Two Parts

Two skate parts I recently saw for the first and was hugely impressed and inspired by.

A Sampling...

Steady Robbin'

So today I figured I'd try something new in the world of skate blogs and pirate some classic 90s footage off YouTube. I myself was astonished at my own creativity. Anyway, a couple Huf clips I'd never seen before. As much of a skate nerd as I am, I only started skating in '98 so I still gots a lot of old videos to catch up on. I'm especially stoked on the few 16mm shots in "Non-Fiction." I keep swearing I'll shoot some new 16mm on my little Russian beauty... maybe when I get some Christmas money and/or a job. Oh, and I'm also loving the manual 3-flip out wearing the old DC Howards. In my youth, I hated most DC shoes but looking back lots of them were pretty rad. In truth, there's not a bad clip to speak of. All power, control, style, and speed. Alright, enough words for my imagined blog devotees. Clips!

Bothering Me

60 fps footage played back at normal speed. Hurts my eyes and my mind.

Anybody Out There?

Once again, I realize no one is reading but this seemed too weird to pass up. You know how when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater came out it created a whole bunch of little kids screaming "900!" at any pro skater within ear-shot? How it seemed to heighten all non-skater expectations of what skaters were supposed to do? Well, I'm thinking Ryan Sheckler's new private park is a pretty good testament to that. The only thing I have to compare it to is maybe those custom parks you could build in Pro Skater. Yes, I'm speaking from experience; I did indeed spend much of my thirteen-year-old life building countless custom parks in my borrowed edition of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. But back to the park. Who would want to skate that? I'm not denigrating Ryan Sheckler's skill; he's probably one of the few that can actually skate it. But that's the constant battle in the Shecklebot controversy: it's not that we as skaters don't think he's good -- he certainly is -- but more that he seems to misrepresent skateboarding at every turn. This park footage is jock skating. Sorry if that sounds ignorant, but that's all it is to me.

Hella Bro!

Just got my new Skateboard Mag! So stoked on the Plan B pro wheel team poster! 'Bout to put it up on my wall right now! Tight!

Seriously, who the hell cares?
Luckily there's also an included Elwood DVD. They have a rippin' team. Excited to see it.

My Chocolate Post...

So, just to give some background, I've had about a three-year Chocolate kick. Starting in probably my senior year, Chocolate could seriously do no wrong in my eyes. This was around the time Devine had just gotten on and was blowing up big. They'd also just gotten Pappalardo, which practically blew my skate-nerd brain at the time. Their graphics always seemed impeccable to me, and the whole feel of the company just killed me.

Now, though, I can't help but think how stale everything feels. With the exception of Vincent Alvarez, there's been no real new blood for a few years now. It seems like Justin Eldridge, Chris Roberts, and Devine Calloway all sort of had this crazy coverage that they never really followed up on. Like they were supposed to take a strong position as the team's identity. Sounds a little stupid, I know. But it makes sense. There's no real Chocolate vibe anymore. It's just a bunch of skaters who ride the same boards. Like, Gino is Chocolate. Justin Eldridge isn't, really. Plus, honestly, the latest graphics are pretty fucking boring. I've not followed who's in charge of art direction too closely, but it seems like there's been a lull in creativity. And they really don't have to try very hard to impress me. I still think the Chocolate chunk is one of the best looking skate logos ever.

I guess that, in the end, it doesn't matter too much. The same thing happened with Alien Workshop, who had been the absolute bees' knees to me from the time I saw Photosynthesis as a tiny chittlin until I was about thirteen.. But I do sorta feel like this latest change in opinion is indicative of skating as a whole right now -- there's just too much of everything out there right now, so it's pretty hard to be heard over the fray. For the moment I'm backing Roger, just because it's so small that it almost seems like a forgotten entity. No superstar team, no previous history (really) to bank off of (Plan B, Stereo, what the fuck?), just great graphics and ads that actually represent the true smart-ass spirit of skating.

Oh, and for the record, I still love the fact that Pappalardo's on Chocolate.