Video of the Week: Dan Plunkett's "A Video Part About Nothing"

There were two videos that came out this week that were both beyond the norm of awesome skate videos. Joey Guevara came through with a part for Atlas that had one of the greatest mixes of San Jose spots and varied tricks I've seen. Joey skates super smoothly and has tons of rad lines in this part, which work perfectly with the backdrop of some gritty streets. However, maybe it's the Seinfeld reference, but Dan Plunkett gets my vote for Video of the Week with his Video Part About Nothing. I've never really attached any distinctly memorable part to Dan, even though I knew he skated some pretty gnarly stuff. So this part will definitely be the one to associate with Dan for me, and it's a good part to remember. Not only does he continue to show us that he's the king of bluntslides, but all the spots are super rugged. All together a gnarly part for a very underrated skater.

Some other tight videos from the past week:
Connor Kammerer - Tengu: God of Mischief
Josh Stafford - Mag Minute
Pyramid County - Couples Therapy
Mountain Dew - United Nations at the Berrics
Kevin Barnett - "See", REDirect
Brennan Conroy - The Cinematographer Project

Next Week: Videos to Look Forward to in 2014

Though it's already a couple weeks into the new year, there's still time to express my top 5 videos I'm looking forward to in 2014. Not much else to say except that there are definitely some big releases to be hyped for this year.

One thing to look forward to not only this year but basically the next decade or so is Mark Suciu. Technically, since I don't think there are any specific releases for Mark scheduled for 2014 yet, I'm not officially including him in this week's top 5. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't expect more quality footage from him. And loads of it. After one of the craziest years for Mark in terms of the absurd number of good parts he put out, capped off with his wonderful 8 minutes of smart skating in Search the Horizon, there's no doubt he'll impress once again in 2014. Add in the fact that he is a new professional for Habitat and there's a really good chance we'll see some incredible stuff from Mark this year.

Video of the Week: Habitat's Search the Horizon

Habitat - Search the Horizon

Christmas was definitely a good day for gifts in skateboarding this past week. Habitat's latest video offering dropped along with Santa Claus down our chimneys and most certainly kept the fire blazing. Anything Habitat puts out is good quality skateboarding and this semi-full-length / promo / welcome-to-the-pro-ranks-Suciu-and-Delatorre video is no different. The artistic direction, song selection, spot selection via travel destinations, and skating in general is all meticulously thought out and the end result is a wonderful 20+ minute experience.
In the opening montage of Silas, Danny Garcia, Guru, and Marius, I was pretty happily stunned with Guru's switch flip up a long 5 stair and Marius's switch crooked grind hill bomb was nothing short of epic. Managing to maintain composure with speed wobbles as bad as that, all the while going switch, deserves a trophy. (Or possibly even a pro model soon...?)
Brian Delatorre comes through next with an all around ripping part. Spanning spots throughout Europe and some sweet NYC footage as well, it's really easy to get engulfed by the feel of the part and want to go skating. Dela shows that he is one of the best dudes at going over rails into banks, and with that, that he has one heck of a nollie (nollie into bank over rail frontside, same thing on the other side for his exhilarating ender, and a tight nollie back 180 over the black hubba in NYC)
In the next team montage featuring Al Davis, Stefan, Fred Gall, and Daryl Angel, we're reminded that Al Davis shreds with a sweet, unique style and has a mean switch ollie. His mini part was extremely refreshing, I must say. Too bad there was no new Kerry Getz footage though...
And then, as I'm sure everyone guessed already, Mark Suciu closes out the video. But what was potentially unexpected was the amount of footage that Mark has stacked this past year. 3 songs and about 8 minutes long, Mark somehow managed to pull of a marathon of a part, even after basically putting out 4 parts earlier this year! (And as far as I remember Thrasher, 2013 continues all the way through December. Nothing against Ishod whatsoever cause he totally rips, but after this last part from Mark...come on!) Anyway, I think Walker Ryan said it best on his facebook page when he called out the two best lines: a 4-trick no-push line at the Warschauer Strasse benches in Germany including an unbelievable last second swerve while setting up his feet for a frontside pop shove it back nosegrind backside 180 out, and also a back nosegrind backside 180 pop out followed by a fakie 5-0 half cab flip pop out on the fountain ledge at LOVE park. Extremely well-conceived and executed, not to mention very tasteful and aesthetically pleasing to watch. I'd also like to add one of Mark's first clips, which was a very quick-footed line across about 4 slightly banked manny pads with gaps in between, as well as his very lengthy line in a Philly plaza between songs that Mark cruises through perfectly. With these impressive and clever lines, Mark skates tons of rad spots with a very classy and varied trick selection, coming together in an all-around very enjoyable part.

In other news:
-This is a ridiculous acrobatic stunt involving a couple of skateboards.
-Kingpin comes through with a worthy-of-watching Top 10 list of best European video parts of 2013
-The technical insanity that is Shane O'Neill had his part from Chronicles 2 released
-Dave Abair's part in Rock N Roll was released and is super rad. Some sweet downhill, driveway skating.
-John Rattray still has it and it shows in his Cold War part (soon to be taken down)
-Chris Colbourn's part in Cut & Dry was released via TWS and it is quite good, worth of a few viewings.
-Adidas always comes correct with their traveling full-team edits, this time in the Pacific Northwest.
-Justin Hughs hits some big handrails and shreds all around in his latest part.
-Not a huge fan of demo edits but the BLVD team reminds everyone that they are extremely sick and underrated with this team edit through Brazil including some pretty incredible tricks.
-Georgie Tsushima is a filmer/editer but also skates really well, showcasing his talents in a fun, creative, and even pretty gnarly way in this part.

