First and foremost, Etnies really should have just worked on a full length video with all the full parts they've been dropping the past months. That being said, I am thrilled about a new full part from Mr. Bledsoe. While it is definitely hard to compare to his Hallelujah part, the fact that he has returned to the radar in a wonderfully stylish fashion is too awesome to be spoiled, even by perhaps some over-prominent product placement by Etnies in the video. Regardless, with a style like Tyler's and some of the sweetest ways of incorporating flip tricks to back tails and back smiths, the part was great. Just look at the pop out of the backside heelflip from the back smith at 1:10. That alone is magical . . . and it was in a line. The back tail 360 flip at 1:44 and the frontside flip into the grass at 2:25 (with a pretty legit rollaway) were both clutch as well. All around, it's great to see new Tyler Bledsoe footage.
I'd feel weird declaring a single trick as Video of the Week, but Derek Elmendorf certainly had me thinking. Redefining gnarly handrail skating years ago, he continues to do so today.
I bought the DVD for Meet the Lurkers not too long ago and was blown away at Dolan Stearns' ender part. Because it technically came out a bit ago, its internet release by Transworld this week doesn't seem fair to give Video of the Week. However, the skating is incredible. Dolan mixes a bit of old and new school style with flairs of extreme gnarliness and complete board control. It's this kind of creative, rad, and gnarly skating that get you psyched to go out on your board immediately. After the kickflip catch on the penultimate trick drops your jaw, do what you can to prepare for the unfathomable ollie to end the part.
Manny Santiago and Dave Bachinsky come through with a really awesome shared part: Salt N' Pepper. Both are beyond good on a skateboard - Dave probably getting my vote for most underrated - and they've been stacking tons of clips.
-Brazil's Klaus Bohms shreds nicely around the world for Adidas. That smith 180 at 0:50!
-Though a year old, Bones released a highlight video of New Ground that is too epic to neglect.
-Tum Yeto tours around with some heavy hitters. Glad to see Corey Duffel still killing it.
-I love Cliche, so I was pumped to see them crash the Active park.
-Even though I think he went pro too soon, Tom Remillard rips hard for his new board on Expedition.
-The city vibes of Traffic Patterns are priceless, much like the Ricky Oyola footage within.
The fact that David Gravette came out with this Gregslist video just to skate literal garbage from a rusty pipe to a piano shows his exact spirit for skateboarding: getting out of your comfort zone and conquering new obstacles. David is very good with this and has shown his expansion of spots particularly well with new ridiculous handrails and transitions. He skates some of the gnarliest obstacles possible and seriously expands on the possibilities of what can be skated. His handrail skating is some of the most dangerous and impressive in the game and has been for a good number of years now.
Looking back to his And Now part, aside from the few insane handrails that may be only skateable to a select few of handrail killers, the few clips from 1:47-2:10 peek into David's spot creativity. From a tall sewer tunnel to a cartoonishly enormous pole jam to a legit brick wall skatestopper built right at the end of a handrail (which David gaps out over nonchalantly).
In Hesh Law at 1:27, David skates a crazy handrail that is much longer than you'd expect, and then at 1:37 he skates a mini electrical box on the side of a telephone pole to show that nothing is out of reach.
In Beware of Sasquatch he skates a bracketed handrail at 2:54 and somehow avoids the natural skatestoppers, despite the lack of any surface area of a rail to grind on.
In Prevent This Tragedy he just glides around a super curved handrail and backside 180s out for good measure at 1:42, even though just maintaining composure through the curve seems impossible. The last rail has surely turned countless other handrail killers away, but with a godly 50-50 like David has he stays unaffected by the kink in the handrail as the rail just keeps getting longer and longer. Perfect balance cheat codes? Check.
Since David's been on a rampage of skating this past year, he released a CSFU Bonus Part in which he opens up skating a dirtbike course in the middle of the woods. Keyword: dirtbike. At 1:03 he steeply drops in and then rides a sketchy looking rail ingrained in the dirt and decides that it's not enough, so he comes out into a nose manual and then pops into the bowl. An impossible combo all starting from the impossible grind.
David's most recent full video part in CSFU (above) contains quite possibly the main reason for this week's subject: his very first trick of the part. After a long and mentally gruesome battle with the rail, David rides the roller coaster 50-50 through two full 90 degree turns containing small kinks, all while gradually going downhill as well. This trick in itself deserves a medal of some kind because balancing does not work like that. He later launches into a no pop full speed feeble grind at 1:42 around a tight curve; it's all in the posture on this one. At 2:02 he flies down a well-sloped handrail into two kinks and a shifting angle of the rail as well, gliding through the grind like it's nothing, even though just looking at the rail makes any trick seem unlikely. The run up for the rail at 2:52 appears to be way to small but a quick carve and David magically sticks with the enormous double kinker all the way down.
And lastly, in David's Real Street part (which is filled with some rather awesome clips) he slides right over a bunch of bike racks at 0:28. It's funny because bike racks are meant to stop you, but David clearly is having no business with these standard rules. The ender 50-50 is better shown here with all the trials and tribulations, both physical and mental. What's absurd about this trick is mixing the number of kinks with the actual steepness and shortness of them too. Only David could see this as being an actual spot to skate.
Now I've only really seen a few commercials/ads and one single part from Jake, but man did he stick out the first time I saw his Where Are We Going? part (above). The first handrail he skates is absolutely insane. The curvature is hard enough just to hold onto while walking down, but throw in a couple of kinks to mess with you and skating it seems like a fantasy. Apparently not for Jake though because he is a destroyer of all handrails in their craziest forms. The board just seems to lock in perfectly to his rail tricks and stick with his feet as if glued on. The rail at 0:38 even is visually deceptive with its mini but plentiful kinks that no doubt feel unreal when grinding down them. And then his penultimate trick at 3:34 is a 50-50 down a handrail where the first few kinks in the handrail (and the ones nearby) make it looks completely bent out of shape. But Jake seems to enjoy skating these jagged handrails. Granted, while he absolutely annihilates handrails, there were only a few select spots in the part that qualify him towards skating the unskateable. That's where his Thunder trucks ad comes into play, because Jake Knows how to make a ridiculous spot approachable. The 10 kink roller coaster of a grind alone puts Jake on the map for skating the unskateable. And even more recently was his Ambig Introduction Ad (just the picture, but I use that lightly because it's still mind-blowing) which appears at first glance to be the backside version of his 50-50 opener from Where Are We Going? I could be wrong there but regardless, hitting a rail that curvy, without even considering hitting it backside, is definitely something new in skateboarding these days. So it's safe to say I am extremely looking forward to what Jake comes up with in the future as far as skating spots that should probably be in an amusement park.
