Recent No Complys #1: Wes Kremer

Closing off the week and the look at Recent No Complys is Wes Kremer with a trio of clips (but 5 trick variations) from his Real Street part. Traditionally the no comply is a play-around trick that keeps the flow going, so who better to utilize it than the man who's always having fun and flowing around on his board. Never passing up a moment to flash the 'Mafia sign, Wes starts things off with what I'd like to call a nose comply impossible. Just for the heck of it and because it looks so cool. Then, at a legit Chinese street spot, Wes scoops a non-compliant front shove down some stairs (how hard must it be to actually catch that trick?), keeps flowing with the David Gravette signature done as smoothly as ever, and then no comply frontside flips up the long 4 stair. Hold up. No comply frontside flip up? Has that ever been done? I don't even get how you can controllably flip the board when no complying up stairs, much less frontside flip as if it was a kicker. Even if it has been done, it certainly hasn't been caught a good 2 or 3 steps higher than it needed to be. Only Wes. And if that wasn't enough, Wes shows PJ and Moose that he's got the frontside heelflip 360 too by no complying with it down some stairs. Now Louie Barletta's non-flipping version from Bonus Round is still demonstrative of the fun you can have not only with some no complys but with a full part as well, and Albert Nyberg's version to lipslide is still one of the craziest tricks ever, but there's something different when Wes does the trick. Regardless of the technicality or the loads of fun with these tricks, Wes's skating is always pretty special.

Recent No Complys #4: Clint Walker

Clint Walker is one of the gnarliest dudes, bar none. His Modern Art part, that I will forever reference, proves just that.  So it's no surprise that he filled up the whole minute of his recent Real Street part with nothing but bangers, among which he had 3 killer no comply moves. The first at 0:16 is taken frontside off a significant drop into a bank, showing how Clint manages to keep his feet on the grip even though that's probably the weirdest-feeling trick to take down a drop. The second at 0:41 is also taken frontside, but this time to fakie 50-50 down a handrail, something I don't remember ever seeing like that (though Albert Nyberg cannot be forgotten). And finally, at 0:54, Clint demonstrates his ability to pop a no comply straight up and over a wall, perfectly guiding the board with his feet as he glides down.  It's rare to see the no comply taken to such gnarly levels, but who else than Clint to do it.

Video of the Week: Shep Dawgs Vol. 4

The Video of the Week, and probably the homie video of the year, without a doubt goes to Shep Dawgs Vol. 4. With the perfect soundtrack to keep the good vibes and gnarly sessions going, the loads of footage gathered in this true full length video starts off strong and never lets up. It's crazy because quite a few parts could have been the ender, but AJ Zavala (part featured above) puts his name on the radar with some nutty handrail variations and all around ripping. Definitely worth getting the DVD, the Shep Dawgs prove that there's nothing quite like feeding off the energy of each other and skating with the homies.

Cory Kennedy and Bert Wootton had their parts in Rat Poison released by The Skateboard Mag and boy are they awesome! Cory never ceases to amaze in whatever he's trying, be it some dork around trick, some crazy handrail, or a super tech ledge trick (or even making a line out of two varial flips), and Bert strings together some of the trickiest lines (the one at 2:00 is too good) while making everything look like it's nothing.
X Games Real Street is bound to make your day better. Even with some arguably strange competitiveness forced by the X Games overlords, these 16 mini parts from your favorite skaters are always worth it.
Tom Karangelov's Out of Sync part for Thunder Trucks has a couple of minutes of fast and gnarly skating, never slowing down since his Cold War part.
There's lots of rad London shredding in Innocence & Experience from Hold Tight London
Andrew Cannon's latest part for Theeve Trucks is super clean and full of good vibes.
Vince Duran has a Surprise Spring Cleaning, which is definitely not as throwaway as it sounds. His fakie ollie  and variations with it is for sure one of the best in the game right now.
Jon Holland's part for The Cinematographer Project with the Sk8mafia squad was re-released through Transworld this past week and worth a few views if you haven't seen it on the full DVD already.

