Best of BATB: Honorable Mention

It's so hard to create a High Five for all of the BATB games, so I had no choice but to create a list of battles worthy of Honorable Mention.

For starters, here are just some of my favorite moments from all the battles:
-Chris Roberts vs. Steve Berra in BATB1: Mikey and Eric as the siamese refs with some priceless opening theatrics
-Peter Ramondetta vs. Cory Kennedy in BATB2: Peter nailing two of Cory's absurd tricks to stay alive
-Cory Kennedy vs. Torey Pudwill in BATB2 for 3rd place: Cory easily had the most cutting edge group of 5 circus tricks to sweep Torey (fs nollie late flip, nollie heel spinout, switch backside double flip, triple flip, nollie big flip 360), but Torey came ridiculously close to them all and even landed the other super hard ones in between
-Felipe Gustavo vs. Jimmy Carlin in BATB4: Felipe's insane steeze will always be remembered
-Dennis Busenitz vs. Eric Koston in BATB4: Dennis's reaction to fakie inward heel is great, then proceeds to do it like it's nothing
-Torey Pudwill vs. Luan Oliveira in BATB4: without a doubt the most POPular game ever. Geoff says it at the start, "...must pop his trick. I don't think these guys are gonna have that problem."
-Davis Torgerson's surprise come up in BATB 4 against Sewa, Shane, and Ronnie won't be forgotten anytime soon.
-Jimmy Carlin's T-to-nothing comeback against Sebo Walker in BATB5, fakie big heels in both directions included, was pretty epic.

Now for just some lengthy, solid overall games of skate, with some haymaker tricks as well:
-Ishod Wair vs. Shane O'Neill in BATB4: seeing Shane nail the switch frontside bigger spin, the switch big heel, and the laser flip (and half cab heel) to stay alive were terrific.
-Tom Asta vs. Alex Mizurov in BATB4: the switch laser match was awesome.
-Morgan Smith vs. Alex Mizurov in BATB: Morgan staying alive (before winning the whole thing) on that backside double flip and nollie back heel 360 after two tries each was pretty awesome
-PJ Ladd vs. Trent McClung  in BATB 5: super long game with Trent somehow staying alive on the nollie bigger flip
-Chris Cole vs. Billy Marks in BATB 5: the triple flip, half heelflip late back foot kickflip, and the 360 underflip were all matched between these two
-Chris Cole vs. Dennis Busenitz in BATB2: Dennis landing the cab big flip, the blizzard flip (with Reda's priceless reaction), and nollie bs flip 360 were sweet, not to mention Cole's nice comeback as well.

And while the Rematch between Koston and Donovan Strain along with the very original pre-BATB game between Koston and Mike Mo are both unsanctioned, they're both legendary games at this point.

Just about every single game from a BATB Finals night has the crowd's bustling energy and some crazy tricks to make it fun to watch, but there are just too many to list. However, I need to give a special recognition to the BATB 2 Finals, Chris Cole vs. Paul Rodriguez. The moment when Chris Cole has his second try on the fakie inward heel and then proceeds to comeback with 3 straight tricks to win just helps to depict his relentlessness and legendary status. And P-Rod's smile after barely missing the back 360 kickflip is a perfect representation of his pure excitement of almost landing a hard trick and his gracious acceptance of defeat in a well-skated championship.

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.

NYC Courthouse Ledge #2: Adidas Team

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?

Speed Demons #1: Dennis Busenitz

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.)