Who Reads Blogs?

Apparently the numbers are thinning. Fuck it. I havent been up to date on internet videos in some time now, too many things going on. Have some park clips planned to come out soon as soon as i update my editing program. After that, this blog will probably shift focus to purely local content. Remember, video(s?) dropping in the next year. Holla.

P.S.
Remember a while back that Madars Apse clip I posted? who, oh who, is getting transworld coverage now? Mr. feeble fs flip fakie bank to bank, Madars Apse. Nice to see an artist get some recognition.

This is local-oriented shit.

But hopefully worth a read anyways. I haven't been updating much at all, due to full time work and part-time skateboarding. But, the park featured in alot of the montages in here, Anti-Gravity in Newport News, Virginia, has been bought out/sold out behind the backs of the business owners due to the landlord offering their building to a rival skatepark in neighboring Hampton. The winning park is Meko's surf skate and more, a religious organization obsessed with Team Pain ramp construction and vigilant about helmets for everyone, probably because they depend on mommies to pay their bills and mommies dont like when little jimmy scrapes his elbow, much less knocks his head once in his life on a go-to trick.

So anyways. Anti was informed last wednesday that Meko's would assume ownership of the building as of September 1st, meaning strict session times, higher prices for some of us, no relaxation, no cursing, no doing as you please, wearing helmets regardless of the fact that youve been skating for 11 years and know that injuries will come despite protective equipment and helmets are the least commonly useful types of said equipment...... basically you will not be allowed to be a skateboarder there. you will be a customer, a bill-payer, someone who comes in at the designated session start time and gets kicked out by a fucking faggot on a loudspeaker when your time is up. End of story.

So. The crowd at anti, a decidedly older crowd than that drawn by mekos, is out of a home. prospects from an out of towner, living here for only 4 months and known for marketing promises that cant be delivered upon, include a private, monthly fee membership-based park at a privately rented location. As anyone with a head on their shoulders knows, unless youre the berrics or owned by a very rich individual, indoor places are subject to lease agreements and therefore fallible as fuck. The time has come for the peninsula half of the Hampton Roads area have a permanent skatepark, free for public use, designed by skaters, and helmet free based on age waivers. Essentially, we need what Norfolk now has: a park essentially built, temporarily staffed then left to the skaters intentions by the city. Because of recent limelight grabbed by Kevin Love and Trevor Colden and the planned new concrete park in Virginia Beach (the city's fourth currently open skatepark), the timing is essentially perfect.

Yet I get a facebook message not to talk negatively about a private space modeled after the berrics, driven by ad revenue, kept open by high monthly fees to a select number of people, and based on film content.

What the fuck is going on. The readers here know I'm a purist, and core values have taken over my life especially in the past year. Gone are the hate-rants on various productions, although since this site was initially based on industry banter that was in one form or another common currency. Now, my friends need jobs. my friends need a skatepark. the scene needs a skatepark. Every grindable spot minus the two skateable handrails needs angle iron repair due to years of use. is it so wrong to be against an indoor venture, doomed to fail, driven by a marketing 'expert'? when did petitioning the city for a public place become a last resort, especially when it has worked before, although not quite as planned?

The state of skateboarding, I have realized, is based on locality strengths. places with strong scenes either have a notable skatepark, or a plethora of spots. Newport news now has neither, and in fact, the neighboring areas (yorktown, hampton, gloucester, isle of wight, williamsburg) have nothing of the sort either. The scene here morphs on something like a four year cycle: a key park goes under, a key spot gets destroyed, a key filmer leaves or quits, and only a handful of the former scene members remain in the long run. its bullshit that this place goes through that; the talent abounding here is truly incredible to witness, along with the attitudes of those possessing that talent. Never have I been in a place where so many awesome people are subject to such shitty surrounding conditions. Culpeper came close, but thats a small town, and this is an entire half of an area code in a densely populated coastal region vital to American defense. Crazy how the world turns. Im not here to bitch, I'm simply here to relay my thoughts and observations on this area. This place needs a permanent park. Anti-Gravity had the best vibe of any park I've ever been to, and it will stay in my heart along with the people from that park for the rest of my life. Please support Newport News skateboarding. Visit this link and join the group, spread the word to other skaters. Separation of church and skate means get the 'state' involved and fuckin make a place where everyone is welcome to shred.

Build a Newport News Public Skatepark

Park Clip

I've got a few gay tricks, R.J. has two clips, Rudy has one and Peter Smith has a couple as well. Made by Matt Dallmeyer, also featuring Zachary Highsmith, Josh Mohrbach, Daniel from Anti, and possibly others.

T-Puds. Biggest bang.

Damn. highly enjoyable to watch. the berrics shoutout in the credits is lame. but the back smith backside flip is a mean one. and the bump to bar back tail, and well, the other back tail.

Watch that shit here.

pretty much a part full of backside tricks that are really, really fuckin sick. WHAT is Plan B actually saving for their 'video in progress'?


Also Morgan Smith won BATB IV. Sick. hyped to see him over PJ any day of the week after that Nyberg bullshit and something else I can't remember from recently. It's cool that three people on earth can nollie 540 bigflip or bigger flip or whatever you wanna fucking call it, the nollie tre front 180, in a flatground game of skate and avoid a letter. bizarre.

What happened to the Berrics?

I dont know for certain. BUT my guess, and an idea thats looking more and more probable, is that he faked the hack for three reasons. one, theyre about to come out with a reconstructed version of the site. two, a supposed hack generates internet buzz which means even more publicity for them. Three, mike mo v koston is a key game and they can build anticipation and get people drawn in to the batb by putting it off yet another week. the berrics wins in every way.

My friend Hunter Gray asked me the question that makes up the title. After telling him, I decided it would be worth putting on here.

Yes, it contributes the buzz and inadvertently gives them publicity. BUT, it's kinda an important happening because even I was waiting for the games this week.

Really Honestly

I've kind of stopped giving a fuck about the industry. Anyone that still checks this page would probably have noticed this by now, so this is more or less a blunt and obvious F.Y.I. Speaking of F.Y.I., if you haven't watched the Digital dvd of the same name lately, please go find yourself a copy along with a fat hot dog wrapped in melted cheese. You'll thank me.

But that little tangent aside, and beyond all the obvious anti-berrics rants I could have made in the past month but decided the cardio-workout it provides my feeble blood pressure wasn't worth it, I've decided I'm going to run this blog pretty much however I feel is most appropriate in the moment.

Today, is fun day. Much like my past three or four weeks living at Anti-Gravity, I've been watching internet clips only if they look like they'll be halfway inspiring.

I have a couple finds related to this. First off. Some of you may have heard of him a while back; he won a DVS contest and got flowed their shit for a year or something like that. Transworld ad with a rock tre flip, etc etc, other cool shit that a geek skater like me finds awesome. So this part, filmed in Hawaii, really hyped me up this morning. If you've seen his other footage, it should be fairly obvious that this is not the epitome of what this little Honoluluian is capable of. But it's sick regardless.



