📷 Photo by Ishod Wair
The other day, it was brought to our attention at our daily 10 A.M. that we’ve done one of these with Johnny [Wilson]. We’ve done an interview with Mitchell [Wilson]. We’ve even done a Five Faves with Josh [no relation Wilson]! And we’ve never done any formal, front-page QS content with Andrew — no doubt many people’s favorite Wilson. To remedy this egregious oversight, we got him on the phone to talk about another Andrew’s part from 2010 ❤ ️
Arto Saari — Flip: Sorry (2002)
I was going to say Arto Saari in Menikmati, but my little brother said that in his list for this, so I’m going to say Arto Saari in Sorry — including Penny’s dream sequence, because it’s technically Arto’s dreams, so it’s part of his part. I remember that section being scary and weird when I was a kid.
There’s a really good amount of Miami footage in Arto’s part, which is crazy. When I was growing up in Florida, people would always be pointing out to me “Oh that spot’s Miami, oh that’s Miami.” He does a feeble 5-0 180 on the other side of this building where Cyrus back 50’d this rail in John’s Vid. Feeble 5-0 180 is already such a weird trick: he’s smoking a cig, about to go into traffic, his friend stops him, and this car beeps and they give it the finger. I always loved that clip. My other favorite clip is at those rollers in Barcelona that have a bump-to-bar at the end. He front heels it and it just looks so cool.
Anthony Van Engelen — Alien Workshop: Mind Field (2009)
It’s pretty hard to deny that this is one of the best parts of all-time. He’s doing things in it that people are trying to do like him to this day, like everybody’s doing those crooks and hitting their back truck now. People had done it before, but he does a good amount of grinds down handrails from behind. That front 5050 where he hits that little windowsill thing at the Chinatown park where everyone hangs out now — I think it was a Skateboarder cover — it’s not approachable. They must’ve bondo’d the wall or something. Now, everyone has a rub-brick or whatever, but that was pretty advanced for back then.
I started listening to The Adolescents a lot after that part. And the last clip is him spray-painting this huge Black Sabbath thing on the ground; I love Black Sabbath, and I always thought that was a really funny way to end the part.
When he switch back tails that red ledge, that switch tre he does on the sidewalk is one of the best switch tre’s ever done. He has the best switch tre, really strong switch flip — any crook combination, he’s the best at it. Straight-over grinding a 13 or 14 too? It’s just a perfect mix.
Andrew Allen — Thrasher x Converse Cons: Prevent This Tragedy (2010)
Andrew Allen is my favorite skater of all-time. It’s hard to pick between Hockey II, the 411 part, or this. He’s put out so much, and you’re lucky if your favorite skater puts out that much footage. This part specifically, is just — fuck, I wish I could skate like that. He’s big flipping double sets, switch front crooking hubbas, and he does this big spin out of the curb cut that’s just the exact way you want to do a big spin.
And the switch ollie on the rail in the beginning — it’s dope they start the part with that and he falls, and the last trick is him ollieing over this other huge rail besides a double-set. It’s cool that the beginning and the end are mirrored. If you really look at the tricks he’s doing at this part, it’s so next level.
Bill Strobeck — “the fat kid” / “buddy boy” Promo (2010)
[Section runs from 2:55 to 5:05]
It’s all of them skating in New York to this Gang Gang Dance song that’s so good. The only bad thing about it, is that it’s two minutes long; you wish there was more footage, so they could’ve filled out the song.
On YouTube, it’s called “The Fat Kid,” but I was talking to him the other day trying to figure it out: is it a Quiksilver clip, is it “The Fat Kid,” or is it “Buddy Boy?” It’s Jake Johnson, Reese Forbes, and Alex Olson, plus a couple clips from Tim O’Connor.
When I was in high school, my whole family used to make fun of me for being on the family computer for five hours at a time watching all of these videos and falling in love with New York skating. Back then, I didn’t know names of spots or who people were, but one of the things that sticks out the most is this clip of Alex ollieing off a prop-up over these poles and hydrants. In the fisheye angle, you can see Brengar pulling the tree back so Alex could get a better path for it, and there’s another right after it where he does it again, and Bill’s going by and you see Brengar standing there with his camera. I remember being like, “Who is this other filmer kid?”
Reese ollies over the Columbus Park rail in it, which to this day, I feel like is the sickest thing ever done there.
Obviously, Jake in Mind Field is the sickest part and I know everyone says that, but this video felt like his other stuff from that time. Right next to Blubba, he ollies over this wall off one skinny ledge and onto another one as it starts out, and all put together, this is probably my favorite two minutes of skate clips ever put out.
I didn’t really know Bill as anything but a filmer, and right at that time, as YouTube was becoming the place where people go for skateboarding, I just thought it was so cool that he started making his own videos with the best mix of people.
Nik Stain — Bruns by Kevin Winters (2013)
This is big for me personally, because I was around for a lot of these missions. Obviously, your friend’s skating is your favorite, but this one is so special. It’s Tribe Called Quest and Bad Brains. Tons of fast ledge skating, and a good amount of transition skating — I feel like none of us really skate transition much anymore. This part is the perfect balance of everything: a hip-hop song and a fast punk song, tons of speed, skating spots at night, footage during the day, lines, singles.
There’s a section where it’s two clips from Love back-to-back. He goes up all the levels, nose mannys the top level, and then backside flips one of the three stairs right after. As he does the backside flip, the beat comes back in, and I remember being at the premiere and loving that so much.
Another really memorable thing is that in the first couple of clips, he does a backside 180 switch manny, half cab flip on flat, and back 180 fakie manny on the same pad — then in the next clip, is him doing a backside flip fakie manny half cab. I remember asking him about that and him telling me it’s only one he’s ever done, which is so crazy because he’s just so fucking good. I was so lucky to be around for this, and Kevin Winters was around filming so many of the people around that time — like Sloan Palder, Kyle Dalrymple, Zach Gesko — that are still so influential to me now.
It’s just the epitome of east coast skating: speed, trick selection, and power. And especially now, four and a half minutes is a lot of footage.
Honorable Mention: Max Van Arnem — Noise 2 (2017), Anthony Pappalardo — Mosaic (2004)
Previously: Ben Kadow, Chandler Burton, Pedro Delfino, Johnny Wilson, 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
The most lovely of a 5 parts. RIP Max