📷 via Quinn Batley
Five Favorite Parts is always at its most interesting when it’s a study in contrasts. For instance, the ledge lord being partial to crust and hucking, or the Man With The Beautiful Push curating a slate of transition parts. Efron’s part in Violet’s “SQUEAKY“ from earlier this year was a mini-movie (probably the first time I can recall a theater erupting in applause for flatground lines); Efron’s favorite parts, though …those rarely make it over the two-minute mark.
Matt Reason — Sub Zero: Real Life (1994)
This part affected how I skate the most: skating the same spots in every part over and over, doing fakie nosegrinds. I’ve always worn Half-Cabs and our hair is sort of similar, so when I was a kid, people would make comparisons to us. I do a lot of back 5-0s, back lips on ledges, and simple ledge tricks, so people in Philly would be like, “Oh, Matt Reason.”
Then I finally watched this video. I skated from age 10 to 12, then started again at 15 or 16. That’s when I started going to Muni a lot, when they destroyed Love. I was at Muni all the time and that’s where I learned how to skate the ledges and the four stair. I always wondered why people never skated it in those old videos, but obviously, anyone will tell you, it’s just because it was a bust.
Marisa Dal Santo — Zero: Strange World (2009)
I love a short and sweet part. I want to have more of those in my life.
She looks so cool in that video. Apparently, she broke her ankle landing on that crook [over the double-set] on the rollaway. I remember seeing this and being like, “I want skate like her” even though I obviously don’t skate anything like her at all. This is my pick for a handrail part. She’s just doing all the shit I wish I can do: street grabs and handrails.
I’m realizing all the shit I’m talking about is the aesthetics. Everyone [in skateboarding] is doing the same shit. I’m a sucker for star power. If you can say the most with the least, that’s a special skill.
Ben Kadow — LurkNYC: Strangers (2014)
I started skating again when I was 15, 16 — it must have been 2015. I was fucking with Zero because they had the skull. There wasn’t really any like punky skate shit at the time that I knew of. Then I saw Strangers with Stu Kirst and Ben Kadow’s parts and it changed my whole brain. “Oh, you can just skate through the city doing a bunch of ollies?”
This was my first Ben part; I hadn’t seen “cherry” yet. He does that switch crook in FiDi and flips off the camera — 15-year-old me thought that was the sickest shit ever. I was like, “I gotta film a clip and flip off the camera.” I didn’t know skating could be like that: so simple, and look so cool. The clips where he has hair and slams are crazy. I thought, “Oh you don’t even gotta land the trick [in the part]?”
It made me think, “I’m gonna graduate high school and move back to New York.” That time for skating was so crazy: “BLESSED”, Purple, “cherry,” Strangers, the Palace video. I was on the computer in high school obsessed with Johnny [Wilson]’s “Sequence” videos on Vimeo.
Lucien Clarke — Palace: Palasonic (2017)
Part begins @ 30 minute mark
I fucking love him. He’s either in sweatpants or skinny jeans. I love that London style in the trackies. I could watch ledge skating forever; I kind of don’t care about handrail clips really because I don’t know what it feels like. Ledges I relate to.
He pops all the caps off the ledges, and the nollie half cab heel switch crook is so sick. It’s just beautiful watching him skate through that park. It feels like a magnum opus of sorts. I also love how he’ll just …skate a six stair. Fuck it, you don’t gotta go bigger if you can skate like that.
I never really comment on anyone’s Instagram that I don’t know in person, but when he posts clips, I’ll be like: “You’re the best.” I met him once outside of Forgtmenot. He was like “wussup,” dapped me up and that was it.
Kevin Rodrigues — Fucking Awesome: Dancing On This Ice (2020)
Part begins @ 0:45 minute mark
I’m realizing in doing this that all my favorite skaters — besides Matt and Lucien — are skaters I can’t skate like.
I think this is the video part I have watched the most. In full honesty, over the past few years, I haven’t been watching a ton of new videos, but when I want to watch something, I just watch Kevin’s Dancing On Thin Ice part. He’s doing his own thing and I love that. He could just do ollies and I would be happy. I love his Polar part, but he got so much better at skating since then. He’s everyone’s favorite skater, you get what you get, and you gotta be thankful.
That nollie 180 to the switch grind on the curb is hard to do; that type of spot kills people’s feet.
He seems like a chiller too. I always respect when people keep to themselves. I can relate. I like keeping to yourself & being comfy in your lil’ corner of the world.
Honorable Mention: Kris Brown — Violet: “SQUEAKY” (2026). Me and Kris went to elementary school together and I started skating with him. I see that part as a lifetime’s worth of work in two minutes and it’s beautiful. I tell everyone Kris had the best part.
Bonus Mini 5 — Top Tricks on the Rick Owens Store
– Nik Stain, pop shove
– Pretty Dru James, [redacted because trick is unreleased]
– Troy Gipson, line filmed on iPhone (ollie the bump-to-bar across the street, runs across the street, hardflips the gap in front of Rick)
– Patrick O’Mara, half cab manny backside flip
– Karim Callender, big flip
Previously: TJ Rogers, Poe Pinson, Dick Rizzo, Karim Callender, Salomon Cardenas, Diego Todd, 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