Also quite cool but on the geeky side, this dude named Kyle Kraus that frequents this forum where I usually go to be mean to morons and also happened to discover Jason's skating. Basically, Kyle does whatever the fuck his acrobat body wants to do, and this video is another fun as hell clip to watch. Lots of crazy pressure flips, which I expect from him, but also some sick sal flips and body flipping and just general killin it.



Lastly, this montage is a really good concept, edited and mostly filmed by my french friend Aymeric Nocus, known to most on the internet as MRCK. His idea was to put together a universal clip, using footage from LA, SF, France and god knows where else. and it came out super sick. It's a tad on the long side clocking in at 15:00 but it's definitely worth the watch. Peep it! Then go skate til your legs are dead.

Anti 1.5

One and one half minutes. Filmed on R.j.'s pocket camera by him and Kenny Wonka (I filmed Londen's clip but left it out of the last montage accidentally). I slapped this bitch together in about an hour, pretty cool little clip, feel it out!



Featuring:
Julius Salters
Myles McIntire
Josh LeRoy
Cokey Stocker
Mark Caviston
Evan Dwyer
Jonathan Ruble
Chase Fuller
SB
Tony Monge
R.j. Venters
Taylor Shirk
Ryan Jones
Brian Henderson
Josh Mohrbach
Londen Lassiter

VX-of-Doom

Last park clip you'll be seeing from my dear old VX2000. Thank God. Sound is glitchy as shit, so hid that...... CCD's freakin out, so my usually lazy methods of editing had to include color correction this time around.

Featuring some rippers! Sorry there's no lines, per se. First anti clip i've ever made without me personally in it. Also the first one I've filmed entirely by myself, as a result. Fuggggg it.



Featuring:
Tyler McCoy (lens-hitter)
Matt Clarkson (360 guru)
Justin Hobbs (tech man)
Chris Vaneeklen (banger)
Londen Lassiter (late shuvver)
Grant Amspacher (park rat)
Neilson Thornton (green bean)
Cody Bamburg (film-fearer)
R.j. Venters (box-steezin)
Josh LeRoy (with a big R)


More later this week.

Things to Come

Say hello to Charley.




oh yeah, vids gonna be bangin. squirrels.

Really though, couple park clips will be up by next weekend.

Lotsa footy

I've very obviously been bullshitting about posting on here, mainly for a variety of not-so-befuddling reasons. Namely skating and being unemployed.

So while I had originally planned to harp on some of the highlights of the Berra-run DC ad campaign including such unfortunately sick clips as this, I think a much more appropriate post would be one to include two clips, one done by me and one by Charley over at sevenfiveseven.org, featuring a lot of the dudes working on putting together footage for Skatepolitik.

R.J. has a pretty intense drive to work out little filming projects on the side. This is the second one I've put together for him, this was all filmed on a little pocket camera and shows how to make shit happen with pretty much a camera, a board, and somewhere to put that camera. I edited this clip up last night, enjoy the R.J. Venters Showcase 2.0:



And also, Northside skatepark in Norfolk has been open for about a year now I guess, probably less. Anyways, I've been there a couple times but only skated it once, one very drunk Evan Dwyer backside flip graces the first clip slot in this bad boy, followed by a lot of Chase Norman gnar gnar that pretty much makes the montage all about him. Chad's mannerisms are on fine display in the intro. Filmed and edited by Charley Feher:



Unless I miss my guess and have a radical change in my life soon, this should be the first couple videos in pretty much what's about to be a storm of clips in the next few weeks. Stay tuned?

Cooler than BATB IV

fucking stupid they arent doing the next round until next weekend. its ten americans versus six foreigners. their whole idea of 'us vs them' is down the toilet now anyways. not to mention, NOT TO FUCKING MENTION, that blown up street league bullshit that makes my computer look like sports center when i try to get onto the berrics. fucking stupid.

In other news, George Hanuschack does probably the hardest tight tranny trick I've ever seen in this rad little clip from Traffic. That pop shuv nosestall on mickey mouse world in DC is just nuts.

Traffic Report 4/27/2011 from Traffic Skateboards on Vimeo.

also if you haven't seen Figgy and B-Herm's b-sides by now, roll over to hellaclips and check them shits out. Really interesting stuff. But send them an email to remind them how to spell Hanuschak, not HanuSHUCK like they have it.

also check out Toy Machine's tour video, most notably Ed Templeton's across and down nosebluntslide on a park ledge. My mind may be faulty and distracted, but to my knowledge, I do not think I have ever seen a nosebluntslide, neither frontside or backside, across and down a hubba. Park or not. And the fact that boss-man over at Toy did that particular clip makes it even cooler.

Color Me Antigravity

Edited by the homie/video collaborator Charley Feher. Featuring some of the dudes that will be in skatepolitik, and some randoms as well. I've got two tricks. Say WHAT? yeah, I feel the same. Strange seeing myself skate......

Color Me Antigravity from sevenfiveseven.org on Vimeo.

I have a brown shirt and I'm the fool that looks stoned in the intro. Yep. Check Neilson, the kid that back tails the small hubba and such and is also in the intro, and Londen, the skinny dude with the nollie double flip and switch back heel. Super rippers. Expect killer parts from them.

Since Day ONE

Oddly enough to my feeble mind, I've seen no mention of this video on any of the major blogs I read. I'm sure pretty much everyone in the country is aware this video has officially dropped by now, but maybe not. If you didn't know, it premiered Monday in skate shops or other related viewing venues around the country. I'd like to relay my premiere experience, being as it really mortified my senses and destroyed my diminished faith in the current state of skateboarding while at the same time giving me immense hope for generations to come.

First of all, the start of the event was delayed a whole hour, presumably for a homie who was on his way from out of town, although I didn't ask. Everyone crammed into the little assembly of couches and second hand chairs in order to watch a projection of the film on a stretched screen which I believe is canvas or maybe even a really durable sheet. Who knows. Everyone was positive going into James Hardy's shreddin opening segment, but I could feel the enthusiasm dwindling during Donnely's part. Perelson naturally got some gasps, but once we hit Torgy's part things really went downhill. Apparently I missed the memo that the only thing people wanted to see in this video were perfectly filmed Ishod Wair and Dennis Busenitz segments. Who knew. Although I was naturally talking a little bit of shit about the absolute dominance spitfire shirts held over the wardrobe aspect, a fad down here currently, I was very pleased with what I was seeing. Now, whether it was on purpose or by accident, the two filming 'masterminds', used loosely, really blew it on their angles for the most part, diminishing the true nature of the spots pretty much throughout and flirting heavily with High-Def incompetency. Which apparently proved to be the breaking point for the younger crowd. Because of when I grew up, I have to admit I was having heavy flows of middle school nostalgia for when I first discovered skate videos and went through the backlogs of the VHS industry. Now I guess, people want Ride the Sky, Debacle, and Fully Flared every time they open up a DVD. But as I said, I was very pleased with what I was viewing. I could tell the spots were fucking gnarly, and everyone was more or less holding to a ridiculously high and uniform standard of skating, making the parts hard to distinguish at first because of how hard everyone was ripping.

