Five Favorite Parts With Naquan Rollings

Intro & Interview by Adam Abada
Photo by Vivian Kim

With “Five Faves,” there is a tendency for older skaters to lean towards classics like, say Mark Gonzales in Video Days, and there’s a tendency for some of our younger counterparts to lean towards, well, also Mark Gonzales in Video Days. But really, the vast diversity of the skateboard landscape is often reflected among people’s choices. Filmmaker Naquan Rollings proves to be such an example, where the late-period Transworld videos that were side-eyed by those who grew up on Modus find favor with a younger generation.

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Justin Figueroa — Emerica: Stay Gold (2010)

[Part begins @ 32:52]

Stay Gold is my favorite video ever, but my favorite part is Figgy. Figgy has been one of my favorites. The solo guitarist part when he does a little front tail line and switch back heel — I think a nosegrind at the end — the song went perfectly with the line. There was a moment in that part where I would rewind it twenty times back-to-back when he does this nollie flip over the rail. I started listening to that band Dead Meadow a lot after that part, and I had never heard of them before. I don’t really know that many bands, but I do like rock music sometimes, and Dead Meadow is sick.

Before I even started filming, music was the main thing I always started thinking about. I would think which homie would skate to what song. I used to make Skate 3 edits when I was in the crib all day not doing stuff. I’d do what tricks I wanted to do and add music. Music is all a personal preference in videos – I see comments where people don’t like music and they go, “the skating is great but I can’t watch it because the music sucks.” I can get around that when I’m watching stuff, but I do think a lot about the music I use and it’s important. I can’t watch a skate part without the music playing behind it.

I have no order for the others but Figgy in Stay Gold is definitely my top one. Growing up around me, everyone’s favorite video was Baker 3. Of course I’d seen it, but I didn’t grow up watching that, I wasn’t focused on the old skateboarding as much. I was focused on what was more present at the time.

Stephan Martinez — Off the Braxx (2013)

[Part begins @ 2:55]

That’s an old New York video by Harry Corrigan. That song, you know. Stephan is the homie. When that dropped, I was still in high school — mad young. So for time to go on and for that part to still stick out to me now, that’s sick. I’ll watch that whole video still.

Jake Johnson: Static IV (2014)

Every clip was like “oh shit.” You could tell that the shit he is skating is stuff where you go there and you’re like “Yeah, nah…” In the footage it’s sick, and then you see it and it’s a “how the fuck did he do that?” He just debos shit. The song pops it off too, especially at the end. There was a moment when me and the homie Carl would wake up and purposely watch that. The guitar is beast, it’s got that melody and shit.

Tristan Funkhowser: Transworld: Substance (2016)

Chris Thiessen films mad good. It’s VX that’s filmed great with a cool song. It’s the first full Substance part; there’s two different edits of it or something. The spots that Funk skates are sick: all those Euro spots. At the time, the slappys and wallies up for me were real dope. I used to watch it all the time when it came out like, what, four years ago? Time keeps flying. My perception is all fucked up.

Yaje Popson — Transworld: Riddles in Mathematics (2017)

I like a bunch of Yaje parts and it’s hard to pick which one is my favorite. At first I was thinking his Potluck part. His Hardbody one is sick. I chose this one, though. I love that pole jam 5050 at Columbus Park. There’s been a lot of criticism of the video, but it’s just different. It wasn’t like anything else. I like the Paris footy and stuff, too. There’s some Super-8 in it; I always like that shit.

This is what’s on top of mind.

Previously: Jack O’Grady, Josh Wilson, Maité Steenhoudt, Jahmir Brown, Una Farrar, Chris Jones, Mason Silva, Beatrice Domond, Mark Suciu, Justin Henry, Breana Geering, Sage Elsesser, Bobby Worrest, Nik Stain, Anthony Van Engelen, Dom Henry, Bing Liu, Andrew Reynolds, Cyrus Bennett, Jacob Harris, Jamal Smith, Paul Rodriguez, Gilbert Crockett, Ben Chadourne, 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