First and foremost, Etnies really should have just worked on a full length video with all the full parts they've been dropping the past months. That being said, I am thrilled about a new full part from Mr. Bledsoe. While it is definitely hard to compare to his Hallelujah part, the fact that he has returned to the radar in a wonderfully stylish fashion is too awesome to be spoiled, even by perhaps some over-prominent product placement by Etnies in the video. Regardless, with a style like Tyler's and some of the sweetest ways of incorporating flip tricks to back tails and back smiths, the part was great. Just look at the pop out of the backside heelflip from the back smith at 1:10. That alone is magical . . . and it was in a line. The back tail 360 flip at 1:44 and the frontside flip into the grass at 2:25 (with a pretty legit rollaway) were both clutch as well. All around, it's great to see new Tyler Bledsoe footage.
I'd feel weird declaring a single trick as Video of the Week, but Derek Elmendorf certainly had me thinking. Redefining gnarly handrail skating years ago, he continues to do so today.
I bought the DVD for Meet the Lurkers not too long ago and was blown away at Dolan Stearns' ender part. Because it technically came out a bit ago, its internet release by Transworld this week doesn't seem fair to give Video of the Week. However, the skating is incredible. Dolan mixes a bit of old and new school style with flairs of extreme gnarliness and complete board control. It's this kind of creative, rad, and gnarly skating that get you psyched to go out on your board immediately. After the kickflip catch on the penultimate trick drops your jaw, do what you can to prepare for the unfathomable ollie to end the part.
Manny Santiago and Dave Bachinsky come through with a really awesome shared part: Salt N' Pepper. Both are beyond good on a skateboard - Dave probably getting my vote for most underrated - and they've been stacking tons of clips.
-Brazil's Klaus Bohms shreds nicely around the world for Adidas. That smith 180 at 0:50!
-Though a year old, Bones released a highlight video of New Ground that is too epic to neglect.
-Tum Yeto tours around with some heavy hitters. Glad to see Corey Duffel still killing it.
-I love Cliche, so I was pumped to see them crash the Active park.
-Even though I think he went pro too soon, Tom Remillard rips hard for his new board on Expedition.
-The city vibes of Traffic Patterns are priceless, much like the Ricky Oyola footage within.
Ryan Pearce has been around for a good minute. I think I learned about him through Sean Malto and their ties with Escapist Skateshop out in KC. I've seen relatively well-recognized footage of Ryan stretch back to 2008, so it's still somewhat surprising that he hasn't broken out into the skate industry. I refuse to believe that he's fallen off the map entirely over the past 5 years, especially since the Berrics has shown faith and interest in him and because he went touring with Etnies as well to come out with some pretty sick tricks all last year. With Malto's recent gruesome injury, maybe the stars will align at Escapist (since one of their stars is momentarily gone) and will give rise to Ryan's breakthrough in the skate industry. Could just be based off a weird gut feeling and the fact that I want to see more of his skating in the future, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I've seen signs that he was flow for Enjoi and even Roger skateboards, but I'd say just about anything is possible for Ryan next year in terms of going am for a team.
Now why do I think Ryan Pearce should blow up next year? Well, looking at his older Video Check Out from Transworld alone, you can tell he's got some casual but sick manual tricks, a nice flip trick selection (from the opening blizzard flip and contorting the switch backside flip at 0:46), and a very easy-on-the-eyes style. But what is likely remembered by most people about Ryan is his 14 Deep part (above). It's hard to write up an analysis of the part because as I rewatched it a few times, Ryan's bag of tricks just kept growing and growing as the part got better and gnarlier. His skill is without a doubt apparent when you watch this part, but the energy that comes with the crescendoing heaviness from every clip is so much more thrilling than watching most parts these days. Even by today's standard, considering the part is a few years old, the tricks are still really sick and Ryan's style makes them so much better. And the final nollie backside flip with the cop ready to give out tickets is simply priceless. If he's been shredding these past years and just holding back on the public, I can only imagine what he's been able to do by now. I just hope 2014 will finally let everyone know.
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.
Etnies dropped AB&A a couple weeks ago with a really cool trio of European skaters. Opening up the video was Axel Cruysberghs with plenty of hammers and a fast, ripping style. Loads of fun to watch. One trick that stuck out to me (and ultimately helped inspire the theme for this week's posts) was his frontside flip out of a random Euro-gap (fittingly named here)/parking lot ditch out and over the long sidewalk gap to the street. The picture above shows that the sidewalk is quite large and Axel is soaring high, but the slow motion on the second angle of the trick really drops your jaw. Axel was hauling coming into the bank and it paid off. He boosted higher than normal, controlledly caressed the board to catch it, and floated on with the board unwavering at his feet. There's something about the power and gracefulness behind this trick that really made it stick out in Axel's sick part.
And here's the kicker (pun intended): look at the first post from this week with Justin Brock's frontside flip. I'm pretty sure it's the same gap! There must be a sign at the base of the gap saying "please frontside flip me"...
Tyler Bledsoe is probably one of the most overlooked skaters today. His quiet persona matches his smooth and stealthy spot destruction. A dizzying array of fliptricks and a spot selection that naturally flows together with any edit also help make Bledsoe footage that much more valuable. As far as my knowledge goes, he's put out two pivotal full length video parts with TWS's Hallelujah (above) and his part in Mind Field, as well as an artsy piece by Benny Maglinao and a couple of commercials all for Etnies. Not to mention awesome clips in the Gang of Fourstar tour video (front hurricane to switch crooks at 2:29 is amazing in so many ways). Through Etnies, Bledsoe has thoroughly put out stylish footage at unique spots that demonstrates his ability to get tech with ledges without going overboard, come up with tasteful manual tricks, skate different kinds of inclines, and especially throw some tricks down gaps. Watching Tyler skate provides some kind of impalpable sensation that may come close to admiration but mixes in a soothing vibe to it; basically it's just pleasing to watch him shred. His frontside and backside kickflips both switch and regular look wonderful and I'd say he's got one of the best big spin flips and quite possibly THE best frontside hurricane grind in the game (just take a look at his Hallelujah ender at 3:43 for proof, along with the many other sweet variations.) His gap tricks are done with a flawless style, exemplified in Mind Field with his tweaked hardflip at 1:18 and his big flip ender down Carlsbad at 2:31 (one of my favorite tricks for sure down Carlsbad). And he keeps ledge skating interesting and fun with creative combos that stray away from the overkill of some ledge dancers. Just look at the back lip to blunt in Mind Field at 1:39, the nosegrind shove to 5-0 at 0:50 in Hallelujah where he actually sits on the ledge and grinds for quite a bit (you see way to many short grind taps these days, holding the trick out looks much better) as well as the front board over to noseblunt at 2:07 and the back tail pop over to noseblunt at 3:38.
With very little sighting of Tyler over the past 2/3 years, I am getting very anxious as to when new footage will arise out of him. A beautiful style like his cannot sit around for too long without appeasing the needs of the skateboarding world.