Now, alot of my favorite skaters to watch are on the Real team. Naturally Busenitz and Hardy are near the top of that list, with Justin Brock being a heavy favorite because of his North Carolina native status. I also like Dompierre, and Torgy was one I was highly anticipating as well. I knew next to nothing about Ishod Wair going into this, but he's on that list now for sure. Ramondetta was one I've never been too into, but I still respected his footage and let his part change my views on him completely. Then there's Schaaf, who's always awesome, Huf, who was one of my inspirations although it doesn't show in my skating, and Alex Perelson whose Volcom clip recently had lit the fire in my heart. Donnelly I didn't know much about other than he was supposed to shred, and same with Massimo. So I had high expections of this video, and in all honesty, I feel like they were surpassed. I've watched this shit six times in almost 48 hours.

But back to the premiere. Kids were talking shit when they realized this wasn't the kind of video they were expecting, to the tune of "did he walk to keep up with this line?" and "this guy sucks with his big feet" (referring to Huf) and probably the most surprising "the first guy that doesn't suck and he doesn't even have a full part" when referring to Kyle Walker. Another dude even motioned the thumbs down when I glanced back at him. That's right guys, your words are on the internet. You little haters. So after the perceived reason for the delayed start time said "fuck this" and went to smoke a cigarette, I was able to recover from the shockwaves of hate that had encapsulated my immediate personal space. By the end of the video, after laughing either to myself or out loud throughout Busenitz's skate-everything-and-do-more-tricks-than-required-to-make-a-cool-clip part because of his wonderful little tacked-on flatground and front 180s, I was the first in a very short line to buy it and walked away happy but aggravated.

How, you might ask, could someone hate this video "because it has the most ass-shots I've ever seen" to quote the night again? Who cares? This shit was raw. 20 bucks for a rad book filled with Morford photos and the DVD with about forty minutes of bonus footage is a miracle. AND some of the money goes to the Johnny Romano Foundation. But I vented on the way home, in more or less shock that kids could actually hate a video enough to leave even before Busenitz and Ramondetta came on the screen. Or better yet, how could they hate a video with Public Enemy, switch flip the LOVE fountain, and a billion super talented dudes in it? Just didn't equate. I know the obvious answer is they want the super polished productions of lately, which has in many ways made me doubt the professionalism and HD format we had decided to use regarding the skatepolitik video, but damn. Definitely didn't see that coming. The messageboards have of course been a-fire with discussion of Real, oddly enough to the tune of massive support, even to the point of condemning those grime snakes that are searching for a free download link. Don't even think of coming to me, I've been in touch with DLX reps the past couple days passing on links I find. I will be understanding in the pirating of berrics productions and berrics productions only.

But to think of pirating this video is bullshit. In some ways the reactions of the younger generation made me like this video even more. This video makes me appreciate the act of skating itself, fuck the presentation. This is how it used to be done. You get the trick on film and you use it regardless, not throw away tons of usable stuff because the filmer sucks or there was a slight tremble in your line filming. People that can't appreciate that are gonna fade their way into life's many depressing nooks and crannies, and wallow in their own lack of success eventually anyways. Can't save them. Yes, right now their mass control over the internet skate world and the local parks is a proven yet annoying fact of day-to-day life, but there will come a time, probably very soon, where that will end. When skateboarding stops being the job all the post-millenium birthed kids aspire to as a viable career. When people stop giving a fuck about making their trendy bigspin and back tail trick selections look perfect with their vulcanized bland colored shoes and their tall socks and cut off shorts. Not that there's anything wrong with that style, but everyone's doing it. Basically, I feel like this video either will be a measuring stick for true skate lovers, or a common ground that eventually unifies the lifers with the maggots. I'm cool with both, I'd love skating to be less inclusive and slimmed down once more, but everyone already in the mix staying there is fine too.

Basically this video is a surprising return to older, less fancy presentation methods and vibes. Buy this shit. It's easy on the wallet, good for the soul, and this is a video everyone should own. Straight murderous skating the whole way through. These boys are the true future.

Wow

Time flies. Not really. But I know I haven't posted since March 11 and it seems to me just yesterday I was cranking out that bullshit. Anyways, lots of things have gone on in my busy absence, notably David Gonzalez blowing off (whether staged or not) Reda's pre-game interview, Nyberg's controversial game of skate last week, and of course his bangin, which because of greedy Berra is not available on youtube. I hate to say it, but you should probably visit the berrics to check out that clip if you haven't. Alot of people are haters, but I've never even seen a laser flip back lip, and anyone who does that with an elmo graphic on his board is beast.

Uhhhhh anyways there's probably alot of other stuff that I'm forgetting about, but right now, I frankly don't care. I'm swamped with my senior thesis paper, along with some other life disturbances and I've been spending lots of time filming for the skatepolitik video. That's right. I said there would be one right when I started this up. Unfortunately, probably anyone that reads this lost interest last month when I stopped posting. If my facebook hadn't been hacked and deleted, I'd blow up the facebook world with advertisements to get readers back, but that will have to wait until they restore my friend requesting privileges.

And as for a link, I edited this up for my friend the other day, he's quite the diverse skate rat, and will hopefully have a full part in the video. He self filmed a lot of this and had randoms and homies point the cam in others... it's a little 'HD' point and shoot type deal, real small. The audio was a mess because of the echo inside the park so... I removed it, more or less. Check out the grimy boogie-smear at the very end. It's a chill clip. I like it. Song's cool too.

Monthly Madness

In six days it will have been exactly a month since I posted ROUGH online, and I'm assuming it's already more than that since I've written about anything anyone on Earth cares about. I could vent about my own personal problems at the moment but that's really not necessary, so instead of watching my dogs drag each other around by one leg I'm gonna do several things here:

1. The Bones video is FUCKING SICK. Yeah, we know, everyone wishes everyone had a full part. But Bartie is a monster, Decenzo and Gravette, throwaway or not, ripped to the hyped degree, and Jordan Hoffart cannot be stopped. Future legend in the making right there, easily. Front heel late shuvs are not something I ever expected to see, especially after creaming over Getz's kickflip late shuv over a park hip years ago. Also Dyet is a true grown-ass man. So gnarly. So..... ugly. Too beautiful. So that's out of the way now, basically. Go get that video. Buy it. I bought it. Hell, buy all the full length DVDs. Keep this shit going so I keep having things to get excited about other than plopping my ass on concrete to hunch my back and peer at my friends through a viewfinder and stuffing tapes into my pocket when authority shows up to bitch us out.

I must say though, pissed the land of Derrick Wilson's nollie heel down the Hollywood High 16 ended up somewhere other than the full length, since the attempt was in the promo. Bad move. Coulda really made Bones an industry must see with that one.

