Video of the Week: Bobby Worrest - Hometown Turf Killer

Filming a part in one location is rarely something you can watch over and over and over...and over again. It gets to a point where the static scenery makes the clips feel repetitive, which is a key reason why I don't watch vert skating or even skatepark parts as much as I do street skating. With so many impressive skaters out today, the tricks get repetitive really quickly, so often times it takes a unique style or a special spot selection to make a video part interesting. However, Bobby Worrest provides an exception to this concept by coming out with a part filmed entirely at Pulaski park in DC. Bobby explores every corner of the park and maintains his unexpectedness with every clip. Not only is it great to get another part from Bobby, but to come through with high quality footage for a legitimate full part strictly in his hometown, he really mixed all the right ingredients for an awesome video. Oh, and that switch tre at 0:39!

Almost celebrated its 10th year in skateboarding at The Berrics with a nostalgic highlights video, an epic and fun-filled session at the park itself, and then an in-depth interview with Rodney Mullen that you're not going to find anything close to from any other skater. I could go on for a while about Almost: how I started skateboarding just after Round 3 dropped, how I would study every one of their parts in the video, how inspirational a guy like Rodney really is, how incredibly talented and creative all the team riders are, etc. Almost is one of my favorites without a doubt and it's terrific to see them going strong after 10 years.
-RIP Lewis Marnell-

Dave Vaughn's part in Find the Air showed how sometimes you don't need the absolute craziest tricks to have a ripping part (even though he throws in some serious bangers and solid lines), you can just have a style that makes skateboarding look good.
Chase Webb, despite conjuring up plenty of discussions related to Nyjah, the typical Californian handrail skater, etc., dropped a part through Transworld that is too gnarly to not appreciate.

Now the next few videos are all super awesome in their own way, but I'm keeping them for the end because they all have a good deal of older footage that is just remixed:
Tony Durao is one of my favorite up-and-coming East Coast shredders right now, and Quartersnacks masterfully remixed his TWS Check Out footage, his welcome part to Waters and Army, and some new footage for a part that should be talked about for years to come. (Massive switch boneless at 4:33!)
Mark Suciu's part in Search the Horizon was an instant classic and has been remixed with the same vibes you'd expect in a Habitat video, along with some cool footage I don't remember ever seeing from Mark.
Same thing pretty much for Brandon Westgate's part in MADE. This time it's been remixed with some of his older parts as well, which makes this Westgate compilation a true testament to his place in skateboarding.
And finally, this recap video from the Berrics' 2UP contest is actually quite worthy of a few views, especially when you have the blend of manual masters that you do for this contest.

Video of Last Week: Rodney Mullen TEDxTalks On Getting Up Again

There were a great deal of solid skate videos this week, but I must give top honors to Rodney Mullen's recent TEDxTalk. Even though the video came out prior to this past week, I didn't see it mentioned until this week and it is just too critical of a video to pass up mentioning.
Rodney has to be one of the brightest people on this planet. Finding enough physical and mental strength to progress any physical activity like Rodney has with skateboarding is already a feat in itself, which explains the whole industry behind professional athletes. But it takes a truly brilliant mind to pick apart at that psychological/physical teamwork to express the process behind doing what we do as skaters. I'm sure everyone's had those instantaneous fleeting thoughts right before you pop a trick that result in the board being kicked away and busting yourself, and just like Rodney said, you tell yourself that you're not going to do that the next time. I believe Rodney called it a "cognitive override" when he referred to getting back up again just to conquer the trick. His ability to put into words the evanescent thoughts that fly around in our heads to analyze skateboarders like no one else has before is remarkable. Personally I really enjoyed hearing him discuss skateboarding as a language, which is a relatively common connection, but going further to describe how "environmental components" shape our "physical dialect", a comparison I've never thought of before but really do admire now.
Rodney has intellectually conquered his body to the point of knowing his limits when it comes to ripping apart scar tissue, and through that has converted his physical setback into the most legitimate switching of stance possible for skateboarders. At least, that's what is currently considered because who knows what skaters will accomplish ten years from now...much like how Rodney established that learning tricks through others is merely learning that tricks are possible after being materialized from some innovative skater's thoughts.
I have boundless respect for Rodney and this video captures a lot of the reasons why he is one of my greatest inspirations.

