"Street skater Matt Hensley was one of skateboarding's all time Game Changers. Throughout the mid to late 80's, street skating emerged from the underground, while the industry and the skate world's collective consciousness was still focused on pools, ramps and transition. Perhaps the most significant flash point of the tech street revolution that would almost entirely take over skateboarding by the early 90's was H-Street rider Matt Hensley's impact on this generation.

Footage: Dave Slosshbach, Dan Sturt, Fairman's Skate Shop.

Music: Tommy Tornado and The Clerks, Gypsy Ska"

Courtesy of Real Skate Stories

 "This dude was on a road trip to somewhere and randomly pulled into downtown Houston one afternoon and just ripped skating a few hours with me and this other kid i knew who was only slightly older. Super nice, super mellow, drew me a picture and signed autographs, then took off. One of the coolest things that ever happened to me."

"Such an influential skater. HStreet Shackle me not blew the other skate videos away during that era."

"Love that era of skating. It's just fun to watch that skate rat Hensley. Videos like this motivates me more than anything else"

"These clips are golden. Some were new to me. Anyone who didn’t skate through that era can’t comprehend how much ahead Hensley was of his time. Some of the tricks in the video took decades until they were seen again or became standard. For the most part of Hensley’s career, he skated on the old type of board design with steep concave, high tail, really wide at the front and almost no nose. It was difficult to skate street with those boards. But Hensley had so much board control that he could skate those board with style."