Best of BATB

After finally getting through all of the battles from the past 7 years of BATB, here are my top 5 favorite battles:
(Coming so late in the week, it felt more appropriate to consolidate the High Five into one post.)

5. BATB 6 Round 2 - Morgan Smith vs. Eric Koston

Koston's T-to-nothing comeback is amazing. Everyone knows that Eric is always pretty light-hearted when it comes to his skating, never taking things too seriously, while still being one of the best skaters alive. So messing up 4 tricks that you know he has is not the most uplifting for the viewers. But for the same reason he missed those, you can never count him out just because he's always got surprises. After Morgan also misses a couple of unlucky ones, Koston pulls out the half cab late shove and switch laser to change the game to sudden death. Soon after that there's a string of tricks by Morgan (starting with a nollie big heel) that could get anyone out. But Koston matches every single one of them, all while the game is at T-T. Along with The Chief's reactions, this is the portion of the game that builds the excitement to make the game so great. When Koston messes up the first fakie big heel and says, "Hold on, I can finish that," you know he's found his groove at this point. A missed frontside cab heel by Morgan and a fakie laser by Koston later, and the crazy game comes to a finish.

4. BATB 1 Semifinals - Mike Mo Capaldi vs. Billy Marks

I first started checking out the Berrics sometime either in Round 2 or 3 of BATB1. By the time Finals night rolled around, I was already checking the site daily and keeping up with everything to do with BATB. At the time, this battle was absolutely unreal to watch, and it's still pretty nutty today. Seeing Billy match the fakie bigger flip, the cab big flip, and the nollie laser (flawlessly) was not expected 7 years ago. And also watching Billy find out Mo's multiple flip weakness (though Mo was so close on that triple flip!) and pulling out the old school half heel late back foot flip was pretty bonkers. At the end when it was T-T, seeing the nollie back heel 360 as a finisher was certainly crazy, but seeing Billy come so close and just slip out on the trick was even harder to believe. Needless to say, this game holds a beloved place in the top battles of BATB history. 

3. BATB 7 Championship - Cody Cepeda vs. Luan Oliveira

The concept of Pros vs. Joes alone was pretty intriguing, especially to see how these Joes could handle the pressure of a broadcasted and heavily watched game of skate. It's pretty clear that there are tons of "Joes" out there with the tricks to take down any pro, but to bring them to a stage like The Berrics is a whole different story. Enter Cody Cepeda. From the moment he opened up the whole contest for the interweb playing Trent McClung, it was pretty easy to tell that he had nerves of steel and a determination like no other. Of course he has all the "basic" tricks too, which he brought out later in defeating Shane and Tom, but he has double/triple flip variations for days along with some other flatground bangers as well. So when he led the underdog story to the Championship at BATB7, it was truly a sight to behold. Whether it was the live webcast and stoked crowd, the touching dedication to the Romano family, having his Recruit premiere just before the final match, or the fact that he shutout Luan Oliveira, everything contributed to the breathtaking vibes of that special Championship battle. And it's not just Cody's whole story that made this such a memorable battle, the skating was sick too! I doubt anyone expected Luan to match all those double flip variations that Cody threw at him. It's hard not to explode in joy just like the crowd when Luan somehow pulled out the pressure heelflip and the nollie back double heel to keep the game going. Even Cody was super stoked to see that! But in the end, there can only be one winner...

2. BATB 6 Championship -  PJ Ladd vs. Paul Rodriguez 

What can I say about this game? It's super long, always good. It covers almost all the "basic" tricks you can think of, always good. It has some pretty epic matched tricks, always good. It's just straight up one of the most solid games in every which way. Being handled by two teammates to decide the winner between Regular vs. Goofy also helps make the occasion precious. Then throw in the fact that these two met in the BATB3 Championship as well, where P-Rod got PJ on tricks like the big spin heelflip, the laser flip, and the nollie late front foot flip to win the game. What makes this game so epic is that PJ matches those with no problem here, along with some of P-Rod's new ones like a frontside nollie double kickflip. But P-Rod's varial double heelflip? Now that's a sure letter and a pretty insane trick when you think about it. (Props to Chris Chann for knocking out Chris Cole with the switch version of the trick!) On the other side, P-Rod matches some of PJ's crazy tricks like the 540 flip, the frontside cab heelflip (with pop!), and especially the the fakie 540 flip on the second try to keep the game alive. That moment is a pretty definitive feeling of elation for watching a spectacular match. After P-Rod tries to make history and finish the game with a backside nollie late front foot flip, PJ seals the deal with fakie big spin inward heelflip. All in all, just an incredible battle.