2. Tom Asta is now pro. Obviously you should have heard this by now. hellaclips.com probably enlightened you to his pro part, but here it is anyways, shoving his switch foot up Brian Wenning's fat ass with that switch heel:



Unfortunately, I liked his earlier footage much better. He's become an overnight sensation and he's turning into a carcass-hucking drone that does all his tricks to the fullest extent of proper. Like we definitely need more of that. WHY is he pro, and James Hardy, Hatchell, and such notables as Tancowny and Dane Burman (notice the camp affiliation, eh?) are not? Just because Chris Cole is backing him means he gets the nod before other gnarlier, more raw, and more creative dudes? I can't say I really understand. I don't dislike Asta, but I'm sure starting to.

3. Kyle Leeper has my favorite online clip in quite some time that some greedy bitch didn't try to charge to see, or didn't involve Randy Ploesser. The edit is epic, the skating is smooth and questionably slick, and the filming is fantastic. Hypes me up for slick skateparks.



4. Adelmo, as I mistakenly assumed when the LRG video came out, now has actually been separated from his dreads for real, in one of the most twisted fateful jokes life has thrown at a professional skateboarder probably ever. The vid explaining the awful legal mess is here:

DISCLOSED - ADELMO JR - DREADS from KAYOTV on Vimeo.

The sound might be off so try to pair what you hear with his lip movements and time them together in your head. He's a little hard to understand.

5. Randy Ploesser has a new part out from some video called Jake's Junt. Not his best, and some of the footy is recycled unless I'm losing my mind, but the front shuv wallride and the first well done fakie impossible I've ever seen are sick, and overall this clip is just fun to watch. Weird song though.



6. And last on my laundry list, Chad Fernandez from the Globe/World Industries days of yore put out a gnarly little part. Note the ender, which I feel speaks very highly for him in light of Figgy's front board.




Now if you haven't been keeping up with the "Glimpse" series on Da Playground, I'd suggest you add that to your list along with the BATB 4 which started last weekend. I've got Luan winning it all but we will see. Should be sick though. Ishod and Nugget was a great game, and so was the one with Torgy. But I'm not all about Reda's little praise sessions afterward. They're awkward. And pretty lame.

Also I suppose I'll post up this sick little local promo for a video out of DC, formerly a company full of either has-beens or people without steez. But the new blood seems to have corrected this, and this video is definitely cool, although I for one am completely over downtown DC footage since those kids up there essentially get a city of marble as a skatepark, and I equate whatever they do in the streets there as basically park footy for anyone else. Forgive me if that sounds unfair. But compared to the rest of the DMV area, downtown DC is about the only place that the spots aren't rough as shit. Nonetheless, Ghetto Birds down the Courthouse four are still very sick, and Stephen Jefferson is a monster.



Also I'm really hyped the Gold Rail is knobbed, although the performer of those tricks on it is Jonas Durney, a dude who grew up in the town next to mine. Once upon a time he was really sketchy and unnecessarily cocky, but hopefully that's changed, because the footage I've seen of him recently is pretty good for sure. The above promo was made by Leukemia survivor and Convoy filmer Adam Turrisi, props to him on the progression his videos have made.

had a ROUGH day

BUT

I got the bitch online finally.

If you don't care much, you can watch the whole video straight through right here. It's also downloadable, but then again it's a video I produced so who would want to download it?

And if you REALLY don't care, you can check out my youtube channel, which has the intro as the featured video so you get an idea of what you're in for, and you can furthermore watch each part one by one depending on your mood or tolerance.




and for a ditty of industry watchery, the most interesting clip I've watched this week is undoubtedly Raven Tershy. Usually I really don't like 180 fakie 5-0s on bank to ledges and small quarterpipes, but this one is nuts.



Also in other news, Shane O'Neil's throwaway/alternate angle clip that came out has the first REAL frontside salad I've ever seen in it. And notably, an unused switch back tail backside 270 flip out in it. Strange why this is throwaway if you ask me. If I had to guess, he's pulling an early Kenny Hoyle and not accepting the slightly-less-than-perfect landing.



The downside is that it's wayyy too long, and Nugget looks like a pudge lil target for bullies in the beginning.

Last, Josiah Gatlyn, aka boring boy, put out this clip of his uh, '2010' footage, which I'm guessing doesn't include whatever Stereo is sitting on? Is that where he still is?



I found only four of his clips to really be up to par with the hype that once surrounded him, those being the backside nollie/fakie double flip line, the really really long bigflip, the nosebonk/lazer flip clip, and the transition line, but that ones only on my list because of how good the blunt flip was and that he did try to do something different other than stairs. However, he's still got some gnarly stuff off that curved block stairset and his lazer flip and fakie tre down the double set is pretty beastly too. But again, as usual, there's a catch... so. little. trick. selection.

Valentine's Bonanza

In the midst of this gruesome holiday, I find myself just back from skating a damn flatbar only to realize my surprise dinner plans have been thwarted by my girlfriend who decided to visit her hometown today. Sweeeeeet. Anyways, seems like alot of shit keeps cropping up to post, and sifting through and deciding what's worth it amidst multiple cigarettes to boost thought process and a brutal porch-fire earlier this morning is not really working out. So. Since I spent too much time finding a fucking link for Lenny Rivas' "Glimpse" only to realize the embed option is on their site, I'm gonna talk about Kayo for a second to make myself feel better about getting my ass kicked on Black Ops, as is destined to happen after I hit "Publish Post"

The Glimpse series is fairly hit or miss, but essentially it's kayo's version of the Berrics. Needless to say, it's a breath of fresh air to see a park absolutely covered by graffiti and hear some good old fashioned rap music for once. If I have to watch something as utterly boring and generic as Mikey Taylor's Battle Commander from the Berrics again, I might really harm myself out of frustration. Kalis has had a clip, so has Marquise, Lima, and now Lenny. Lenny's is by far the sickest. He doesnt look like that skeleton inside a XXXL shirt from It's Official anymore. Nope, the goon look is gone, and his skating is interesting as hell, pretty much without warning. The whole reason I found out about this clip and "Da Playground" DGK park itself is due entirely to Mikey Taylor's Switch 180 front feeble in his Battle Commander. Yep, Lenny did it too. And although not as 'perfect' as Taylor's, the lock in is beautiful. Not to mention he does some damn interesting lines and some sick manny tricks. Do I now enjoy watching his footage? Yes, oh yes.

DA PLAYGROUND - DGK - LENNY RIVAS from KAYOTV on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, Marquise is still boring except for an inward heel manny front shuv, and Kalis filmed 50 seconds of his go-to tricks, which was a bummer. I fail to understand how he unleashed that retardedly good tre flip nosebluntslide in Habitat's Regal Road and has pretty much ignored that trick ever since. If it's been a while since you watched a perfect part, now would be the time to watch it. Interestingly, thinking about it, this was kinda the first of the one person, one part wave that has taken the internet and the world by storm. Although it wasn't designed for internet release, online parts and shit like Dylan all seem to have followed Kalis in Mono. Odd. It's like a grandfather that everyone forgets.

