🎨 Graphic by Francesco Pini
📊 Ballot Count by 4PLY
The results are in and we have an official, publicly sourced snapshot of 2024 skateboarding, as voted on by hundreds of people. And unlike last year, when the eventual Thrasher S.O.T.Y. winner dropped a part on the day that voting closed, there were no last-minute surprises. There are some new names, and some longtime favorites who have only ranked 20-11 in the past have finally broke into the top ten ❤️
Thanks to everyone who voted, and everyone who did some writing below :)
This ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 9th to December 13th. Editors and contributors can vote, but this is not a selection curated by QS staff. If you’re interested in the methodology, 4PLY broke down how we tally the votes ✨
The Best Skate Videos of 2024
*Special consideration was given to videos that premiered in late 2023 after voting for the 2023 Readers Poll had already closed.
The Best Video Parts of 2024
10A-TIE. Momiji Nishiya — “adidas Skateboarding Presents /// MOMIJI“
From behind my camera lens, I have a fleeting memory of meeting Momiji in Tokyo in 2018 at Mimi Knoop’s event, The Skate Exchange. She was one of many enthusiastic young skaters lining up to meet pros like Leo Baker, Samarria Brevard, and Alexis Sablone. Then, only three years later, she had a queue of her own after claiming the first gold in Olympic women’s street skateboarding — becoming the second-youngest champion in summer Olympic history and Asia’s youngest-ever gold medalist. Heavy accolades for such young shoulders.
So what makes her first-ever full-length part for Adidas transcendent is watching her completely shed the weight of expectations and “just” …skate. In this four-minute wonder, shot and edited by Chris Mulhern (and a bunch of other filmers) over three years, her infectious joy and technical prowess radiates through every line. I love the little snippets of her personality that the part captures. Momiji embodies a new generation of skaters, proving that competitive success and street credibility aren’t mutually exclusive.
While missing out on Paris 2024 qualifications must have likely stung, dropping this part feels like perfect timing – a Christmas gift to skateboarding that showcases just how far women’s skating has come technically. Argh, I think we can even stop referring to it that way, it is skateboarding. With the Olympics finally achieving gender parity in participation this year, I think Momiji’s part reminds us what matters: not the medals or milestones, but the pure enjoyment of skating exactly as you are, and how nice it would be for more people to feel its magic – regardless of gender, background, or circumstance. In a landscape where representation is growing, but still has room to grow, skaters like Momiji push the way forward, showing how opportunities for the few can become invitations for more, to create a friendly and vibrant skateboarding culture for all. — Hannah Bailey
10B-TIE. Casper Brooker — Baker Has A Deathwish 2
Casper Brooker’s childhood dream came true at the place where most of his childhood days were spent. In summer 2022, he sat at London’s Southbank and picked up his phone to speak to Andrew Reynolds, who against a backdrop of echoes from the undercroft’s “cathedral,” asked him to ride for Baker.
“It’s the storybook version of things we all hope for a little bit. When you see it happen to your friend, it’s incredible,” says videographer Daniel Wheatley, who filmed the majority of Casper’s part in Baker Has A Deathwish Part 2.
The opening verse of Kate Bush’s “Rocket’s Tail” scores a tone-setting salvo, which captures Casper’s signature flairs. The quickfire ledge-flatland-stairs lines at Southbank; grinds held for startling lengths — a god-knows-how-many feet of curved end-to-end backside smith; tech skating made tough with tall ledges on a sunny L.A. sidewalk in a line bookended by slides and flips and spins out (paired with a uniform of black pants and a plain white t-shirt, the whole thing salutes A.V.E.)
Casper hitting a stride, motivated by the sheer personal significance of being in a Baker video, was palpable from Wheatley’s perspective behind the camera: “It was the perfect combination of strength, confidence and physical ability. I don’t think he’d had a video part that manifested in that way beforehand.” — Farran Golding
9. Jamie Foy — New Balance Numeric: Intervals
Elite skaters have a lot of obvious skills — doing hard tricks and skating scary spots — but it’s more esoteric stuff that propels people beyond elite. Maybe it’s weird kickflips or skating too fast, maybe it’s perfect tempo, crazy arms, or arms that never move. For Jamie Foy, it’s his skateboard physics: he seems to enjoy his own set of physical laws. In every clip, he appears to go ever faster – the friction off grinds or wheels rolling on pavement, do not encumber him.