SOTY 2013 Contender #1: Mark Suciu

Mark Suciu has been on an absolute tear this past year. The amount of footage that came out for Mark right as spring rolled around for 2013 was unheard of, especially because it was all quality footage we've now come to expect out of Mark. It's crazy to think that Mark's studying now at Temple University (just another reason why he's one of the best all around dudes in skateboarding) and still technically has his first professional part for Habitat coming out at the end of this year in Search the Horizon. I don't know Thrasher's requirements for SOTY and if the guy has to have been pro all year long, but I really don't care when a guy like Mark comes out with this much terrific skating.
The term "footage machine" is often thrown around in conversations about Mark. His style and trick selection (from quick-footedness to very-well-thought-out lines) combine to form one of the most aesthetically pleasing skaters to watch, and it just so happens that Mark's spot selection is heavily Philly-based, which is yet another plus. There seem to be just too many reasons to like him. Anyway, let's take a look at exactly how many parts, clips, and just overall awesome footage he's put out:

Though technically released at the end of 2012, Mark's part in Sabotage 3 as well as the Skateboard Mag's YBAM remix of the part were not released for most of the public to see until 2013, so I think the part can definitely contribute to Mark's run for SOTY 2013. I may not have the best knowledge of watching skateboarding during the prime LOVE park era, but the original Sabotage part still seems to give me a feeling of nostalgia from those same Philly vibes: skating at night through the streets, great sessions at LOVE park, etc. Not only that, but this part actually shows quite a few different sides of Mark that I haven't seen before, sustaining my thought that he can seriously do anything he wants. Everyone knows of his insane board control like the narrow tre flip horizontally down a stair in the line at 1:02, holding out the back noseblunt at 2:05, or the precise nosegrind pop out at 2:44, but seeing him get as gnarly as some of the heavy rail skaters at 2:10 with the kinky rail drop down or flip trick tech with his back tail big heel at 3:17 is quite invigorating, which is weird to say considering that Mark's skating in general is full of surprises. His freak out at 3:10 is also interesting to see because now we know he has his moments too just like the rest of us.
The first song ends with the line at 3:25, showing Mark's quick footed combos, some night skating in the streets, and then a surprisingly beautiful switch hardflip (again, I don't think I've ever seen him do that before!) followed up by a fade away downhill switch 180 and ollie into the next song. From this point on, every single clip is worth a short sentence of admiration, but to keep things moving on to the next one, on to the next one, I'll just shoutout his LOVE line at 4:38 with a nollie frontside flip up into a quick switch backside flip up that had me burst out giggling from happiness, and the HUGE ollie over the giant planter in the line at 3:57 where his pushes alone get you amped up.
The Skateboard Mag's remix to Mark's Sabotage 3 part is a very well-edited piece with a good amount of clips not in the original part, such as a massive switch 50-50 down a hubba at 1:05.

Even after his heavily Philly-based part, Mark still had plenty of clips (probably enough for another full part to be honest) for the great piece by Chris Mulhern: The Philadelphia Experiment. The push after the sick wallride at 2:06 seemed way to tight to squeeze in that space but Mark somehow manages to pull out a frontside flip after it. The lines at 2:24 and 3:40 both feel like for any typical skater they would end after the first few tricks, but Mark keeps them going with some nifty torqued-up additions. You can clearly see Mark's precision control and total awareness of his board positioning with the clip at 2:41. Later on at 8:41 he back 180s over an old railing right into a quick frontside half cab down some stairs, but I'd rather leave his shoulders to tell the story on this one. He also has a very speedy line at 9:12 mixing a long grind with a quick tech tapper and some nicely controlled 180s too.

Apparently Mark hasn't spent all of his time in Philly, but stacked some more clips in the SF Bay Area for Tunnel Vision, a sweet piece by Justin Albert. Mark essentially takes over the video at 3:07 with more of his great precise skating; this video feature in particular brings out Mark's very smooth style I'd say. The line at 3:50 looks great because Mark is flying through every trick but maintaining full control the whole time. It's followed by 3 rad out-ledge tricks at 4:05 that a lot of guys probably can't do like that.

Moving on, Mark then came out with his first full introduction to Adidas (after being officially introduced with a few bangin tricks in New York City) with basically a full part of skating around Philadelphia (featured above). The first two lines are great because they show Mark's consistency and creativity in two different settings: from the plaza to the actual street. 1:17 has what I believe now Mark coined from his Sabotage part as the "Hopkins Grind", but the nollie version. The line at 1:40 really impresses me because a fakie nosegrind down a handrail and then a switch tre down a set both feel like really solid tricks individually, yet Mark can do them back to back flawlessly. At 2:07, Mark seems to float a backside flip a lot further than anticipated and follows that in the next clip by putting in his two cents for the 50-50 gap 50-50 craze we've seen this year. The line at 3:07 starts off with a smooth kickflip nosegrind but then demonstrates Mark's pop going over a trash can to a ledge only to 360 flip over the next. And lastly, the 50-50 gap out over the rail at 3:27 and the narrow ledge ride to long back lip at 3:40 were nice because of how Mark is able to skate one spot rather differently for two totally awesome tricks. The whole part really shows a wide variety of everything, from different spots to loads of different tricks, but one constant is that Mark's style exudes comfort with handling any spot or trick.

