Video of Last Week: Phil Zwijsen - Tokyo Days

It seems like Thrasher comes out with at least one pretty memorable video every week, and last week was no different. Phil Zwijsen's "Tokyo Days" is a fairly short, concise feature that was tricky to weigh in against the much appreciated pair of full lengths that also dropped this week (mentioned below). Mixing in the gritty, old-school black and white feel with only the rough sounds of the street to listen to, Phil shows raw skating at its finest and really makes you want to go fly around on any terrain. Skating fast always helps, and when you're hippy jumping or no complying or launching out of some oververt at full speed, the gnarliness is simply too appealing to look away. Keep ripping Phil!

Also special shoutouts to Active Army's Where Is It?! and Darien Brown's "InTransit" full lengths that also were somewhat released online this week. The whole Active Army seriously shreds, and the annoying company they found on the streets discouraging their tricks made for some humorous moments outside of the comradery and ripping skating. I was thoroughly pleased and surprised to see a full part from Vincent Luevanos, whom I hadn't really seen much since a part for Element back in the day with. But that part has always stuck out to me for his sick bag of gap fliptricks and ridiculous spread eagle / one-foot catches. It's nice to see he's still skating that huge rooftop gap as well. Along with the Active video were 4 parts from InTransit released by Transworld: opener Steven Ban, Demarquis McDaniels, Austin Flood, and ender Billy Davenport. After seeing these parts, I'm definitely copping the DVD to support such sweet skating, editing, and a great crew. I can't believe Billy one-upped himself at the bench-before-stairs spot, and Transworld's description of his "folkloric" ender is spot on.

In other skate news:
-Thrasher released parts by Lert Saeri and Geng Jakkarin from "Sawatdee", which showcases the talent and spots in Thailand in a pretty refreshing way.
-Josh Matthews is welcomed to Organika with a sick part full of pretty impressive and super smooth skating, and TWS coincides by releasing his Perpetual Motion part as well.
-Mathias Torres skates Santiago, Chile for a casually gnarly video part. Seeing him gradually set up, eyes on the barrier ahead, after the hill bomb around 2:05 to launch a mach-10 ollie over it is so exhilarating to watch.
-Tom Day is welcomed to Huf UK. Huf has been gathering a really tight team and watching anyone skate in England is pretty entertaining, so this is quite the match.
-I don't usually post contest stuff, but Tom Knox's Nike SB London run is utterly insane. Missing only 3 tricks in 5 mins?! Jeeeeez...
-The Am Transmission by TWS is quite the amalgamation of most of the top ams out today. A tight lineup like that with the expected great skating makes for a solid video.
-Alien Workshop's portion from The Cinematographer Project by the humble Benny Maglinao was my absolute favorite from the video (it was the ender after all) and works as a well-timed tribute to the iconic company.
-I also don't usually post trailers, but the one for Fun While It Lasted out of Portland comes with super rad vibes and pretty awesome skating already, featuring Dane Brady, Sebo Walker, Brian Baca, Mark Gutterman, and Willis Kimbel. So psyched on Dane lately.

Switch 360 Flip Lipslide #5: Walker Ryan

Walker Ryan is definitely on another level when it comes to the switch game. All the switch backside tricks most people are proud of landing bolts every now and then, Walker has on lock. Switch 360 flips are no different. He's landed some heavy ones before so why should there be any problem to flick one into a switch lip? Heck, he's even been known to fling some switch tre 5-0s anyway. But the obvious answer comes with beautiful execution in his awesome Perpetual Motion part (seen at 3:44 in the remix above, but it's really worth watching the whole part). What's great about Walker's entry to the switch tre lip club is that because his switch game is so on point, he casually brings this trick back to switch. Now that you definitely don't see too often.

