Photo via Pawn Shop Skate Co
A test for a great movie is whether or not you drop everything and sit there until the end — no matter how many times you’ve seen it — when you catch it on TV. (I’ve probably wasted weeks of my life watching Heat with commercials.) There’s a similar test for a great video part. In our age of fifty skate videos dropping a day, a tried and true metric is the “Have you seen?”-test: how many people asked you if you saw a specific one of those fifty parts?
Lacey’s “My World” part was 2017’s first “Have you seen?”-part. Even people I knew with a casual interest in skateboarding (the “I check Monday Links for the ‘Quote of the Week'” crowd) were asking if I saw the Lacey part, and for good reason. We linked up with her to see the inspirations behind what will inevitably be one of the year’s best.
Elissa Steamer — Toy Machine: Welcome to Hell (1996)
It was inspiring to see Elissa have one of the sickest parts in such a timeless video — she was the only one back then. Her style is so rad; the nollie tail slide was so sick. I was skating when it came out, but I didn’t see my first videos until I was ten or eleven. My first one was Baker 2G, then Baker Bootleg and the PJ Ladd video. We also had this VHS mixtape that had Sorry, Yeah Right and Shorty’s Guilty on it. I remember skating in my garage and watching all those videos constantly. When I got older, I finally saw Elissa’s part and I watch it from time to time to remind myself how incredible it is. I was 5 when that video came out! I didn’t know any girl skaters at all when I was that young.
Alexis Sablone — PJ Ladd’s Wonderful Horrible Life (2002)
I saw that part when I was about twelve-years-old. I didn’t know that there were any other girl skaters besides Elissa Steamer at that point. I remember watching it and my mind was blown! Watching her try the frontside flips at the beginning and then blast the heelflip to the street right after was my favorite part. The flick and catch on every trick is so perfect. And just to see a video part from a girl for the first time in a full-length video was always super meaningful to me. I hadn’t seen that before.
Arto Saari — Flip: Sorry (2002)
I always liked his part a lot because the music was really rad. And I tripped out a lot on the fact that he almost died filming for that. You can tell that they were having fun too which was awesome to see. Plus I just like the way he skates — doing lines and then doing the same line switch. Sorry is my all time favorite video and his part was the sickest.
Brian Anderson — Girl: Yeah Right! (2003)
I watched Yeah Right constantly when I was little, and Brian’s part was always my favorite. I’ve watched his part in Welcome to Hell a bunch too, but I didn’t see that until way later on. He has such a good style and the gnarliest shit.
Andrew Reynolds — Baker 3 (2005)
I watch that part over and over. He is obviously a skate god — his skating and who he is really inspires me. I like the way it’s put together too with that song. All those flip tricks down all those stairs and everything caught and landed perfectly. It’s brilliant.
Previously: Andrew Allen, GX1000, Brian Anderson, Gino Iannucci, Josh Kalis, Sean Pablo, Wade Desarmo, Chris Milic, Chad Muska, Hjalte Halberg, Danny Brady, Bill Strobeck, Aaron Herrington, Jerry Hsu, Brad Cromer, Brandon Westgate, Jim Greco, Jake Johnson, Scott Johnston, Josh Stewart, Eric Koston, Karl Watson, Josh Friedberg, John Cardiel, Pontus Alv, Alex Olson, Jahmal Williams
I almost cry when I watch Arto’s part