Five Favorite Parts With Nikolai Piombo

On the heels of Nikolai’s Venture part from last month, we figured it’d be a good time to hit him to log one of these. We have finally arrived at the tipping point generationally to where the Sour team begins to get credit for the prolific influence they’ve had over the last now-almost-ten years of skate videos. Antwuan Dixon might also be gaining on Jake in Mind Field‘s marketshare as the most name-checked part of the series as well…

Brandon Turner — Shorty’s: Guilty (2001)

He’s skating Miami, doing fire tricks on O.G. spots. It’s Miami footage from when I was a toddler. He’s a jit, but doing raw tricks — nollie flip crooking shit. And I didn’t know until a couple years ago, but Shintaro Hongo skates for WKND, and B. Turner is basically his uncle. B. Turner had family in the military, so he spent a ton of time in Japan growing up. Him and Shintaro’s dad are best friends. His dad had Masaki and Shin, and then B. Turner helped the whole skating aspect of their lives. The reason he skates for WKND is because Brandon hit up Grant [Yansura] asking about Shintaro.

When Shin came to the U.S., he told me, “You know the song [in Guilty] is [by] Brandon, right?” Everyone else knew that, but I didn’t. But that makes it more sick to me.

But there’s photos of him modeling Shorty’s and then he’s switch flipping crazy shit or kickflip crooking the Jew Rails. It’s a good-ass part. But the main reason I would watch it, is because he’s skating O.G. Miami spots, and then they’ll sprinkle in a switch hardflip down Carlsbad.

Antwuan Dixon — Baker 3 (2005)

This is probably my favorite one. I can’t relate, because I don’t jump down shit like that, but to watch something that shows you “god damn, skating is sick,” I’ll watch this. I watched that video so much growing up bro. The song, his skating, his style — that shit just made me think skating was so cool. I think of it this way: if the first video you watch is some weird shit, you might think skating is weak. And if you watch Antwuan Dixon’s Baker 3 part for your first video, your head is going to be bussin’.

The first video I ever watched was a sick video. I got a magazine and there was an I-Path Promo with it. It was Danny Renaud in Miami, it was super sick. It isn’t my favorite video, but it was fucking cool; it made me want to skate. There wasn’t YouTube when I was a tiny kid, and that was the first thing that just fell into my lap.

Gustav Tønnesen — Sour Solution II (2019)

I love Sour; I watch those videos a ton. And at this point, all those dudes are the homies.

Gustav is like watching an alien skate. I like watching him skate because he can get a clip on anything. Take bro to a crack, and he’ll get a clip on it. When you go to the spots he skates, it’s like, “Bro, how did you skate this?” But then he’ll switch front heel over that famous bump-to-bar in Barcelona, too.

The first time I went to Barcelona on a WKND trip, our tour guide was Gustav. We were skating different shit, just spots I had never seen in videos. Even when we’d go to famous spots, like when we went to Sants, I did some kickflip — I don’t even know — kickflip back tail powerslide through the middle of the bench? I don’t know how to explain it, but just by skating with them, it’s like “I’m trying to do some Sour shit.”

Tom Snape – “THE THROW BACK MEGA-MIX” By The Skateboarder’s Journal (2019)

I watch this one a ton, and that’s my homie, too. It’s just a mix of random Snape footage.

His skating is like capturing Big Foot. Everything he does is fire. You don’t get him in those Sports Class edits as much as you want anymore, so you got to really wait for his footage. This video is his best clips, and it’s Baker-era Snape. Switch heels the fuck out of shit, he kickflip front rails tall ledges — just raw skateboarding. Making shit look g.

Tyler Surrey — “Vagando” (2021)

Him and Gustav are pretty similar in that they do crazy shit that other people can’t, and they do it on cool spots. It’s mad interesting to watch. And it’s inspiration, too: it makes you want to find some cool, different shit to skate. I skate for WKND, and we kinda do the same shit they do, just in a shittier place. Shit in Spain just looks way cooler than L.A, bro. He’ll be skating a playground with a dirt floor and make it look cool.

Maybe there’s certain tricks that’ll look easy for him, but he makes them look wet, the spots he does them on look cool, and it’s filmed good. But he also does wild shit. The over-rail he ollies for his last trick: I’ve been there, that shit is crazy. That’s like some Pedro Delfino spot; it’s funny that he would even skate that. The ground is so gnarly.

Honorable Mention: Alex Carolino – Lordz: They Don’t Give A Fuck About Us (2003) + Rodrigo TX — Flip: Extremely Sorry (2009)

Previously: Hayley Wilson, Frank Gerwer, Gus Gordon, 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