David Loy has been off the radar for a minute and I don't recall any definitive part that I associated him to. Even though I've heard much more about his brother lately, David's gradual off-stage destruction eventually culminated with this going pro part. The part reminds everyone that he is one of the gnarliest dudes out there, with a well-used height advantage too. The wallrides, drop-ins, and tall drops he takes are deadly. Mix in some huge rails and hubbas and this part will be in the spotlight for quite some time. Congrats David! I'm not alone when I admit to sleeping on this guy for a while, but this part was like 10 shots of espresso and a few Monsters to wake everyone up to his lunatic skating.
After everything that's been happeningoverthepastfewmonths, it's really not surprising that Alien Workshop has called it quits. Manolo's Tapes pays tribute to the iconic company with a bittersweet compilation of almost every rider to have ever ridden for AWS. Where the remaining riders will go is now the big question on everyone's mind [field].
In other skate news from the last week: Peanut Head's part in Footage Party is filled with wild ripping and some startling clips. (Switch big flip came out of nowhere!) Spencer Pratti is really good and shows it in this ironically-named Straight Skating clip. Adidas took some of its team to the Skate Copa contest in NYC and ended up with some rad street clips from its stylish squad. Melbourne is showcased in this edit full of awesome skating, including one of the gnarliest gap to 50-50s I've ever seen from Tim Williams. Beagle's part in The Cinematographer Project is released and packed as expected with fun homie vibes.
After covering basically all of the facets of skating the NYC Courthouse, I've left the last two posts for this week for two specific videos. One of them is the Adidas team skating in NYC. Now even though Adidas is a mainstream company that you can say doesn't belong in skateboarding, what they've done in skateboarding is without a doubt pretty awesome. The primary ("American" maybe, though it's really made up of a good amount of internationals too) team alone is so stacked, but not stacked like DC or Nike with guys that are going to be in every contest. Not that contest skating is necessarily a bad thing, but the collection of guys on Adidas is supremely more tasteful to me than many other shoe brands. I think "tasteful" is an accurate word for what Adidas has been doing: the crew mixes up an eclectic group of styles, the shoes are classy and distinctive, and the videos they've consistently been putting out (including every single one of their tour videos) is exactly how I think tour videos should be. It may be the German roots or something but whatever it is the editors, filmers, and skaters at Adidas produce some of my favorite web clips.
Now that I'm done ranting on the tastefulness (last time I use that here, I swear) of Adidas as a whole, let's see exactly what the crew accomplished at the NYC Courthouse. Starting slightly after the 5 minute mark in the video, Lucas Puig surprises by coming in hot with a smooth-as-always switch flip back tail. I'd probably say that this is my favorite trick done on that main ledge at the courthouse, and I am fully embracing my biased support of the Frenchman. Dennis Busenitz of course comes through with speed - though it probably felt slow for him - and shrugs his shoulders on a back feeble, only to step it up with a sick back noseblunt pop out.
Some other rad skating ensues at different spots from Vince De Valle (gnarly boardslide!) to Nestor Judkins to Benny Fairfax (see what I mean about the team?) and then the official introduction of Mark Suciu pops up (SEE WHAT I MEAN?!?!). Just when you think all the ways of skating the NYC Courthouse have been explored, from the two ledges to the drop to manuals in between, Mark somehow thinks of a 3 trick line to perform. A narrow ollie over the edge of the column and a wallie 180 provide the set up for the perfect fakie flip into the bank. Sure it's ABD by Josh Clark, as mentioned a couple days ago, but that doesn't take away the gnarliness of the trick, much less the fact that it was the ender of a line too. And if that's not enough already, which I don't see why it wouldn't be, Mark seals the deal with a backside bluntslide 270 out on the ledge and twists back around with a bs 180 while dropping off the kinked bank (mimicking every viewer's smile of elation with the rollaway). Is he good or what?
One year ago today skateboarding saw the passing of one of the best dudes out there. Lewis Marnell was not only an incredible skater with one of the best bags of tricks I can think of, but a super positive guy in general: generous, friendly, and humble. There've been a few deaths in skateboarding that I've heard about, but none hit as hard as this one. Though it's very saddening to see such a great human leave us, Lewis will never be forgotten. Almost Skateboards has done an incredible job of keeping Lewis's spirit alive in the skate world, and this tribute that they created for Episode 3 of Almost Famous is my favorite yet. Not only is it one of the best trick compilations for Lewis, but it pays homage to how great of a person Lewis was and how thoughtfully people have reacted to his passing. Along with this great video, Thrasher also released the remarks and stories from Lewis's teammates at Almost with another touching tribute.
