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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
