Mike McGill

Mike McGill (born 1964) is an American skateboarder. He is best known for inventing the McTwist, an inverted 540 degree mute grabbed aerial which he first performed on a wooden half-pipe in Sweden in 1984 and then at the Del Mar Skate Ranch in a concrete bowl when he returned to the US. He was inspired by Fred Blood, who had performed a 540 on roller skates. It was a groundbreaking trick that dominated skateboarding for many years afterwards. Only a handful of pros were able to learn it at the time. The trick was named by fellow teammate Rodney Mullen, and is derived from "Mc" in McGill's last name combined with Twist, which had already been coined by Lance Mountain and Neil Blender with their invention of the Gay Twist – a Mute grabbed fakie 360 degree aerial. Fellow teammate Tony Hawk, inspired by the McTwist, went on to invent a 720 degree aerial, (essentially a double Gay Twist), and as a homage to McGill, named it the McHawk.

McGill was also a member of the Bones Brigade, an elite team of skateboarders sponsored by Powell Peralta who dominated much of professional skateboarding (both in contests and in popularity), for much of the 1980s. McGill mainly skated vertical, and when street skating began to dominate the industry, McGill turned to the business side of skating. He started his own skateboard company, "Chapter Seven" (which is now defunct), and opened his own skate park. Today he owns a skate shop in Encinitas, California McGills Skateshop [2] , as well as marketing a line of beginners' skateboards, safety equipment and portable skate ramps, rails, and Air Speed skate shoes through Wal-Mart.^[1] In 2006 McGill was featured in a commercial for the Discovery Channel as the inventor of the McTwist.^[2] McGill has also teamed up with Powell Peralta and reissued his signature boards from the 1980s. He continues to skateboard.

In popular culture

Stunt double for Christian Slater in Gleaming the Cube.

Skater punks OPM's worldwide hit "Heaven Is A Halfpipe" references Mike McGill's trick skills with the lines "I'm gonna twist out like Mike McGill, I'm gonna twist out cos I've got the skills".

Additionally, the Beastie Boys song "B Boys Makin with the Freak Freak" has a line alluding to McGill "Now let me introduce myself on this cut; I'm AD Rock I'm lit, like a motherfuck; Well I'm brewin' up rhymes like I was usin' a still; I've got an old school flow like Mike McGill"

References

1. ^ Search results for mcgill - Walmart
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}

External links

• Thrasher Magazine 20-year retrospective on the McTwist
• The Coast News article on McGill^{[dead link]}
• Profile of Mike McGill

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Name	Macgill, Mike
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Date of birth	1964
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