Christmas was definitely a good day for gifts in skateboarding this past week. Habitat's latest video offering dropped along with Santa Claus down our chimneys and most certainly kept the fire blazing. Anything Habitat puts out is good quality skateboarding and this semi-full-length / promo / welcome-to-the-pro-ranks-Suciu-and-Delatorre video is no different. The artistic direction, song selection, spot selection via travel destinations, and skating in general is all meticulously thought out and the end result is a wonderful 20+ minute experience.
In the opening montage of Silas, Danny Garcia, Guru, and Marius, I was pretty happily stunned with Guru's switch flip up a long 5 stair and Marius's switch crooked grind hill bomb was nothing short of epic. Managing to maintain composure with speed wobbles as bad as that, all the while going switch, deserves a trophy. (Or possibly even a pro model soon...?)
Brian Delatorre comes through next with an all around ripping part. Spanning spots throughout Europe and some sweet NYC footage as well, it's really easy to get engulfed by the feel of the part and want to go skating. Dela shows that he is one of the best dudes at going over rails into banks, and with that, that he has one heck of a nollie (nollie into bank over rail frontside, same thing on the other side for his exhilarating ender, and a tight nollie back 180 over the black hubba in NYC)
In the next team montage featuring Al Davis, Stefan, Fred Gall, and Daryl Angel, we're reminded that Al Davis shreds with a sweet, unique style and has a mean switch ollie. His mini part was extremely refreshing, I must say. Too bad there was no new Kerry Getz footage though...
And then, as I'm sure everyone guessed already, Mark Suciu closes out the video. But what was potentially unexpected was the amount of footage that Mark has stacked this past year. 3 songs and about 8 minutes long, Mark somehow managed to pull of a marathon of a part, even after basically putting out 4 parts earlier this year! (And as far as I remember Thrasher, 2013 continues all the way through December. Nothing against Ishod whatsoever cause he totally rips, but after this last part from Mark...come on!) Anyway, I think Walker Ryan said it best on his facebook page when he called out the two best lines: a 4-trick no-push line at the Warschauer Strasse benches in Germany including an unbelievable last second swerve while setting up his feet for a frontside pop shove it back nosegrind backside 180 out, and also a back nosegrind backside 180 pop out followed by a fakie 5-0 half cab flip pop out on the fountain ledge at LOVE park. Extremely well-conceived and executed, not to mention very tasteful and aesthetically pleasing to watch. I'd also like to add one of Mark's first clips, which was a very quick-footed line across about 4 slightly banked manny pads with gaps in between, as well as his very lengthy line in a Philly plaza between songs that Mark cruises through perfectly. With these impressive and clever lines, Mark skates tons of rad spots with a very classy and varied trick selection, coming together in an all-around very enjoyable part.
In other news:
-This is a ridiculous acrobatic stunt involving a couple of skateboards.
-Kingpin comes through with a worthy-of-watching Top 10 list of best European video parts of 2013
-The technical insanity that is Shane O'Neill had his part from Chronicles 2 released
-Dave Abair's part in Rock N Roll was released and is super rad. Some sweet downhill, driveway skating.
-John Rattray still has it and it shows in his Cold War part (soon to be taken down)
-Chris Colbourn's part in Cut & Dry was released via TWS and it is quite good, worth of a few viewings.
-Adidas always comes correct with their traveling full-team edits, this time in the Pacific Northwest.
-Justin Hughs hits some big handrails and shreds all around in his latest part.
-Not a huge fan of demo edits but the BLVD team reminds everyone that they are extremely sick and underrated with this team edit through Brazil including some pretty incredible tricks.
-Georgie Tsushima is a filmer/editer but also skates really well, showcasing his talents in a fun, creative, and even pretty gnarly way in this part.
Dennis Busenitz's name is fairly synonymous with speed in skateboarding. If you look at him just skating flatground or a ledge even a simple curb, it only makes sense that he employs that speed for good use in his video parts. Just look at this firing line too: he starts off with plenty of speed for no pushing through the first few tricks and then uses his signature short and powerful pushing pulses to quickly gather speed for one last great backside flip. No wonder why he's come out with so many sick video parts where just about every clip he gets involves some pretty crazy speed.
