Five Favorite Parts With Gus Gordon

📷 Photo by Blake Matthews

Following the surprise release of Gus’ “VH18” part last month, we figured we’d give you a surprise and run down the things that make him tick ;)

Anyone else have or had a pet with a skate-inspired name?

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Kareem Campbell — World Industries: Trilogy (1996)

I’ve just been stoked on that part lately. The song is so tight, and I love him doing all sorts of different hardflips over a classic picnic table out of the bump that guy Mariano skates in Mouse, too. There’s this clip of him switch frontside shoving over this shopping cart — actually, there is so much shit in that part that is so fucked by even today’s standards. I love the western skits with them making fun of Chocolate, or him with the Hennessy writing a letter to his buddy.

I met Kareem twice, and each time, it’s just like, “This dude’s so sick.” I met him in Dallas one time and I got his phone number because his lady at the time cut hair. He was going to try to set me up with a haircut. His lady was just laughing at that. I don’t even know what I was trying to go for there, but I never got that haircut. If you ever read this Kareem, I actually do need a haircut right now…

Arto Saari — Flip: Sorry (2001)

Favorite video part of all-time is Arto Saari in Sorry. It’s everything you want: you hit your head, there’s a cartoon of you doing it, and then you’re in a coma dreaming Tom Penny’s part to Velvet Underground. Dude, I would get put in a coma right now if I could see a bunch of unreleased Tom Penny footage. And then he wakes up and then just blows shit up to two Bowie songs. It’s epic as hell, man. You can tell how hard he worked, but also how good he is.

It’s funny when that video came out, my mom took us to get a cat. She wanted me to name it and I named the cat Arto because of that part. So I grew up with this cat named Arto. The year that the cat passed away was the year I finally saw Arto. And I wanted to go up and tell him and I was like, this is gonna be too weird: “Dude, I love you. I named my cat after you. He just died.” Maybe not. And I also didn’t realize how fucking tall he was, too.

That whole video is amazing. I got to have that one on VHS from an old line cook that used to work for my parents because they had a restaurant. He tossed me some old VHS tapes and that was one of them. My mom liked the music too, so that was awesome.

There’s a clip that’s like a tre flip in Paris or somewhere in Europe; I love the clip because he’s wearing a suit blazer and a white shirt underneath. And it looks like they stayed up all night drinking wine or something, the sun just cracked up and then he busts some set. I think it’s so cool.

You can tell how hard someone worked and that makes you feel something. I love seeing hard work.

Justin Brock — Real: Since Day One (2011)

I’m from North Carolina, so we have to shout out my favorite all-time skater from North Carolina: the one and only Justin Brock. I love that part; that’s just like peak J Brock right there.

It’s so sick to see someone from N.C. do it that big. And he was one of the only skaters — even after meeting my heroes — whenever I ran into Justin for a while, I was still a little starstruck. He really put N.C. on in a sick way. He’s a dude that is totally himself, you know?

There are two clips that are played back to back in that part in particular. He pumps up these banks and then does this frontside stall on this railing, then pumps down the banks, and then does a little quick front board on the rail at the end. It’s so cool. Then the clip right after that, it’s this kinked embankment and he tre flips into it, catches his feet right, and then frontside big spins out the end down the set. I think I read somewhere that the frontside big spin was improvised; he wasn’t planning on doing that. That is insane to have it like that, just fired up on Mountain Dew.

I had always wanted to ask him, “Dude, you ever skated Boone?” I’m from a town in the mountains that never really got much skate action. He was stoked on it, like, “Yeah, I got a paraphernalia ticket there dude!”

Pete Hewitt & Frank Gerwer: Anti-Hero: Destination Unknown (2014)

[Part begins @ 12:43]

Pete is my all-time favorite skater. Hands down. The sickest. Cardiel and Julian are the sickest of all-time, but I love Pete because he’s regular [footed]. I wanted to choose [Peter Hewitt] in Cash Money Vagrant, but Frank steals the show in that video skating to Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

In Destination Unknown, it’s Pete and Frank — the two best friends. It makes you wish you were hanging out with them. I’m so lucky for the times that I get to. They’re just the funniest dudes and they speak their own language to each other.

This part is so sick because they’re skating to Gang of Four and the song’s awesome. The skating is insanely gnarly, and especially picks up toward the end where Pete’s skating the Bucky Lasek Bowl, doing these ridiculous airs. But the whole time, it’s just fun. It makes you want to hang out with your buddies and be stupid — that’s the best thing a skate video can give you.

It’s fun when you think about the B-roll more than the skating in a part. There’s one [B-roll clip] that’s really funny of Frank rapid fire throwing popcorn in Pete’s mouth, and then there’s this other one that’s Pete grabbing some giant concrete block on the ground as like some type of rebar railing and he’s doing something weird with his body. It’s just so funny. Pete and Frank, you guys rule super hard.

Cyrus Bennett — John’s Vid (2020)

I’ve watched that part a million fucking times. I think if you had to model a perfect skateboarding part, that’s it. The way Johnny edited it is incredible. It was that time during COVID, so all the footage has this eerie feel to it: it’s quiet, almost like a scary movie or how a horror film feels. The [second] song drops and then Cyrus’s footage cuts through the screen. I always figure that Cyrus’ skating is like a sharp blade that slices through shit, you know? It’s really precise and it’s very much his own thing. And there’s no replicating that shit. I always thought that part was about as perfect as it gets. That whole video is really fun to watch, and Cyrus is the man too.

Good job, Johnny.

Honorable Mention: Dan Drehobl — Krooked Kronicles (2006)

Previously: Max Palmer, Etienne Gagne, Jacopo Carozzi, Nicole Hause, Matt Militano, Evan Wasser, Ryuhei Kitazumi, Sarah Meurle, Vitória Mendonça, Andrew Wilson, 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