Probably because coupling Josh Kalis with the Rolling Stones was something his core fans didn't appreciate. But I found it marvelous.



Now in more recent video-endeavors, as you've hopefully seen, Dan Plunkett has got a nice little edit floating around. I'm not sure of details, mainly because I don't care, but my guess is that the footage was dubbed to VHS and then cut and chopped. Hopefully that's how they did it. If they did it all digitally then that kinda ruins it. But it's still got two factors going for it: the music, and Dan Plunkett.



Another video I can't find in order to embed on here is this little Reese Forbes ditty, where he evidently has decided to skate Barcelona Ass-Backwards.

http://www.dlxsf.com/popups/videos/ReeseForbes.mov

Click it with your little wireless USB rodent.

Lip-Service

Well there are probably more important things to be writing about at the moment, not just in skating but namely my colossal research paper and senior thesis on competing representations of Vietnam in Soviet and U.S. newspapers (it's a thriller.), but something that caught my eye this morning is this tremendous, ridiculous and bitterly enraging run Ryan Sheckler, whom, by the way, I have NEVER posted a link of on this site or anywhere else, pulled off at the Simpel Session 2011 contest in Estonia.



Fittingly, I would think this time around, he got first place. Now I'm about as anti-contest as one can be, and reading about Street League in TSM with all its photos of billboards with Koston's face and an ESPN retaining wall and it's description of scoring and praise for the event was just about as sickened as I've ever been with that magazine, Dyrdek, and skateboarding in general. Initially I felt street league was a good idea, but I've decided I'd FAR rather watch pros and particularly ams hucking themselves madly to up the ante than see Sean Malto do all his go-to tricks at every stop. Who cares. And Dave Carnie's cynical, meanindering blabbery wasn't even enough to redeem that issue, which is a miracle I haven't experienced in about five years of subscription.

But back to Shecky. I'm sorry to the haters, including myself, but tossing that mammoth tucknee to start the run is a great way to get shit going. He looks like he's flying throughout half of the line. The massive kickflip, the smooth front blunt, the noseblunt to quick flip front board... all coupled with a nice backflip to finish off. What the fuck. How do you do all that in one minute, being Ryan Sheckler, and not even do a bs flip or tre? The life of Ryan seems to be getting more interesting.

In other non-knob-slobbing news, Jordan Hoffart had a nice little clip come out for Theeve trucks:



I've been, and probably always will be, a Jordan Hoffart fan. The second he manhandled a pole jam varial heel in Digital's Get Tricks or Die Tryin stole my heart, and any man who can dish out heelflip late shuvs, fs flip late shuvs, and even make front 180 front foot impossibles look good IN THE SAME PART as two tricks over the Kirchart gap is a godly creation all it's own. Not to mention his front tailslide mentionables and all his hucking adventures. This clip is no different, but because of the internet slew footage I'm not sure whether this is throwaway or Theeve's attempt to show off some well done filming and give a glimpse of what's to come from their media releases. Yes, he does a textbook heelflip, probably ate shit in that ditch after ollieing it, and did the rare but enjoyable kickflip noseslide shuv to fakie on that bank to ledge, which are all cool and made me keep watching. But the real highlight is the back 5-0. Should be pretty obvious which one I'm talking about. Unless I've missed something important, I've not seen anyone go up that spot. It's always down. And unlike the up-rail phase, I feel like this was actually a really, really good idea. It's like the tried and true skatepark methods of setting a bench above a euro gap. A really big one with very little bank. Which brings me back to wondering if this is throwaway or not. Could he have managed something else there?

Last on my little agenda is some Torgy love. I feel like I need to find more things to hate on, like YWS' recent bashing of uh, whatever that stupid twirly-stool shit is called. But I feel like that'd be a waste of my time and any readers, because the whole point of posting shit is to highlight notable clips that I come across in my entirely too frequent internet exploration.

So Torgy gets a Recruit around the same time as his Flow Trash part hits the internet. Interesting. As I told a close friends, I'm convinced that Mr. Torgerson belongs on my list of skaters that can do anything they set their mind to. Completely different than his Boondoggle part, although his Recruit does harp upon his nollie frontside hurricane, these two clips are nice and enjoyable: not too techy, some interesting trick selection, and some damn proper trick executions.

Recruit:


Anyone with eyes can see how good that little clip is. All I really want to mention is two things: his backside nollies (alley-oop to back 5050? alley oop into the bank?) and the fakie to switch feebs. Too bad they put Mikey Taylor's boring ass in there.

Flow Trash:


The song seems a bit risky, but I stand by risky editing decisions with all my devotion and energy, seeing as how I've made billions of them and failed at more than half.

So, eleven things I like about this video:

1. The first crook to fakie I've seen look good in a longgggg time
2. He's better than me at basketball even when ollieing gaps
3. Narrow fakie flips on intimidating mostly-open bridges
4. The manly switch push in the same line as the switch powerslide
5. Switch backlipping red rail
6. dropping down six stairs to keep speed
7. at the same time, the 'n' word in the song is changed to 'brothers'
8. Lipsliding just barely into a bank
9. Janoski deja vu on the nollie boardslide/tre flip line
10. Back 3 on flat in a line
11. The second angle of the green rail nollie flip.

I decided on eleven because as many terrible nollie flips as I see these days, that one really struck me as probably the most important trick in his part. The flick and catch is unreal. Pay attention to that back foot kiddies. Hell, I should probably take note too.

Colorless Theory

While Mystery bangs out the de-saturated color footage, I'm hiding my inability to properly set GL2 colors with black and white. First time using one and probably my only time. No fisheye available so the confines of the little park pretty much dictated the angles. I did not film my frontside flip, obviously, or the backside blunt line. Just some after-hours dick-around footage filmed in under an hour.



Also my own camera returned to my possesion and disposal this past Sunday so more park semi-shreddery should be forthcoming soon. In addition to my lazy ass finally uploading all of ROUGH within the weekend. Yay? Gay? Nay?

Ten Dumbassidies

Dumbassidies - noun. (dumb-ass-id-eez). 1.A statement so stupid it leads one to question the intelligence of the person who created it. 2. A statement that cannot be forgotten and forever lives in memory because of the pure idiotic nature of it's content.

In the past couple years, I've slogged away easily for $9.00 an hour at a hole in the wall family-owned 'sk8' shop on weekends. I've not been a fan of their business practices or my bosses in general, but a paycheck is a paycheck and I lived with the guilt of circumventing my morals in order to make a meager living watching skate videos and listening to kids talk about their ollies. Better than getting shoved on the concrete in a grimy downtown apartment complex in the middle of the night with a gun in the small of my back and one in my ear cavity. Which was one of my esteemed experiences as a delivery driver for Dominos after getting laid off from said 'sk8' shop with no notice early last year.

