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.
While other Blind dudes have been getting some coverage here and there since "Damn" came out, I haven't seen anything from Filipe. Now I know why. This new lengthy part shows that he's still skating hesh and stacking gnarly clips like few others. And the fact that he throws down some hammers on the roughest streets possible makes this new part a real nice refresher on how Filipe shreds.
In other news: Trevor Colden is now pro for Skate Mental and despite what people say about the music he skates to, he is darn good and deserves the spot on the unique team. James Hardy delivers the expected rugged and stylish skating in his Faith Skate Supply bonus part, really utilizing his home state to its potential. Anthony Vega is Burnin' Footy in very exciting anticipation for his next part in LIVIN. Leo Heinert has a Video Check Out with Transworld and after demolishing NYC in his welcome video for Torro, he continues to come through with pretty crazy city clips. Taylor Kirby's Shep Dawgs Vol. 4 teaser part is a sick precursor to what might be one of the best homie videos ever. Rambo fakie heelflips a picnic table for the House of Hammers, demonstrating a determination and tirelessness I haven't seen in many skaters. Despite some clip releasing issues, the whole story behind this pretty heavy notch in the picnic-table-belt is well worth the time. Greg Lutzka has a short and sweet Spring Fling of new footage. It's relatively very little but it's nice to see some new tricks and footage outside of the contest circuit.
Now some nice B-Sides and redone older footage: Barney Page - Excess Baggage from AB&A Mike Manzoori - The Cinematographer Project Dane Burman - Road Less Traveled Recut
Koichiro Uehara's latest video part is a joy to watch. His quick feet are unparalleled by anyone else and to create an entire video part that keeps that quick rhythm is really incredible. This is the kind of part that makes you want to go skate and have fun.
And lastly, Kingpin had an article on the 10 Tricks Danny Montoya Did First, which was a spot-on tribute to a guy that is very underrated today. While people are trying to get more spins and more flips into their tech tricks today, Danny Montoya has always been a notch above the rest when it comes to technical and stylish creativity.
Patrik Wallner's Visualtraveling has been one of the most beautiful forms of cultural education for skateboarding. Taking on the locations without a blown out skate scene, Patrik delivers once again as he rolls with a terrific crew (including one of my favorite skaters and regular visualtravelers, Walker Ryan) through various parts of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. Sure, there's some really awesome skating involved, but the whole video offers so much more to enhance our desire as skaters to keep exploring.
Some dudes are just natural at skateboarding. Taylor Smith aka T-Spliff is definitely one of them. Now I always love some raw, uncut, behind the scenes footage, so 16 minutes of Taylor getting gnarly without even showing it is just priceless. His make-everything-look-easy style is too enjoyable and the fact that he hits up some of the scariest rails is the reason why he needs to be looked out for this year and years to come. I first learned about him through his WTF part, which was a sick first big part for him, and his Shep Dawgs 3 part (where most of these BTS clips are from) solidified my liking for him. Just look at the 14 minute mark in the uncut clips: Taylor boardslides a super sketchy high rail like it's nothing, and throws in a downhill kickflip because he's got it like that. Then, in prime Shep Dawg fashion, he figures the sketchy boardslide isn't enough, so he kickflips into it and rolls away without flinching once again. Seeing raw skate talent like this never gets old.
Also from this week, in keeping with the "Random Teams" theme, sml Wheels released an awesome 13 minute compilation of their whole team from the past year, including some footage I haven't seen before. sml is another one of those pretty stacked teams so this half-length video is something to get psyched on.
Now I already expressed how Luan's part in Chronicles was a bit disappointing and I think I finally know why. The hype for the video was so big that I was expecting some totally stunning NBDs from Luan (kind of like Shane pulled out), but in actuality he shredded in his usual precise fashion, but without anything completely mindblowing. Luan's new Strike and Destroy part, on the other hand, was described to be a short trip to Brazil to film in the area and came out without crazy anticipation. Couple that with the fact that Luan didn't skate lightly at all and this part is in my opinion much more exciting and entertaining than his Chronicles part. From the not-seen-too-frequently Brazilian streets to Luan's flawless style to his well-picked tricks, and especially to his downhill lines, this part has all the right ingredients to be very tasteful.
In other skate news from the past week:
-John Gardner and Nik Stain both released heavy East Coast video parts for Skate Jawn. Thrasher was totally right in seeing the similarities between John and Zered Bassett...
-One of my new favorite contests in skateboarding, The Berrics and Matix's 2UP contest is amazing so far.
-Brandon Nguyen kills it in his Video Check Out.
-Andrew Norris skates with a solid style and makes some difficult spots look easy in his Mag Minute.
-The lineup alone for Outliers is enough to be stoked on, but the trailer made it all official with Marius Syvanen unexpectedly filling in the last spot.
Turning pro is quite possibly one of the biggest accomplishments in skating and definitely the biggest sign to tell someone "you made it" in skateboarding. It can be a very touchy subject because there are multiple viewpoints: the skater's, the board sponsor (forget anything shoe-related, board companies are where the real act of turning someone pro belongs), the board sponsor's marketing management, and the general public like us. Then you have to take into account the experience or years a skater's put into a company, his loyalty to that company, his actual level of skating and progression, his ability to produce footage at a professional level, and of course his marketability to help the company profit. The list intertwines and extends on for a while, but the basic idea is there: it's not so simple anymore to turn someone pro.
I've already gone over my top 5 skaters that have been putting in plenty of work but have been slept on in terms of going pro, not including Felipe of course now that he has finally been given the nod from Plan B. (That really is quite the hard-working-skater story if there ever was one.)
But there are some companies that have turned some guys pro WAY too soon. Whether it's just because they have some extreme marketability or the company just needs a new pro model on the shop shelves, there are a few guys in the industry that could/should arguably still be am. This week I'll give my Top 5 guys that went pro too soon.
Before that, I feel like I should mention two dudes: Riley Hawk and Dakota Servold. Both are super sick and shred extremely hard, don't get me wrong, but there's still a feeling that they haven't been around too long. It could just be my personal perspective and how I've uncovered their skating, but they both still feel a tad young in the industry. Riley, I've been hyped on since his Shep Dawgs parts and he is one of skateboarding's best footage machines right now, but he really hasn't seemed to be on Baker very long. It could also be a bit overwhelming after he won Year's Best Am on his birthday and turned pro that very same day, but I'd say it's still worth bringing up. Dakota, I never saw before WTF, which was a little over a year and a half ago. Even though he's been on an absolute tear since then, it still feels somewhat early in the scheme of things for Foundation to step him up, especially with other dudes like Ryan Spencer also killing it. Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily mind if those two were still am. But thinking of the Top 5 I have in mind for this week, I would gladly turn Riley and Dakota pro today over those 5.
