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.

Video of the Week: Nyjah Huston - Fade to Black

Best Quality Video at Thrasher

This week has been nuts with the release of way too many good videos. I wanted to pick a video of the week that would not have already been talked about as much as this one, but when a video part is as gnarly and well-rounded (in regards to Nyjah at least) as this one, it's too hard to not highlight Nyjah's hard work that he's put in this past year. From skating enormous rails (several on order of 20 stairs or more) to the most insane kinked rails to some huge gaps and then even to some crazy tech tricks, Nyjah's created one of the sickest parts possible today. I'd love to go over each and every clip and its awesomeness, but watching the video over and over again will work just as well. 

Then there was AB&A, the Etnies video starring Axel Cruysberghs, Barney Page, and Albert Nyberg that is watchable at the Berrics. Great editing and song selection from Etnies? Check. Three distinctly awesome styles and personalities? Check. Some very memorable NBDs from Albert Nyberg? CHECK. This video will be on replay for quite some time.

Narrowing down that European vibe, my previous wishes actually came true and Tom Knox of Isle Skateboards had his part in Eleventh Hour released. (I got the full video myself at Theories of Atlantis and would recommend it to any skate video collector.) It's really hard to beat the London spots and scenery; this video just provides that sense of awe solely from aesthetics. Mix that with Tom Knox's perfect adaption of his skating to his surroundings with his extremely quick feet and great improvisational tricks and you have one heck of a video part. 

The week of the Europeans maybe? It was great to see some new Danny Brady footage in the form of a new full part for Palace skateboards. Danny's great flick put to some unique editing for some more awesome vibes and skateboarding fans are pleased with this outcome.

I'm going to bunch together three parts that came out this week: TJ Rogers for Bones Wheels, a Travis Erickson compilation part, and a minute long Coalatree commercial for Ryan Spencer. All of these dudes rip extremely hard in these clips with just pure street skating from their personal hometown area spots. All of these dudes are also very underrated because parts like these that can be rewatched multiple times show that they should be much closer to turning pro than they currently are at the moment. 

And to wrap up this week, here are some other pretty tight videos:

-Sweet trick selection and style from John Hill in his Mag Minute

-Another tight release from the Old Dominion video by Venue Skateboards, this time featuring Jordan Bradshaw

-A reminder of how great Lakai and its team riders always are with the Lakai 'YIR' Die recap montage.

-A cool NYC montage project by Steve Marino called In The Streets (picks up nicely around 2:25)

-Equal amounts creativity and gnarliness in the Berrics blowup video from Jordan Maxham: Maxham Overdrive (his intro to Warco is still one of the most ridiculous internet videos in recent memory for me)

Return to the Radar #3: Tom Knox

This was the first time I had ever heard of Tom Knox.  Seeing that he rides for Emerica and Blueprint (at the time), there had to be something special about him.  So when the two brands collaborated for this introductory part, I was very impressed at this Londoner's extremely quick feet and spontaneous street style. The edit is fast paced and every clip matches that pace because Tom somehow manages to throw tricks on obstacles immediately after landing a previous trick.  The first line at 0:15 is a good example of how he doesn't stop in between tricks but seems to start setting his feet up as he lands the trick before.  It takes this precision skill set to pull off a line like at 0:41, navigating through the narrow alley without losing any control of his position.  (Just look at this fun clip of Tom skating on a moving train, weaving in and out of the support poles, recovering from veering off to the sides with an alertness I can only relate to Mark Suciu's.)  Quick feet allows Tom to pull of his body varial at 0:57, which looks like he waited for the last possible instant to actually twist.  The fact that Tom has a great deal of tricks and can skate just about anything (adapting perfect to his London environment) makes him that much more enjoyable to watch, not to mention the London aesthetic that never fails to please either.  Other notable tricks from this part include the tightly spaced gap to back lip at 1:47 that requires the utmost concentration in positioning to avoid the brick wall, the perfect finish to the line at 2:14 with the quick no comply off the last step, and a huge fakie ollie at 3:01 that is terrifying but the conceptual simplicity of the trick makes it that much cooler too.
There is also his older Square One part that includes more of that quick-footedness, the precision placement and control, and an even wider array of flip tricks to show for.  The 180 up to switch backside 360 ollie at 1:38 gets me every time.  Skateboarding could definitely use some spontaneous quick footed skating like Tom's to be in the spotlight, especially when he has the beautiful and much less than perfect spots that London offers at his disposal.
Now that Isle Skateboards has officially started up after the termination of Blueprint, I really hope they are working on something as a team so that Tom Knox can again put out his great skating.

UPDATE: It slipped my mind, but I am extremely pumped for his Eleventh Hour part coming out soon!