I'd go more into Dennis's part in The Cinematographer Project since I actually have the DVD but I just don't have access at the moment. So I will mention his crazy back noseblunt TWS cover at 3rd and Army, which involved coming in super fast to get all the way around the curve. Managing that significant decrease in speed through the curved noseblunt is also pretty wild to think of, but Dennis would be the guy to handle it.
Taking a look at his shared part with Zered Bassett in Skate More, Dennis's first and last lines gain speed by going downhill (at 1:04 and 3:16 respectively) and both stand out as a "speed demon's" kind of line, especially with his ability to keep his composure long enough on the last line for that final 50-50.
In his Pushing San Francisco feature for Real Skateboards above, just about every single clip is fast. Now the camera work and effects certainly help build that feeling of traveling at some high speeds, but only so much can come from videography to achieve that vibe of flying by on every trick. The two lines starting at 1:19 in particular showcase some awesome flatground tricks and just messing around in the streets all while zooming along.
For Dennis's shoe, he was basically given a new part in Adidas Euro Lines, which was a very welcome surprise. Again, he's skating super fast. Just like at 1:08 when Dennis plows through one 50-50 only to grind some more and gap out into the street. Watching him sprint and push at 2:03 is a pleasure in itself, even if it's just to get on top of the huge bank. Most people will climb to the top of the bank to start or just ask for a convenient tow-in, but Dennis does it the old-fashioned way through some heavy leg work for a more rewarding experience for us viewers.
In Since Day One (remixed), he uses his speed rather well in DC at 0:35 to tre flip up onto the ledge and then nollie frontside flip the gap. The double ollies at 1:04 must take a lot to just hold onto the speed to jump out to the street, and what's even cooler is that the clip is followed up by the 3-up-3-down spot where Dennis frontside 360's WAY OUT beyond the 3 stair just because of how fast he's going. And then at 2:35, Dennis claims the throne of 3rd and Army with 3 more sick lines to add onto his already impressive resume at the spot; the last line of 3 tight tricks and no pushes makes me smile every time.
And finally, in my personal favorite part from Dennis, Diagonal, the first downhill SF kickflip still in black and white sets the tone of the rest of the part to display some great speed. Dennis comes in hot for the two lines at 0:41 at some pretty well known spots. At 1:07, after pushing a bit, he quickly ollies down to set up for the back tail on the ledge and somehow seems to gain speed on that little jump down! Only Dennis... Seeing the ground fly by with the two lines at 2:06 and 2:39 is visually stunning, and I still wonder how Dennis manages to carve around after the back 180 in that second line because it looks like he always rolls out almost too far to come back up the stairs. Again, seeing Dennis physically run up at 3:26 for a huge frontside ollie is very gratifying, and his final ollie in Barcelona over the bench and down the stairs at 3:33 is one of my favorite ollies of all time. (Which makes Gilbert's AWS ad that much crazier.)
Mark Suciu has been on an absolute tear this past year. The amount of footage that came out for Mark right as spring rolled around for 2013 was unheard of, especially because it was all quality footage we've now come to expect out of Mark. It's crazy to think that Mark's studying now at Temple University (just another reason why he's one of the best all around dudes in skateboarding) and still technically has his first professional part for Habitat coming out at the end of this year in Search the Horizon. I don't know Thrasher's requirements for SOTY and if the guy has to have been pro all year long, but I really don't care when a guy like Mark comes out with this much terrific skating.
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.)
There were way too many good videos this week, so here's a "brief" rundown.
I'd almost completely forgotten about Dennis Durrant but was so stoked that he's still been skating with that same smooth technical style. Glad to see his latest video part for Adidas International at the beginning of this week with some stupid-tech fakie flip variations into handrails.
Then Ishod Wair came out with Wair N Tear. His style never ceases to amaze me in that nothing he does looks remotely challenging, yet he comes up with some pretty stacked lines. It's almost too easy to overlook his switch front big spin down the LOVE gap because of how smooth it was. (Footage machine alert! Ishod just dropped this and still has what should be a standout part for Chronicles 2)
Through Christopher Middlebrook I came along to this Modus Bearings Portfolio montage, which was great in numerous ways. Footage of Lewis [RIP] that I don't think I've seen before was absolutely priceless, the filming was on point in every clip, John Rattray's nose manual slalom was pure awesomeness, and the assortment of skaters' nationalities from English to Australian coupled with really great clips combined for a very much appreciated 6 minutes of skateboarding.
