Artist Unknown
The Pledge, 2017
Spraypaint on cement
426.7 cm × 137.16 cm (160 in × 54 in)
Summer requires no extra motivation to go skateboard with your friends (bringing that camera out…that’s another topic.) Short of going to Tribeca Park, we’re all perfectly willing to go anywhere, skate flat, watch someone good try something hard, look at girls, and skate more flat on any day with tolerable humidity. On the eve of September 1st, we felt we’d give a nod to the parts that gave that additional jolt to get out there and maybe do something extra. The *asterisk is for the fact that we are obviously avoiding the summer bangers. (More on that next month.)
Three of these are from the Free site, which is admittedly, our most oft-visited #competitive #skateboard #media #outlet. They won’t let you embed their videos externally, so follow the links above the .gifs to watch the parts yaknow.
Ruben Spelta — Another Meaningless Video
Ruben is an Instagram must-follow — when else in history has a boardslide on a foot-and-a-half high ledge left your iPhone screen and entered human conversation for the next several days? Ruben’s part in our friend Matteo’s video is a bit tuned-back with the #fits that pervade his current reportage from Milano Centrale, but features all the same hallmarks of his improvisational skating. He doesn’t look like he attempts a single trick that won’t flow naturally, and made a 5050 nollie backside 180 look as stylish as its more commonly-seen front truck counterpart. Him and his friends were in New York these past several weeks, and I can’t remember the last time the office has so anxiously awaited a “Summer Trip to New York” edit to make its way online.
Mikey Brunner — Colourgroup Video Part [Watch here]
Tommy May — Frank: Out of Business [Watch here]
Though the founder of Columbus Park may insist that wallies get thrown around too much, these two guys lead the summer in wall tricks worth getting excited about. This is discounting Jake and his extraterrestrial wall exploration — let’s relegate our discussion to something that also gets thrown around too much today, and that’s “relatable” skateboarding. Both of these parts ground themselves in tangible spots (shout out to anybody whose 2017 video part is at least 40% footage of them skating banks), and just the right amount of a third eye towards those same spots. It also helps that they skateboard on things that are unrecognizable to anyone trapped in the Explore page’s spot selection brain warp.
Masakuzu Aiso — On the Broad
This all-night Japanese part came out in 2007, but got uploaded by FSN a few days ago. (2007 was also our own high-point of exclusively skating at night.) A lot of the rollaways would make any skatepark generation kid cringe, but something about this guy’s skating — and this in no way is meant to be diminutive — makes it feel like any of us could come through with this part if we tried really, really fucking hard (ok maybe not a couple of tricks…) Fortunate for him, some are born with steez, and the rest are left to hope nobody notices that they’re faking theirs. He’s steez.
Blip — “Duppy” [Watch here]
The one-spot part’s resurgence is one of the more charming developments in recent skateboarding. One-spot parts are honorable undertakings that mix the anthropology of a certain city corner with skate footage, except not every city has a Lloyds, or a Legislative, or a place with ledges that you can potentially skate long enough to film a line. Free‘s “Duppy” clip was a hybrid one-spot montage for London’s Gillett Square; it’s somewhere between an all-T.F. part and a one-spot part. This one got the most burn this past summer because it reminded me of the days when T.F. had, like, multiple boxes and shit. I don’t think we were alone, because both the boys in Oslo and Copenhagen said at it was an inspiration behind them starting to film their own spot-based videos for places that are kinda-sorta-just-almost full street spots in their respective cities (Malmö already got theirs.)
Happy last day of summer :(
Good call on the Ruben Spelta – though half of the time he dresses like a fifteen year old from Rio De Janeiro who gets a 300$ a week allowance