Though this was the bulk of the Suciu footage from this year, he also came out with a killer Run N' Gun style line for his Real Street part, taking an approach never done before for the contest. Mark also had some nice clips in a tour vid called Columns and Cobblestones capturing his Atlas Skateshop crew skating through London. The fakie front crooks through the tight curve at 2:28 was quite cool. Also on tour in Madrid with the usual great edit from Adidas, Mark gathered some clips along with the stacked Adidas crew. There's no doubt he had plenty of great tricks in this video but my personal favorite was the frontside half cab over the rail the hard way at 1:52 because of how after popping fakie, he made it look like a switch back 180. Mark also had some fun clips in another Atlas team edit called Summer Downtime.

If all this still isn't enough to put Mark in SOTY contention, then just wait until Search the Horizon drops.


(Though this post is coming late, I felt the need to properly go through as much of Mark's footage from the past year as I could because he is definitely my top pick for SOTY as of now.)

Mini Ramp Skaters #4: Cody McEntire

Cody McEntire can do some pretty magical things on a mini ramp. Between his ability to pop tricks quite high (particularly on transitions) and his extraordinarily gorgeous one-of-a-kind flick, putting these skills to a mini ramp results in some pretty unreal tricks and lines.  In his classic Smoke and Mirrors part, he opens up before the music with a sick line that when I compare it to some of Ben's awesome lines that I wrote about yesterday, really shows how talented Cody is. And then at 2:11 is an extra high nollie big spin back tail backside flip out for good measure. In Business As Usual, he whips around a deadly front blunt at 0:35 and does what I consider his signature transition trick at 2:09: a frontside 180 fakie 5-0 flip out with his awesome personal style of kicking his back foot out or something to catch the flip. Cody's Real Street part has a couple of nice mini ramp/lip tricks starting at 0:22 and his Love it or Leave it part has a terrific section from 2:21-2:55 just mini ramp tricks. The late back foot flip noseblunt has got to be an NBD for sure!
Now the video parts show Cody's all around amazing skating interspersed with sweet mini ramp stuff, but the clip posted above along with this Mini Ramp Session are what truly puts him as one of the best mini ramp skaters out there. I think it's safe to say he has THE BEST switch 360 flip on a mini ramp or transition in skateboarding. If you don't check out his other video parts mentioned earlier (although they'd be totally worth it), please just check out these two minute-long clips and have your mind blown.