Pro Too Soon #1: Tom Remillard

Though Tom used to be flow or something for Antihero back in the day, I really had not heard anything about him until the Shuffl Video (Tom's part above) via Walker Ryan and the crew. That was back in 2010 and since that one part, the only part I'd seen of Tom at that time, I don't think I've seen more than a few small features through Converse maybe up until his latest part this summer in Perpetual Motion. Now he definitely rips very hard in the TWS video - defying all sense of logic and physics by literally ollieing on a vertical wall at one point. It's certain that Tom's last video part has some incredible clips and really awesome tranny lines, even some street tricks in there too. Great part without a doubt. But the fact that he had just been welcomed to Expedition two months before the video after basically being in sponsorship limbo for a good few years really stands out with the news of Tom going pro this past week.
This piece of news was the kickstarter for the theme of the posts this week, so I found it fitting to save Tom for the final day. Again, much like the other guys mentioned this past week, the time spent actually on Expedition is way too small to warrant a pro model. In terms of coverage and being recognized in the skate world, I doubt that many people actually know much about Tom other than from his PM part. There needs to be way more coverage of Tom killing it for Expedition, and even Converse for that matter, as well as more time spent with the crew to cement that loyalty a professional needs to have.
On top of that...Kelly Hart is still am for Expedition! Almost 8 years ago is when Kelly's It's Official part was released, and Tom has been on the team for maybe 10 months. A very good video part cannot outweigh sponsor loyalty and experience by that much to justify this situation. Nothing against Tom, but I definitely feel like Expedition turned him pro too soon not only because of his coverage and experience, but particularly because of Mr. Hart's.

Switch Backside Kickflips #2: Walker Ryan

For a guy that dominates the switch backside bigspin like no other and has tricks like switch big flips, nollie frontside flips, and switch back 360s down pat, it is no surprise that Walker Ryan's switch backside kickflip is one of his best tricks. Not only is Walker extremely skilled in a wide range of skating (mannys, tranny, gaps, ledges, you name it) but he has a special style. Personally, his style gets me every time in that I forget about what other skaters have done while I watch Walker skate and just lose myself in his one of a kind bag of tricks. It might sound weird but I'm distracted by his elegance on a skateboard so I always have to remind myself just how hard the tricks are that he does.
It's interesting because I think what also attracts me to Walker's skating style is that with a lot of his flip tricks (particularly gap tricks), as soon as he catches the usually slightly off axis flip (which adds cool points for uniqueness already) there isn't that robotically perfect board-glued-to-your-feet moment that every skater has (look at the nollie cab at 3:21 of his Graduation part above to see what I mean). The uncertainty of whether or not he can keep the board with him while watching him land his gap tricks is unexplainably exciting. Even though I've watched his parts hundreds of times and know the tricks and how he lands them, it isn't until Walker actually starts rolling away that my eyes relax from not knowing how the board will stay under his feet. And yet all of his landings are pretty much bolts too, which makes the paradox that much more intriguing.
With that being said, he is without a doubt one of my favorite skaters, so I will chronologically (as accurately as I can) go through his extremely solid resume of video parts that he's consistently put out throughout the past 5/6 years or so and visually remind you why his switch backside flip is one of the best in the game. (And while I could include variations like switch big flips or switch flip back noseblunts - because they are obviously awesome - I'm going to just highlight specifically switch backside flips.)
Welcome to Organika: switch backside flip at 2:04 out and down a pretty well-recognized NYC loading dock gap.
Focus Group: at 2:39 down a sizable stair set, while making it look like nothing
Concrete Jungle: at 2:18 down and across the "Walker-Ryan-made-famous" UCSD gap and in a line at 4:39 after a switch ollie up onto a bench and into a regular manual on another bench
Welcome to Circa: at 1:28 down the well-sized stage/bush gap and immediately followed at 1:37 over a large block to manual off the curb
Berrics Recruit: at 0:40 bump over 4 stair, at 0:57 to switch back disaster, and for his ender at 1:50 to regular backside 5-0 grind down the small hubba (like seriously, who else does tricks like these last two?!)
Shuffl Video: for his ender at 3:30 across the gap spanning two ledges at embarcadero and into a manual because just switch backside flipping that gap wasn't enough already
Graduation: at 2:40 out of a switch manual with a really cool looking off axis rotation (the thought of trying to hold a switch manual and then somehow turn switch backside scares me...), at 3:34 down the very large famous 6 block (definitely one of the top tricks done down that gap), at 3:53 to 5-0 (now upgraded from the Berrics to a street spot), and ultimately a switch backside 360 kickflip at 4:08 off a highway bridge kicker just to prove that this mythical trick is possible in the streets.
Double Rock: at 0:44 to switch back disaster, over the uneven hip in a line at 0:51, and to start a line at 2:09 very speedily down the stairs
Grow With Us: at 1:19 across a pretty well-recognized gap to manny and then front 180 out, down a really sick and pretty big set at 2:19 to finish off a line with proper tweakage, and quite possibly one of the best switch backside flips ever at 3:21 over a tall bump to bar with very little lift-off
Perpetual Motion (remix): at 2:09 into a decently long nose manual and with nice-to-see complete control at 3:21 down the pretty well-known water fountain gap