On a more standard level of skateboarding videos, this week had a nice dosage, so listed below are some videos worthy of views:
Pat Rumney and Taylor Kirby's shared bonus part in the Deathwish Video, spawned after this week's welcome video for Pat onto Supra Footwear.
JP Souza full video part via Thrasher
Dashawn Jordan's pretty crazy raw clips
Alex Schmidt's exclusive part for The Skateboard Mag
Bert Wootton's Sequel video part

And last but not least, congrats to Sammy Winter for turning pro for Cliche! I love the whole Cliche squad and Sammy is definitely one of the sickest underrated dudes out there. Also in honor of Sammy turning pro this week, we have a short film by the one and only French Fred, Sammy's remixed part by Manolo from Bon Voyage, as well as his original part from the Cliche vid.

Manny Maniacs #5: Rodney Mullen

Rodney Mullen is an enigma wrapped in legendary status with skills that are incomprehensible. Including him with the manual masters is a must when you can combine casper slides (2:43 above) and primo slides (4:38 and 4:43) into your manual combos, not to mention darkslides (2:10) and even handstand finger flips into manuals as well (0:28). Before I was even born, Rodney came out with manual tricks in his timeless part in Virtual Reality that you still see guys doing today (starting around 2:24). I still don't even know if I've someone even front heel fakie manny even today, which goes to show you that Rodney's on an entire different level. Any round with Daewon is mindbendingly insane, but I think his part in Almost's Round 3 (shown above), being one of the first bits of skateboarding I'd ever witnessed, acts as the skateboarding Bible for me today.  Some tricks from this part are untouchable to this day. For manuals specifically, besides the ridiculousness mentioned above, his stationary one wheel manual spinning at 0:33 demonstrates Rodney's freestyle background and explains why he's able to do so much on a skateboard, and right before demolishing the banked manual spot with tricks on tricks on tricks he comes out with an impossible nose manual nose impossible out at 3:46 that to me is still one of the best "straightforward" manual tricks done to this day.
Since then, I have felt an everlasting craving of more Rodney footage (Almost, please tell me you weren't kidding when you said on 5-Incher that he has a part in the works) and was partially satisfied by a few clips in Globe's United By Fate.  After hearing from interviews that Rodney went through some tough physical issues and through his own willpower is legitimately attempting to get rid of any stance that he has, I was intrigued to say the least.  His tricks in the short segment from United By Fate exemplify his goal in that he does a nose manual nollie 360 shove to manual in both "stances"...and makes it look just like a mirrored image! Most skaters show some signs of their stance in their shoulder and foot positioning but Rodney genuinely does not with these two tricks, making me think that once again he is breaking boundaries in skateboarding that no one else would think of breaking.  And just for good measure, he throws in a *switch* kickflip one footed nose manual as well.

High Fives all around!

Welcome to Skateboarding High Fives!  Combining the “no more than one video per day” idea behind Walker Ryan’s Under Saturation blog, and the collective theme behind Oliver Barton’s Top 5 Youtubes of the Week, I present you with this new collection of skateboarding videos through my eyes.  Every week has a theme and every theme will have 5 videos, one for each day of the week.  The weekend will be free for whatever skateboarding goodness comes its way, as weekends are meant to be. High Fives all around!

To get things started, this week will be dedicated to my own favorite video parts.  Over the years I've seen many parts that are nothing short of legendary, with guys like Rodney or Daewon, and quite a lot of parts that are just so epic, Geoff Rowley in Sorry for example.  But despite the incredible skating that still holds strong today, I found that the song choice (along with the edit) really solidifies a video part into something that will never leave my head.  It's cliche by now but you've heard it before, the song makes or breaks the video part.  I'd say there's definitely some truth to that.  The video parts going up this week all have songs that I keep high in my iTunes rotation, even though I usually don't look for music in that genre.  They act like highlighters to these video parts and make everything stand out.  Combine that with a myriad of skating styles and gnarly tricks that also go down in the skate history books, I now present to you my Top 5 Favorite Video Parts.