New Jersey is #1 in many things: K-12 education, population density, bar pies, skaters who go on to be more synonymous with Philly or New York. But one thing people have historically not looked towards New Jersey for, is manuals. It makes sense that a style of skating born on cement islands amid SoCal parking lots would not necessarily incubate as well in a place whose state emblem features Fred Gall.
📷 Photo by Mike Heikkila
Many people first caught onto Johnny Cumaoglu’s skating through his friend Tristan Mershon’s Fool’s Gold video, a pandemic-era New York project released in early 2021 that had everyone from Blue Park to T.F. asking, “Where the hell are those spots?” (Bonus points if you, of course, were tapped in to the vibrant world of 2010’s New Jersey videos though.) A bit has changed since then: Johnny has a spot on the WKND roster, a recurring role in Jeff Cecere’s 2022-2024 three-peat, and he is no longer a DC Lynx absolutist.
But some things are the same. He is still filming with Tristan on a VX, and has the closing part in his Singer Tower video (his first full-length in 4+ years, hardcopies are for sale!), which we are proud to present to you today.
🔑 Words by Adam Abada
📷 Photos by Matty Hilzenrath & Yusef Dwider
It is easy to imagine the title of this video uttered from a driver’s window to a gas station attendant. Twenty bucks can get you a lot of places in the only state where the law requires someone to pump your gas for you. In A 20 of Regular, the ground covered situates it in the echelon of great New Jersey videos. Its textures and rhythm call to mind great independent videos like the Grains series and Rust Belt Trap, but features enough of its creator Matty Hilzenrath’s personal touches to herald a skate videographer coming into his own. The 40-minute video lives and breathes its crusty spots, with extended time given to run-ups, landings, and the in-betweens of filming.
#TRENDWATCH for the week: night skating, skateboarding’s version of day poker © Charles Rivard • 📷 Photo via Greg Navarro
Village Psychic has the web premiere of Kevin Barthold’s part in A 20 Of Regular, which covers every genre of New Jersey crust imaginable.
Some spots only last a day. Neil Herrick talks through three photos and a couple of trick battles he had from 5Boro’s 5Ball video with Skate Jawn.
“In the 80s in the New York, Halloween was a license for craziness. It was beyond egging cars. It was a lot of violence…” TWS spoke with O.G. Bruno Musso (if you have the Full Bleed book, that’s Musso on the cover) about the 80s and early 90s days of the Brooklyn Banks.
📷 Photo by Matty Hilzenrath
New Jersey is a beautiful, dense place where three shops can forego any territorial tendencies found in other places, and unite to create one really special video. NJ, Travel and Underground all have riders represented in Matty Hilzenrath‘s NJ instant classic, A 20 Of Regular.
