Watching a big company skate video in 2015 is like watching a championship game between two teams you have no emotional attachment to. Everything built up to that moment, everyone’s been waiting a long time to see the result, the people involved are the best at what they do, but it’s impossible to go all in on. That’s why most verbal reviews of skate videos are prefaced with “The skating is obviously good…” At a certain age, there’s no point in re-watching any new video that doesn’t have your friends in it — or skaters that remind you of your friends.
…or at least people who clearly skate together.
With every big video, we find something to latch onto. Some watch them for the #fashion. Many watch them to catch sightings of the old guys without active Instagram accounts (these six seconds were the loudest the theater got on premiere night in New York.) Some do have friends that make it into company videos, so they watch it for the hometown heroes (e.g. it was probably loud as shit for the Richmond premiere.) Quartersnacks’ most common lens for discourse on this type of thing is the noseslide.
The Vans roster does not seem loaded with nosesliders — the video is largely devoid of ledges altogether, which are the noseslide’s most compatible partner — but Propeller does boast an ensemble of impressive nasal maneuvers.