Still Gold — Brandon Westgate’s 2023 B-Sides

In acknowledging Pretty Sweet‘s tenth birthday last fall, it was tough not to consider how it was one of the final videos before social media took over …everything. (Yeah, MySpace, Facebook, IG, et al. had all been around, but it had yet to feel like skateboarding revolved around them.)

Perhaps one of the final innovations of the old-world skate video ecosystem — before every innovation was steered towards increasing followers — was Emerica opting to release the raw files of their marquee project, part by part, for free six months after the video dropped. Emerica’s Stay Gold “B-Sides” are practically as well-remembered as the video itself (voted by QS readers as last decade’s second best), giving way to a 2010s phenomenon of fan-made remix videos and a recipe for getting twice as much mileage out of a video that a company could spend years working on — a formula still with us today.

Anyway, Element dropped Westgate’s raw clips from their E.S.P. Volume 2 video.

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The Best Skateboard Videos of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio

This was the decade that the full-length skate video was supposed to die. We began the 2010s with everyone insisting that Stay Gold would be the last full-length skate video. Then, Pretty Sweet was supposed to be the last full-length video. Some people thought that Static IV would be it — the end, no more full-lengths after that. But I feel like I heard someone say Josh was working on something new a couple months back? Idk.

The experience might’ve changed. We’re not huddling around a skate house’s TV covered in stickers to watch a DVD bought from a shop anymore (if this past weekend is any indication, it’s more like AirPlaying a leaked .mp4 file via a link obtained from a guy who knows a guy), but the experience of viewing a fully realized skate video with your friends for the first, second or twentieth time is still sacred.

Just as we asked for your votes for the five best video parts, we did the same for the five best full-lengths: if you could choose the five videos that defined the 2010s, what would they be? The results were a bit more surprising than the parts tally in some ways, given that it felt like independent, regional and newer, small brand videos dominated the decade, yet Big Shoe Brands™ and Girl + Chocolate still made their way into the list. The top-heaviness of some companies or collectives was less of a surprise, in that certain creators loomed large over the 2010s.

Like the installment before it, this list is sans comment for 20-11, and then via favors from writer friends for the top ten: here are the twenty best skate videos of the past ten years.

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There isn’t going to be a Heath Kirchart B-sides edit…

We already covered that one two years ago, and it would be tough to find something more absurd. Someone posted this edit on YouTube maybe a year ago and one of the comments was “What kind of sick and deranged person makes something like this?” They missed the point, but in a complimentary way. Embedded below in case you’re just tuning in.

Heath does three tricks in his B-sides segment. You could probably make a case for those tricks being the best three tricks in Stay Gold. “It’s just a glorified jump ramp” might be the biggest understatement in skateboarding history.

The real question is: When is Sheckler going to fakie flip the mega ramp?

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Brandon Westgate “On My Way To Mars” Re-Edit

When I was in California, some kids asked me what we listen to in New York. I said ‘Racks on Racks’ and Lady Gaga.” — Matthew Mooney

As current and trendsetting as New York is made out to be, we are perpetually late on terrestrial “urban radio” hits. This phenomenon explains why “O Lets Do It” was a fall 2009 hit for below the Mason-Dixon, and only a spring 2010 hit for New York, or “Make It Rain” being a fall 2010 strip club anthem for the south, and our gentlemen’s cabarets not receiving notice of its popularity until winter 2011. (Note: Boston might be even more behind — they were still playing “Stunt 101” on the radio in 2009.)

With summer 2011 being four days away, the office was in panic mode regarding how best to utilize Future and YC’s springtime hit / tribute to the Federal Reserve, “Racks,” before it becomes a “throwback.” Having no footage of our own, we began considering the re-edit route. Though Emerica’s brand aesthetic doesn’t quite go with YC and Future’s imagery, we noticed that Quartersnacks’ parent company, Trap Stars Entertainment actually sponsored Westgate’s large gap-to-bank ollie midway into his B-sides. So, proceeding with this project kind of began to make sense, at least to us. Either way, you’re not on the right website if you’re looking for edits that make sense (Consult previous editions: Andrew Reynolds & Bryan Herman.) The non-sensical rap edits seem to be picking up steam, so feel free to refer to us as pioneers down the line.

Alternate YouTube Link: Keisha, Pam, and Nikki

The next challenge will be figuring out what the summer 2011 anthem will be. Let us all pray that it is not “I’m On One.” We have been covering the development of seasonal anthems on Twitter, and will continue to do so.

Previously: 10 Most Disturbing Frames From Brandon Westgate’s Stay Gold part