What We're Watching - August Week 2 & 3
Back again, combining a couple of weeks this time. We're in the midst of moving warehouses, but that doesn't mean we don't have time to kick back and watch some damn fine skateboarding.
RIELY WALKER - RYAN SUBLETTE - BOYISH
This was the golden era of independent skate videos. The VX1000/MK1 combo had become more affordable, and Youtube was just kicking off, which gave unknown filmers and skaters from random parts of the world access to a global audience for the first time, and the opportunity to make videos that looked as professional as Yeah Right or Sorry. The Arizona/Vegas connect was a hotbed for indie videos, with the O’Shea brothers (Happy Medium), Diego Meek (I Can See Your Socks), Daniel Dent (World Peath) and of course Jackson Casey (Boyish, Worship Friendship, Pyramid Country) all putting skaters as varied as Ryan Lay, Jaws, Nick Michel and Robbie Brockel on the map.
I think no video part captures the feeling of this era more than Ryan Sublette’s in Boyish by Jackson Casey. The way the desert looks at dusk, the backdrop to ditches and empty strip malls, when the heat’s died down enough to skate and everyone’s finished with work and keen to stack clips, is beautiful. You can feel it through the screen. You can see how hard Sublette works for everything, and the skating lacks a kind of forced polish that made the part feel relatable to me and my friends as a teenager. This was around the time of Pretty Sweet and the early HD shift, and thank god people like Ryan and Jackson were around to show us that everything didn’t need to look like a Ty Evans or Jason Hernandez epic. In fact, it looked better if it wasn't.
The song is the cherry on top. I still have no idea from where they plucked the Black Moth Super Rainbow remix of a Laura Burhenn track, and even today it’s hard to find the song on the internet. There’s a moment where the song breaks down, there’s a flash of Sublette’s face, and he goes straight into a switch back tail, no push, to switch 360 flip noseslide ledge line outside a closed down Costco in a pair of slim highwater chinos, yellow socks and some beaten up Adidas. I’ve still never seen anything better.
LOGAN DAVOREN - GX1000 - WILLOW REMIX
A stellar compilation of my favourite European skater who always steals the show of whatever vid he makes an appearance in. I first took notice of Willow in Vans’ ‘Where is Tom?’, and since then he has stood out among most other skaters for me, for he is one of a kind. I’m so drawn to his chaotic yet controlled, lightning-in-a-bottle style of skating. I’m fully convinced he’s Thor. Literally fucking Thor bro. Powerful, majestic, electrifying. He absolutely flies in this video, wielding 4 wheels in place of Mjolnir to channel hefty gaps, manic kinked banks and the coolest wallride shuv ever.
ETHAN JOHNSTON - POLAR - YOU GOT IT MY BOY JAMIE
This video is maybe my favourite full length of the year, I love the way polar puts their videos together, Sirius did a really great job of making this video fun to watch, all the b roll, the transitions, the music is so beautifully curated, making a full length that can keep my short attention span locked in. Their team feels so different every video because they spend quite a lot of time on them so naturally the team changes, and I like where the teams at now. Dylan Mills is awesome. I love the way he looks on a board, he makes rail skating fun to watch because he chooses nice looking spots.
It was so sick to see all of these guys I’ve enjoyed watching for years and years skating random south coast NSW spots, Emile’s rooftop early grab into the Merewether bank is unbelievable, I didn’t think that was humanly possible.
Nathan Clancy is super sick too, I didn’t really know him before this, but he is super fun to watch, that back 3 he does is one of the nicest spinning 360s I’ve seen.
Randomly insane Aaron Herrington section too, some of his best stuff in years. I’m so hyped on Jamie, I’m glad they centered a video around him because I do think he deserves his shine as one of Polar’s main pros. Bought 3 henleys last week because of that Jamie/Dylan section in them 🤞 thanks bros for the swag upgrade.
BENFY - NEEMA - IF U KNO
I love Jasper’s part in this! Everything is well thought out - the lines, filming and both songs fit the mould perfectly! Makes me wanna get my manny and tech game up.
REDD SARSON - FUCKING AWESOME - TIME DOES NOT HEAL ALL WOUNDS
A great short & sweet edit of dylan + song is amazing & pairs so well.
RYAN VIERTEL - JASON DILL - MINDFIELD
I think I’m up to my twentieth rewatch this week, I’d be lying if I thought it was any fewer than that. I’m currently knee deep in a very “Williamsburg hipster” state of media consumption right now. I’m in the middle of watching Girls, the HBO show with my partner, and have been rewatching so many videos and parts from 2005-2015. The skinny jeans, all-over patterned clothes, smoking of cigarettes and black coffee. Riely and I both agreed that this Dill part is the absolute pinnacle of that era within skateboarding. This is peak dirtbag, strung-out, Brooklyn dwelling Jason Dill, and despite him going on record mentioning it’s his worst video part, I think it might be my favourite. There is so much fantastic stuff in this part; “In The Flowers” by Animal Collective, Dill’s persistent wrist cast, that hoodie line, Benny Maglinao and Greg Hunt’s filmmaking. There’s far more to bang on about but I won’t. Please just watch it. This is the part we have to thank for the Cherry boys looking and acting the way they did, this part gave us that. So thanks Dill.
I like to try to link these videos together in some form or fashion, below is as clean as I could make it.
Ryan Sublette features alongside Chris Milic in Worship Friendship (2012), Chris Milic and Nick Michel are teammates on Frog, Nick Michel and Willow both skate for Vans, and had substantial footy in the recent Spitfire “San Francisco Burning” video. Prior to landing on GX1000, Willow was getting flowed Polar boards through their German distributor. Hardbody yanked away Hjalte Halberg from Polar, and Jasper is skating a bunch of Hardbody boards in his “If U Kno” part. (That one’s kind of a stretch, I know.) Jasper’s ender is a direct nod to Dill’s in Mindfield, doing the same trick switch on the same spot. Jason Dill skated alongside Dylan Rieder on Alien Workshop, and later Fucking Awesome. RIP Dylan.
