An one-shot full part, debuting on an internet website, that is not part of a full length video project that is otherwise being sold in tangible or paid online download.
Way under the radar in 2018 was an entertaining quick part from Alien Workshop professional and aromatics hippie Yaje Popson. Don’t let the long hair and brightly colored pants relax you into interpreting this as a feel good cruise. Brick is a gritty East Coast urban psychedelic attack. Its a bit disorienting but thoroughly enjoyable.
The filming is close, the music is distorted and rhythmic, the editing is tight on the tricks, and interstitials zoetrope animations strobe. Clocking in at just over 2 minutes, we approach the maximum tolerable length for a video like this to be comfortable. In fact, I wasn’t even aware of Thiessen’s unmistakable nauseating fish eye movements until the last trick. Five minutes of this would has the potential to get brutal and completely negate the skating, but two and a half minutes is perfect.
Tossed into the part is a surprising trashcan wallride grind at Philly’s Board Game plaza. The banked ledge backside lipslide is pretty tasty, and I’m still impressed by people skating those little lumpy garden edgers. With the exception of the terribly documented ‘ender’, the final 6 tricks kill it, with the best moment the easy style on that penultimate switch backside lipslide to regular.
I can imagine the new Alien squad often feel like they are fighting an uphill battle for legitimacy; A challenge they seem to acknowledge. But if they can keep producing regular parts like this (and add Suciu to the team already), we’ll all forget Dyrdek ever existed.
Floridian and future CTE suffererPedro Delfino made his official debut for Deathwish skateboards recently and that skull thudding slam to start it off has given concerned citizens plenty of justification when they tell a skater to get off their roof. Rarely are we, the online skate video viewers, subjected to the realistic consequences of stunt level skateboarding. Seeing Pedro’s limp unconscious carcass on the ground (twice!) for a ‘welcome to the team’ video that was already below the fold within 24 hours makes one wonder if it is all worth it.
All horrifying realities of our hobby aside, Deathwish has done well to add Delfino to the team. He adds some needed pool skills, is clearly willing to sacrifice everything for the footage, has a great eye for one-hitter street spots, and his dumptruck style is a welcome change from the bland precision of many of latest crop of overachieving ams.
Maybe it’s just the concussion footage, but it really seems like Pedro Delfino is skating out of his depth and barely escaping the tricks he is initiating. It is thrilling. Plus, his first ever published photo in a magazine happened to be one of the best Thrasher covers ever.
Like the 411 commercials of old, ESPN’s annual round-up of Real Street skate parts are made to be forgotten. Not extreme enough for the mainstream X-Games home audience, not associated with Thrasher enough to count towards Skater of the Year, not long enough to be considered a full part, not core enough for skating’s core to care, library track music too generic to ever be mistaken for a classic track, and usually the whole minute disregarded out of hand.
Why would skateboarding’s top professionals dedicate precious footage towards such an ephemeral outlet? The prize money, of course. We’re talking an alleged $17,500 Disney dollars for first place, with a solid $2,500 just for entering. Worth a footage dump for sure.
Hidden within the Cobra Coles, Cole Wilsons (two time reigning X-Games Real Street Gold Medalist), and Jumpin Joslins of 2018’s competition we discover Bobby Worrest taking us on a trick filled tour of his previously killed hometown turf. Bobby charges the obstacles of Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza like General Casmir Pulaski charging against the British forces (look it up); But this is more than a one-spot-one-day gimmick.
“So our original idea was to do one long line that’s a minute long through Pulaski [Park],” tells filmer John Valenti. “We filmed our edit during peak summer and it was so hot and Bobby was trying the long, difficult line. It wound up being too much with the heat. We then realized it wouldn’t work after a couple of hours trying. So we settled on a different concept. We planned on starting on one end of the park and beginning each line where the last left off.”
