If you’re familiar with what happens on this blog you’ll know that I’m pretty familiar with skate videos. Having spent just over 15 years making skate videos, I’ve spent more time sat behind a camera, or sat at a computer editing footage, than I can remember. With all of this experience, it’s no surprise I have a top 5 personal list of favourite skate videos.
5. Welcome “Seance”
It might seem odd that I have so much experience making videos about skateboarding, but a video from a month ago is on my top 5. The thing is, I’ve been a fan of Welcome for quite a while now, and Seance is the Welcome team at their best. The editing is fantastic, with a weird VHS synthwave vibe and the skateboarding is brilliant, creative and fresh. Nora Vasconcellos & Ryan Lay have awesome, best in career parts and it does what a skate video should do: get you stoked to skate.
4. Krooked Khronicles
As a huge Mark Gonzales fan I could’ve picked any number of skate videos here, but Krooked Khronicles is a cut above the rest for so many reasons. The Gonz’s constant artistic expression finds it’s way into the video, including some bizarre skits involving a pair of brown loafers, and this vibe follows the video all the way till the banger last section from Mr Gonzales himself. The soundtrack is phenomenal, spanning everything from Cheech & Chong, to Run DMC, to Neil Diamond. And speaking of Neil Diamond, the video has an amazing section from my favourite pro skateboarder of all time, Dan Drehobl.
3. Beez 2: Swarm!
Beez 2: Swarm is somewhat of a oddity in skate videos, and likely the most obscure video on my list. It’s described as an “avant garde skate video”, with weird tricks and uses of props which make it stand apart from other skate videos. There’s a heavy use of out of context clips from films and TV shows, and the vibe is generally daft and weird. I’d be lying if my videos Batface and Cthulhu weren’t heavily inspired by Beez 2, and everything I’ve made after those definitely has Beez 2 to thank for my love of daft, fun skateboarding.
2. Mall Grab
Another obscure gem – Mall Grab is a video from one-time Creature team member Stephen Reeves. In some ways the video parodies the modern low budget skate scene video, with Reeves’ friends taking on personas as bizarre characters based around odd in-jokes, culminating in a last part from a guy pretending to be a middle eastern guy in a christmas sweater skating to Bollywood music. Even if the joke around the video flies over your head, the skateboarding is bonkers in both ways: utterly gnarly one on hand, and utterly daft on the other.
1. Thrasher Shotgun
P-Stone’s videos for Thrasher cemented, for me, what a skate video should be. His no-nonsense editing, his choice of high-energy, aggressive rock music, and his “fuck you” attitude towards quality of clips all contributed towards what the building blocks I use to make skate videos. Shotgun is, I feel, the best of the bunch, and features my favourite video part ever from Dan Drehobl. Tragically P-Stone died 2 years ago, so do yourself a favour and watch this video to see why he ruled so much.
Honorable mentions: Krooked LSD (Let’s Skate Dude), Blind Video Days, Enjoi Bag Of Suck, Girl/Anti-Hero: Beauty & The Beast, Black Label Label Kills, Anti-Hero Cash Money Vagrant
The Terrible Company 
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