Unfortunately for me I was asked to work weekends again after one of their employees quit because of the bullshit, and now I've again fallen victim to notice-less, cold, selfish business practices in which the owners don't give a FUCK as long as nothing bad is happening to them. So basically, I'm on a bit of a spree on denouncing shitty profiteering business practices which take advantage of skateboarding, all for the well-being of someone who has no damn clue about or care for skateboarding itself. So, for the beginning of my little 'series' which will continue through local newspaper editorials and letters to certain companies whose product is being misrepresented and/or completely stolen/copied, I decided a list of ten of the stupidest things I've heard at this place would be somewhat entertaining.

1/ "Lizard King sucks. Name one contest he has EVER won. Just one. You can't, because he hasn't."

- This one takes the cake. Perfect example of the atmosphere there. All about the win, all about the who's the best, the contest, the jock side of skating. I literally almost shit my pants when I heard this. It's like the hundred or so skate videos I played there never happened.

2/ "Ryan Sheckler has the best tre flips ever."

- does this include that mirrored one that was claimed to be switch?

3/ "Who's Stefan Janoski?"

- They even mispronounced his name

4/ "People are gonna think that being sponsored is cool so they'll buy servings of this drink for $2.75 a spoonful."

- Can't remember the brand name. But this one's from the boss. Some stupid energy powder that you add water to and drink, and they 'sponsored' boss-bitch's kid. No one ever bought any, of course.

5/ "*name removed* signed this deck, kid's are gonna buy it because they want his autograph."

- news flash. nobody wants to pay $40 for some kids signature ruining a deck. The board sat there for 8 months.

6/ "No surface will ever be perfect except skate lite, and that's just too expensive."

- Uh, actually, no surface is perfect at all. Skate lite breaks too. BUT if you build shit right, and invest in top quality from the get-go, you won't have chipped up plywood ramps covered in paint that you have to replace every six months. Talk about expensive.

7/ "there isn't one good trick in that Alien Workshop video."

- self-explanatory.

8/ "Those kids win every contest we have so they're not allowed to participate anymore."

- seriously? excluding shredders from contests. GREAT marketing strategy.

9/ "It's my shop so I'll sell whatever I please."

- after gripes about putting prices on stickers and promo DVDs that come with decks and also specifically say "NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE." Criminal.

10/ "oh... well just get a sharpie and black out the scratches. You're a smart boy. Shoulda thought of that."

- This one definitely requires context. If you care at all, you're probably thinking 'what the fuck?'. The vice president of marketing for Hoffman Beverages, the local Budweiser/Anheuser-Busch distributer/producer, comes to the shop around Christmas to buy his nephews presents, because of all things on earth, the shop promotes and is a dealer for Monster energy, aka alcohol for kids. So the man rolls by with a couple of AWS(Dyrdek of course)/Monster collaboration decks made in limited numbers. He wants the boards gripped and to pick out trucks wheels bearings blah blah. So all is done as he says, and after another employee grips one of the big-man's boards, I discover that since nobody will agree to change out the crumb and grime riddled carpet on top of the work counter, the mostly dark green and black graphic is scraped all to shit from the gripping process. And instead of figuring out how to make it right, that's my boss' solution. Get a fucking sharpie. and color in the scrapes. Great customer service to one of your few supporters.


So anyways, expect a full-on rant about profiteering douches in local industries very, very soon. Meanwhile I'll probably be preoccupied talking shit about them across the limits of the South eastern corners of Virginia in newspapers and across facebook until they've lost all credibility they have outside of the skate world, since the skate world correctly coins them a joke already.

Good thing I used the hell out of that place after hours for dudes to come skate for free and chill.

And I'll toss in a cool little video as a reward for reading that:



Albert Nyberg, co-founder of Newsoul Skateboards and fresh out of Sweden. Quite a capable bastard in my opinion. Or anyone with a brain, for that matter. Even despite the shorts and the crazy socks and elmo shirt. Let me pause for a quick chuckle.

Anyways I like that he can toss in strange maneuvers like that flyout casper flip looking deal and proper frontside bigspin kickflips along with monster flatland fakie varial flips in lines with backside bigspin 5-0s on ledges. Plus the fakie frontside flip late shuv, and then all the stuff at the end when he's throwing down some tall rail nosegrinds and hucking fakie flips down 11-stairs.

and who can forget double set fakie hardflips and front 360 no comply bigflips with a nice little fakie manny bigspin at the end? Plus everything is done so well. Note the double flip/double heel line. The fakie fs flip down nine (or eight, if you don't count that last stair). The fakie tailslide hardflip. The front blunt back 3 bigspin.

And lets not forget the two ending clips. The sickest clip I've yet to see at Macba, and a ten stair 360 hardflip. Quality part. Great mix of tech, geek, and uh, tech-gnar? is that what people used to call Jordan Hoffart? Tech-gnar? Anyways, dude skates with speed and style and dresses crazy but the song fits amazingly and every trick is solid. One of my favorite online videos at the moment. Watched it about 10 times now.

The Baltimore Orioles

Should be proud of this fucker. Front 5-0 king. Potential master of the backside air in the future?

Also, Nyjah's back on Element. Wonder what this means for I&I? is that worthless, selfish (no pun intended) brand back in the trash, where it came from?

Also I've been keeping tabs on news regarding the full length Bones video.... hopefully it's gonna be more sick and less forgettable than the only other recent small goods video I can remember, which was done by FKD.... and was brain-boring to watch.

Peep the Trailer. Bummed there's no landed Hatchell clips, but the ending clip is killer, their team list is impressive, and any rail that Adam Dyet chooses to nollie big heel back lip is fine with me.

THE BÖNES VIDEO TEASER from BONES WHEELS on Vimeo.

Daily Nothing

Soooo I was gonna make a post about how retardedly difficult Shane O'Neil's tre flip noseslide nollie backside 270 heel out must have been, but after reading about it on another blog I felt sickened with the idea of even talking about it, so I'm just gonna say that although I was stunned that P-Rod did nollie heel out of one in his recent part, Shane's sequence really caught me off guard and sent my brain spinning. Let's hope the footage is forthcoming soon......

Also, relevant to reading other blogs, I've decided that although I occasionally hate on certain skaters, tricks, and styles, there are four candidates (arguably five) that are 100% deserving of all the hatred the online skate community can manage to toss it's way. And that's about it. The way I see skaters is much like how I see bands.... no matter how bad the musical artist is, they are all capable of making ONE good song. That's how they get discovered, grow a fan base, blah blah. Not necessarily a good song for every taste and whatever not, but a song that's well put together in terms of catchiness/writing coupled with the mix and the instruments and length and whatever else. So in a roundabout way, I think skating is much the same. Every industry skater is capable of doing at least ONE thing that can either astound me or baffle me, one of the two. Usually, even guys I really don't much care to watch, end up doing a good two minute handful of tricks that I can definitely appreciate and rewatch throughout their careers. Others obviously don't see it this way. I'm by no means an open-minded person, but damn, give people some credit. I'm getting pretty down on the industry and the internet world recently due to shit like this. But anyways. My Four definitely hateables, and then the fifth, who may or may not be as hateable as the rest because of who he WAS, Rob Dyrdek.

