Five Favorite Parts With Johnny Wilson

After Johnny’s Vid dropped earlier this month, a handful of people asked if there had ever been a formal QS interview with Johnny. There was one… like, centuries ago — and Heckride’s interview from 2021 and the Say You Swear pod from 2022 covered a lot of the recent ground.

However, Johnny hadn’t done a Five Faves before, so here we are 🤪

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Arto Saari — éS: Menikmati (2000)

Menikmati was one of the first videos that me, Andrew and Mitchell [Johnny’s brothers] got. It was a red VHS tape. I grew up watching this part and it always stood out to me; I always wanted the white éS shirt with the red logo because of it. It’s the first video I really remember along with Adio One Step Beyond.

When I rewatch it, some of the filming is crazy, but in a good way. It’s pretty conceptual. When he crooked grinds that really long curved ledge, it’s a stationary shot where he comes in and out of the frame, but just barely. I can’t believe that’s how they chose to film it, but if you look at the video as a whole, it’s great filming. I feel like back then, they would do things like that: there’d be a random shot or two. Now, everyone — and I do, too — has one style [of filming] throughout the whole part or video. In this video, there’s so many types and styles of filming.

John Igei — Static II (2004)

I bought Static II on DVD and watched that a lot. I didn’t even know Josh Stewart was the same filmer who did Static and One Step Beyond. Static II was definitely a video that influenced me, and was the first time I heard about all of these guys. I started filming around the time I first saw this, so this made me like east coast stuff even more.

This part is incredible, the song is so good, and the first trick is so good. I really liked Igei before, and now that I know him, I like this part even more — I actually bought his car off of him. His trick selection is so sick, and the way he curves into that Pier 7 manny pad — obviously everyone curves into that spot — but he looks so cool doing it. I was also going to include Joey Pepper in this list, and I like his Aesthetics part a lot, but I don’t know if it’s one of my five favorite parts — I just really like him as a skater and it’s sick that he has tricks in this part, too.

It’s so nuts how picking music in video parts is so important. Obviously you remember the tricks, but looking back, I remember the music more than the tricks.

Bobby Worrest — éS: éSpecial (2007)

[Bobby’s footage doesn’t start until 1:40]

When I was a kid, Andrew and I loved Krooked — it’s funny now that he rides for them. We loved Krooked Kronicles because of Bobby and Mark Gonzalez. This part, I definitely didn’t watch when I was younger, but maybe nine or ten years ago, I started watching it a lot. Bobby’s so consistent, and he’s put out so many parts — they’re all good. If you type “Bobby Worrest” on YouTube, so much stuff comes up.

I really love the line where he does the switch flip back tail and then the switch flip noseslide on this out ledge. I also really like the song — I don’t know anything about Dr. Dog, but it’s one of those things where you like the song because of the skate part. Plus, Scuba [Steve Chalme] filmed the majority of the part, and that’s sick to me.

And the last trick — the switch back tail down the Gold Rail — it’s so crazy how switch backside is so natural to him. Of course, after this, he went back to do way more tricks down that rail.

Dylan Rieder & Alex Olson — Supreme: “cherry” (2014)

I was maybe going to do Dylan’s Gravis part, but I feel like that’s such a favorite along with Jake’s Mind Field part, so I don’t feel like I need to include it because that’s so obvious.

I love “cherry” and I was so excited when it came out. The line at 12th and A is so cool, he’s the only person to skate it like that, and the lady at the beginning saying “it’s so hot to me” is so funny. And I also wanted to include Alex Olson in this, because he’s one of my favorite skaters. I like his Fully Flared part, but it’s another one where it’s not one of my favorite parts even though he’s one of my favorite skaters.

This was when I was like, “Whoa, table skating is actually really cool.” I never thought it was special, it was maybe forgettable to me. When I saw Dylan do it, that changed for me. There’s so many tricks in this part that are so memorable, like Alex doing the backside ollie with the thing on his head and indoor soccer shoes, or that one-foot ollie over the bump in Brooklyn. I remember seeing these guys around at this time. I didn’t know Alex or Bill [Strobeck], and I had only met Dylan once at L.E.S. Park. It was sick to catch them filming something or hear about something they did. We were actually eating in Whole Foods across the street when Dylan did that 5050 transfer on the Houston Park rail and watched him do that, and caught him trying the kickflip up Fish Gap because we lived up the street at the time.

Grant Taylor — Nike SB: “GT Blazer Low Full Video” (2014)

When did this come out? Wow, almost ten years ago.

Benny Maglinao made this, and I really like Benny. He’s my favorite skate filmer and editor. This part is really cool: he used 16mm and digital Bolex I think. I like how it’s pretty much all filmed in Atlanta with clips of him riding his dirt bike. I love shit like that.

I like how completely different the two songs are: the first song, I don’t even know what it is, and the second is classical music.

It’s not the craziest tricks, but this part really got me thinking differently about filming, editing and videos. Benny did a really good job with making something different than what I had seen before. And Grant Taylor is one of my favorite skaters too — along with 90% of the population.

Honorable Mention: Anthony Van Engelen — Alien Workshop: Mind Field (2009)

Previously: Nick Michel, Wes Kremer, Jordan Trahan, Ariana Spencer, Elijah Odom, Greg Hunt, Zered Bassett, Neil Herrick, Trung Nguyen, Nick Boserio, Elissa Steamer, Casper Brooker, John Gardner, Bobshirt, Brandon Turner, Shari White, Nick Jensen, Tony Hawk, Naquan Rollings, 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