Skating the Unskateable #1: David Gravette

The fact that David Gravette came out with this Gregslist video just to skate literal garbage from a rusty pipe to a piano shows his exact spirit for skateboarding: getting out of your comfort zone and conquering new obstacles. David is very good with this and has shown his expansion of spots particularly well with new ridiculous handrails and transitions. He skates some of the gnarliest obstacles possible and seriously expands on the possibilities of what can be skated. His handrail skating is some of the most dangerous and impressive in the game and has been for a good number of years now.
Looking back to his And Now part, aside from the few insane handrails that may be only skateable to a select few of handrail killers, the few clips from 1:47-2:10 peek into David's spot creativity. From a tall sewer tunnel to a cartoonishly enormous pole jam to a legit brick wall skatestopper built right at the end of a handrail (which David gaps out over nonchalantly).
In Hesh Law at 1:27, David skates a crazy handrail that is much longer than you'd expect, and then at 1:37 he skates a mini electrical box on the side of a telephone pole to show that nothing is out of reach.
In Beware of Sasquatch he skates a bracketed handrail at 2:54 and somehow avoids the natural skatestoppers, despite the lack of any surface area of a rail to grind on.
In Prevent This Tragedy he just glides around a super curved handrail and backside 180s out for good measure at 1:42, even though just maintaining composure through the curve seems impossible. The last rail has surely turned countless other handrail killers away, but with a godly 50-50 like David has he stays unaffected by the kink in the handrail as the rail just keeps getting longer and longer. Perfect balance cheat codes? Check.
Since David's been on a rampage of skating this past year, he released a CSFU Bonus Part in which he opens up skating a dirtbike course in the middle of the woods. Keyword: dirtbike. At 1:03 he steeply drops in and then rides a sketchy looking rail ingrained in the dirt and decides that it's not enough, so he comes out into a nose manual and then pops into the bowl. An impossible combo all starting from the impossible grind.
David's most recent full video part in CSFU (above) contains quite possibly the main reason for this week's subject: his very first trick of the part. After a long and mentally gruesome battle with the rail, David rides the roller coaster 50-50 through two full 90 degree turns containing small kinks, all while gradually going downhill as well. This trick in itself deserves a medal of some kind because balancing does not work like that. He later launches into a no pop full speed feeble grind at 1:42 around a tight curve; it's all in the posture on this one. At 2:02 he flies down a well-sloped handrail into two kinks and a shifting angle of the rail as well, gliding through the grind like it's nothing, even though just looking at the rail makes any trick seem unlikely. The run up for the rail at 2:52 appears to be way to small but a quick carve and David magically sticks with the enormous double kinker all the way down.
And lastly, in David's Real Street part (which is filled with some rather awesome clips) he slides right over a bunch of bike racks at 0:28. It's funny because bike racks are meant to stop you, but David clearly is having no business with these standard rules. The ender 50-50 is better shown here with all the trials and tribulations, both physical and mental. What's absurd about this trick is mixing the number of kinks with the actual steepness and shortness of them too. Only David could see this as being an actual spot to skate.

Skating the Unskateable #5: Brandon Westgate

By now, everyone's probably watched the new Emerica MADE video at least ten times by now and has witnessed the full-speed all out destruction left by Brandon Westgate. So if you don't know, now you know. But for those that knew already, it's clearly understood that Brandon Westgate is a spot-slaughtering machine. His extreme pop and fearlessness mixed with his ability to adapt to the harshest of surfaces has allowed him to set new standards for what spots can be skated, even if no one else will step up to those spots in a while. Below are a good deal of tricks that Brandon has made that has opened up new spots to skate or new ways to skate a spot.
In Zoo York's State of Mind he skate three spots in a row at 0:20 going UP instead of down (NYC Black Hubbas, the loading dock gap, and the tapered pyramid ledge spot). In Emerica's Stay Gold (above), Brandon finds a really innovative way to skate the manny banks at 0:48; no one's ever looked at the spot as actually using both banks together. Even ollieing into the bank at 1:00 was quite a new look at the spot. The SF line at 2:35 with the two stairway ollies going extremely fast was the first of many visits to that spot for ridiculous lines that only Brandon could do.  At 3:10 Brandon basically ollies the length of a house over a parking railing nonetheless and lands pretty far down in a slope. There's a gap to rail at 4:13 that Brandon lipslides that I'm pretty sure hadn't been skated before and other than Alex Olsen recently in Pretty Sweet still hasn't been touched. And then there's the ollie up at 4:19 that is just incomprehensible.
Soon after Stay Gold, Brandon came out with his Emerica Shoe Part where he finds another unique way to fly down the hills of SF at 0:46 with an alleyway ollie to finish the line. In the line at 1:54, Brandon finishes off a sweet line by 50-50ing a shoulder high rail off a natural sidewalk kicker. In a short clip of Brandon just Talking about the Westgate, he skates up two kinks of a pretty legit hubba. Definitely hasn't been done up something as legitimately kinked as that. Then there's Brandon's Real Street part where his first tricks involve him ollieing up onto an insane ledge all from a little sidewalk curb cut and then out over both the street and stairway. In his Mini-Bangin at the Berrics, Brandon 180s where no skater has before because no one would think of going from the 5 stair section out and over the tall bar off the far side of the bump section.
In Zoo York's latest promo video of True East, Brandon hits a super sketchy step up gap at 6:30 that clearly looks unskateable. He chooses to backside flip up it. Directly after that he ollies over the extremely tall bump to bar in ATL that I doubt no one else will hit in a while. And of course the ender ollie in Pittsburgh at 7:22 that is the definitive combination of sketchiness and gnarliness. No sane skater in their wildest dreams would ever picture ollieing something like that.
Finally, in Emerica's MADE Vol. 1, Brandon continues with his ridiculous SF sidewalk lines that only he can see with his experience there. There's a huge 180 over a flower patch after a quick drop down about an 8 stair. The crazy part of this would just be to visualize where in the world he could get speed from; dropping down the stairs beforehand does not seem like an option until Westgate does it. When the music first calms down for a little there's a very tall, sketchy curved ledge that drops down into another crusty hubba that he powers a 50-50 through backside. Later on in the part, Brandon ollies over a tall black pole off of a sidewalk bump (that blends into the background so a double take is usually necessary) that is unlikely for anyone else to even get the courage to skate straight on. There's the gigantic bump to bar against the full brick wall near the end that seems super hard just to keep speed up through, much less pop and land way down below. And of course the van-tow-in loading dock ollie up that defies all gravity. But of course Westgate follows his own laws of gravity.

