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.

Next Week (and maybe the week after that): Gone Skating

I didn't want this to come, but maintaining this blog with new topics every week is becoming a bit too tricky to handle. Every day you can look on skate websites and find loads and loads of new videos to occupy your time, but I started this blog to take a look at videos probably lost in the abyss of the internet and have them resurface with a new purpose. I just don't want to post a video and list a name every day without backing it up with an analysis of why it's worth watching/re-watching and why it's worth remembering within the topic for that week. And for that, I have decided at least for a little while to hold off on the weekly topics until the time comes that is actually free enough to provide quality posts for the week. My selection of Videos of the Week will keep going as a way of filtering through the packs of daily videos. But the next weekly topic that Skateboarding High Fives is built on may be in a few weeks, maybe a month, maybe a few months, maybe summer...I don't really know. As quantity is pushing down on quality of skate footage these days, I hope to provide the posts that are worth reading and watching. So while I take the time to thaw my legs out from this winter and skate a bit and focus on my other responsibilities, I'll leave it with this VX piece by Gravis, featuring Jake Johnson and Sammy Winter. If this doesn't emphasize quality over quantity, I don't know what does. 

Video of the Week: Dave Bohack - THAT is what I like

I have to give Dave Bohack top honors for Video of the Week. There's something about seeing those East Coast spots (one of which I know is literally a 2 minute skate away for myself) that lets me connect with his skating more so than the countless other videos I merely glaze at through my computer screen. Watching his part felt like watching my friends in person skating spots I'm used to seeing in person, and then even sometimes cranking it up a notch or two in gnarliness. Seeing snow and rain on the ground, especially for that splashing rollaway for his insane ender 50-50, reminded me that there are some gnarly skaters very close by and that the skateboarding community as a whole is not as disconnected as it sometimes may feel.

In other skate news from the week:
Nick Remon kills it for Vans in England with a super enjoyable style and trick selection, shredding through those gritty streets. The line at 2:20 (fakie heel, fakie boardslide fs 270 out) is too good.
Niilo Nikkanen also comes through with an incredible part in GTFBID, proving that there are some "random" Euro skaters out there that are absolutely crushing it.
Jimmy Cao's new part for Sk8mafia and JSLV is super steezy and stands out nicely a midst the loads of footage the 'Mafia puts out regularly.
Jordan Gesko's part for Skate Jawn is raw and pretty awesome. The switch inward heel at 3:44 was a sweet surprise and reminded me a bit of Shuriken's nice inward.
Kevin Terpening turned pro for FA with a short but sweet welcome video, accompanied by one from Huf too.
Speaking of short but sweet, Forrest Edwards' welcome video for Theeve is quite gnarly and worth a few views.
The Flip Canadian Tour at The Skateboard Mag is too good to be written off as just another tour video, but what do you expect from that young crew of rippers.
If Rowan Zorilla's latest part was throwaway, then there's good reason to be excited for Shep Dawgs 4 (as if there weren't enough reasons already)
Tommy Sandoval takes the cake for the greatest barrage of BIG bangers at the Berrics with his Battle Commander, which timed out nicely with Hellaclips edit of Tommy's Road Less Traveled footage into a personalized part for Fallen.
In The Details was filmed and edited by Jeremy McNamara and oh boy did he do a good job.
As is tradition, Emerica dropped Jeremy Leabres' B-Sides from Made and once again comes through with the Gold.
To close things off, Youness Amrani went pro this week for Almost, a move that I'm super stoked on. Even though I said a little more time with the legendary company would be fitting, it's been some time since then and it feels about right, especially after what Youness masterfully pulled off at The Berrics.

This Week: Maintenance

Hopefully this doesn't become a biweekly blog, but again this week I'll have to sit back away from the daily posts. Until next week, enjoy Cale Nuske's part from Cliche's Deja Vu. From one of my favorite teams in skating, this guy was ripping with a smooth style, as evidenced by his compilation of footage in this video part. Another guy I could've/should've included in my Return to the Radar posts, I am beyond curious as to his whereabouts as of late. Either way, he most certainly is casually crushing it wherever he is.

Video of the Week: Taylor Smith - Shep Dawgs Tape Deck

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.

Random Teams #1: Silver Trucks

Silver Trucks has always had a pretty diverse team. From back in the day to now, there have been plenty of team rider switchups, most notably P-Rod, Nick Tucker, and Felipe Gustavo to Venture, but there are still some original team riders on Silver to this day. Plus, with a few very recent additions to the team like Chad Tim Tim, Matt Bennett, and Ryan Gallant, the crew is shaping up to not only include a bunch of different guys from the industry's standpoint, but to include a really stylish and technical team as well. Silver Trucks sticks out to me as having a "random" team of skaters because there are truck companies like Independent and Venture and Thunder that have way too many riders to count. Then there are the tight-knit distribution companies like Crailtap's Royal and Dwindle's Tensor. Granted there are always exceptions but for the most part those companies make sense as far as the team riders go. Silver has spread its grasp over many distributions' riders and put them together for one of the more precision, technical-oriented teams out there.
Check out the most recent team montage (above) I could find from Silver with a good portion of the dudes that are currently on the team. Just imagine what a full length video from this crew would be like...

Random Teams #2: Official Headwear

Official Headwear is in a similar position as AYC, as far as coming out recently and having a random mix of team riders. Official has already sent its team to Brazil (above) to kick things off and make sure its first steps in skateboarding are strong and remembered. Of course you can get an eclectic group of guys under a headwear label, and this group is just that as they each contribute their own special style. You might see the trio of Kayo skaters in there, but there's no denying the shock value in seeing these three linked up with the likes of Stefan Janoski, Austyn Gillette, Jose Rojo, and legend John Cardiel himself. Putting together a team like this for one of the better collections of stylish, fast or tech skating is always welcome to broaden the boundaries in skateboarding. Check the team and brand out here.