Daniel Lutheran, switch heelflip. Ph: Anthony Acosta
Now this 8-stair angled rail was the only spot from Albuquerque that I actually knew about. (I had no idea about UNM until this summer though.) I remember seeing Daniel Lutheran's New Jack interview in The Skateboard Mag a while back which included a photo of a 360 flip over this very rail. There was something about going over a rail for me at that time that was extremely appealing, so the trick stuck in my memory. The trick later appeared in Daniel's Mag Minute, again instantly sticking out to me as the Albuquerque spot. Since the Lutheran family is from Albuquerque, it makes sense that Daniel can consider this a local spot. And at local spot, you can get multiple tricks. So a bit later, Daniel comes through with a buttery switch heelflip (photo from The Skateboard Mag's Contenders Interview) that appears in his Brainwash part.
With Daniel and the Lutherans as the Albuquerque tour guides, there've been some solid posses coming through the city over the years. On one such visit, Jamie Tancowny came through and landed a pair of tricks himself as he was filming for Stay Gold. First a frontside pop shove it and then an upgrade to the varial heelflip (photo below by Anthony Acosta).
Jamie Tancowny, varial heelflip. Ph: Anthony Acosta
These are the only 4 tricks I know that have gone down at this spot, but please comment below if there are any I missed!
The spot itself is pretty awesome for someone craving some jumping. The set itself is a pretty sizeable 8-stair with decent height and probably slightly longer than a standard 8-stair.
The rail is knobbed obtrusively enough so there's no real chance at an angled grind, except maybe for the adventurous and clinically insane.
But it is placed at a pretty ideal angle for popping tricks over.
There's enough room for run-up, but a little turning to get the right launching angle is needed. It's beneficial in this case to approach with the proper carve to go over the angled rail. And there's the standard crack at the very top stair, so a trick would probably have to be popped about 6 inches before the top stair.
Overall, with really nice ground to ride up with and land on, the spot is a must visit for anyone in the UNM area. If you have the testicular fortitude to chase a trick or two at this spot, there are definitely a few opportunities here!
And the guide for the spot-hunters: (If you go up the stairs at this spot and skate along to the right, you'll end up right at Johnny Layton's Wallride Spot. How sick is that?!)
UPDATE: Looks like Josh Hawkins also wanted some of that varial heelflip action over the rail, as seen in his latest Happy Medium 3 part.
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 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.
It was a tough choice for Video of the Week this week between Mike Davis' Independent Raw Ams part and Fletcher Renegar's Video Check Out at Transworld (above). Mike Davis absolutely killed it with a really sick style and some rather incredible tricks. I was beyond pumped to see his big heel noseblunt be taken to a street spot and slid a bit as well at 2:28. Then there was the Suciu-esque back noseblunt front 270 out on an out-ledge (2:40), the large switch big flip (3:03), and the switch frontside 540 shove it (2:55). Honestly one of the sickest parts of 2014 so far and it makes me so hopeful for a full length Birdhouse video with their underratedly amazing crew.
But I have to give video of the week to Mr. Renegar. His trick selection is so varied that the whole part felt very refreshing, mixing some common tricks with clean execution to some tricks that jumped out (like the body varial at 2:06 or the nose manual at 1:54). The flick on the nollie tre at 2:32 looked rather flimsy but it's those little nuances that make clips like that memorable. And then there's his switch handrail skating, which was pretty spectacular if you ask me. The ender back lip 3 shove takes a relatively common (using that term loosely) trick to a whole new platform, with the bumpy knob just adding to the gnarliness. Definitely looking out for more footage from Fletcher in the future.
Birdhouse has another sick rider in John Hill, whose latest video part with Split and Birdhouse shows his very tight switch skating to compliment his regular tricks. Dylan Williams also had a Raw Ams part this week with some really nice tech skating edited to a song I enjoy a lot with skate videos. Jon Sciano was introduced to Lakai with this feature for the Fura as he flies through the streets with raw clips. Mike Krok had a Mag Minute with some stylish tricks and cool handrail tricks.
In other news:
-Nixontook a superb crew of skaters through Sicily
-Ryan Townley ripped and dipped pretty hard
-Yonnie Cruz had a short, sweet, and raw street part for Incognito.