1. Steve Berra. Fuck Steve Berra.
2. Jereme Rogers. This kid is so pathetic it's painful. Keeps getting worse too.
3. Ryan Sheckler. The whiner that goes big. Still a bitch.
4. Brian Wenning. The greedy fat slob.

Anyone beyond those four (or five) really needs some slack. If I happen to hate on one of someone's parts, so what. It's just one part. Seems like the whole world is so perplexed by how good the buzzworthies have become that the hatred starts to grow. I'm trying to think of anyone I've seen in recent times that I feel does not deserve their tiny little spot in the skate industry world, and I'm really coming up with nothing, unless you want to count Elissa Steamer, who even in her prime wasn't killing it like Marisa Del Santo. But she came first so whatever. Someone had to.


So other than that little bitch fit I just threw, my main reason for posting today is not to rant or post any kind of clip, but just to announce to the few that may care that as of next week, we will be beginning work on Skatepolitik the video. It's slated to last through July, and then August will hopefully be for post-production. DVDs will hopefully be either free or something like $5, depending on my finances at the time. It's gonna be a bit of a mish-mash video, comprised of essentially whoever gets footage out of the crews in Hampton Roads and the good old Culpeper group. Hopefully what we come up with will be interesting. Hopefully I won't have to postpone it. Hopefully Hopefully Hopefully.

Lots of hope in this damn post.

Brandon Westgate likes Multi-Colored Wheels

And going really fast
and popping really high front 3s and other shit
and Haslam-ing that kickflip over the bar

I don't think gravity has control over this little man anymore. I like how he's one-upped himself even since Stay Gold.

EMERICA PROUDLY INTRODUCES THE WESTGATE from Emerica Europe on Vimeo.

Hard to Hate

The berrics seems to have become the premier site for quality online skate parts. As much as I hate it, and as annoying as it is for Daewon's new part to hit iTunes only to have Steve Berra apologize for not de-interlacing the clip, it's still amazingly good. By the way, smooth one, Steve the Greed. Beginner's mistake. As shameful as this is, these berrics releases have become the cream of the online skate community it seems, and as cliche as online favorite Shane O'Neil has become along with the berrics rising power, you can't help but admire spot on production (de-interlacing mistake aside), quality filming, retarded trick performance, and the way that all three berrics paid releases feature guys doing tricks that just look perfect under their performance. Nuggets, P-Rod, and Daewon have all dropped parts with well-matched music, inspiring innovation, and buzzworthy compilation which have daunted my poor mind because of their source, all while becoming some of my easily rewatchable favorite clips of the past year and a half.

So anyways, on to Daewon's part. I am unsure how well his part has been watched just yet, since it was released in the wee-hours of the American morning and I and many others were unaware of it's release either until a/ message boards blew up or b/ I spread the news via facebook. But with this video part, Daewon becomes the undisputed champion of the switch crook with no holds barred, skipping down steps with the grind and tossing fakie tre flips out of such ludicrous lock-ins as nollie halfcab crookers. Not to mention fakie biggerflipping out of one on a flat ledge. Daewon has also upped the tech-tranny ante, fluidly executing a shoulder twister of a front shuv blunt variation with seemingly impossible tre flip feeble fakies and double flip boardslides, all the while busting out famous Cheese and Crackers ender kickflip front nosegrind switch, minus the Haslam and questionable back truck tap. And dare I even mention fs flip fakie 5-0. The blunt-to-blunt-to-blunt fakie around the pool coping hip from the DVS ads makes an appearance, along with numbing manny combinations, some risky ledge simples over a nasty drop, skinny full pipe flippery and a bizarre tre flip wallride on a metal ridged door fairly recently frontside wallridden. So let's review what Daewon has become undisputed master of, in my mind:

-Switch crooks
-fakie mannies
-popping to fakie on transition
-technical transition, both stalls and slides (blunt bigspin back noseblunt??)
-fakie tres
-tre flip fakies

Although I'd gander he was the champion of tre fakies and popping to fakie before hand, and even fakie manny considering his gravity defying ender in Skate More, this part cements those facts, and adds switch crooks and the ability to fakie tre into the mix without doubt.

Not sure how long this link will be up, and I hate putting up non-permanent links, but fuck it. And fuck you, Berra. I didn't upload this, I'm just posting it.

New Year's Dae from You're Welcome on Vimeo.

Also on the video front are severable notable and overwhelming drops from the past week, including Ed Selego's MIA skateshop video which I have yet to fully view, and Red Star Skateboards premiere of an online two-part project entitled Starcast, featuring Paul Machnau and Grant Patterson. Flying the Darkstar coop and the Blind camp respectively, these guys have seemingly left growing obscurity on a chance at possibly greater obscurity on a Canadian board brand. But with Machnau's part popping up online yesterday, perhaps the gamble is a good one, particularly for Grant Patterson's much neglected ability to huck nollie flips into anything, including boardslide on steep handrails, and toss late flips years before P-Rod's recent developments.

Machnau, specifically, strikes my interest. Popping up sparsely in United by Fate episodes, I cannot recall a proper Machnau part since the days of FSU and Battalion, and both those appearances were particularly ugly. Shredding rails beyond comprehension in those days, rivaled mostly only by Duffy's former works and Mumford's Opinion part, Machnau was stuck in the times with the bent forwards facing snap back, walmart carpenter jeans, and some ugly lanky style. But this little diddy from Red Star shows Machnau in full-shred mode, fore-going the cap in many clips, while spinning it backwards in others. He lands everything comfortably, and is a pleasure to watch, switch backside flipping that popular street gap that MJ busted up his face nollie back heeling, lipsliding the double kink that last I saw, Gallant was only 50-50ing (if it's the right rail.... Gallant's may have been shorter), and noseblunting the steepest handrail I've yet to see that maneuver go down on. Surprisingly the noseblunt wasn't his ender. But either way, watch this classically forgotten and usually semi-boring switch bs flipper/handrail master shred his way back into my memory with textbook perfect executions of some manly and modern grinds, along with some decidedly still-untouchable sized handrails sprinkled in for good measure.



As for MIA, I've watched Ed Selego's part and most of Ben Gore's, both guys I enjoy thoroughly. It's comforting to see Ed's Adio-clad toes hopping around through bank nosegrinds and nollie halfcabs again, although it's odd to see a couple clips clad in Nike's. Ben Gore has perfect executions of flip tricks and lots of popping over shit like trashcans and lightposts. But more on all that later.

Also I know I'm very behind on this, but it's worth mentioning that the Mystery online video, Color Theory, is agonizingly good. Tom Asta's part is too short, and that new guy, Sascha Daley, is a bit boring, but gets absolutely gnarly in the last half. Watch out for a big fifty pop out over a gap, a Quintuple set ollie, and a big ass triple set banger.



