Video of the Week: Youness Amrani - Almost a Part

I may be biased towards anything that Almost does, so their release of essentially Youness's pro part was high on my radar for this week. But even with my favoritism for Almost, Youness is on some next level stuff. The fact that he is one of the best manual skaters out there and can jump down some huge drops and rails is just not fair. His core balance is so strong (just look at his perfectly straight over fakie ollie to start the memorable line at 0:53) and it shows in the way he executes his tricks so flawlessly. And then you can look at his lines, that start and end with tricks other skaters have by themselves, such as back smiths or front feebles down big handrails. Throw in a nollie back 270 switch front tail (in a line at 2:00 nonetheless) along with two epic 360 flip variations down the famous monstrous ditch (with some sweet rollaways as well) and you have quite possibly the best video part of the year.

The Skateboard Mag also offered 6 parts from the indy video Goosenectar. Even though the full length was segmented here to spread over the course of the week, the releases definitely warrant a purchase of the DVD. And if it weren't for Youness dropping jaws and arguably one of the best parts of the year, then Goosenectar would undoubtedly be video of the week. Regardless, here are parts from Jared Cleland, Julian Heller, Sean Imes, Mason Silva, Louie Lopez and Alec Majerus, and Steven Swanson. Everyone seriously killed it!

In other awesome skate news from the week:
Kyron Davis drops a part for Grey Skate Mag and even though I know he's good, this part seems to be packed with more ripping than I've seen from him before and it's sick!
Sammy Montano has a Video Check Out for Transworld and comes through with loads of style and pop.
Cuban Fiedlity is Patrik Wallner's latest project featuring Walker Ryan and Michael Mackrodt traveling and skating through Cuba on pretty much untouched skate grounds.
Emerica's Euro squad absolutely shreds through Barcelona in the fashion only Emericans do.
GX1000 says that San Francisco is Grate, and I agree 110%.
Tony Hawk drops a part entitled Sync, full of Doubles with Andy Mac (even some triples!). This is a true testament to Tony's legendary status and the best showcase of how to have fun and be creative.
Alex Valdez's part in No Brainer mixes gnarly skating with the work put in behind it all and some fun too.
Albert Nyberg has Excess Baggage from AB&A with some never been seen tricks that will blow minds.
Dennis Busenitz basically had a full part in The Cinematographer Project with features from the Real Team, and Dan Wolfe was the lensman to portray it all. This part was just released online by Transworld and deserves a few watches.

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: Maintenance

Next week at Skateboarding High Fives, I'll be doing some blog maintenance so there won't be any posts. Hopefully the site will have some improvements by next week to better organize the Top 5's. In the meantime, enjoy Cooper Wilt's part from Almost Round 3, a frequently overlooked treasure.

Video of the Week: Lewis Marnell Tribute

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.

We will never forget you Lewis, ride in paradise!

UPDATE (with other videos from the week):
-Zander Mitchell in Taco Taco
-Helder Lima's LRG x Supra part
-Captain's Attack: Dalavas from Helas
-Daniel Cutcliffe in Reason 2 Believe
-Brandon Westgate's B-Sides from Made
-Mike Abarta in Meet the Lurkers
-Adidas Germany in Berlin
-Chris Blake in Sequel
-Will Golding's Red Bull feature
-Sebo Walker Recruited at the Berrics
-Seimi Miyahara in Lenz II
-Red Bull feature of skating in Sydney

