Tag Archives: Baker

Riley Hawk 1991

Riley Hawk gets stoned – Quicksilver in 2011

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.

The groundbreaking, music-free Andrew Reynolds part you missed… Best of 411 Vol. 4

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3RvMC5USg4?rel=0&start=1247]

Most would consider Andrew Reynolds performance in Birdhouse’s The End (1998) to be his graduation from Willy’s friend into an elite realm of professional skateboarding. This metamorphosis was presented rather completely the following year in the Baker Bootleg video, condensing Andrews growth from fuzzy headed Florida grom into the proto-ringmaster of the band of degenerates who would soon take over skateboarding. Baker Bootleg’s Hi-8 B-Roll of all the motion picture filmed Birdhouse stunts seemed to make those monumental tricks all the more real… the Boss had arrived.

But those of us paying close attention during this era had already witnessed Andrew’s undeniable proclamation of manhood. Tucked neatly away twenty minutes into a Best of 411 volume from 1997 lies nearly three minutes of golden Reynold footage. No music, no embarrassing spoken intro, no filler, no drunken orangutans, just Boss trick after Boss trick.

Even to this day, it is very rare to come across a skate part without music. Outside of Tim Dowling’s Listen video, I can hardly think of any (coincidentally enough, Andrew Reynolds in Bake & Destroy comes to mind). Without a driving rhythm or narrative of a song, the tricks and lines attack relentlessly. Heavy trick after heavy trick bludgeon the viewer providing only the slightest breathing room with a stylish line or a broken board.

It’s understandable that this part would be forgotten quickly, even in an era of repeated rewatchings of every skate video released. 411s, while popular, tended to only be on topic until the next issue came out. Except for the slow motion intro tricks (and even then), a 411 part rarely got the shine of a board company release. The “Best of” even less so.

The potential impact of Andrew Reynolds’ Profile in Best of 411 Vol. 4 can be revisited by watching the entire video, or even browsing a few different parts. In a video full of present and future legends (Marc Johnson, Daewon, Rodney, Jerry Hsu, etc.), Reynolds’ part is truly unique, memorable, and only dated by the low quality of the magnetic video tape. Future business partner and pre-identity crisis Jim Greco also has an incredible part in this tape that predates his Misled Youth reveal, but see how the song and overall “411-ness” of the whole thing lower what should have been Greco’s big debut into just another 411 Wheels of Fortune for the pile.

Why more skaters and skate video makers don’t choose to make an edit here and there without music is beyond me.

Hell Spawn Nowison – Dustin Dollin 2011

The last Piss Drunk standing filmed an entire part for the Vans video (that would eventually be Propeller), but he clocked too much footage too fast and nobody else on the team had anything and wouldn’t for another four or so years.

So Dustin Dollin gave his footage to his homie and griptape sponsor and made a classic video part that stands soaked heads above everybody else’s in the video. He then re-upped enough footage for a shared part in Propeller and that slam-only / Pee-Wee’s nightmare part for Volcom in the meanwhile.

peak Greco – the Deathwish Video – 2013

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsMNyFo58W4?rel=0&start=1789]

First of all, are we all just going to collectively ignore that fact that Jim Greco no longer has most of his tattoos?!?

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at Jim Greco at the peak of his gnarliness in 2013’s The Deathwish Video. Skating to Slayer, nose blunting cars, getting all darkslidey, and dropping namesake hammers left and right. It was such a pleasure to see Jim (and Ellington) both bring it (as opposed to singing it) for Deathwish’s first solo video instead of fading comfortably into guest-trick-from-the-company-owner-who-is-keeping-himself-pro territory (i.e. Rick Howard, Ed Templeton, and so on).

As Greco has recently produced annual video parts of a -uh- more artistic variety, the sobering reality is that Jim won’t be rapidly editing hammers to speed metal again in the near future. I’m thinking we will be lucky to get 2 or 3 tricks, if any, from him in Baker 4. Is Greco even on Deathwish anymore?

But maybe I’m wrong. The Deathwish Video part was a surprise for me so who knows what Greco has hidden up his fashionable sleeve. Apparently he has been skating regularly.

If you want to see all these tricks edited in a different order and laid over a Velvet Underground song, Thrasher reedited this footage in 2014.

This Jim Greco Identity Crisis flow chart is pretty nifty.

Also, let it be said I thought Year 13 was a pretty good video.