The 'agonizingly good' portion of the vid, aside from the handful of goodies from Daley's part, comes from a guy I'm beginning to think is featured too frequently on here. Skate-enigma Jimmy Carlin.



Carlin's best part to date, although somewhat lacking the Carlin-craziness that Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance" added to his Feed the Need part. We get trademark Carlin tricks, such as the fakie bigspin inward heel, along with a boss of a Chetty Thomas and a fakie hardflip down a respected gap, which is probably the hat-trick of the video to my mind. Also watch out for a surprising use of the fakie laser flip, along with a pension for fakie flip tricks, doing one particular ledge combo you rarely even see done nollie. Front heels, big hardflips, interesting ledge performances, a sugarcane 270 shuv, and a particularly difficult and exceedingly rare ending clip round out a part that's pretty much non-stop enjoyable, with only one clip of filler that comes to my mind, which is the nollie heel noseslide/fs flip nosegrind clip. Very very good watch indeed.

So I'm strongly backing Mystery's incorporation of color, obviously. The new Virginia graphic is sick too. Stay tuned for more on the MIA video later this week, and whatever the fuck else pops up as well.

Regression

So in battling my hemorrhaging muscle memory on my own shred-sled/shred-stick/push-plank/etc lately I've begun unfortunately sharking videos other people show me rather than finding my own to write about. By some twist of fate, I've been shown some pretty amazing clips in the past month, far more than I have time to write about. But, some stick in my mind, particularly recent ones, which comprise the reason for this particular post.

On a semi-related note, although it's not quite set up entirely yet, check out http://www.justgetsfuller.blogspot.com, which I'll be adding to the panel on the left side of this blog. It's an upstart video blog by my good friend Chase, who usually sends me far more video links than I can ever hope to feature or write about. So, since he posted I believe three times in a single day, give him some traffic if you're feeling an urge to watch what I find often to be hidden gems of youtube clips, sometimes of guys I've never even heard of. The layout will be finished this week hopefully? Who knows. He probably wants to borrow my laptop and work to fuck with it, so that I can't spend time planning a new update, like last week.

Anyways, Tim from Repthepep.com showed me this magnificent little coupling of talent and what I'm gonna coin as skate-mindedness. Skate-mindedness occurs in people born with brains geared heavily towards skateboarding. This does not always mean the coordination to actually skate to the specifications of their brain, ie: me. But this kid/guy/man seems to have both. I mean, if you're gonna powerslide up to a box and then immediately front crook fakie something, regardless of the difficulty of the box trick, it just looks good. Not to mention the overall mastery of his board he shows in the artsy sketch swerve and tall-ass nose stall on the fence in front of a dangerous looking little hole. The clip doesn't reek of seriousness, but if you can fakie heel switch front nosegrind frontside half-cab out on a box as absolutely solidly as this guy, it's hard not to take such goof-footage seriously. Sick song too. Queue massive heelflip frontside wallride now.

Say hello to Jordan Sanchez:



Another guy I have never personally heard of until I watched this clip but seems to have some internet notoriety, Carlos Lastra:



Guaranteed jaw-droppage in that clip. Some famous and legit spots as well. Although some things are a bit sketch (switch manny switch tre) and other things might be considered dork tricks by anyone other than Willy Santos (front shuv late flips out of manny), the kid has some serious balance and coordination. Note the rarely spotted double heelflip, which makes me wonder if that set is really that difficult to skate considering it's constant slaying in every new video (starting with supa's backside bigspin heel a couple years(?) ago). And of course the ender, which is what originally drew me to the video. Not a particularly pretty trick, but considering the textbook nature of his grass gap tre earlier in the video, his control over it is amazing.

Now for someone hopefully everyone has heard of, and loves. I believe I have featured him here before, and a nagging feeling invades my brain at the moment telling me I've posted his mag minute. But anyways, no comply 360 reverts, as in 360 revert after the 180 no comply we all know and love, along with some serious disrespect towards anything bordering on a wall make his mag minute quite a treasure, even though in the part following this it will be obvious which clips were throwaway or warm up, and for what reason.

Randy Ploesser:




And the Piece de Resistance (insert accent marks in your mind) for this post is as follows. I'm not even gonna say anything about it, other than frontside halfcab back smith. But it's easily one of the most original and enjoyable parts I've watched from any industry name in a while, and it's absence of traditional applications so abundant in other Am's video parts is refreshing to say the least. For the reader that was angered at my negative commentary on William Spencer, I believe the video below will show what I mean when I'm looking for original skateboarding.



I like original uses of a skateboard while riding it, not original uses of a skateboard in general. Though I am not against freestylers and such, I figure the thing has wheels, so not rolling around on it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I believe this is one of my most content-heavy posts in the short, quiet history of this blog. And with the exception of the mag minute, all three videos have joined my consistently re-watched youtube favorites list. Enjoy.

New Years Revelations

Ten things you may not(or probably dont) remember about Oakleys Our Life:

1. Greg Lutzka's Front Board down that kinker with the bank next to it that Arto Back Lipped in Mind Field
2. Greg Lutzka's switch tre over that bump to flat gap that people still are only hucking regular tricks over
3. Lutzka's front 270 back noseblunt down Wilshire
4. Dave Bachinsky's nollie front foot flip down Macba, pre-P-Rods Me, Myself, and I
5. Rune Glifberg's ripped pants bowl runs
6. Rune's frontside channel ollie at the SMP park
7. Collin Provost was in it
8. Bob Burnquist's front flip
9. Bob Burnquist's pocket loop
10. Burnquist's over-vert boardslide fakie

And as far as video clips today, this is not by any means a professionally released or filmed video, but rather a clip of the amazing VA native Ben Hatchell (mostly) shredding the Powhatan Springs skatepark in Arlington. Note the nollie bigspin disaster by Skatepolitik's very own Chris Vaneeklen, also seen to the right of this post in a skinny cutout of a bigspin flip.



For those of you that are from my VA audience (does it still exist?), hopefully you've skated this park, and know the gnar-factor of both those tombstones he shreds. Not to mention the deep end of the pool, which is in the are of 13 feet if I'm not mistaken. Now, even though these tricks aren't really surprising from Ben, since many are in his standard repertoire, seeing them at that park brings home how retarded this little man is at transition, if not skateboarding itself.

And while we are on the subject of young tranny slayers (sounds bad), observe this little Independent clip of good ol' Jaws. Especially his 270 fs flip grab. And several clips which seem very familiar and may or may not have been in Buster O'Shea films. I can definitely say his ending drop in was though. Still shocking to see none-the-less. I think I'd be terrified to even stand on top of that thing.



I have alot of other shit to ramble about at the moment but I'll save it up until I feel the need to type again. In the meantime, happy 2011, glory be to another year of suffering and financial woe. Hallelujah.