Flow Bros to Blow Up #3: CJ Tambornino

I'm going to try to keep this post short because loads of time will needed to be dedicated to just wrapping your head around some, or actually most of the tricks that CJ Tambornino somehow pulls out. His fliptrickery level is quite possibly one of the most elaborate in all of skateboarding, so the fact that he is still flow is mindboggling. But to be fair, getting boards from Almost does seem pretty fitting because he is definitely setting his own standards for creativity and uniqueness in skateboarding. Some guys just have absolutely ridiculous, can't-even-be-done-in-video-games kind of tricks, but to be able to do those tricks with a really fun looking style (and still be able to NO COMPLY OVER A PICNIC TABLE - see Almost's 5-Incher video in full below) is just not fair. NBD's coming everywhere, it's much easier to list CJ's parts and some clips and let you explore the technical wizardry that ensues:
-Boondoggle, where a switch backside big spin inward heelflip (for lack of an easier name) may be the nuttiest trick. Compared to his later parts, this one is really quite subdued but still tops loads of tech video parts today and includes some pretty cool spots as well.
-Flow Trash (above), CJ's wildest full length part for sure
-Bangin, where it becomes super challenging to even name or decipher the tricks he does
-5-Incher, CJ's insanity starting at 18:06

I'd also like to point out that amidst all of his switch/nollie, double/triple flips, and inward big spinning craziness, CJ's standard tricks are also on point. He's really on a completely different level so I wouldn't be surprised if in 2014 he comes out with his full introductory part to Almost.

And for a nice visual shocker, there's this:

Video of the Week: Dee Ostrander Baker Part

First off, Aidan Campbell's new part that came out today was pretty awesome. Ever since his sml wheels intro, I was hyped on him and wanted to see more. His new part for Etnies (between AB&A and David Reyes' new part and all the other commercial features Etnies, Etnies could've easily worked towards a full length team video!) was exactly what was needed to bring Aidan to the spotlight. His style and smile make everything he does look super fun and easy, not to mention the really great editing we've come to expect from these Etnies videos. His trick selection is great and mixes in some pretty gnarly spots with some classy tricks. And the knee bend as he holds onto the boardslide at the end is priceless.

But even with that, I simply cannot look past Dee Ostrander's new part that he dropped for Baker. The Baker vibes always make you feel like you're with the homies, so when Dee starts casually ripping everything up for 6 full minutes, the destruction is too good for words. Dee skates some huge, gnarly spots, from rails to gaps to street wide grass gaps from huge ditches (aka the insane ender). So the skating itself is enough to amaze anyone and get skaters psyched to go shred the streets. The taildrop boardslide at 3:16 hyped me up so much! But the fact that everything is done with an apathetic ease left me in awe, which makes sense since Dee just so happened to drop a 6 minute part full of bangers completely out of the blue. Anyway, this part is nuts and deserves plenty of re-watches.

Yoshi Tanenbaum has been killing it lately and doesn't seem to be slowing down after his sick Mag Minute came out.
Though it will be taken down soon, Ben Hatchell's part from Cold War was released on Thrasher showing that anything he puts out is all-terrain gold. Seriously though, the quality of the gnarly footage in Cold War is ridiculous. It might be on the shorter side but I'll take nonstop thrashing footage over an over-edited piece any day.
After Dan Murphy's shared part with Dave Bachinsky in Natural Selection came out not too long ago, he's now releasing more solid footage as a commercial for his truck sponsor, Theeve.
Almost Skateboards is one of my favorite companies because their team is nothing short of legendary and every single one of those dudes skates super creatively (to say the least) and has a blast while doing it. So this new feature from a good group of guys on the team was awesome, not to mention basically a full new part from Youness, yet another footage machine.
The LRG Europe squad is darn talented, like extremely talented, at skateboarding and it shows in their sweet tour video through Cyprus.
Nice NYC vibes throughout this video, Off The Braxx, with a crazy ender part from Dylan Witkin, who somehow managed to find loads of big handrails in the city.
There have to be hundreds if not thousands of dudes that are under the skateboarding industry's radar, but Chris Luhring and Julian Klein both came out with tight parts this week for Creation/Satori and Atlas Skateboarding respectively that should definitely help with that. Haven't heard of either of them before but their names will stick out after seeing their skating here. 

