Trick Suggestion: Bert Slides (or similar)

In this post I attached a video full of text commentary and notes that explains the majority of this post in ~2.5 minutes. it uses skate 2 footage but I suggest this to be a feature added to "Skate. (2025)"

While I was playing Skate 2 I noticed I was able to powerslide while grabbing -- I dont even remember if you could do this in Skate 3 because I genuinely never done it despite having played that game for hundreds of hours. 

I think this feature should come back in new skate. And like every trick return it should be overhauled in some way, like adding a more pronounced animation or physics/utility to it. This is where Bert Slides come in (and similar slides like laybacks).

I suggest two implementations -- either one can be chosen or the devs can experiment with a hybrid.. or a completely new idea if it doesn't work out.


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First implementation (simple)

Add an animation to the grab. Much like how powerslides have a start up animation, hold pose, and ending animation -- with some unique physics on it so there's utility aside style (not identical to the standing powerslide in function). 

Will mostly only apply to FS grabs since this is the most common grabbed one I can find. But basically it's a heavy lean back with the hand behind. Skate 2 has a more angled movement in powerslides by default that compounds as you slow down for some reason, in new Skate it's more straight. But maybe this trick can alter powerslide behavior to be angled and drifty like it was in Skate 1-3.

The input: hold FS grab then do a FS powerslide.

Devs can probably find a way or experiment with poses that might make sense for variations such as 

FS grab / BS slide
BS grab / FS slide
BS grab / BS slide

These other grabs and slides sound kind of unnatural and I didn't find any IRL examples of them with my light research. But the general idea is the ground-hand being in a position that will cause a more circular/angled slide.

the ultimate lazy option (which would still be cool) is just making the FS grab / FS slide special. The other grabs will have no hand to ground animation but still leaned-away when you input powerslide.

Second implementation (complex / actual bert slides)

These bert slides don't grab the board - they vary quite a bit, both frontside and backside can be done one-handed or with both hands, people seem to call them bert slides either way even if they might be more properly named "laybacks". The devs should chose which look good, or whether it's random -- OR if one-handed/two-handed can be executed specifically. Again this can be a way to change the default powerslide arc/strength like the first implementation but it might be inputted differently.

Input: Do a powerslide, then press both triggers for a two-handed version, or either one trigger to do a one-handed version with that specific hand (fs hand or bs hand)

Alt. Input: hold half-pressed triggers, then Powerslide. -- again either trigger or both triggers can change if you do a one handed version or two handed version, powerslide direction (FS/BS) should be considered btw.

The reason why I suggest an Alt input is because I'm unsure how much wind-up or start up there would need to be for the skater to naturally go from standing to side-planking. the "alt. input" is more friendly to activating a dedicated animation from the start and seems more versatile in powerslide pressure sensitivity with LS -- seems better than the first input I suggest which is more timing based.

Alt. input 2:
I think fully grabbed powerslides should still be a thing alongside ungrabbed bert slides. But if the devs think its better for the player to fully hold triggers and the character to un-grab then enter the bert slides that way -- then that will be fine. In this case the input would be exactly the same as the first implementation which is just holding any grab and inputting any powerslide. Probably more intuitive - it seems like this would fit skate more, but I think the FS grab / FS powerslide (grabbed FS bert slide) still has steeze so maybe it should be a special input - or a style if a styles update happens.


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MISC ideas/comments

At fast speed the "Bert slides" are not stationary, they look like you're drifting but somewhat in a baseball slide-ish pose with your feet on your skateboard - longboarders somewhat do this. Only seen them grabbing the board in FS slides, in BS slides they dont grab and tend to use their back hand to slide on the ground instead. This kind of dissolves the intuitive-ness of holding a trigger = grab, but since this will only happen during a powerslide maybe it's not a big deal.

On flat ground it does exactly the same thing on a ramp, in-fact there's no difference. this trick just conforms to terrain. Currently belly sliding off-board shows conforming to terrain is somewhat possible, but bert slides do have two points of contact (upper body and skateboard) so maybe its more complex idk, devs would need to experiment with it.

Maybe glove types have different friction -- kind of like the legacy wheel hardness feature. Also adding gloves as a new style option would just be great. bare-hands would have the least friction I bet since putting any weight on the hands at speed would suck, less leaned aswell - but that's definitely too nitty gritty for this game

Overall the intention is to add depth to powerslides, add another way to change direction in transition or even flatground  - making cruising or having all 4 wheels to the ground more fun.

My philosophy is that an input plus another input should do something that makes sense. Currently nothing happens if you try to powerslide while grabbing,  but in old EAskate games it did do something why not add this feature back and overhaul it?