Not A Review Of A New Transworld Video

dances

I can’t remember the names of the last four Ghostface albums and I can’t remember the names of the last four Transworld videos. I haven’t been waiting for either to live up to some expectation that waned well over a decade ago, either. The last dozen-plus Transworld videos have come and gone. There were some good parts, but they’re no less immune to one-and-done Instagratification wormhole that gets talked about by anyone giving a skate interview in 2017.

It seemed like we all agreed on this. Except people have had a lot of, um, not the nicest things to say about Riddles in Mathematics. First, The Bunt went in on it, then the comments on the Ben Gore part that was live for twenty-four hours — fidgety filming, GX and/or Colin Read envy, the soundtrack — skateboarders complain about everything, but apparently this one rubbed people in some way that the last five didn’t.

In the time since Transworld lost the website wars to more Biblical and Scientological outlets, it has been easy to forget that the magazine’s video program was once an eminent of a tastemaker in skateboarding. Transworld packaged Stevie/Kalis and Dill/A.V.E. better than even their sponsors. It prolonged the legend of Cardiel into a generation that was a decade removed from his S.O.T.Y. win. In Bloom predicated Tony T’s 2002 S.O.T.Y. trophy, and punctuated the release of Street Cinema. Heath Kirchart never got S.O.T.Y, but he had the Sight Unseen part. But that space where a Transworld video was an unmissable cultural event can’t co-exist with the internet.

Since beginning the Five Favorite Parts series, I’m constantly reminded of something: skate videos are for kids. With a few exceptions, everybody’s picks are timed alongside the age they would have been most ripe for figuring out how they skateboard, and to some extent, who they’re going to be as a person. Everyone has old friends from high school who haven’t listened to, let alone approved of, any music that has been released since they graduated. Adult skate video viewers are the more annoying version of that. You’re going to have a tough time finding something as good as the first twenty-five skate videos you watched.

I rewatched Anthology yesterday not because it’s better than the new generation of Transworld videos, but to appreciate how silly this Make Transworld Videos Great Again way of thinking is. In 2017, Penny’s session into the chain-to-bank would’ve been some dude’s IG clip, dozens of pros could replicate The Muska Day™ on their way to Street League practice, and well — fair, you win, nothing will ever be done that’s better than Carroll’s S.F. Library line ;)

It’s also the first video I bought, and asking any new video to compete with it for the place it holds in my heart is obviously pointless.

Making a full-length skate video in 2017 is like playing for a participation award. However, Riddles — or any new skate video, really — will always mean more to the kid watching it as his second, sixth or tenth video than to anyone who grew up on Jon Holland and Ty Evans.

14 Comments

  1. I agree to an extent, but I think good videos can still be put out. Not everyone’s favorite but I really enjoyed the most recent polar video, as well as the Vans video. When I get hyped to go skate I put on a hjalte part or the polar video, not Mindfield or Baker 3. If anything it’s more about originality or at least adapting videos to this age, and when the video is working too hard for a feeling that doesn’t work, that makes a bad video.

    Both of the bobbys footage in Riddles was great.

  2. The best part is that tweet on the top. You guys like the best website in skateboarding and will always something I discovered and it was actually through transworld mag.

  3. i agree with lounge…..there are still good full length skate videos comin out..unfortunately for me this tws is not that case…but for example mentioned polar was great, dany was great, gx1000 was great…and isle – vase was the best… so there is plenty good full lenght stuff out there also for the people who grew up on anthology, or sight unseen etc…or any older video before that

  4. It’s weird, I’ve always liked the Transworld videos. They are a constant, and they get the job done. That being said, I found Substance to be almost unwatchable. At what point does that up close style of filming go so far up it’s own ass that you can’t even see the skaters feet? At my age expectations are actually pretty reasonable, I just want to watch cool skateboarding, and there’s plenty of that to be found. It is true that nothing is ever as good as good shit when you were a kid.

  5. I really don’t get how everyone hates this one so much. Maybe it’s because I have a big old tube tv to watch vx videos on but I thought the filming was fine. Maybe it’d give you a headache watching it on your phone…I’ll always have a soft spot for Modus, Sorry etc but I’ll still be watching bobby d kill it in this one all the time a year or two from now.

  6. did anyone notice the full length GX vid is too narrow of an aspect ratio? Maybe I’m tripping..

  7. “Transworld lost the website wars to more Biblical and Scientological outlets” – holy shit, best line of the year. Pure genius.


Comments are closed.