Mini Ramp Skaters #2: Daewon Song

Now I know Daewon has been the subject of a lot of blog posts lately, but that's what happens when you're Daewon Song. He is particularly good in a lot of areas of skating to say the least, with mini ramp skating being one of them. To keep things simple, I will only highlight Daewon's standout part in Cheese and Crackers (above).  There are way too many random clips online that showcase Daewon's undeniable talent on a mini ramp, so it's better just to mention Cheese and Crackers because it centered a full Almost video on solely mini ramp skating.
Daewon, like Haslam, has way too much control over his blunts, allowing for insane variations like the triple blunt at 0:51 of his New Year's Dae Bonus Trailer or the blunt bigger flip. Not only lip tricks, but as seen in Cheese and Crackers, Daewon can handle just about anything thrown in his way on a mini ramp from tires to blinding curtains to sketchily crafted above-coping rails. And still to this day I don't think I've seen anyone else come up with shifting double grab judo tricks like Daewon airs out oh-so-well above the coping.

Mini Ramp Skaters #3: Chris Haslam

Trying to write a description for Chris Haslam is extremely hard, considering the years of mini ramp skating he has under his belt. His timeless part in Cheese and Crackers above is enough to satisfy the needs of 10 hungry skate nerds for at least a week, considering there are tricks in there like a blunt triple kickflip. While Chris can almost without exaggeration probably do any trick suggested to him on a mini ramp, he can easily do any sort of blunt variation with an unnatural consistency (unnatural in the sense that it's not fair that he's as skilled as this, not in the sense of criticizing his style because there are no faults there at all). For proof, check out Chris nailing blunt after blunt after blunt after blunt after blunt...and just try to keep count. The fact that he ended the sequence of 200+ blunts with a kickflip out is just laugh-out-loud, jaw-droppingly stunning.
While those two videos alone will forever have me convinced that Haslam has been anointed with some holy skateboarding oil, he also demonstrates how even when just relaxing for a fun session at a skatepark he can still come up with the illest lines and tricks like no one else. Just look at these easy sessions at Welcome Park, Picnic Skatepark, and on the road with the Bones team.
On top of that, with his heavy bag of dorky and unheard of flip tricks, he can do plenty of mini ramp tricks away from the coping. Take this nollie big heel in Africa for starters. Only have enough plywood for a 2-foot width? No problem! Mr. Haslam will gladly take this opportunity to flawlessly nail a nollie big heel with more control than Kendrick Lamar.
All of these clips are just small tastes of what Haslam can do, so after checking these out, go get lost in the Youtube vortex of Chris's godly mini ramp skating.

Skating the Unskateable #2: Daewon Song

Trying to describe how Daewon Song has manipulated skateboarding's view of spots and what is skateable can go two different ways: an extremely long analysis of his video part history with regards to branching off into new spots over time, or a brief overview of the same material. I am choosing the latter to keep things simple. As Quartersnacks put perfectly after the spot-on Calvin and Hobbes meme, "he's just talented to the point that he couldn't be bothered by any normal conceptions of spots." Once you reach that skill level of almost literally being able to do anything on a skateboard, you need to branch out some more (pun somewhat intended considering he skates tree branches...) For example, Daewon recently reached out to his Instagram followers to suggest tricks for him because he's done just about everything else possible! Peep the trouble flip nose manny (tre + double flip = trouble flip) and the 360 shove blot slapper done as suggested by fans. People think of progressing in their skating usually by improving all of their tricks and learning new ones, but asking fans for new tricks can only go so far. So Daewon's video history is a better way of showcasing how he has progressed his skating in a different fashion. After getting creative with benches and ledges inside a warehouse in Deca's 2nd to None, Daewon came out in Skate More with the rock-solid blunt kickflip fakie at 5:09 and the famous waterfall tailslide at 5:45. Cue Colin Kennedy's voice, "This dude is waxing a waterfall." (Also worth mentioning that he rock fakied on a polejam at 5:37 that in no way looked skateable.) Since skating waterfalls and rock variations wasn't enough, Daewon took it to the trees and rocks in 5-Incher (above). The opening tree segment at 0:27 sums up Daewon's attitude towards progression in skating. Filmer: "That's not gonna work." Daewon: "Yeah it will." And while every trick in the part really captures the spirit of skating things that no one else would think of, here are a few of my favorites on spots unimaginable to the standard skater:

Kickflip back 50 the most rugged rock you could think of at 1:14

Ridiculous pipe drop in ollie at 1:23

Three clips back to back to back of shocking firecracker variations starting at 1:52

Lamppost session at 2:33

Amazing full blown tree session at 3:00

Skating rocks like skatepark banks and ledges from 3:16

And finally, revisiting the waterfall terrain at 4:02 for one of the most entertaining enders of all time.  