This is about Foy’s part in Intervals, which iced him his second Skater of the Year award in seven years. The physics get pretty spooky. He heelflip backside tailslides the hubba at University of California, Irvine; he bends space, if not time with a fakie flip frontside 5-0 on a rail; his frontside bluntslide through a double-kink is proof of the existence of dark energy. There’s an inevitability to his skating, as if the Big Bang happened and 13.7 billion years later everything’s led to Foy speeding through space, kickflip grinding the type of rail that had never been kickflip grinded before. — Mike Munzenrider
8. Antonio Durao — Hardbody: OD
Around here, there’s a palpable sense of collective excitement whenever one of New York’s own makes it onto the larger skate map. If QuickStrike was Antonio Durao’s long overdue mainstream (second?) coming, OD was a nod to what he has been doing steadily in New York. The virally astounding toss-in rewind flip trick after he skated up CBS and then down into the chasm in QuickStrike? Ender at D7 in OD. It’s a knockout section that represents the organic way in which a skate scene progresses.
OD showcases not only Antonio’s versatility, but Emilion Cuilan’s own video expertise as well, both personalities fused into a new classic that not only excites and astounds on first viewing, but enriches and rewards on repeat. Distilled with great care, OD builds the part’s tension with a deceptively diverse array of tricks – none are repeated except once or twice in a line – on hallmarks of New York street skating. Manholes, sidewalk cracks, and flat cellar doors feel touchable to the viewer, while at the same time, he rips NBDs on marquee spots like Pyramid Ledges, finds new ways to skate Foley Square, or does a switch backside flip twice the distance of the Banks 9.
In 2024, all got the pleasure of seeing Antonio’s highest-profile and largest output to date backed up by how he has always been doing it, in the place he’s always been doing it, with the people he’s always been doing it with. — Adam Abada
7. Elijah Berle — “Berle For Vans“
There is something quaint about the throwback masculinity of Elijah Berle; a kind of Danny Zuko who does handrails with his shirts sleeveless, muscle car timeless and coiffed hair staying put while he hangs out the window en route to put blood and sweat into something gnarly.
If anything, this year has emphasized that there’s a good nature beneath the Berle’s perceived bravado. There are stories of him putting on at demos in the most professional manner. He buried the hatchet with Austyn Gillette on the world stage and, in doing so, offered up perhaps the single funniest skate moment of the year, via a cameo in “Rodeo Technology,” the part which proceeded his third and final of the year.
But if you fancy your handrails triple-kinked, or occasionally upwards, and your Metallica with Cliff Burton on bass, then you’re served well with “Berle For Vans.” Even if not the distances traveled vertically from banks to walls to lips, and a frontside 180 to switch crook the whole way at JKwon — modestly clinging the last inch — would leave anyone who got to bear witness in person excitedly smacking their tail in celebration. — Pete Glover
6. Tiago Lemos — New Balance Numeric: Intervals
Tiago Lemos went from sleeping in train stations in São Paulo to lurking California schoolyards while talking hardflips with Kawhi Leonard. His skating is like seeing a world where handrail chomping never happened, where switch crooked grinds in baggy denim remain the standard of excellence. He pushes (relatively) simple tricks to unbelievable heights. The catch on that mid-line 360 flip in the opening clip? It’s obscene. Did you see the back-to-back BSTS and SSBSTS on the gap-past-rail massive hubba?
