panebianco filmed his half cab nosemanny bigspin out. Thats another one of my favorite tricks in his part. Just the other day I saw him do a perfect nosemanny nollie fs flip out.

I filmed eriks two lines at the harleysville bank pads. That spot is hard enough to get a good manny trick on the first pad let alone get two lines their on both pads. Its so hard to set up that quick to get over the 3 stair. Erik is the only guy I know who can pull off stuff like that.

Eriks last 4 tricks Anthony Travis filmed and they are amazing. Nollie flip bs 5-0 on the brick at wedgewood, Switch Flip over the Barrier that I later found out was first try, nollie cab over china bump and cab over the 6 stair in quakertown.

If you have ever skated china bump you know how rough the landing is and how fast you have to go to clear that top of the ramp. Easily one of my favorite tricks at China bump and there has been a lot of them.

The quakertown 6 set that no longer exist was a pretty high six stair. I remember being psyched when I switch ollied it and my brother switch fs 180ed it. Eriks cab is defintely the best thing that was done down that set and I dont think he could have done it better.