Video of the Week: Fletcher Renegar - TWS Video Check Out

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:
-Nixon took 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.

Next Week: Mini Ramp Skaters

Skating a mini ramp is probably the easiest way to have a fun session with your homies. Basically as long as you can ride a little bit of transition, you can skate a mini ramp. Everyone usually has their preferred tricks and it's fun to see how long someone can keep a line going. Now when it comes to the sponsored skaters in the industry, it seems like everyone can at least do a few solid tricks because at some point they've come across a quarter at a park. But there are a few elite mini ramp skaters that can do tricks and lines that no one else can with a style that exudes comfort coming from years of skating a mini ramp. At that level, skating a mini becomes second nature so the pros can really branch out with their tricks. This week I'll look at my top 5 mini ramp skaters.
Before going into this week's top 5, here are some other guys that kill it on a mini:
Jordan Hoffart and Josh Hawkins are basically best buds that have skated quite a few mini ramps and transitions together. They have some really cool tricks and styles of their own so they're always fun to watch.
Shawn Hale is one of my favorites to watch skate a mini ramp. He has some of the craziest tricks (on any size transition for that matter) like the fakie tre noseblunt that gets me every time, and also knows how to flow a mini really well with some very fun tricks.
I hadn't heard of Mike Davis before his One Am part, but I was instantly blown away at his completely relaxed style and creative bag of tricks. He can smoothly flow around a mini ramp with his great style, and then come out with mind blowing tricks like a front 360 ollie to blunt to fakie, a big heel front noseblunt, and a switch big flip back noseblunt! That is a quite a mouthful, but luckily enough my jaw has already dropped from those tricks...