Switch Backside Kickflips #3: Austyn Gillette

I shouldn't have to say how wonderful it is to watch Austyn Gillette skate.  His style is insanely fluid and graceful and his pop, flick, and overall trick flicking is just a thing of beauty. Ok, now that the obvious is out of the way...
Austyn has a very good switch backside flip, to say the least. With his ability to pop (just look at the trick done over the Maloof High Ollie bar with a casual little light footed hop after landing) and his ability to skate super fast so nonchalantly (like all throughout his Quik part but in particular at 4:17 when he speedily switch backside flips over a huge street hip while basically going downhill the whole time), Austyn comes out with a trick that looks way too comfortable for the level of difficulty that he executes it at.  Some notable switch backside flips that I've seen from Austyn: over a steep hip at 0:32 when a couple Habitat guys traveled with Austyn in OZ, down a clean set of skatepark stairs at 1:40 in his Street League Selection extended edit, and at 0:33 over a fire hydrant in his latest Real Street part.
But with a style like Austyn's, I have to place further emphasis on a few of the sweetest switch backside flips I've seen from him.  Austyn's part in Habitat's Origin, one of my favorite video parts of all time for sure, showcases his great use of speed and flick at 4:30 when he switch backside flips across a super long dirt patch, over a wall, and then down a small gap after all that. You can tell visually by the quickness that he moves away from the camera just how fast he was going and how long that gap must be. As referenced yesterday with Blake Carpenter, Austyn also participated in a very entertaining and impressive Battle Royale at the Berrics, where at 1:15 Austyn lands a beauty of a switch backside flip. The crazy thing about this is that not only was it down the Berrics' 7 stair, but he landed about 6 feet out past the last stair just for the heck of it! And to close it all off, I'd like to point to the extremely aesthetically pleasing video part above: Austyn Unlimited. The whole part is great, but it also shows Austyn's varied use of the switch backside flip. In a line starting at 3:38, Austyn's pulling out quite a few enjoyable tricks all while cruising down a nice hill. Mid-line he decides to switch backside flip (after a switch ollie and switch powerslide too) and still have enough cruising control to swerve behind a parked car and ollie back up the curb for his next trick. At 4:46 he shows the trick with a more technical control by doing it into a manual with a front 180 out on a nicely structured pad. To penultimately end his part at 5:35, Austyn drops one of my most memorable switch backside flips: in a crusty looking neighborhood, over a sketchy curving staircase's handrail, defining style with his flick and catch, and landing downhill once again so that he can roll away with that effortless posture.

UPDATE: I always remembered this particular switch backside flip over a couch from Austyn, just not where to find it. It is a thing of beauty.

Dudes with Nicknames #3: Lizard King (Mike Plumb)

Continuing the trend of great nicknames from the Deathwish squad, Mike Plumb (AKA Lizard King) is up next.  From what I've gathered the origin of the name is like this: Lizard was skating at a park back in the day and one of his favorite skaters at the time,"Pumpkin King", came up to him randomly and called him Lizard, the Lizard King. The name's stuck ever since, and when I say stuck I really mean it.  The only time Mike Plumb comes out is when Lizard's being interviewed and is forced to give up his original name. I'm assuming the Lizard part came from his ability to ride on walls and on obstacles most people shouldn't be able to. Just take a look at the May 2009 issue of Transworld for a prime example.
Lizard does stay true to him name quite often in his video parts, coming up with some pretty hairy ideas for whatever spots he comes to.  Just look at the very first trick in his shared part with Theotis in Baker has a Deathwish, as well as a couple sketchy wallie tricks from 0:30. Then there's his Real Street part (above) from this past year along with his Deathwish video part which both have more of the crazy use of spots with Lizard's abilities to handle anything sketchy with a passion-filled eagerness and ease.