The term "footage machine" is often thrown around in conversations about Mark. His style and trick selection (from quick-footedness to very-well-thought-out lines) combine to form one of the most aesthetically pleasing skaters to watch, and it just so happens that Mark's spot selection is heavily Philly-based, which is yet another plus. There seem to be just too many reasons to like him. Anyway, let's take a look at exactly how many parts, clips, and just overall awesome footage he's put out:
Though technically released at the end of 2012, Mark's part in Sabotage 3 as well as the Skateboard Mag's YBAM remix of the part were not released for most of the public to see until 2013, so I think the part can definitely contribute to Mark's run for SOTY 2013. I may not have the best knowledge of watching skateboarding during the prime LOVE park era, but the original Sabotage part still seems to give me a feeling of nostalgia from those same Philly vibes: skating at night through the streets, great sessions at LOVE park, etc. Not only that, but this part actually shows quite a few different sides of Mark that I haven't seen before, sustaining my thought that he can seriously do anything he wants. Everyone knows of his insane board control like the narrow tre flip horizontally down a stair in the line at 1:02, holding out the back noseblunt at 2:05, or the precise nosegrind pop out at 2:44, but seeing him get as gnarly as some of the heavy rail skaters at 2:10 with the kinky rail drop down or flip trick tech with his back tail big heel at 3:17 is quite invigorating, which is weird to say considering that Mark's skating in general is full of surprises. His freak out at 3:10 is also interesting to see because now we know he has his moments too just like the rest of us.
The first song ends with the line at 3:25, showing Mark's quick footed combos, some night skating in the streets, and then a surprisingly beautiful switch hardflip (again, I don't think I've ever seen him do that before!) followed up by a fade away downhill switch 180 and ollie into the next song. From this point on, every single clip is worth a short sentence of admiration, but to keep things moving on to the next one, on to the next one, I'll just shoutout his LOVE line at 4:38 with a nollie frontside flip up into a quick switch backside flip up that had me burst out giggling from happiness, and the HUGE ollie over the giant planter in the line at 3:57 where his pushes alone get you amped up.
The Skateboard Mag's remix to Mark's Sabotage 3 part is a very well-edited piece with a good amount of clips not in the original part, such as a massive switch 50-50 down a hubba at 1:05.
Even after his heavily Philly-based part, Mark still had plenty of clips (probably enough for another full part to be honest) for the great piece by Chris Mulhern: The Philadelphia Experiment. The push after the sick wallride at 2:06 seemed way to tight to squeeze in that space but Mark somehow manages to pull out a frontside flip after it. The lines at 2:24 and 3:40 both feel like for any typical skater they would end after the first few tricks, but Mark keeps them going with some nifty torqued-up additions. You can clearly see Mark's precision control and total awareness of his board positioning with the clip at 2:41. Later on at 8:41 he back 180s over an old railing right into a quick frontside half cab down some stairs, but I'd rather leave his shoulders to tell the story on this one. He also has a very speedy line at 9:12 mixing a long grind with a quick tech tapper and some nicely controlled 180s too.
Apparently Mark hasn't spent all of his time in Philly, but stacked some more clips in the SF Bay Area for Tunnel Vision, a sweet piece by Justin Albert. Mark essentially takes over the video at 3:07 with more of his great precise skating; this video feature in particular brings out Mark's very smooth style I'd say. The line at 3:50 looks great because Mark is flying through every trick but maintaining full control the whole time. It's followed by 3 rad out-ledge tricks at 4:05 that a lot of guys probably can't do like that.
Moving on, Mark then came out with his first full introduction to Adidas (after being officially introduced with a few bangin tricks in New York City) with basically a full part of skating around Philadelphia (featured above). The first two lines are great because they show Mark's consistency and creativity in two different settings: from the plaza to the actual street. 1:17 has what I believe now Mark coined from his Sabotage part as the "Hopkins Grind", but the nollie version. The line at 1:40 really impresses me because a fakie nosegrind down a handrail and then a switch tre down a set both feel like really solid tricks individually, yet Mark can do them back to back flawlessly. At 2:07, Mark seems to float a backside flip a lot further than anticipated and follows that in the next clip by putting in his two cents for the 50-50 gap 50-50 craze we've seen this year. The line at 3:07 starts off with a smooth kickflip nosegrind but then demonstrates Mark's pop going over a trash can to a ledge only to 360 flip over the next. And lastly, the 50-50 gap out over the rail at 3:27 and the narrow ledge ride to long back lip at 3:40 were nice because of how Mark is able to skate one spot rather differently for two totally awesome tricks. The whole part really shows a wide variety of everything, from different spots to loads of different tricks, but one constant is that Mark's style exudes comfort with handling any spot or trick.
Though this was the bulk of the Suciu footage from this year, he also came out with a killer Run N' Gun style line for his Real Street part, taking an approach never done before for the contest. Mark also had some nice clips in a tour vid called Columns and Cobblestones capturing his Atlas Skateshop crew skating through London. The fakie front crooks through the tight curve at 2:28 was quite cool. Also on tour in Madrid with the usual great edit from Adidas, Mark gathered some clips along with the stacked Adidas crew. There's no doubt he had plenty of great tricks in this video but my personal favorite was the frontside half cab over the rail the hard way at 1:52 because of how after popping fakie, he made it look like a switch back 180. Mark also had some fun clips in another Atlas team edit called Summer Downtime.
If all this still isn't enough to put Mark in SOTY contention, then just wait until Search the Horizon drops.
(Though this post is coming late, I felt the need to properly go through as much of Mark's footage from the past year as I could because he is definitely my top pick for SOTY as of now.)
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