Switch Backside Kickflips #3: Austyn Gillette

I shouldn't have to say how wonderful it is to watch Austyn Gillette skate.  His style is insanely fluid and graceful and his pop, flick, and overall trick flicking is just a thing of beauty. Ok, now that the obvious is out of the way...
Austyn has a very good switch backside flip, to say the least. With his ability to pop (just look at the trick done over the Maloof High Ollie bar with a casual little light footed hop after landing) and his ability to skate super fast so nonchalantly (like all throughout his Quik part but in particular at 4:17 when he speedily switch backside flips over a huge street hip while basically going downhill the whole time), Austyn comes out with a trick that looks way too comfortable for the level of difficulty that he executes it at.  Some notable switch backside flips that I've seen from Austyn: over a steep hip at 0:32 when a couple Habitat guys traveled with Austyn in OZ, down a clean set of skatepark stairs at 1:40 in his Street League Selection extended edit, and at 0:33 over a fire hydrant in his latest Real Street part.
But with a style like Austyn's, I have to place further emphasis on a few of the sweetest switch backside flips I've seen from him.  Austyn's part in Habitat's Origin, one of my favorite video parts of all time for sure, showcases his great use of speed and flick at 4:30 when he switch backside flips across a super long dirt patch, over a wall, and then down a small gap after all that. You can tell visually by the quickness that he moves away from the camera just how fast he was going and how long that gap must be. As referenced yesterday with Blake Carpenter, Austyn also participated in a very entertaining and impressive Battle Royale at the Berrics, where at 1:15 Austyn lands a beauty of a switch backside flip. The crazy thing about this is that not only was it down the Berrics' 7 stair, but he landed about 6 feet out past the last stair just for the heck of it! And to close it all off, I'd like to point to the extremely aesthetically pleasing video part above: Austyn Unlimited. The whole part is great, but it also shows Austyn's varied use of the switch backside flip. In a line starting at 3:38, Austyn's pulling out quite a few enjoyable tricks all while cruising down a nice hill. Mid-line he decides to switch backside flip (after a switch ollie and switch powerslide too) and still have enough cruising control to swerve behind a parked car and ollie back up the curb for his next trick. At 4:46 he shows the trick with a more technical control by doing it into a manual with a front 180 out on a nicely structured pad. To penultimately end his part at 5:35, Austyn drops one of my most memorable switch backside flips: in a crusty looking neighborhood, over a sketchy curving staircase's handrail, defining style with his flick and catch, and landing downhill once again so that he can roll away with that effortless posture.

UPDATE: I always remembered this particular switch backside flip over a couch from Austyn, just not where to find it. It is a thing of beauty.

Favorite Video Parts #3: Mark Suciu - Cross Continental

Again, much like the other videos of this week, the music behind this part really works perfectly with the skating. Beirut's "The Rip Tide" blends with Habitat's art direction and pulls you into the part, calming you down just enough to just sit back ready to be in awe at Suciu's smooth and technical abilities. This is later followed by Elliot Smith's "Junk Bond Trader" which gives off that feeling of fun creativity as the shredding continues. The timing of the song to his switch backside flip to start the part is almost cathartic in the way that I feel jealous but totally stoked at the same time.  The extra little rewinding 180s in the line at 0:55 is what I now personify Mark with: that quick-footed style that never seems to get old no matter how much footage he puts out.  I feel like a lot of people get tired of watching some skaters because they're too robotic or too predictable with their tricks.  This is exactly where Mark Suciu comes in. He provides that spontaneous and unexpected addition to his tricks and cleverly crafted lines, like a bonus 180 out of a grind or a random wallie just to hit an obstacle you normally wouldn't.  Cross Continental is filled with these welcomed little surprise tricks, some of my favorites include the backside flip at 1:17, immediately followed by a fun pop out of a back lip at 1:20, the back noseblunt front 270 in at 2:29, the extra pivot to finish the line at 3:43, and somehow throwing in a switch back noseblunt down a handrail at 5:06.  Not only the fast feet and creative tricks, but for the record he also throws down a switch feeble and a switch smith grind down handrails.  If all this isn't enough excitement yet, there's no way not to LOVE Mark's varial heelflip ender.

Favorite Video Parts #4: Austyn Gillette - Origin

Before Austyn started turning into Dylan Rieder (with what I'd call at this point an exaggerated style, that while still more appealing than a lot of styles, hopefully doesn't reach that "too cool for anyone" status), he had an organic flow that just worked perfectly.  And back when Habitat released their video Origin, Austyn hadn't yet blown up to the big name he is today.  In fact, I'd seen relatively little footage of him at all, but the Habitat ads and short clips leading up to this part were really intriguing.  So when Austyn flies in for a quick back 180 the hard way up some stairs as the very first trick in the part, I know some sweet skating's about to go down.  I must point out the line at 0:47 because when you make a front 180  look that good, only to follow with a switch back noseblunt, you're reminded that you don't need the most stairs or most flip tricks into ledge combos to make skating exciting.  A beautiful heelflip at 1:59 balances out the trick selection, and the double bump to bars at 2:10 blew my mind at first as to how he can keep his speed and composure through the second one.  The line at 3:10 is what made me an Austyn fan, iconifying the concept that less is more.