I hadn't heard of Rowan Zorilla before, but with a standout part in Footage Party I surely won't forget him now. His carefree style and loose trucks with a seriously diverse selection of spots and terrain make for a kind of part that never gets old. Not to mention some pretty gnarly clips in there done in superb fashion.
Magenta turned Koichiro Uehara (who I also hadn't heard of before) pro by dropping this mixtape of his skating on Thursday. Man oh man does he have quick feet! It takes a good amount of skill and practice to be able to ollie as quickly as he does in this mixtape and the couple minutes of street shredding are quite refreshing.
Also, Chris Gregson came out with a super sick part that demonstrates skills of a true tranny ripper. His frontside flips a thing of beauty and his lanky style works very well with all of his ripping. You really have to stop and realize just how fast he's flying around the bowls in some clips because his nonchalance doesn't show it.
Then yesterday, Jordan Hoffart took his much deserved Day Hoff from skating. He's always been one of the guys I love seeing footage from ever since his part in Fun. From hairy out-rails/out-ledges to some of the longest street gaps I've seen (I keep thinking back to his enormous ollie in New Ground), Jordan continues his raw and impressive skating.
Despite all of this rip-tastic parts, I must give the video of the week to the GX1000 crew shredding in Montreal. For one, the vibes of the GX1000 videos are unmatchable. Straight up, raw street skating with the homies in the way all skaters dream about. Any videos the crew puts out are pure gold, and it helps that every guy in the crew totally kills it. One of my favorite things to watch from them is shown right at the start: barging indoor/underground spots with security with legit tricks as opposed to squeezing in an ollie just to run away when the guard peaks his head around the corner. Yonnie Cruz shows everyone how to get the best clips just like this.
Probably the key reason why I love this video is because I've taken a couple of weekend trips to Montreal and have skated around a few of the very same spots from the video. Seeing Antoine Asselin varial flip from the basically the street out and over a post and into a downhill road at 2:09 is ridiculous from watching it. But to have experienced actually bombing the hill after it and knowing the width of those sidewalks makes the trick that much gnarlier. Just like the tricks at the Olympic Stadium: from Yonnie Cruz's switch backside wallride at 0:56 along the very crusty surface to Charles Rivaro's Stadium rooftop miniramp line at 3:14 followed by his super long downramp manual to 50-50. Knowing what the spots are like in person makes the footage exponentially more impressive and exciting to watch. And though I haven't even heard of Charles before, I will know him now from his sick clips and his ender which is too awesome for words.
Finally, I need to shoutout Jake Johnson because I was already pumped for his double glass wallrides at 1:43, but after seeing his latest Alien Workshop ad from this very trip to Montreal, I am utterly astounded. Jake's already shown his sweet wallriding skills in Mind Field, but this wallride takes skateboarding to completely new levels. I've seen Wes Kremer and Silas Baxter-Neal do some pretty long and tall wallrides, and lately I've been digging T-Funk's wallride from his new part, but again I doubt they come close to Jake's latest wallride. The crazy thing is that I've actually skated around that very same plaza in downtown Montreal and never did it occur to me that a wallride could even be done down that entire double set wall. There are plenty of wallriding opportunities in that area, but Jake's seems simply impossible. Let's just say that I am rather eager to see Jake's next video part, whatever it may be.
Lucas Puig is my other top favorite skater with Walker Ryan, and even though there might be some first-name bias in there, just about every aspect about him is unquestionably a factor to being my favorite skater. Asides from the heavy bag of tricks, one of the best natural styles in skating, and the photogenic European backdrop for his skating, Lucas always exudes those good vibes in his videos combining just the right amount of motivation for landing tricks with equal amounts of just having fun and messing around.
