Video of Last Week: Lucas Puig and Stephen Khou in Something Sinister

Last week was one of the craziest weeks in terms of video parts released online, so I apologize for the late posting (almost a week late) but I finally got a concise and really gnarly group of videos of the week.

Top honors goes to one of my top favorites: Lucas Puig. His shared part in Something Sinister was the perfect display of nonchalant, stylish technical skating that you'd want in any video. There's a reason why Lucas is one of my favorites, and it's not the first name. It's the fact that he, in my opinion, has the illest style out there and makes all these ledge tricks look so good. I think the leaves caught in his trucks at 1:48 (on a switch front tail heelflip out to switch nonetheless) pretty much sum up the demeanor of how he filmed this part. Stephen Khou killed it too with some pretty tight tricks, but my boy Lucas shut it down! I can't wait till my DVD of the full video comes in.

I would love to write a paragraph for every one of these following videos because they were all that great, but I'll keep it short:

Walker Ryan - A Far Walk From Home - video parts from my two top favorites in one week!? too good to be true! Oh and pairing Walker with Patrik Wallner is a match made in heaven.
Primitive Skateboards - Paul Rodriguez, Nick Tucker, and Carlos Ribeiro team up in one of the heaviest announcements in a while, and based on the jaw-droppers in this intro video, things are going to get heavy.
Karsten Kleppan - Lakai Welcomes this Norwegian with an absolutely shredtastic video part full of super fast skating at a bunch of sick street spots.
Jay Meador - Something Sinister - Jay oozes style (a common thread in Something Sinister it seems) and makes this part a blast to watch.
Jaws - Happy Medium 3 - Just when you think Jaws needs to ice bath for about a year, he ups the ante once again in both skating tranny and deadly drops.
Andrew Reynolds - Varial Heel Hollywood High - The persistence and determination needed for this trick is beyond anything most of us could imagine, but leave it up to The Boss to not accept anything but perfection.
GX1000 - Moving Violation - This will no doubt make you want to go skate in the streets right now and just cause shenanigans with your homies.
Brick City Street Styles - Living in Newark right now, I had no idea how much I was really missing out on until this great all-Newark video came out.

Video of the Week: LEM VILLEMIN IS PRO FOR CLICHE!

It's about time! Lem's pro part is the one we've been waiting for since Diagonal, and watching it is nothing short of cathartic. From back in his Chocolate days to now with Cliche through Bon Voyage, everyone's been rooting for Lem to turn pro and that day has finally come. His majestic flick and catch have just gotten better in time and it's a really wonderful thing to see his name on the bottom of a board for one of my favorite companies. Congrats Lem!

This week was heavy in skate videos, so here are the other top selections:
Collin Provost's new Emerica MADE B-Sides are gnarly as expected and also feature essentially a full new part from him. I thought Clint Walker's kickflip was nuts, but Collin takes it to a whole new level with this ender.
Leo Heinert is introduced as the first rider for TORRO with a part full of quick-footed East Coast shredding like I've never seen. His addition (2:38) to the NYC Courthouse Ledge drop along with those recently from the Supreme kids' in Cherry [spoilers] pretty much give the finger to my older post, which is sick!
I've heard of Jaakko Ojanen before through random park clips, but this new street part is simply insane: skating fast, incorporating a huge bag of tricks, and hitting some of the gnarliest spots.
Two Up is a pretty heavy two-part video with ripping Australians Nick Boserio and Alex Campbell, each coming through with very unique styles to cement in your head if they weren't there already.
Joe Gavin's new video part for Grey Skate Mag shows him shredding the grittiest and roughest streets you can think of with some of the sickest pole jams.
Moose's "extra" footage is still full of casual hammers, a relaxing blend of chill vibes and gnarly tricks.
Bryant Chapo is killing it for FKD.

To get everyone hyped up for their upcoming video parts (two for Vans and one for Outliers), Chris Pfanner drops a mini part for Red Bull, Nassim Guammaz has a gnarly prequel Vans part, and Brad Cromer reminds us how naturally skilled he is by dropping a sweet iPhone part for Doom Sayer.