1. BATB 6 Round 3 - Moose vs. PJ Ladd

Just like the BATB 6 Championship, this is a long game filled with all the basic tricks and even some miraculous ones as well. Now there are a few reasons why this game is my favorite one ever. First of all, it's pretty comical how Moose got letters on the 4 inward heelflips and a fakie big spin inward heel. Moose landed just about every other trick possible in the game, so it's very interesting to see his very concise weakness. But it's nearly impossible to be mad at that because of how the rest of the game plays out. Secondly, the frontside heelflip 360. The trick alone is worth so much to the BATB. Not only am I pretty sure that it was the only one ever done in BATB, but it was done against PJ Ladd himself. That's like trying to get The Boss a letter on a frontside flip or Jason Lee on a 360 flip. And lastly, what I'd like to call the caballerial section starting around 3:42 in the above video. While the front heel 360 is included in here, here are the tricks Moose sets: cab double flip, cab big spin, fakie bigger flip, cab big flip, nollie big flip, nollie bigger flip, nollie double heelflip, frontside cab kickflip, nollie back heel 360, and a little bit later a triple kickflip. PJ LANDS THEM ALL. And even after that, Moose matches PJ on a cab heelflip while on the brink of elimination. These are the gnarliest tricks in a game of skate, done back to back to back by both dudes. If that doesn't warrant this game getting praise for decades to come, I don't know what would. 

Next Week: Best of BATB

With BATB 7 Finals night just going down on Friday, and the Berrics including a nostalgic and well-placed Top 10 moments in BATB history during the live event, I felt that a High Five of the best battles is due. As of right now, there are certain battles in mind that will definitely make the cut, but I am going through every battle I can (from all 7 BATB) before posting the High Five. So even though I probably won't be posting tomorrow, all I can say is that before the end of the week, there will be 5 posts for the greatest battles from BATB history - and probably some honorable mentions as well.

In the meantime, with a pretty epic Pros vs. Joes concept behind BATB 7, it doesn't hurt to go back through some of this year's battles, especially the recent activity from finals night: Koston vs. Luan, Sewa vs. Cody Cepeda, and the Third Place Battle. Hopefully the final will be permanently posted tomorrow...
UPDATE: ...and it was! Along with some other fun moments from Finals night.

Video of the Week: Taylor Smith - Shep Dawgs Tape Deck

Some dudes are just natural at skateboarding. Taylor Smith aka T-Spliff is definitely one of them. Now I always love some raw, uncut, behind the scenes footage, so 16 minutes of Taylor getting gnarly without even showing it is just priceless. His make-everything-look-easy style is too enjoyable and the fact that he hits up some of the scariest rails is the reason why he needs to be looked out for this year and years to come. I first learned about him through his WTF part, which was a sick first big part for him, and his Shep Dawgs 3 part (where most of these BTS clips are from) solidified my liking for him. Just look at the 14 minute mark in the uncut clips: Taylor boardslides a super sketchy high rail like it's nothing, and throws in a downhill kickflip because he's got it like that. Then, in prime Shep Dawg fashion, he figures the sketchy boardslide isn't enough, so he kickflips into it and rolls away without flinching once again. Seeing raw skate talent like this never gets old.

Also from this week, in keeping with the "Random Teams" theme, sml Wheels released an awesome 13 minute compilation of their whole team from the past year, including some footage I haven't seen before. sml is another one of those pretty stacked teams so this half-length video is something to get psyched on.

Now I already expressed how Luan's part in Chronicles was a bit disappointing and I think I finally know why. The hype for the video was so big that I was expecting some totally stunning NBDs from Luan (kind of like Shane pulled out), but in actuality he shredded in his usual precise fashion, but without anything completely mindblowing. Luan's new Strike and Destroy part, on the other hand, was described to be a short trip to Brazil to film in the area and came out without crazy anticipation. Couple that with the fact that Luan didn't skate lightly at all and this part is in my opinion much more exciting and entertaining than his Chronicles part. From the not-seen-too-frequently Brazilian streets to Luan's flawless style to his well-picked tricks, and especially to his downhill lines, this part has all the right ingredients to be very tasteful.

In other skate news from the past week:
-John Gardner and Nik Stain both released heavy East Coast video parts for Skate Jawn. Thrasher was totally right in seeing the similarities between John and Zered Bassett...
-One of my new favorite contests in skateboarding, The Berrics and Matix's 2UP contest is amazing so far.
-Brandon Nguyen kills it in his Video Check Out.
-Andrew Norris skates with a solid style and makes some difficult spots look easy in his Mag Minute.
-The lineup alone for Outliers is enough to be stoked on, but the trailer made it all official with Marius Syvanen unexpectedly filling in the last spot.

Video of the Week: Eric Thomas - Paradise in the Plains

This might be the first week in a while without some huge name video part release, but it was still full of really solid skating. Last Sunday, Paradise Wheels welcomed Eric Thomas to their team with this super fun video above. Probably flying under the radar for most people, this video really stuck out to me for the spot selection. From some of the coolest looking ditches to literally middle of nowhere spots to some pretty tall rooftop drops, Eric covers a wide variety of aesthetically pleasing and unique locations. The other thing that stuck out was that for the most part, the skating was rather slow. Now usually slow skating is a big turnoff and boring to watch, but Eric used it cleverly with the spots and creative tricks to keep me wanting more. It's definitely not your typical video part by these days' standards in any way, but it was thoroughly entertaining.

