I'd been saying for a while that Davis REALly needed to go pro and this week it was finally commemorated! This pro part is exactly what was needed to showcase Davis's awesome style, his comfort when going fast in every clip, his impressive pop (that switch heel!), and his spot creativity. What I mean by that is that Davis utilizes his skills to make spots his own. Examples include that front blunt pop up to front nose at 1:41, the switch pole jam lipslide at 2:03 (who actually hits that spot switch?), the ride-on pole jam 50-50 over the kinks at 2:37 when he even bones an ollie out over the end, and the insane couple of mid-bank ollies - both regs and switch - at 2:50. I was probably more thrilled at display of control for those two dangerous ollies than the actual flip tricks over the hips. Anyway, Davis rips and always comes through with fun-to-watch, quality parts like this. Congrats!
In other skate news:
-Brodie Penrod is extremely talented and makes every session look like a blast.
-The Subway Skating section from Tengu: God of Mischief is an instant classic, especially with the historic subway track ollie.
-Daryl Dominguez's Excursion part through various parts of England is an absolute pleasure to watch.
-Callum Paul is PassPort's first pro and celebrates the occasion with some fun shredding down under.
-Nyjah Huston is really really good. He never stops getting bangers, as seen through his Subject part, his First Tryday is hard not to smile through, and the OG Edit to his last epic part was even dropped for a good reminder.
-Bryan Schaefer is On the Radar with a new part that adds to the UNM spot posts from last week. Check out the sweet line at UNM at 1:25!
-5Boro went to Paris. They have one of the sickest teams and their own entertaining take on skating through Paris. Plus, Jordan Trahan is a boss.
-Sam Beckett, Jake Brown, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, and Alex Perelson skate the Monster Vert Ramp and remind us that vert skating is alive and kicking ferociously.
-The Organika Trail Tour is a jovial take on how Josh Matthews put together his part from last week. I really like how the Organika team is looking so this welcoming trip was nice to see.
-Skate House by Chris Whitaker started off a little questionable for me but once Chris Colbourn, Cody Hale, and Jordan Maxham came on with some great skating, it really becomes a great video overall.
-Fourstar releases an Anthology that shows why it's one of the greatest companies in skateboarding, not just for its unreal team lineup, but because of how much fun they have on every tour.
It's really getting ridiculous at the quantity of good skateboarding that's coming out every week. This week I could include a lot more videos but I'm going to try and keep it short enough with my favorites.
Ultimately, I was pretty pumped to see Ishod take SOTY 2013 after dropping loads of high caliber skating and looking ever-so-relaxed while doing it. The ease with which Ishod does his tricks can be super misleading, particularly for his ender from Wair N Tear. The switch frontside big spin down the LOVE gap didn't come as too much of a shock to me because I had seen the sequence in an issue of TWS and was somewhat expecting it at the time this video part came out. So seeing Ishod barely lift an arm and rollaway flawlessly from this trick made it seem like just another day in the park for him, no biggie. The realization of just how gnarly the trick really was though came this week with the uncut footage of Ishod's work for the trick above. For one, it's the LOVE gap, not small by any means. Secondly, a switch front big spin is definitely not the first choice trick for many skaters. But what gets me is just the volume of attempts that Ishod goes for the trick. The determination to not let the wind, cracks, or commotion at the spot get to his head is already a lot, and then you add on the fact that his body must be so sore after jumping down so many times. If that's not enough, throw in a broken finger, a broken board (and having to get acquainted to the homie's board), and actually sticking it numerous times without rolling away and you have a near impossible mountain to climb. But it's this very reason, and the relatively calm, non-glamorous outcome of landing this trick that make Ishod a great choice for SOTY 2013.
Uncut footage and outtakes are some of my favorite clips of skateboarding because you can connect with the skater more and appreciate the work put into tricks. So just like the 5 minutes of switch front big spins from Ishod, Nyjah's Fade to Black Outtakes are just priceless. While the video part itself was an audiovisual experience for the ages, seeing the raw footage is just as good, if not better. Personally, it was kind of cool to see Nyjah get frustrated with some tricks and just crack a laugh here and there as well. That's the stuff that brings out the fully-realized awe of watching some gnarly skating go down.
On top of that, David Reyes came out with a fantastic part via the Berrics and Etnies. His style is essentially perfect and absolutely kills handrails, along with some other sick clips for a great part overall. Richie Jackson returns to the radar and doesn't disappoint with a new video part of one-of-a-kind tricks. It's crazy to think just how much he has innovated aspects of skateboarding and continues to do so in ways most of us never would have thought of.
The 5boro squad released a sweet video of footage from Philadelphia. They always come through with some of the best East Coast skating vibes out there.
Though the part will probably be taken down soon, Tony Cervantes' part from Cold War was released. A tad short but very sweet, Tony's footage keeps grabs and gnarliness alive and kicking.
Ashes Griptape came out with a "half full length video" called New Sheet that is just awesome. Full of some serious ripping, including some definite face-melters near the end, it's likely a first for a griptape company to come out with a full team video like this. Tons of gnarly and appealing spots coupled with a really sick European team makes this video so rad. I must also say I was scared for Chris Pfanner at 3:53 but his crazed, fearless assault on anything he comes across allowed him to just keeping on rolling.
And finally for this week, is Old Woops New Groove from Magenta Skateboards. Leo Valls and Ben Gore take the throne of SF by mixing extremely fast and stylish skating with loads of fun and a new look for skateboarding at the streets and driveways in SF. This is exactly the kind of video that gets you hyped to just go out and skate and have fun.
