God Bless the Governor

fred

Yesterday, we finally learned that Drake thinks New Jersey is cool (!), as he leveraged his perfect record of turning bubbling below-the-surface songs into full-fledged summertime hits on Paterson, NJ’s most well-known one-eyed monogamist.

On that same day, the Governor of New Jersey dropped a video part.

You know what’s weird about seldom-seen, aging, sponsored, paid-American-currency-to-ride-a-skateboard, “people just want to see you skate”-guys? Fred Gall exists. (And Mike York, but you’ve seen that post before.) The case for riding the bench during the final arc of a pro skate career falls to shambles when you’re reminded that this dude still drops a part every year or so. A dude who, two decades ago, was among the first to bring technical skateboarding to modern regulation-height ledges on the east coast. A dude who’s now pushing 40, grinding down handrails and still doing flip tricks (that frontside kickflip at Shorty’s is probably the most surprising trick in the whole part.) A dude who, by multiple accounts, could be dead right now.

Also: ANOTHER WHEEL COMPANY VIDEO! Wheel companies are like cult-favorite Soundcloud rappers who post funny memes and know how to have a good time, and board companies are corporate dudes like Jay-Z with 360 deals and no heart and soul, dude. Wheel companies saved skateboarding from Jay-Z. Shout out Pig Wheels and Bronze 56k.

The First Publicly Available (New) Yaje Popson Footage Since 2009

That Green Diamond video came out over three years ago. J.P’s video “premiered” four months ago, but will likely never be seen again, unless we fulfill our empty threat to Jersey Dave of leaking the bootleg premiere copy on Hella Clips if it continues to not exist in hard-copy form. The Skateboarder interview came out last year, but no footage ever surfaced from it, leaving occasional T.F. bench rumblings about Yaje’s current refuge in Brazil, rumors about him and Miley Cyrus getting back together given her recent interest in skateboarding (that was all Yaje), and discussion of whether he’s on Chocolate, Habitat, Sector 9, Zorlac, or back on Lola with Tierney. E.J. seems to be his publicist, but he’s hard to get ahold of.

A thoughtful individual over at Independent Trucks / Strange Notes accomplished what many of the filmers associated with Yaje’s elusive skateboard career have failed to do, and liberated a whopping two minutes of post-puberty footage. The part is “mad Cali yo,” which makes us remember why we began calling him “Hollywood” in the first place.

“J.P’s video, yo. Next month.”