Skating tall shit has to be earned. You can head to the thrift shop, start doing wallies into grinds, and switch up your whole style, but you can’t become a powerful skater without doing the work. Between the switch backside noseblunt slides at the end and the realignment of his finger, it’s nice to see what pop can do. — Ian Browning
5. Didrik Galasso — “Uneven“
That cobblestone? It’s called calçada portuguesa, limestone blocks hand placed and hammered down into dust and sandy cement by craftsmen called calceteiros. It’s jagged and slippery, risky to walk on let alone roll over, and costly, too, requiring artisan know-how to maintain. More and more of these old sidewalks are being paved over. Modernization means accessibility. It means ease.
That’s not the vibe of “Uneven,” Didrik Galasso’s fourth, and thanks to Pekka Løvås’ brilliant filming and editing, best part of the year. Difficulty is its charm. The spots are rugged, kilometers of calçada and chalky ledges that likely needed liters of lacquer to get grinding; and the music, by San Jose’s Xiu Xiu, is raucous, the lyrics, “I won’t rest until I forget about it,” the grating mantra of a man seeking to escape certain unenjoiable memories through exhaustion. There’s a reckless desperation to it all, the frenzy of an journeyman pushing headlong into hardship.
It’s a relief to see Deedz, after a monumentally productive year courting contusions and concussions, sipping on a pineapple colada at the part’s end — finally, it seems — at ease. No skater deserves a respite from the rough stuff of life more than he, Saúde! — Christian N. Kerr
4. Joseph Campos — Hockey: “Shocking Moments Caught On Video“
Benny Maglinao’s Hockey edits are soundtracked by riffs intended to blow out your local skate shop’s speakers. In a two-song part prophetically titled “Shocking Moments Caught on Video,” Joseph Campos takes center stage.
Wearing all black throughout the part, it’s like Campos made an outfit from the ashes of Heath Kirchart’s all-white Stay Gold uniform, destroying big rails and hubbas just the same. If houses are the spot trend of 2024, Campos presents its dark side when a drop-in attempt leads to flying off a roof, shoulder first, into the sidewalk.
The riffs and second song of the part continue, with Campos’ kickflip into the Water Street bank closing it out. This hammer went straight to #1 of the January 26th Top 10 and months later, the longevity of its gnar prevails.
Campos’ rookie pro board is a figure putting on the hockey mask like an eyes without a face indoctrination. But it also marks the start of the F.A. sister brand’s second decade of existence, one anchored by new pros Campos, bespeckled maniac Diego Todd, and their truly shocking skills. — José Vadi
3. Gabriel Summers — Zero: “No White Flag“
At the Melbourne premiere, the video played twice. The whole room was in awe at what we had just seen and wanted to watch it again. That encore, however, turned into a sing-along. Dido and Gabbers became the unexpected dynamic duo of the year as “White Flag” perfectly narrated the part, pulling on the heart strings, setting the inspiring tone as Gabbers skates spots that are truly death-defying.
Filmed over two years in Melbourne, Sydney, Copenhagen, London, and San Diego, “No White Flag” is the perfect encapsulation of his skateboarding and personality. After the premiere, I asked him about his Brandon Biebel inspired acid-drop down the 11-stair before heelflip crooked grinding a hubba with an even larger stair count, he told me that he loves when “skateboarding and comedy come together,” which is telling of his personality. Even though I still refuse to believe the way that he skates is fun, let alone funny, the ridiculousness of rolling down an 11-stair without popping his tail does make me laugh.
There aren’t many people who are willing to do what Gabbers does, nor for as long as he has done it. We’ve seen his determination in his “My War” and this part is an indication that that determination is still there and he isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. — Josh Sabini
2. Antonio Durao — Nike SB: QuickStrike
Is something fishy with Antonio Durao’s shoes? How’s he bounce like that? Next-gen Boost tech or Bob Burnquist magnets or some other unholy power — you wonder early in Nike’s super-stuffed and super-good QuickStrike vid, when he’s lifting a couple noseslide varietals onto a sternum-tickling bench, the type of place you may wind up when you’re so deep in your bag that geometry and perspective stop mattering.
