2014 Videos #1: Plan B Video

Not much needs to be said about the long-awaited, now cliche release of the Plan B Video. We know it's going to be good, no question there. The crew is super well-knit and the perfect size for a full length video with full parts from everyone. The question is when, or if really, the video will come out. Now after some good teaser trailers this past year, we can hopefully assume that the video will be released. The time has been long enough that a date later this year would make the most sense. And plus, how long can Plan B sit on the footage of Sheckler's backside flip down El Toro? Something's gotta give and I feel like 2014 is the year.

While I'd think the obvious contenders for last part would be Danny Way (Superfuture section above) and Ryan Sheckler, with most likely mind-blowing tricks, that doesn't mean every single other guy on the team won't have a phenomenal part. There's been so much time since Superfuture that even with some injuries and downtime, all of the guys HAVE to have some heavy footage stacked up for Plan B. And the sweetest thing is that Plan B is considered one of the best teams in skateboarding for a reason. We just need a reminder this year with the video!

Next Week: Speed Demons

Skaters are getting gnarlier and crazier these days, so seeing them skate faster to push skateboarding (almost literally) to new limits is no surprise. But there are a group of skaters that just stick out because of how fast they skate, and how consistently they skate at that speed. So this week I'm going to cover the top 5 speed demons that are personally the ones I think of when it comes to fast skating.

There are tons of other dudes that skate super fast too, so it's obligatory that I mention a few names here as well:
Tony Trujillo, TNT, rips extremely hard in his part in In Bloom, street and tranny, to cement himself as one of the fastest skaters for sure.
John Cardiel, like TNT, skates so crazily fast on street and tranny in his part in Sight Unseen. The line at 0:39 is too awesome.
Corey Duffel skates down some insanely huge gaps and does so by skating insanely fast. The last ollie in his Real Street part seems unreal and will stick in your memory after watching it just once.
Danny Way deserves the mention for sure. Breaking gap distance and height records...oh and this land speed record as well.
Grant Taylor skates super fast, wild in a controlled way, and just simply powerful. Before his Chronicles part dropped, he was awarded SOTY 2011, for a definitive reason I might add, through this video part on Thrasher. That very first line gets me every time just thinking about that high-speed half cab and then ollieing over the guy on the bench.
Chris Pfanner is another dude that skates some huge gaps and goes on an all out assault at every spot. There are some speedy lines and long gaps here in this Volcom Stone-Age clip.
Jordan Hoffart has been known to skate pretty fast. Every one of his parts has some clips that are just full-on speed, but the insane ollie from Bones New Ground will be the trick from Jordan that sticks out the most.
Gilbert Crockett also skates really fast. Though pretty short, his Life-Splicing part is probably my favorite part of Gilbert's. Without exaggeration, every single clip involves some solid speed, and the final ollie still blows my mind.

Next Week: Slams

Slamming is inevitable for skaters. From the random pebble that just jumps out in front of your wheel to the disorientation of balance that throws everything off, slamming comes in the most unexpected ways. It's the harsh reality of skateboarding and the pros know this particularly well. It's been said that pros (let's include am/flow skaters for argument's sake) slam more than other skaters, which I wouldn't argue with one bit. Going hard for tricks when you're as practiced as these guys are make the slightest change in their environment the biggest factor for slamming. Some skaters know how to come out of bails smoothly from experience, some just go straight rag doll and take the full impact. Some skaters play it relatively safe with their terrain, some skaters go balls out at the gnarliest spots. Regardless, this week I'll go over my top 5 skaters that come into my head when thinking about slamming.
Here are some other skaters that have had some pretty hefty slams too:
Jereme Rogers' opening two clips from Yeah Right are just painful to watch. Getting tangled up in the rail/hubba to flipping over looks rough on the entire body, but then the sack on the rail is quite possibly the worst one I've ever seen. And by worst, I mean the most direct sack possible. Jereme's cringing face explains it all.
Nate Akers' Hall of Meat for his ollie down a huge gap (in Washington state I believe?) is never going to be forgotten. I still trip out at the fact that you can hear 3 distinct snaps: the wheels landing on the pavement, the board breaking in half, and then that from his leg.
While I tend to pay attention to most things street-skating-related, there's no way I could not mention Danny Way's shin-shattering slam into the Big Air coping at the X Games or Jake Brown's frightening fall straight to flat off the Big Air quarter. It's a true testament to the sheer strength and willpower of these two guys to get right back up after slams like that.

Next Week: Skating the Unskateable

Skateboarding today is generally based on doing tricks in the streets. Sure there are tons of great skateparks out there with perfect transitions and ledges, but one of the core qualities of why we skate is to manipulate the streets in the "real world" for our own purposes. This is why some spots are completely blown up because of accidentally being made near to perfection for skateboards, and other spots are known only for one trick alone because of how impossible to skate they may seem. This week I will be looking into latter side of the spectrum, at skaters that have the ability to visualize skating spots that most of us would never even consider touching with our boards.
For a topic like this, I feel that it's necessary to mention guys like Danny Way and Bob Burnquist, who have taken skating vert to a whole new level. Looking at Bob Burnquist's Dreamland, I find it hard to believe that anyone could come up with the crazy ideas that this man has. The innovation in skating the unskateable (nope, helicopters are not your typical skatepark feature) is hard to match with a part like this. However, considering that Bob did create an actual "Dreamland" with perfectly smooth surfaces and mathematically correct ramps and transitions, he doesn't exactly fall under the category of the top five guys this week who have changed the way we look at natural street spots.
Also worth mentioning is Clint Walker. My perception of skating impossibly gnarly spots has changed completely since his Modern Art part. From skating glass handrails to handrails with both drop downs and kinks mixed together to unnecessarily long street gaps like at 5:03, Clint truly made an impact on skating with this part and how guys view what is skateable and what isn't skateable.
And then there's David Gonzalez. His Possessed to Skate part was an instant classic for its sheer gnarliness. How could it not be when David sets new standards for handrail skating with tricks like at 4:32 or his unreal ender at 5:30.