God Did — Steve Mastorelli’s ‘DON’T ASK ME WHEN’ Video

Scholars of New Jersey have observed how the nation’s fourth smallest state serves as a pint-sized overview of the country as a whole, in that it condenses diverse immigrant enclaves, rednecks, dense cities, desolate countrysides, casinos, beaches, and wilderness all into a place you could skate across in a few days if you felt psychotically inclined to do so. It is why it has been able to produce everything from one of the most inescapable sounds in music right now, to an enduringly fascinating fictional crime family, and of course, a bevy of skaters who have shaped their respective generations.

Just as the diversity of the place impacts the deep variety of its people, New Jersey skateboarding seldom submits to one lane of categorization, aptly seen in Steve Mastorelli‘s new video, DON’T ASK ME WHEN — a perfect 2023 addition to the canon of NJ classics from Justin White, Paul Young, Matt Velez, the In Crust We Trust dudes et al.

If you squint hard enough, it’s almost like that long white backside-for-regular ledge that goes out over a driveway and down could be the one that’s in every L.A. video ever, or trick yourself into thinking that front board to hill bomb was out in S.F. — but nah, you’re still in Jersey. (Casual reminder that the oft-stated fact of North Bergen, NJ being the “second most hilliest city after San Francisco” is actually false, though it’s a bit shocking it hasn’t been mined harder for spots over the years.)

Includes a lot of familiar faces, a sick Doogie section, and the second Johnny Cumaoglu ender part in the past month. (See Jeff Cecere’s Mind How You Go for the first.)