Top 5 Parts with Ben Rouse

The man with the brightly coloured hair, and even brighter trousers. You've probably seen Ben (AKA @888riddim888) charging round Central or Bute in a maelstrom of powerslides and bigspin variations that would be enough to make even Leo Valls' feel nauseous.

Ben comes through with a diverse selection of parts for this Top 5, some of them may take you by surprise and others you probably could've guessed... Have a read below to find out what you have to watch to become Cardiff's next sultan of 'skrrrrt', and if you only have time to watch one of these extremely fine selections, then make sure it's Dylan's 'Dimensions' part for a thorough education on switch inward heelflips.

Matt Rodriguez - iPath Promo, 2005.

A man who skates to the beat of his own drum (literally in this case), this part always reminds me I need to skate faster. Impossible not to get stoked watching this. I was such a fan of his back in the day that I used to cut my bushings in half like he did: no chance of that nowadays.

Mike Arnold - Lloyds, 2017.

I'm a big fan of parts focusing on one spot and this one takes the cake for me. New lines and creativity for days. Big respect for only gapping the stairs twice in the whole part, one of which was on a bike.

Natas Kaupas - Streets on Fire, 1989.

It's Natas, what more do you need? He skates faster than I can push and the part opens with a Natas spin. You will want to skate curbs for a week after watching this.

Leo Valls - Just Cruise, 2015.

I discovered Magenta when I started skating again and Leo Valls stood out to me. I'd never seen someone skate like that before, least of all having that much fun. Impossible not to go out and flatspot your wheels after watching this. (Skip to 6:38 for Leo's part)

Valentine Kuhl - SEVEN, 2016.

Watching pros is cool, watching homies is cooler. The hometown hero from Mid Wales, Val lived in Manchester for a while where he filmed this part before returning to Mid Wales. Everything about this part represents Val and his skating perfectly and I'm glad some of his stunts have been committed to film before he ascends to urban legend status.

Honourable mentions:

Dylan Hughes - Dimensions, 2009.

I watched this a decade ago and wondered how it could be possible to skate like that. Now I watch him skate in person and still wonder the same thing.

Sid Melvin - Out There, 2005.

This was the first skate video I owned and something about this part captivated me. I spent years trying to emulate his style, clearly to no avail.