Traditionally hard tricks like switch backside smith grinds or switch flip tailslides remain in Antonio Durao’s repertoire, but his QuickStrike and OD parts suggest he’s more into dreaming up stuff that people never saw before, or even thought about. Nollie backside 180 late one-foot? OK… switch ollie back foot one-foot? Nosegrind one-foot? It’s psychedelic EA Skate shit. And wild to watch, a type of spring-loaded physicality to his skating, knees looking like they’re constantly thumping up against his shoulders. The line he does at CBS sums up his year, and maybe his whole deal: ridiculously big-popped tech trick, backed up with another one just as crazy that you don’t even see coming, then a casper flip on flat, somewhere in between goofing off and feeling for the edges of his prodigious talent. — Boil the Ocean
1. Emile Laurent — Polar: I Don’t Even Know How To F**cking Airwalk
The spectacle, as it were, has grown pallid. One forgets the covers as soon as they drop. One watches everything and remembers nothing. The tried and arguably true formula of the skate company, the skate vid, the lookbook, the two-boards-thrice-a-year-to-name-on-a-board-once-having-proved-oneself pipeline, is no longer awesome – it’s trite.
Tristan Internet nollie front whatevers curved who gives a shit in “Quote from A Team Rider” (2024, 14 minutes.) Guy In Shoes does brainmelter on never-before-scraped railing. Wee.
One may be aged and over-inundated in apathy. But then again, there is this one guy in Portland. The one in the compression socks, hat over beanie, screaming for one reason or another: to get himself to do it, or because he did it, or he didn’t and it went, like …pretty bad. It goes without saying that this guy doesn’t give a ratfuck, but let’s not confuse nihilism with indifference. If nothing matters, then you might as well do something fucking crazy. Things move fast, tricks are outdated, and naming them? C’mon.
Streetlight-high stinkbug mute grab? Who’s gonna fuss? Gap to lipslide to shove-out with your hand? Why in the fuck not? This guy’s just trying to do some shit to some shit, make it sick and make it his. Exorcize the demons, one might say. Get things off the chest.
It is good to check in on Burnside as an exercise in humility. It’s a reminder of what you can’t do, but more importantly, you’re forced to face what you wouldn’t do, even if you could. Technical skill comes second down there – it’s a matter of suspending the well-founded fear of breaking every bone in one’s body. Spend enough time at Burnside, and it’ll change a your perspective on things. It’s hard to keep track of shits to give once you’re a recognized loc down in that pit.
To be shown this kind of thing is good for us, because let’s face it: we’re terrified. Moreso by the day. One might argue that everyone got so good out of fear. Fear is a motivator to land bolts, train really hard, be prepared. Meanwhile, this guy is the first to admit that he doesn’t even know how to fucking airwalk — to the whole team, while they wait in the middle of the road for him to land an airwalk.
We ought to try some of what he’s having. Not even in terms of three-story rock fakies; just simple shit like walking up to that pretty little so-and-so and shooting your shot. Who cares? What’s the worst that could possibly happen? A fucking what? Shin splint? — Zach Baker
Past Readers Polls: Best Videos & Parts of 2023, Best Videos & Parts of 2022, Best Videos & Parts of 2021, Best Videos & Parts of 2020, Best Videos of the 2010s, Best Parts of the 2010s
Haven’t been able to quite put my finger on why Gabbers brand of rail skating feels “more” than the other rail chompers like Berle, Hoban and Foy but feel validated seeing this.
first year where where #1 wasn’t hosted by thrasher lfg
This is the only poll that matters (pause)
zach baker woty
Kanaan Dern robbed
The Dime Video was terrible. And Emile is gross to watch skate. To each their own tho.
these don’t always exactly mirror my tastes but the readers do a great job of putting together a snapshot. only surprise is no heitor.
I watched a lotta skateboarding this year, I remember Emile and Antonio. Might even remember Zach Baker for writing a damn good review, beautiful words bud.
Only shock is no Westgate given it’s a QS thing?! Tiago and Foy made Top 10 but the east coast guy not even an honorable mention after that opening ollie?! Come on voters.