The 6 lines in the part draw a definitive path on the map through the spot starting from the northwest corner and heading east. Ledges, stair sets, and an overturned plastic traffic barrier serve as anchors in the geography, connecting the end of one line to the beginning of the next. The obstacles’ matching spacial orientations gives continuity to the scenery.
It’s a video concept perfectly suited to such a storied skate spot as Pulaski Park. When we watch skate videos, we mostly get distorted images of single obstacles. And even the long-lens establishing shots rarely give us a perspective of the spot as a whole. Even the recent use of drone footage is more often than not disorienting and fails to convey a relatable skaters-eye-view of things. Most spots are legendary not for a single obstacle, but for the collection of great obstacles. While some attempts have been made to convey a larger sense of the landscape (Ricky Oyola’s real time narration of his line through Philadelphia’s City Hall from 411 #13 comes to mind), it is shocking that a concept as obvious as ‘linked lines’ hasn’t been put out there.
Of course, all this high-minded analysis gets us nowhere without the self-assured style of Bobby Worrest. Our familiarity with the image of Bobby skating Pulaski gives a casual confidence to all 17 tricks (I’m including the ollie onto the ledge). The switch pushes and planter ollie invoke the power, mirrored 360 flips over tipped obstacles conjure the Underworld Element nostalgia, and that backside lipslide just overflows with that Worrest nonchalance.
When Bobby kickflips over a handrail and rolls into Pennsylvania Avenue I find myself wishing he had taken a left turn before heading out of the park. Certainly a few more tricks and something on that out-ledge were to be had over towards the General Pulaski statue. But time had run out. John Valenti reveals, “The hardest part was squeezing all the lines together to make sure it was exactly one minute. I wound up filming the view finder from my camera and editing on it to see if we had enough or was over the time limit. We had to re-film two of the lines to get a couple of seconds shaved off.”
As far as I was aware (until some know-it-all on the SLAP Boards pointed out Dane Burman’s 2012 Volcom to the Team clip), Bobby Worrest and John Valenti have delivered the first topographically sequential skate part ever. The jaw dropping yet yawn inducing Miles Silvas One Stop part released 3 months before the Real Street drop similarly draws an unbroken line through the entire part, but the slant with that video is clearly the single unedited 5-minute take. With Silvas’ line in mind one can imagine how a single, relaxed, multi-minute line through Pulaski would feel when compared to what we got. For my money, one long lazy line doesn’t contend.
The constraints of summer heat and a time limit made Bobby’s part something different, something better. It is about a spot, but unlike Worrest’s previous single-spot part at Pulaski, this one places the obstacles within the context of one another. The opening curb hop and final pushes away from the camera place Pulaski Park within DC’s surrounding streets. The progression of tricks chart a path through the plaza and out into the city.
As more and more legendary American skate spots fall under the jackhammer of development and skateboarding intolerance, I find the video preservation of such things all the more crucial to our culture. How could a kid whom has never been to New York understand or appreciate the layout and connection of all the obstacles of the Brooklyn Banks? Is it possible to convey the utterly stupefying architectural layout that was Philly’s City Hall and Love Park being right next to each other? Is there any way for a video to communicate the thrill of skating from Hubba Hideout through EMB and over to Pier 7 in a matter of 3 minutes?
Perhaps not, but videos like Bobby’s Real Street get us as close as possible.
Hudson Hawk was born in late 1992, his parents apparently completely unaware of the terrible Bruce Willis movie that had stunk up theaters the previous year. Once they realized their mistake, they started calling him by his middle name, Riley. Not long after that he started skateboarding like his father. A little over two decades later he had the final part in Lakai’s The Flare.
But somewhere in between, Riley Hawk transitioned from Tony’s son who is also coincidentally sponsored by Birdhouse to “Daaaaamn!” One can see the metamorphosis was well underway in 2011 when Quicksilver released an unnamed online promotional part. Let’s take a look:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg3Pq1VLRNw?rel=0]
You can practically smell the reefer kicking in throughout this video. Riley’s little kid grown-out buzz haircut is turning into flowing headbanging locks. A Black Sabbath forearm tattoo shows up. The t-shirts get more and more metal as the tricks go from tech to tech-gnar. He starts to look less Birdhouse and more, well, Baker.