Dudes with Nicknames #1: Willow (Christoph Wildgrube)

Christoph Wildgrube is definitely not an easy name for implementation into the skate industry, so it's a good thing that Willow's school teacher saw the resemblance to Willow Ufgood from the movie and started one of the best nicknames in skateboarding. It's comfortable (dare I say "fun") to say and has worked well with Almost's board graphics. Willow is definitely well recognized in the industry, especially for being European, and his nickname is a sure aid to that.
Willow is definitely one of my favorites for his wonderful fliptricks and style.  He's put out quite a good deal of good footage and video parts over the past few years around his leaving Flip, getting on Almost, and turning pro. So to highlight him, check out his going pro part above (Willow's World) as well as his 5-Incher part, which has possibly my favorite skate video song of all time. It's cool that you can notice an exchange of kickflips from 5-Incher to heelflips in Willow's World for some particular spots, or at least an overall shift of those main tricks and their variations. Willow's definitely got one of the most appealing flicks for his tricks so it's always enjoyable to watch these two parts of his, as well as Willow's other full parts and commercials that he has put out.

Manny Maniacs #2: Daewon Song

A writeup about manuals in skateboarding would not be complete without mentioning Daewon Song. I don't need to mention what kind of manuals or tricks he does because he does them all.  Daewon's creativity surpasses any need of spot searching, making a single curb or a warehouse suitable for an infinite amount of manual trick combinations. If I went into any specifics about his video game like manual combos on the crustiest of spots, I wouldn't finish this post. So I'll highlight some of my favorite video parts from Daewon with his best, and a good portion of skateboarding's best, manual moments.
In one of his earlier parts (without neglecting to acknowledge his Round 1 or 2 parts with Rodney and his Love Child part) for Deca, Daewon skates a bench on a rooftop with a manual nonetheless at 1:12, strings a few awesome manuals combo tricks with just a concrete bench and a curb from 0:13 to 0:37, and undoubtedly destroys a warehouse with combinations of tricks upon tricks where the video-game-like manual combos can be seen from 3:51 - 4:36.
In his Almost Round 3 part (above), he has really too many great manual tricks to list, but he works in a wide array of fliptricks into and out of his manuals (as well as in the middle of them) while balancing across a diverse mix of banks and pads and curbs. In particular, his triple fakie manual at 3:02 shows just how controlled and entertaining Daewon is with his board and from 4:40 to the end of the part, he comes through with unbelievable manual tricks that are bound to stay ingrained in your memory.
In DVS Skate More, Daewon continues his extremely impressive and creative use of manuals to coincide with his other really great footage at appealing spots.  A couple tricks that stick out to me: at 3:36, he kickflips into a manual and then basically manuals into a two-wheeled powerslide for a moment, turns it all the way around to a fakie manual and then flips out. Godly control once again. And for his last trick at 5:52, he holds a super long switch nose manual going very fast and along a reasonably steep bank as well. The following speedy fakie big heel and Colin Kennedy's laugh as the picture fades is the perfect reaction to watching Daewon's skating: you just can't help but laugh at how ridiculously good at skateboarding he is.
New Year's Dae, a promo part of sorts, is a very refreshing take on the warehouse/back alley curb kind of skating that was in Daewon's Deca part. Obviously new and improved, Daewon still has all of the skills and style that he had back then.  New Year's Dae comes out with plenty more NBDs and innovative tricks as well as a few newfound bank tricks where he spins 720/900 or so in manuals.  I still can't believe that at 2:57 he actually films two separate clips of his nollie backside flip fakie manual fakie big flip out.
Finally, with Daewon's latest part in Almost's 5-Incher, you really can't explain the feeling you get when watching someone use rocks and tree stumps with his tricks, especially when manuals are involved. A whole new realm has been opened and Daewon's masterful creativity is to thank for that.