Some other things worth checking out:
Kingpin did a really nice article on 11 no-push lines that are definitely worth remembering.
Skateboarding Makes the World Go Round is full of incredible Brazilian skating at an assortment of locations around the world with some unheard-of guys mixed with some stars too.

Video of the Week: Jet Caputo in FOOTAGE PARTY

For some pretty random guy to come out with a part, an 8 minute part for that matter, and have it be worthy of multiple viewings takes some skill and luck. What caught me off guard was just how easy and fun the entire part felt, so that by the time he's actually dropping some hammers near the end you have to double take to realize it. Casual and enjoyable but also inventive and gnarly at the same time, Jet Caputo's part in FOOTAGE PARTY is one of those break out parts that's worthy of remembering.

Some other sweet videos:
Dillon Constantine - Video Check Out - a hammer-filled rail assault with a vigor you don't see too often
Ben Gore - SF Nights - a short and sweet part with all the right ingredients: SF, night skating, and stylish Ben Gore
Truman Hooker - Ditch Demon - Thrasher said it best: the spot search alone makes this an interesting part, but Truman's ditch skating skills seal the deal.
Huf - Australia for Tour - The team is too good and Sammy Winter kills it! Huf needs to get him on there.
HYPE - Totally Original - The HYPE squad rips and keeps the video tasteful.
JP Oliveira - Mag Minute - another strong member of the new breed of tech-gnar
Ishod Wair and SOTY Naawwsty - The crew alone is epic but the skating and fun-having is just priceless.
AJ Zavala - Shep Dawgs Teaser - I only saw his name tossed around in Shep Dawgs montages but now I can finally put a name to a face and a sick style. Pumped for Shep Dawgs V4!
Danny Dicola - SLAVE - The vibes are definitely relaxed but Danny's spot selection is far from it.

Video part remixes are the best way to give old footage new life and new vibes, the aspects that make some video parts truly memorable. Now there were a couple sweet remixes from this week, including a Brandon Westgate one of just NYC footage from his past 3 or 4 parts. That's the kind of thematic remixing that Quartersnacks does best and it really comes out well to see Westgate ripping the Big Apple in this video. Then there was one of Chase Webb, reminding us how gnarly he is and how he's been powerfully coming up the past couple years. It's good not to forget his steady stream of bangers in the internet's vortex of ripping Californians.

Video of the Week: Visualtraveling's The Persian Version

Patrik Wallner's Visualtraveling has been one of the most beautiful forms of cultural education for skateboarding. Taking on the locations without a blown out skate scene, Patrik delivers once again as he rolls with a terrific crew (including one of my favorite skaters and regular visualtravelers, Walker Ryan) through various parts of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. Sure, there's some really awesome skating involved, but the whole video offers so much more to enhance our desire as skaters to keep exploring.

Other sweet videos from the week:
Brian Peacock - Something Sinister - the craziest switch tech combos you've ever seen
Riley Hawk - Shep Dawgs Tape Deck - 17 minutes of raw, tech-gnar uncut footage
Jorge Simoes - Jart's The Am Project - another tech-gnar, flowy Euro that's blowing up quite nicely
Jamie Thomas - Road Less Traveled Recut - nothing quite like The Chief
Electric Summer - fast, fun, and creative edit that makes you wanna go skate
Travis Glover - that fakie ollie at 1:46!

Video of the Week: Jordan Hoffart - Welcome to Stereo

Bryan Whalen would normally be given the VOTW honors from me because I haven't seen as enjoyable of a part as that one in a while, especially with as graceful switch skating and fun trick selection as he came through with. But there's no way I can deny Jordan Hoffart finally getting a board sponsor after too long in limbo, especially because he manages to drop yet another gnarly part.