In other news:
-European legend Florentin Marfaing had a quick interview over at Red Bull and reminded us that he's still super sick.
-Brandon Taylor mixes really gnarly tricks with creativity for one of the better Mag Minutes in recent memory. The huge caveman is nuts!
-The Ollie Crew rolls deep and is featured skating some rad street spots in Vancouver and San Francisco (2/3 of San Vanelona...)
-Nate Lacoste came out with a new video part, shared with a few friends, for Roger Skateboards and it's definitely worth the watch.
-The Tilt Mode crew is stacked and this Archives video is full of sweet footage from the likes of Daryl Angel, Jon Nguyen, Zack Wallin, and Peter Raffin.
-Manolos Tapes is probably the best source for remixed videos in skateboarding. Once again it doesn't disappoint on remixing Parental Advisory with less acting and more street shredding.
-I've been a fan of James Espinoza and his buttery style, surprising amount of pop, crazy manual tricks, and fakie inward heelflips for a while, so it was great to see a short VX part from him.
-The latest Tum Yeto recruit, Tre Williams, silently destroys a bunch of California spots as if he was sleeping.
-Though it came out a little more than a week ago, I cannot neglect the latest part from Italo Romano. It's not only inspiring but it's full of really crazy tricks too!
-After Shane O'Neill's part in Chronicles 2 was released last week, more parts from the ripping video were released this week: Donovan Piscopo, Theotis Beasley, Luan Oliveira, and Ishod Wair.

Along with this, I have to give credit to the Berrics for coming out with the Populist. It's cool to get another source of major recognition in the skate industry on top of the big mags, such as Thrasher's SOTY or the TWS Awards. And my favorite part is that they basically compiled the best skaters' video parts from 2013 all on one page for a good day's worth of awesome skate video watching.

Next Week: SOTY 2013 Contenders

It's always hard to think of there being only one single Skater of the Year, but Thrasher has kept up with the task every year since 1990 of honoring one awesome ripper with the title. Now that we're in the last quarter of 2013, it's an appropriate time to take a look at some of this years top contenders for SOTY. This week will be my personal top 5 picks for who I think could take the title.
It's always tricky with the politics in the skate industry because the award for SOTY can almost be considered a universal title, yet it's exclusively given out by Thrasher Magazine. So whoever decides the winner in the end has to have some preference towards skaters with loads of coverage in Thrasher specifically, as opposed to other magazines. This does shift my Top 5 somewhat, but regardless, here are a bunch of guys that could definitely be deserving of such a title but that I don't think will ultimately win the award:

Dudes like Tommy Sandoval and Dane Burman skated the gnarliest (to say the least) spots in Road Less Traveled, and are likely going to have standout parts in Cold War, assuming it still comes out before the end of the year. Unless those parts are seriously groundbreaking, their not-technically-full-parts-but-more-like-montage-clips from RLT probably won't put them at the SOTY level this year, in my opinion. Same goes for Chris Cole, who has been on the contest circuit this year. You can never count him out for dropping a legendary part in Cold War, yet I think it's going to have to be just that in order for him to come close for SOTY.
Guys like Walker Ryan and Julian Davidson (who dropped most of his footage while still am...would that make a difference towards SOTY?) came out with loads of really great footage this year. Both had amazing parts in Perpetual Motion, which coming from Transworld may not help them in the SOTY race. Walker had a really awesome part in Organika's Grow With Us as well as a sweet Mag Minute for the Skateboard Mag (again probably not helpful for Thrasher's SOTY). Julian had sweet footage in his Element Pro Part including that wonderful Bercy frontside flip, as well as a nice clip for getting on Etnies. Despite both of these dudes killing it this year, I feel like their lack of Thrasher coverage goes against them with respect to getting SOTY.
Then there were guys like Jim Greco and Bob Burnquist who each dropped a single part, but a single part that was insane in both instances. Greco even came out with probably the most memorable commercial ever (for me anyway) for Supra that I'd consider for his year of awesome skating. For these two guys, despite dropping epic video parts, I just have a gut feeling like they're missing something for the SOTY running.
David Gravette came out with a nutty part in CSFU and backed it up with his just as crazy Real Street part. Again, David could totally deserve SOTY this year after these ridiculous parts but I just don't personally see him winning this year.
Daryl Angel is sort of an underrated guy for me but with the potential to still make a really strong run for SOTY this year. He had a memorable couple of tricks in Austyn Gillette's part in Cosmic Vomit 2 and still has a part coming out in Chronicles Vol. 2 as well as some clips if not a part in Habitat's Search the Horizon (assuming that's released before the end of the year). I'd say his more simplistic take on his tricks together with his smooth and speedy style combine for the potential for a pretty awesome part in the Nike video, something worth mentioning with this SOTY talk.
Also, there are guys like Shane O'Neill and Luan Oliveira that likely will have outstanding parts in Chronicles Vol. 2, but much like Chris Cole with Cold War, those parts will surely have to be outstanding to be considered in line for SOTY 2013.
And finally, considering that the Plan B video is not going to drop before the year ends, that takes away a good number of other skaters that could easily be in the run for SOTY. 2014 better watch out for this though...