In less than 3 years after this video’s release Riley would turn 21, get completely covered in tattoos, be named the recently digitized Skateboarder Magazine’s Am of the Year, and go pro for Baker skateboards. His promotion to professional status would set off a chain reaction that would lead to the end of Jeff Lenoce’s career, compel Braydon Szafranski to sell luxury pajamas from the Playboy Grotto, inspire Spanky to sober up, and , in the unlikeliest of occurrences, force Shane Goatmouf Heyl to courteously relinquish his Baker pro board with grace and dignity.
Cranberry heir Brandon Westgate gave us a solid stare into our future when he released an internet video part to promote his new pro model shoe for Emerica back in 2011. He showed us a strange and wonderful world where a full-on 3 minute skate part could consist of all potential enders. He correctly prognosticated a future where a part stood alone on the internet, without a disc or tape for the shelf, promoted as a rider alone, apart from his teammates. But Westgate was also a seer of dark times… a dystopia where the pinnacle of a professional’s career is all but forgotten as the seasons change, if not sooner.
The single skater, web released promo part was pioneered several months earlier with the Paul Rodriguez’s Me, Myself, and I, and we could feel the tide shift beneath our wheels when Gravis released dylan. (plus there were a fewothers), but the internet-only video was still reserved for tour edits, contest recaps, park clip throw-aways, and the occasional Ask the Phelper.
So from this stew of disposable internet video material emerges spry little Brandon Westgate with a new shoe and a bucket full of hammers.
The doorway ramp kickflip and amazing 360 flip that was just heaved out there stand out, of course, but the real treat here all the footage of Brandon riding the San Fransisco avenues. The sense of speed and danger comes across on those hills, with those stairway bumps really tossing him. For a skater whom appears to be so in control of his board at all times, the sense the Westgate is less dominating the obstacles and more flowing with the terrain ups the excitement significantly.
Brandon would go on to drop all of his ‘core’ sponsors (although Zoo York was already tossed it’s credibility by this time) for the bland pay stubs of the Element black hole and New Balance or something.
Did I mention Primitive skateboards released Never the day after Shane O’Neil announced he had quit the team? They did, and its more or less full video with questionable slow-motion and gratuitous drone interstitials to compliment a fantastic non-arena part from Mr. Paul Rodriguez Jr and some very, very heavy footage from Nick Tucker. Then Trent McClung leapfrogs way ahead of both siblings and teammates with a tornado bluntslide.
Plus, even as I write this, new groundbreaking edits of Pedro Barros (oh my god, that’s sick) and Breana Geering are just begging for multiple viewings. Plus probably another dozen or so more decent things were released in that I just didn’t absorb.
So it is easy to feel bad for the Baker Boys. A video like Deathwish Part 2 has every right to stand head and shoulders above the rest and could be the best video of 2018 to date. That such a good video might get buried in the heaps of gold that were released this week is a shame. Even if you remove Lizard King‘s psychedelic interpretation of what’s an acceptable place to land your large drops (apparently right in the middle of a stair set), take away Ellington‘s inward heelflip, ignore Jamie Foy‘s convincing argument for back-to-back SOTYs, disregard Jake Hayes executing another perfect kicklfip, and pretend Neen‘s varial heelflip never happened (also Kirby and Slash’s tricks) and we would still have a part to blog about. Jon Dickson.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olDxibvWjRo?rel=0&start=565]
Jon Dickson skates like a speeding bulldozer with machines guns mounted on its sides, destroying gaps and tearing pants with the unstoppable force of an Incredible Hulk with sideburns and a man bun. Sure he kickflips into handrail tricks of both the slide and grind variety, and hell yes there’s cabellarials over the bar and into the bank, and of course he casually pops out of that smith grind before the knobbed end (although I’m convinced he would just plow right through that thing), and obviously he can turn a flatground frontside flip over a picnic table into a set-up trick… but the real joy of Jon Dickson in Deathwish Part 2 is the roll aways.