GX1000: Living in the Bay with an incredible crew ripping through the streets
Tom Asta Pro Spotlight
Chris Cole for DC Cole Lite 2
Ben Raybourn Welcome to Nike
Ramshakle: Nick Palmquist, Chad Bartie, Josh Hawkins, Aldrin Garcia
Element United Nations at the Berrics
Sylvain Tognelli opens up Nozbone's Cafe Clope with a sick part
Kurt Hodge Footage Party
Brad McClain Mag Minute

Video of the Week: Bobby Worrest - Hometown Turf Killer

Filming a part in one location is rarely something you can watch over and over and over...and over again. It gets to a point where the static scenery makes the clips feel repetitive, which is a key reason why I don't watch vert skating or even skatepark parts as much as I do street skating. With so many impressive skaters out today, the tricks get repetitive really quickly, so often times it takes a unique style or a special spot selection to make a video part interesting. However, Bobby Worrest provides an exception to this concept by coming out with a part filmed entirely at Pulaski park in DC. Bobby explores every corner of the park and maintains his unexpectedness with every clip. Not only is it great to get another part from Bobby, but to come through with high quality footage for a legitimate full part strictly in his hometown, he really mixed all the right ingredients for an awesome video. Oh, and that switch tre at 0:39!

Almost celebrated its 10th year in skateboarding at The Berrics with a nostalgic highlights video, an epic and fun-filled session at the park itself, and then an in-depth interview with Rodney Mullen that you're not going to find anything close to from any other skater. I could go on for a while about Almost: how I started skateboarding just after Round 3 dropped, how I would study every one of their parts in the video, how inspirational a guy like Rodney really is, how incredibly talented and creative all the team riders are, etc. Almost is one of my favorites without a doubt and it's terrific to see them going strong after 10 years.
-RIP Lewis Marnell-

Dave Vaughn's part in Find the Air showed how sometimes you don't need the absolute craziest tricks to have a ripping part (even though he throws in some serious bangers and solid lines), you can just have a style that makes skateboarding look good.
Chase Webb, despite conjuring up plenty of discussions related to Nyjah, the typical Californian handrail skater, etc., dropped a part through Transworld that is too gnarly to not appreciate.

Now the next few videos are all super awesome in their own way, but I'm keeping them for the end because they all have a good deal of older footage that is just remixed:
Tony Durao is one of my favorite up-and-coming East Coast shredders right now, and Quartersnacks masterfully remixed his TWS Check Out footage, his welcome part to Waters and Army, and some new footage for a part that should be talked about for years to come. (Massive switch boneless at 4:33!)
Mark Suciu's part in Search the Horizon was an instant classic and has been remixed with the same vibes you'd expect in a Habitat video, along with some cool footage I don't remember ever seeing from Mark.
Same thing pretty much for Brandon Westgate's part in MADE. This time it's been remixed with some of his older parts as well, which makes this Westgate compilation a true testament to his place in skateboarding.
And finally, this recap video from the Berrics' 2UP contest is actually quite worthy of a few views, especially when you have the blend of manual masters that you do for this contest.

Next Week (and maybe the week after that): Gone Skating

I didn't want this to come, but maintaining this blog with new topics every week is becoming a bit too tricky to handle. Every day you can look on skate websites and find loads and loads of new videos to occupy your time, but I started this blog to take a look at videos probably lost in the abyss of the internet and have them resurface with a new purpose. I just don't want to post a video and list a name every day without backing it up with an analysis of why it's worth watching/re-watching and why it's worth remembering within the topic for that week. And for that, I have decided at least for a little while to hold off on the weekly topics until the time comes that is actually free enough to provide quality posts for the week. My selection of Videos of the Week will keep going as a way of filtering through the packs of daily videos. But the next weekly topic that Skateboarding High Fives is built on may be in a few weeks, maybe a month, maybe a few months, maybe summer...I don't really know. As quantity is pushing down on quality of skate footage these days, I hope to provide the posts that are worth reading and watching. So while I take the time to thaw my legs out from this winter and skate a bit and focus on my other responsibilities, I'll leave it with this VX piece by Gravis, featuring Jake Johnson and Sammy Winter. If this doesn't emphasize quality over quantity, I don't know what does.