I'd been saying for a while that Davis REALly needed to go pro and this week it was finally commemorated! This pro part is exactly what was needed to showcase Davis's awesome style, his comfort when going fast in every clip, his impressive pop (that switch heel!), and his spot creativity. What I mean by that is that Davis utilizes his skills to make spots his own. Examples include that front blunt pop up to front nose at 1:41, the switch pole jam lipslide at 2:03 (who actually hits that spot switch?), the ride-on pole jam 50-50 over the kinks at 2:37 when he even bones an ollie out over the end, and the insane couple of mid-bank ollies - both regs and switch - at 2:50. I was probably more thrilled at display of control for those two dangerous ollies than the actual flip tricks over the hips. Anyway, Davis rips and always comes through with fun-to-watch, quality parts like this. Congrats!
In other skate news:
-Brodie Penrod is extremely talented and makes every session look like a blast.
-The Subway Skating section from Tengu: God of Mischief is an instant classic, especially with the historic subway track ollie.
-Daryl Dominguez's Excursion part through various parts of England is an absolute pleasure to watch.
-Callum Paul is PassPort's first pro and celebrates the occasion with some fun shredding down under.
-Nyjah Huston is really really good. He never stops getting bangers, as seen through his Subject part, his First Tryday is hard not to smile through, and the OG Edit to his last epic part was even dropped for a good reminder.
-Bryan Schaefer is On the Radar with a new part that adds to the UNM spot posts from last week. Check out the sweet line at UNM at 1:25!
-5Boro went to Paris. They have one of the sickest teams and their own entertaining take on skating through Paris. Plus, Jordan Trahan is a boss.
-Sam Beckett, Jake Brown, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, and Alex Perelson skate the Monster Vert Ramp and remind us that vert skating is alive and kicking ferociously.
-The Organika Trail Tour is a jovial take on how Josh Matthews put together his part from last week. I really like how the Organika team is looking so this welcoming trip was nice to see.
-Skate House by Chris Whitaker started off a little questionable for me but once Chris Colbourn, Cody Hale, and Jordan Maxham came on with some great skating, it really becomes a great video overall.
-Fourstar releases an Anthology that shows why it's one of the greatest companies in skateboarding, not just for its unreal team lineup, but because of how much fun they have on every tour.
Dennis Busenitz's name is fairly synonymous with speed in skateboarding. If you look at him just skating flatground or a ledge even a simple curb, it only makes sense that he employs that speed for good use in his video parts. Just look at this firing line too: he starts off with plenty of speed for no pushing through the first few tricks and then uses his signature short and powerful pushing pulses to quickly gather speed for one last great backside flip. No wonder why he's come out with so many sick video parts where just about every clip he gets involves some pretty crazy speed.
I'd go more into Dennis's part in The Cinematographer Project since I actually have the DVD but I just don't have access at the moment. So I will mention his crazy back noseblunt TWS cover at 3rd and Army, which involved coming in super fast to get all the way around the curve. Managing that significant decrease in speed through the curved noseblunt is also pretty wild to think of, but Dennis would be the guy to handle it.
Taking a look at his shared part with Zered Bassett in Skate More, Dennis's first and last lines gain speed by going downhill (at 1:04 and 3:16 respectively) and both stand out as a "speed demon's" kind of line, especially with his ability to keep his composure long enough on the last line for that final 50-50.
In his Pushing San Francisco feature for Real Skateboards above, just about every single clip is fast. Now the camera work and effects certainly help build that feeling of traveling at some high speeds, but only so much can come from videography to achieve that vibe of flying by on every trick. The two lines starting at 1:19 in particular showcase some awesome flatground tricks and just messing around in the streets all while zooming along.
For Dennis's shoe, he was basically given a new part in Adidas Euro Lines, which was a very welcome surprise. Again, he's skating super fast. Just like at 1:08 when Dennis plows through one 50-50 only to grind some more and gap out into the street. Watching him sprint and push at 2:03 is a pleasure in itself, even if it's just to get on top of the huge bank. Most people will climb to the top of the bank to start or just ask for a convenient tow-in, but Dennis does it the old-fashioned way through some heavy leg work for a more rewarding experience for us viewers.
In Since Day One (remixed), he uses his speed rather well in DC at 0:35 to tre flip up onto the ledge and then nollie frontside flip the gap. The double ollies at 1:04 must take a lot to just hold onto the speed to jump out to the street, and what's even cooler is that the clip is followed up by the 3-up-3-down spot where Dennis frontside 360's WAY OUT beyond the 3 stair just because of how fast he's going. And then at 2:35, Dennis claims the throne of 3rd and Army with 3 more sick lines to add onto his already impressive resume at the spot; the last line of 3 tight tricks and no pushes makes me smile every time.