A man of Dickson’s power and density has no business gliding away with such poise. Check the right arm crossing gracefully in front of him. Scope the left arm swinging behind his back like a lazy boat rudder cutting the calm waters of a still lake. His knees are bent like the bank carving surf style skaters of the 1970s. His eyes glancing over his shoulder from the ground to the road ahead with no sign of surprise or shock. Take away the death defiance of the tricks and brawniness of approach and, dare I say it, Jon Dickson is an elegant skateboarder.
Also, look at his legs on that 11-stair switch frontside flip at around 11:30 in the video! Good lord that is insane. Of all the tricks to not get a second slow-motion angle of, why that one?
In the not so distant future, when we all continue our never ending critique/celebration of skateboarding on whatever media formats will have replaced Instagram and the Slap Message Boards (some virtual reality gathering where holograms all just yell at each other, I imagine), I have no doubt I will contribute mightily to the ‘most underrated skater of the 20-teens’ argument with a quick mention of TJ Rogers.
While he might get a little moment of sunshine for a massive switch frontside 360 here or there (Wallenberg here, Hollywood High 16 there), nobody seems to notice that he just finished top 5 at Tampa Pro, or released easily one of the greatest skate parts of 2016.
This one checks nearly all the boxes for a legendary skate part:
Four minutes of footage with minimal 2nd angles and slow motion congratulatory hugging. Even the end zone dancing and bird flipping clips are rapid enough to keep the flow going rather than interrupting.
Boatloads of illmatic tech skating with nary a park ledge in sight. Front foot late flips, manuals out of ledges, and of course with all the spins and shoves.
Big gaps and stair sets: Fakie, nollie, regular, and obviously switch… TJ even drops a varial flip with style. He loves skating!
Street gaps, flat rail to drops, no push bump-to-bar lines, blind-side rotations into crusty banks, famous Philly ledges… and he even manages to keep the omnipresent Red Bull logo somewhat incognito.
And all this is held together with the perfect wrapping of a Masta Ace song that has been begging for skate video usage for 20 years. So, c’mon, you brainiac dumb dumbs, add Enter the Red Dragon to your playlist and let’s promote TJ from underrated to properly rated.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZd6NsTDSsY?rel=0]
Throughout all of 2016, Torey Pudwill was all hopped up on Red Bull and frantically searching the globe for interesting flatbars. Surprisingly enough, he found enough to log 4 minutes of footage and managed to throw down a decent part that celebrates creative architecture as much as (perhaps even more than) the skate tricks executed upon them.
The curvy beach rail was in contention for trick of the year, the lengthy log jam backside lipslide was refreshing, I’m still baffled that folks are skating those mini-arches border fence things like flatrails (never mind kicklfipping into lipslides on ’em), and don’t think I didn’t notice that frontside crooks on the convex bench bar.
On the down side, the arms flailing that was relatively under control in 2014 was back with a vengeance on some of these tricks. I also feel like they ran out of time on that sundown coy pond boardslide and couldn’t log a better trick at that spot.
All in all, without the big swill money to globetrot for single tricks and import flat rails into the salt flats, a nifty part like this wouldn’t exist, so Red Bull logo hats off to Torey and Bragg for putting this together. I’m a big fan of interesting spots and Flatbar Frenzy is worth another view now and again.
The first 2 minutes of the Hockey III promo are monstrous. The cinematic doom soundtrack (a mix of 2001 monolith and Jóhann Jóhannsson) and slow-motion wind-up makes Caleb Barnett seem ten feet tall, tossing pop-shoveits over city blocks and making the earth shake when he casually bails an after-hammer flat ground heelflip. Melting ledges with a sideways stare down we haven’t seen since a bald Brian Anderson in 1996.