-Filmer/Skater Georgie Tsushima satisfied my love for uncut footage
-French Fred and Javier Mendizabal connect for this beautifully shot piece introducing Javi to Cons
-Steve Forstner and others come through for a nice European part
And lastly, I would like to highlight this short documentary piece called Land of Marble. A skatepark was made entirely out of marble in Pietrasanta, a town along Italy's Western coast. With my own family ties to Italy and the skater's dream of all marble everything, this was pretty cool to watch. And it includes a good dosage of ripping skating as well.
I first remember hearing the name "Neen Williams" from his Mag Minute. This alone to me was just another very solid part but with a better-than-normal smooth style. Nothing outstanding or exceptional to really go crazy over. Since then (possibly back in 2008?), I don't think I really heard much about Neen at all, up until Chicken Bone Nowison was approaching its release. Maybe some park footage or random clips on the internet, likely a commercial for the Shake Junt vid too, but nothing really to affirmatively place Neen on the radar. Now in 2011, Neen is welcomed to Deathwish in February and I'm thinking, "Ok, this guy's got a pretty tight style and should be able to put out some good skating." Again, a satisfactory feeling but nothing truly noteworthy yet. He gets on Supra in August later that year, the awaited Shake Junt video drops in November (Neen's part above), and then almost immediately goes pro after the video in December of 2011. Now his SJ part was definitely really good, churning out loads of ridiculously smooth tricks and one of the best heelflips in skateboarding (when Neen's heelflip at full flick is rightfully compared to the iconic Michael Jordan slam dunk silhouette, it's one for the ages for sure). However, I don't think the part was THAT good to warrant turning pro after being on the Deathwish squad for maybe 10 months at the time, especially when Moose had been shredding with the crew for much longer! And it wasn't even like Neen was generating tons of footage with all the Supra tours at this point because he also just got on that team. It really felt like a rushed time to give him the pro nod. Despite Neen's definitely special personality (I mean that with no sarcasm at all because it really is special in every good sense of the word), the time put in with Deathwish and the actual skating that he put out by that time is not enough in my opinion for turning pro.
However, ever since then, Neen has been on a tear with the Supra team stacking clips and banging out tricks with every tour. And his latest video part in the Deathwish Video was definitely his best yet. Getting 3 tricks at that last tall staircase blew me away! It's a showing as good as this one that make me think how turning pro after the Chicken Bone Nowison part was even less worthy, because of how good a part Neen is capable of coming out with. Anyway, long story short, turning Neen pro after the work put in since the Shake Junt video and culminating with the Deathwish Video would have been ideal.
Brandon Del Bianco has been "associated" with Element for quite some time it seems. Maybe it's the whole Canadian thing, I don't know, but I know that he deserves some legit recognition by now. For one thing, Brandon's really good. His trick selection is super tight, as you can see by his Bangin at the Berrics alone: a good mix of kickflips, heelflips, different grinds, and all the stances. Brandon's segment from Minor Media's United Nations continues to show his varied and flavorful bag of tricks, with that switch inward heel and fakie ollie switch smith both jumping out of the norm and his ender nollie cab flip off the bump still blowing my mind. You can already see Brandon's super unique and rather clean style from these clips, but one of the first experiences I had was watching his Mag Minute (above). Again, tons of variety with his clips (from huge gaps to tech ledge tricks to handrails to fluid lines), a terrific usage of spots, and a fun style to go along with it. I want to emphasize this because his final switch backside flip, down a considerably big gap, is caught unlike anything I've seen before. His back foot is boned out a bit away from the board and then just swings around with the rest of his rotation to put down the board on the ground. And it's not like that swinging motion results in a heavy stomp on the landing, but Brandon does all this and still lands lighter than a feather. And this was all 3 years ago.
Then there's a few full length parts from Brandon. A straight up solid part in Oskar Material starting at 14:55. The Prodrone Promo continues the expansion of his bag of tricks. The nollie pop shove it nose manual near the end looks like one of the scariest things ever. And Brandon's Slub Bucks part, though somewhat lengthily shared, includes some more heavy bangers and really cool tricks, just like any of his parts really. And his ender nollie cab flip might just be one of the best ones of all time.
This dude is extremely versatile and has a style all to his own. I really don't know why he hasn't blown up yet. I know Element is a decently selective brand, but still, when a guy skates as well as Brandon he deserves some full on sponsorship. So I think, after his fairly consistent output of footage over the past years, 2014 will be a good one for Brandon, assuming he's been stacking more sick footage since his last couple parts. After roughly two years since his last big part (from what I've tracked anyway) it's about that time for his big blow up part with Element.
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.
