Five Favorite Parts With Diego Todd

📷 Photo by Stafhon Boca

The best parts can just be wallies and cool manuals [and a fat nollie inward], just as the best parts can also be a minute long. The latest Five Faves is with a QS fave ;)

John Fitzgerald — “John Fitzgerald for Pawnshop Skate Co.” (2012)

I think this is what he was filming for Zero’s Cold War video. Then he got on Alien and released the clips for Pawnshop. That “Life Splicing” part when he got on Alien was all HD; this was his VX clips.

It’s straight bangers. He does a front blunt near the end and does the craziest layback hand touch when he’s rolling away. It’s so sick. And his ender is the most proper front smith on this massive hubba. I think about that smith whenever I do that trick; it is probably my favorite smith grind. It gets me so pumped. There’s some fucked up skate shop parts, but it’s one of the best.

Justin Figueroa — Baker: Bake & Destroy (2012)

Bake & Destroy was free in Thrasher. I would watch it all the time when I was a little kid. I used to get so hyped on how sync’d up the music was to Figgy landing tricks. I watch it now and I get so hyped on the beginning of it when he’s eating shit, and there’s such gnarly dudes in the background screaming, “Yeah Figgy!” It gets me more stoked than some of the clips.

There is a line where he’s skating through a McDonalds — there’s a sign in the back that’s like “The McRib Is Back!” — and then he fifties a handrail. The next line is him skating in L.A. and his homies are in the street skating next to him because they want to see the next trick on the handrail at the end. There’s a lot of stuff in there that can’t help but get you really hyped. I think the only reason he didn’t get S.O.T.Y. that year is because it was the same year David Gonzalez fiftied that monster rail. But this is one of the most heroic parts ever.

Psycho Jhett — Dr. Scarecrow by Diego Meek (2016)

It is maybe my most-watched part out of all these. I watch it all the time and show it to people: “have you seen this?” I met this dude Jhett, he’s a very nice guy. He pretty much can’t land anything in the part, and he tries so much shit. It’s not like he’s trying to do drop-ins and eating shit; he’s trying to frontside heelflip over a handrail or big flip a fat set and eating shit. He’s trying all sorts of different things and getting so close. There’s a couple clips where he sticks the tricks on accident when he’s trying to kick out — the board will bounce on the ground and his feet land on the griptape.

At the end, he lands six or seven tricks and he’s so hyped. His reaction to his ender is so excited; he’s grabbing his homie and there’s just water coming out of his mouth. He’s trying to drink water, but he’s too hyped. I love how shocked he is at his own ender; he’s genuinely surprised at how good he did it. I used to watch this like, “If this dude can stick this, I just have to commit.” I translated it to my skating.

Aaron Loreth — Call Me 917 (2017)

It’s definitely special to me because it came out around the time I was starting to seriously try and film tricks. He was a friend who was close by. I didn’t realize how awesome it was going to be; it surprised me. I didn’t know he was up to that. He filmed a lot of it with just him and Benny [Maglinao] or him and Logan [Lara]. I was around for a few of the tricks, but a lot of that stuff he just filmed one-on-one. To see it all together was really inspiring. And with the stuff at West Park, it was like, “What? You can film there?!”

You can just make a part with wallies, cool manuals and a legit nollie inward heel — that shocked the shit out of me. It opened my mind to what a video part could be, and it was a close-by friend doing it. It is a really special part to me. It was right when I was about to get my first Hockey board from Benny. I still love watching it, plus that song and Aaron’s skating go so well together.

Cyrus Bennett — John’s Vid (2020)

I was shocked when that part came out, kinda like Aaron’s. I had been around a lot around the time when they were making this video, but I was around when Cyrus hurt his knee, so he had already done a lot of these tricks. This came out and it was like: “Holy shit, I didn’t know you were THAT sick.” It’s sick when a friend shocks and inspires you. That part is so awesome with the song and how you can tell how serious he takes his skating. He didn’t drink at all during this part; he was just so committed to filming the best stuff he could right then.

Previously: Ish Cepeda, Will Marshall, Grant Yansura, Ryan Lay, Nikolai Piombo, 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