Cult Classic

Still a huge favorite of mine. I feel like there was nowhere to go but down for PJ after this. He continues to be an amazing skater, but it's really not the same. This part had an unbeatable combination of factors. Firstly, no one knew who the fuck this kid was. Secondly, you could tell he bled skateboarding, from the ultra-thrashed Accels at the beginning, to the last hungry push at the close. Finally, he had that whole unabashed skate-nerd thing going, with some tricks in there that would certainly have looked stupid for most, but that seemed like simply another extension of his ridiculous talent and creativity on-board. Nowadays, all that little-kid hyperactivity is hiding somewhere in his plain-jane baggy jeans and fitted.

Like I said, it remains an all-time favorite, and maybe I shouldn't ruin it with words.

Something I've Been Watching A Lot

Just got a little Nina Simone collection from Amoeba as well. So very neat and unique.

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.