Like Frank Costanza and Jay-Z, Smalls had no choice but to come out of retirement and bring us Who Leg, an unanticipated half-sequel to the Stop Fakin’ series that canonized so much of D.M.V. skateboarding in the 2010s.
Having cited back troubles at the completion point of the trilogy in early 2018, Stop Fakin’ 3 was supposed to be Smalls’ final video, which makes this surprise upload all the more special.
Who Leg is remarkable in the economy of its editing. Though we all know there are plenty of skate filmmakers who could extend 23 minutes of footage into double that runtime, the video’s quick cuts make it feel like the perfect full-length pacing for our modern attention spans. It pulls it off without forsaking any of that feeling of being right there with everyone, which the original three videos were so great at capturing.
The video plays like a Pulaski extended family barbecue: you have the younger generation finding new ways to skate a spot in its fourth decade of usage, Rahzel ending a line on an obstacle that’s only there for as long as the light is red, Kevin Augustine returning for the ender to crush shit, the boys skating the Meridian Hill Malcolm X Park fountain like it’s a backyard pool, Bobby and his quick feet, Myquel and his otherworldly pop, a friggin’ Ross Norman cameo, and Jersey Dave off in the corner drinking a Heineken, just happy to get off a nollie shuv manny 200 miles to the north.
It’s the D.C. that only the locals can show you — in other words, it’s the D.C. that some team’s trip edit never even gets to see ♥
great closing words here. grew up admiring these videos from afar. very happy to see these dudes still going for it. kevin augustine rules.
It’s Malcolm X Park
When I looked back at old phone photos to get the geotag because I didn’t remember the name of it, I thought, “Hm, for some reason I remember everyone showing us around calling this something else” — like “wasn’t this park named after a person?” — but it checked out on Google so I figured I was misremembering.
Thank you for the local correction.
Zel’s* ollie one foot thing
*soo nice that they used name credits, even just first names
Pop shove was suuuuuper sick
Mikey Payne legenddd