When you look at the number of skate videos that have used songs by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (who I will call ESTMZ for short here) on Skatevideosite.com, the long list is quite stunning. But there's a reason for the madness (pun intended as Kenny Hoyle will explain) because ESTMZ simply produces great music for skate videos. Mixing qualities that make videos memorable and epic at the same time, the music makes you feel happy while watching the skating but excited too for the trick progression throughout the part.
If I remember correctly, the first time I heard ESTMZ was the heavily-used-in-skate-video song "40 Day Dream" through Addie Fridy's Mag Minute. The part came out a good 3/4 years ago I think but The Skateboard Mag re-released it this year. What caught me off guard was just how many bangers Addie kept coming out with, even in the quieter verse of the song. The slo-mo's near the end of his Mag Minute matched the hype from the good-feeling refrain and the double-take on his nutty ender goes hand-in-hand with the double-take on the final words: "Ohhh oh, I could die". (What's crazy to me is that while this part is pretty old by now, for these day's terms, it's still super gnarly. I'm surprised Addie is just now coming up on flow with Expedition.)
My second experience with "40 Day Dream" was through RVK's Younited Nations entry to the Berrics a few years back. But the defining video part for this song would be Kenny Hoyle's turning pro part in Expedition's Madness. The introduction as Rob Welsh leaves Kenny in the dirt to shovel out his first pro model is ideal: short enough that you don't start begging for the skating to be back, funny with the solid acting from the Expedition crew, and meaningful enough to the unleashing of the new pro. Kenny's few stomps on the dirt patch covering his board cue the fade in of the music, which slowly amplifies to Kenny's opening line of buttery ledge tricks. The first "Ahhh-ah!" at about 1:38 is timed out perfectly with Kenny's line in that clip: a sick flick on a nollie tre and a cruising no comply together build up with the music and then unleash with a huge frontside half cab flip at full energy. The held out "yeahh" at 3:55 on the varial heel across the long Chinese street gap works really well. But probably my favorite clip is right after when Kenny switch heelflips into a manual and the music momentarily is silent, suspending the suspense perfectly only to have Kenny switch 360 flip out! That culmination of excitement was too awesome so that every one of Kenny's following bangers is just made that much better. The quick cut to black after his ender and the short cut off on the music also leave that stunned feel as to what just went down.
ESTMZ's radio-popular song "Home" was featured in Lakai's Am I Am feature, with Vincent Alvarez, Riley Hawk, Raven Tershy, and Daniel Espinoza. The song was the last song used and goodness did it do a great job of closing out the video. The skating by these four dudes was heavy (enough to have 3 of them be pro by now, and arguably Riley should be as well) and "Home" created that really epic feeling with every trick going down.
Walker Ryan skated to ESTMZ's "I Don't Wanna Pray" in Organika's Grow With Us. The very beginning seemed rather quiet, but as soon as the upbeat tempo starts, you just want to start snapping your fingers along with it. It helps that Walker keeps it playful with his first few clips: 180ing into a bus after landing his grind and cruising along a sick DIY bank spot and even skating some tree branches. Walker's positive attitude shows through his skating and this song could not fit better to bring that out. The whole part takes his great skating and leaves you feeling impressed and happy at the same time. When the song quiets down again at about 2:58, it highlights all of his pretty crazy manny tricks. It brings in feelings of amazement that all work up to Walker's insane switch backside flip over the bump to bar ender. Satisfaction completely guaranteed by the experience.
Lastly, with one of the most epic video parts in recent memory, Andrew Reynolds skating to ESTMZ's "Om Nashi Me" in Stay Gold (see above). The introduction fills you with pure joy: visually Reynolds skating around his backyard and playing with his daughter is complemented by the song's cheerful introductory chords. So as soon as the music builds up from the intro and Reynolds frontside half cab flips Carlsbad, you know the part's going to be magical. The song provides that really epic video feel as all the tricks are going down. After he nollie noseslides a gnarly rail at about 3:08 and gets the elated high five from Herman, the music calms down a tad. At this point, while watching Stay Gold with my friend for the first time, we literally remained speechless with our eyes glued to the screen watching legendary spot after legendary spot be crushed. The music matched the compilation of tricks in a way that left me with feelings of pure awe. And when Reynolds kickflips the UC Davis gap at the end, the final melodies from "Om Nashi Me" make the kickflip feel like the battle has been won and celebration is in order. Exactly how an epic video part should conclude.
