Five Favorite Parts With Ben Chadourne

Photo via Louie Lopez

The latest installment comes from the architect behind Converse’s Purple video, the people’s favorite masterpiece Looks OK To Me, and the two montages that get at least one or two replays in the QS office as inspiration anytime we have to edit something ♥

Related: An Interview With Ben Chadourne (November…err..2016..)

Josh Kalis — Alien Workshop: Photosynthesis (2000)

I’m not really a skate nerd — I don’t watch really too many early skate parts a lot or anything…

This is what my teenage years were inspired by. Tom Penny used to live in Bordeaux and I’m from there. I’d follow the older Bordeaux guys around, and we wound up in Penny’s apartment one time. I was going through the VHS tapes, and I was so attracted to this one because the orange cassette stuck out so much. He took the tape and gave it me, like “watch this.”

The whole video is amazing, but I used to have a crush on Josh Kalis. He’s skating Love Park, and we were skating this one plaza in Bordeaux so I could identify with his style of skating a lot. I grew up with plazas. There’s a vibe and a life in those spots, plus he has a friends section where he’s skating with all his homies — I like that. It’s such an important block of skateboard history.

Jake Johnson — Alien Workshop: Mind Field (2009)

“Do you want to sit behind me?”
“Is that what you want?”

I love that part at the beginning of Jake’s part.

Jake is one of my favorite skaters, everything inside this part is visually interesting to me — it is probably my #1 favorite. Greg Hunt is one of my favorites as well; it’s a perfect combination of things. If I want to go skate, I watch this, and I’m good to go. I went to the Fish Gap during my 5Boro days, and I couldn’t even ollie it. Just first trick in your part — nollie backside flip the Fish Gap — it’s so special. Maybe now people would think of that double-set wallride, but for back then, it was so crazy.

For Purple, I tried to get the most out of him. If you get something out of Jake, it’s a piece of gold. He showed me some clips from non Cons trips he had taken, and when I started editing, I told him that I wanted him to have the last tricks in the video. To me, Jake’s clips are powerful. I tried getting the clips from Quasi and the other brands, and he said no, so I waited then asked again, and managed to convince him. It became about having all his tricks in one project rather than spread out: couple tricks in Quasi, couple tricks in GX. That’s how we got the nollie full cab, and the 180 switch 5050.

We wanted to surprise people, and I think people were stoked to see him ripping again. I never thought I’d be able to make a section with him for Converse when I was watching Mind Field in 2009.

Brian Delatorre — M.I.A. Skateshop: Welcome to M.I.A. (2010)

The Selda Bagcan song just makes me think of Dela, plus the combination of VX and San Francisco spots makes it all ever better. This part is all power.

It starts with the line at Black Rock. — in the Converse video, he finishes with a line in Blackrock as a homage to him starting with the one there in the M.I.A. video. The nollie back heel he does is filmed so good that it makes me want to go out and film skateboarding. It’s so crazy that a skate shop did a video that was like this. I’ve never been to M.I.A. but I always figured it was this small shop in Miami, and they made this incredible video. Shout out to Josh Stewart.

Alien Workshop — The Cinematographer Project (2012)

I’m obviously a big fan of Alien Workshop — I love the Life Splicing parts too. All the skaters in this part are so stylish, and with just a few tricks from them in this part, you finish it wanting more. I don’t really know what to say but that aesthetically it’s just a beautiful piece of skateboarding. Beyond making me want to skate, it’s just inspirational to make me want to build something visually.

What’s also crazy is that you can make a part so incredible, and then the company isn’t even around anymore like it was. You can still be the best, but go out of business.

Kevin Rodrigues — Polar: I Like It Here Inside My Mind Don’t Wake Me Up This Time (2016)

Kevin is unpredictable like Jake. When you film a trick for him, you keep going back, you really fight for it. It’s amazing to see four minutes of Kevin’s skating. And there’s a low of Paul and Roman footage in his part, and they’re some of my best friends, so it’s satisfying to see this combination of characters in one part. It makes me want to skate — but want to skate with them. I rewatch things that my friends are in a lot, but otherwise it is hard to keep track of all the new videos that come out.

I filmed a lot of it, so I’m proud that I particiapted in the video, but specifically Kevin’s part. It’s so much different that his part in the Cons video, and shows an entirely different side of Kevin with the long hair and different tricks.

Previously: Tom Knox, Louie Lopez, The Chrome Ball Incident, The Bunt, Lacey Baker, 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