Manny Maniacs #3: Youness Amrani

Youness Amrani has the balance and control for manuals on a completely different level than most manual skaters. He has the ability to hold out tricks for very long distances, pop out quite high from a manual when needed, and even come to a full stop and reverse directions mid-manual, and that's not mentioning all of the body control and fliptricks he also has to throw into his combos.
Despite the high quality footage Youness has put out in his video parts, I still like his introduction to Almost (above) the best.  Looking at just his manual tricks (because he also skates gaps and ledges super well too), there are two specific ones from this video part that make me praise Youness's manual skills: At 1:35 he starts a manual up a mellow banked ledge, kickflips at the very peak when he's completely stopped his forward progress, lands back into a fakie manual and slowly rolls down the ledge only to fakie hardflip out. To back that up, he follows it with the same exact trick but with a fakie 360 flip out instead of the fakie hardflip.  The fact that he slows down so gradually and is able to hold the manual both ways for so long is absolutely stunning to me, regardless of the fact that he kickflips in the middle of each and does two really cool tricks out.  Plus, the foot positioning and setup for the next trick is always fun to watch, especially when done slowly like this because you can see the pure control of his balance.  Same goes for the control of the slowly reversing nose manual/switch manual at 3:06 (switch flip out too?! come on!).  Adding to that control, the pop out over the trash can of the kickflip manual at 2:14 is the highest I've seen from any manual.  The half cab nose manual at 2:29 appears as if Youness is just waiting for the right moment to nollie shove out into the bank; he could probably have kept going if the ledge was longer.  The manual line at 3:35 is also really worth mentioning.
That part by itself made me a huge Youness fan, especially for his special talents with manuals.  This is before he comes out with what can only be described as video game manual skills that you see in his ender for his Nike SB Chronicles Vol. 1 part.  Seriously unreal.
On top of those great parts with mind-blowing manual skills, he continues his display of amazing skating in his Almost 5-Incher part and his latest part through Transworld: Marrakesh Express.

Manny Maniacs #5: Rodney Mullen

Rodney Mullen is an enigma wrapped in legendary status with skills that are incomprehensible. Including him with the manual masters is a must when you can combine casper slides (2:43 above) and primo slides (4:38 and 4:43) into your manual combos, not to mention darkslides (2:10) and even handstand finger flips into manuals as well (0:28). Before I was even born, Rodney came out with manual tricks in his timeless part in Virtual Reality that you still see guys doing today (starting around 2:24). I still don't even know if I've someone even front heel fakie manny even today, which goes to show you that Rodney's on an entire different level. Any round with Daewon is mindbendingly insane, but I think his part in Almost's Round 3 (shown above), being one of the first bits of skateboarding I'd ever witnessed, acts as the skateboarding Bible for me today.  Some tricks from this part are untouchable to this day. For manuals specifically, besides the ridiculousness mentioned above, his stationary one wheel manual spinning at 0:33 demonstrates Rodney's freestyle background and explains why he's able to do so much on a skateboard, and right before demolishing the banked manual spot with tricks on tricks on tricks he comes out with an impossible nose manual nose impossible out at 3:46 that to me is still one of the best "straightforward" manual tricks done to this day.
Since then, I have felt an everlasting craving of more Rodney footage (Almost, please tell me you weren't kidding when you said on 5-Incher that he has a part in the works) and was partially satisfied by a few clips in Globe's United By Fate.  After hearing from interviews that Rodney went through some tough physical issues and through his own willpower is legitimately attempting to get rid of any stance that he has, I was intrigued to say the least.  His tricks in the short segment from United By Fate exemplify his goal in that he does a nose manual nollie 360 shove to manual in both "stances"...and makes it look just like a mirrored image! Most skaters show some signs of their stance in their shoulder and foot positioning but Rodney genuinely does not with these two tricks, making me think that once again he is breaking boundaries in skateboarding that no one else would think of breaking.  And just for good measure, he throws in a *switch* kickflip one footed nose manual as well.