And finally, in my personal favorite part from Dennis, Diagonal, the first downhill SF kickflip still in black and white sets the tone of the rest of the part to display some great speed. Dennis comes in hot for the two lines at 0:41 at some pretty well known spots. At 1:07, after pushing a bit, he quickly ollies down to set up for the back tail on the ledge and somehow seems to gain speed on that little jump down! Only Dennis... Seeing the ground fly by with the two lines at 2:06 and 2:39 is visually stunning, and I still wonder how Dennis manages to carve around after the back 180 in that second line because it looks like he always rolls out almost too far to come back up the stairs. Again, seeing Dennis physically run up at 3:26 for a huge frontside ollie is very gratifying, and his final ollie in Barcelona over the bench and down the stairs at 3:33 is one of my favorite ollies of all time. (Which makes Gilbert's AWS ad that much crazier.)
Now I've only really seen a few commercials/ads and one single part from Jake, but man did he stick out the first time I saw his Where Are We Going? part (above). The first handrail he skates is absolutely insane. The curvature is hard enough just to hold onto while walking down, but throw in a couple of kinks to mess with you and skating it seems like a fantasy. Apparently not for Jake though because he is a destroyer of all handrails in their craziest forms. The board just seems to lock in perfectly to his rail tricks and stick with his feet as if glued on. The rail at 0:38 even is visually deceptive with its mini but plentiful kinks that no doubt feel unreal when grinding down them. And then his penultimate trick at 3:34 is a 50-50 down a handrail where the first few kinks in the handrail (and the ones nearby) make it looks completely bent out of shape. But Jake seems to enjoy skating these jagged handrails. Granted, while he absolutely annihilates handrails, there were only a few select spots in the part that qualify him towards skating the unskateable. That's where his Thunder trucks ad comes into play, because Jake Knows how to make a ridiculous spot approachable. The 10 kink roller coaster of a grind alone puts Jake on the map for skating the unskateable. And even more recently was his Ambig Introduction Ad (just the picture, but I use that lightly because it's still mind-blowing) which appears at first glance to be the backside version of his 50-50 opener from Where Are We Going? I could be wrong there but regardless, hitting a rail that curvy, without even considering hitting it backside, is definitely something new in skateboarding these days. So it's safe to say I am extremely looking forward to what Jake comes up with in the future as far as skating spots that should probably be in an amusement park.
Davis Torgerson always comes through with really impressive, quality footage. I am going to highlight his part in Boondoggle above because it is still my favorite part from Davis, despite its age and plenty of other great parts that he has put out. He's got an incredibly smooth and natural style, tons of fliptricks (did you see him in BATB 4?), quick and light feet that make for some buttery landings for almost all of his tricks, a wide array of ledge/rail tricks in any stance, skateboarding's best electrical box skating abilities I'd say, and a very underestimated pop (just look at the huge ollie at 4:20 for proof). Some of my favorite tricks from this part include the picture perfect tuck knee at 2:14, the nollie inward heel at 3:04 that crosses my eyes on the flick and catch, which is followed by a fluid front blunt 360 shove, and the switch flip wallride at 3:36 (doing it regular would be pleasing enough, but switch?! that's still hard to fathom). Already, I think Davis is loaded with the best qualities for a good and entertaining skater, but I think his most useful asset yet would be a super solid nollie. The line at 0:51 exemplifies this (he's got one of the best nollie back feebles too), along with many other sweet nollie flip and grind tricks. And it's because of this skill that Davis was able to invent the nollie frontside hurricane as his Boondoggle ender so wonderfully demonstrates. (Props to Luan for probably being the first to document the backside version.)
This part alone I'd say should have definitely put Davis on the fast track to professionalism, but given that it was his first big part it's definitely understandable that he would have to wait some years. So along the way Davis updates his Boondoggle part with Flow Trash to show how much fun he can have skating while still displaying his precision skill set, followed by another high caliber part in Since Day One (memorable authoritative stomp on a fakie flip in a line, a mentally twisting fakie ollie switch feeble down a handrail, and quite possibly the best bump to bar backside wallride ever), only to come out with more great footage with his Berrics Recruit part (nollie 540 and switch inward heel anyone?) and his Pushing Minnesota part for Real (switch back smith ender was sick!). The fact that he has not turned pro along this road of destruction is baffling to me, especially since we know Real is still into turning people pro. Nothing against Jake Donnelly, he deserves it too, but I'd say Davis deserves it more for his contributions to technical handrail skating and his consistently fun and admirable video parts. He REALly needs to go pro soon.
