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.

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.  

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.

High Fives all around!

Welcome to Skateboarding High Fives!  Combining the “no more than one video per day” idea behind Walker Ryan’s Under Saturation blog, and the collective theme behind Oliver Barton’s Top 5 Youtubes of the Week, I present you with this new collection of skateboarding videos through my eyes.  Every week has a theme and every theme will have 5 videos, one for each day of the week.  The weekend will be free for whatever skateboarding goodness comes its way, as weekends are meant to be. High Fives all around!

To get things started, this week will be dedicated to my own favorite video parts.  Over the years I've seen many parts that are nothing short of legendary, with guys like Rodney or Daewon, and quite a lot of parts that are just so epic, Geoff Rowley in Sorry for example.  But despite the incredible skating that still holds strong today, I found that the song choice (along with the edit) really solidifies a video part into something that will never leave my head.  It's cliche by now but you've heard it before, the song makes or breaks the video part.  I'd say there's definitely some truth to that.  The video parts going up this week all have songs that I keep high in my iTunes rotation, even though I usually don't look for music in that genre.  They act like highlighters to these video parts and make everything stand out.  Combine that with a myriad of skating styles and gnarly tricks that also go down in the skate history books, I now present to you my Top 5 Favorite Video Parts.