Besides that, when I first started getting into skateboarding I looked up skaters names Lucas and obviously found this guy. It just so happened to be a little after the release of Fully Flared. Of course I found Lucas's part and I instantly remembered his switch backside flip over the rail at 1:38. Not only was the trick in itself a complete shocker to me at the time, but the perfect landing and unwinding of his arms with the roll away was permanently ingrained into my memory. At 2:51, Lucas starts off a real OG line to match the song change with a switch backside flip there down some stairs followed by precision tricks in a very flowy line. It's hard to explain why I could watch that trick from Lucas all day, but when something is aesthetically pleasing as that it usually doesn't have an explanation. One thing I do know is that I've seen a good amount of ever-so-slight variations in the style of Lucas's trick throughout his video parts and clips, which makes the unpredictability of how the trick will appear that much more appealing.
To show even more of Lucas's mastery of the trick, here are some random web clips that include it:
At 0:27 in the Unseen Fully Flared Clips from French Fred, Lucas switch backside flips from kicker to kicker with yet another gorgeous demonstration of the trick. With his Helas homies in the DALAVAS Throwaway footage, Lucas switch backside flips at 0:26 off a kicker and over a street sign twice, because perfection comes in twos of course. In the Adidas at LES NYC clip, he pops a real nice one at 1:50 over the big apple.
Now take a look at Lucas's solid history of video parts, mostly through Cliche:
In Bon Appetit, he nails one at 3:32 over a crusty looking street gap. In Cle, Lucas pops a really solid switch backside flip at 3:55 over picnic table, something I don't remember seeing at all in the latest picnic table trick craze. And then at 3:59 he tweaks the trick out with his own personal touch over the hip of a steep bank. For La Cliche Promo, Lucas shows that he can handle this trick down some pretty tall stairs (and over a rail even) at 1:24 with elegant stomping of the trick, and then take it to the tech side too at 8:08 out of a switch back tail at Venice Beach. In Lucas's Kurds Are My Heroes part (above) he beautifully executes a switch backside flip in the middle of the line at 4:57 over yellow trash can, and then getting even more tech than before by switch backside flipping into a 5-0 grind super close to the wall at 5:18 for his ender. In his TWS Pro Spotlight Video he does the trick over at 1:35 over a California rail and across a sick street gap at 2:39. And most recently in Bon Voyage, Lucas switch backside flips over a flatground block to start a line (which ends with a back smith backside flip!), all the while skating very smoothly and speedily. Later on he switch backside flips a gritty street gap in camo pants, further proving that he is the king of his own style.
This post may be coming late, but so would Lem Villemin's name on a deck. This dude's been around for quite some time now and word of Lem going pro was started years ago back when he had something possibly going on with Chocolate. His part in the Adidas Diagonal video (above) is an immaculate display of proper, stylish skateboarding, which has been out for 4 years now. Lem was also one of the original recruits at the Berrics, even before his near perfect part with Adidas, and even back then I'm pretty sure I remember talks of "Lem should turn pro soon". Despite some injuries which has taken Lem off the radar lately, he has been on Cliche for about two years now and has come out with a solid mini part for Cliche as well as some always graceful and much appreciated footage in their new video Bon Voyage. Basically put: anything Lem comes out with, however rare these days, is pure gold and it's quality footage (definitely not quantity as of late) that should support his turning pro campaign. (For the hip-hop/rap listeners, I'd compare Lem to Jay Electronica in that there is considerably very little coverage of either of them, but what is out there in the industry is just a beautiful display.) I recently heard Lem is doing better from injuries so I'm hoping he's working on stacking some smooth and powerful clips for his turning pro video part soon.
For the weekend, I decided to pick this video part of Raul Navarro for Adidas that went up on Tuesday. I had somewhat heard of Raul from Adidas before through his Diagonal part and when he was in the Adidas International Team Montage (that cab flip at 3:21 has been cemented into my memory). Being off the radar for most skaters, Raul pretty much defines that OG European tech style: fast, assertive pushes, and really capitalizing on the use of shove it tricks. To me, watching the typical tech skater now is for the most part like "kickflip back tail, and now let's see what craziness he can do out of it". So when someone uses shove its and 180s in super technical tricks, it's really refreshing to watch. (Shoutout to JB Gillet as well). Tricks like these help you see just how much control someone has. The fakie pop shove at 2:40 and the cab noseblunt to regular at 3:13 stick out to me for their cleanliness and for how properly they were done. Overall, really a fun watch thanks to Raul's one of a kind style and trick selection and the consistently beautiful editing from Adidas.
