I did a Video Roundup last month, and I thought it was such a good way to wrap up the rad parts popping up randomly on the Internet that I felt like doing another. Check out my favourite full parts and other Internet videos from the last month!
Jenkem – Discussing Skateboarding With Werner Herzog
This is a bit of an odd one to start off with, but I really wanted to include it here because it is very worth a watch. Jenkem isn’t afraid to do articles and videos that are a little bit left field, and they often dig deep into subjects that not many other publications are talking about at all. Perfect example here: they interviewed legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog about skateboarding, a subject he has very little knowledge of. If you aren’t familiar with Herzog, he is an extremely well respected arthouse filmmaker, who I often associate with the insane Nicolas Cage movie “Bad Lieutenant”. He has also acted a lot, and you will most likely recognise him from the Star Wars Disney+ show, The Mandalorian.
This video is interesting not only because of the strange choice of interviewee, but also because it reveals an awful lot about Werner Herzog as a person. Ian Michna asks some really great questions about how Herzog sees skateboarding, how he compares it to other “performance art” he has seen before (spurred by his extreme distaste for David Blaine), and even asks about what music he might use to soundtrack his own hypothetical skate video. The answer to that last question, might I add, is both hilarious, and genius.
Nora Vasconcellos’ “Rendezvous” Part
OJ Wheels dropped this surprise part from one of my favourite pro skaters, Nora Vasconcellos, at the tail end of January. It’s a bit of a weird one: it’s a full part almost mixed with a tour video, as the footage all comes from a concentrated couple of weeks last Autumn, where Nora took a trip out to Maui. As I’ve previously mentioned, I love a good tour video, so this carries that vibe with some tropical locations, and odd, crusty ditch spots that Hawaii is known for. There’s plenty of sick, chilled out cruising here, set to a Nicki Minaj track – I’m not really a fan of her music but the track selection here makes complete sense and fits Nora’s skating super well.
A lot of the tricks in the clip are trademark Nora: Lots of kickflips into tricky lip trick variations, buttery smooth smith grinds and FS 5-0’s, roll in variations aplenty, and ditch destruction to the max. She’s not pushing herself further than anything you might have seen in her other parts from videos like “Seance”, and this is very clearly a part made for the fun of it, rather than an early SOTY “for your consideration” part. However, given 2020 sucked so much, 3 and a half minutes of classic Nora skating in warm, tropical climates is a welcome (no pun intended) distraction from the snow covered lockdown hell we find ourselves in.
Eric Osterberg and the Chronicles of Kamp Kush
This part from filmer @switch.mallgrab on Instagram showcases the talents of Southern based transition shredder Eric Osterberg, hitting up some of the best concrete parks the South of England has to offer during sunnier times last year. This is a real “feelgood” part, featuring plenty of transition cruising, with flowy, fast lines, and plenty of tweaked Smith Grinds.
The part opens with a wealth of golden footage from Oxford Wheels Project, with Osterberg hitting up some mind blowing tricks on the scary vert wall in the street course, as well as some sick, fast moves in the main bowl of the park. The part bounces through a selection of fun UK parks which are sure to be potential holiday destinations for any transition afficianado once life returns to normal, culminating in a full on attack of Concrete Waves’ two bowls. The footage from the pool at this park is a personal highlight, with Osterberg flowing around the bowl with ease and getting me hyped to hit some concrete coping ASAP!
“SMUT” by Glue Skateboards
Glue Skateboards is the brainchild of Leo Baker, Cher Strauberry and Stephen Ostrowski. A board company with a “queer-centric” view of skateboarding, it aims to give representation and focus to a hugely underserved pocket of skateboarders. With that in mind, they dropped their first video at the tail end of January, with parts from the 3 company founders, and a selection of clips from their friends. “SMUT” is a boisterous, loud, rad 20 minute video, and it doesn’t give a shit what you think. It’s draped in a sick VHS aesthetic, and is accompanied by a great selection of unnerving synthwave beats and aggressive, stomping punk rock.
After an initial intro montage, first part duties fall to Cher Strauberry. Cher is punk rock as fuck, taking style points from the likes of Distillers era Brody Dalle, Corey Duffel and Joan Jett, and her skating matches the aesthetic. This is a charging part full of powerslides, stomped flip tricks, and speedy slappy grinds to tailslides. My favourite trick here is a boosted Beanplant over a gap, where she boosts the board off a wall on the way to grabbing it. This part leads the way for Stephen Ostrowski to grace us with some wild street cruising. Stephen has some notably awesome wallride variations, with a personal favourite being a quick Wallie BS Nosepick on a bank to wall. Again, this part is set to some charging, aggressive punk rock – with shocking ledge moves and no holds barred street destruction.
Before the last part, there’s a friends section set to no music. There’s something decidedly old skool and reminiscent of Anti-Hero videos about this whole section, and the general “Stream of Skateboarding” vibe is really sick. There are plenty of amazing tricks going down in this section, but the highlight for me is a chunk of Elissa Steamer footage that closes the section off! The video’s last part comes from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater star and all round technical skateboard mage Leo Baker. Truth be told, this section isn’t very long, but Baker pops up many times throughout the video with some real bangers, so there is certainly no shortage of their footage in SMUT. Leo has their trademark tech on show for this part, with methodical, clean ledge tricks, and hitting up some interesting spots with quick footed precision. My favourite trick here is a LONG Noseslide to bigspin (Long grinds and slides are in for 2021, I tell you).
Nassir Roumou’s 2020 Mashup
I go on a lot about Blast Skates being one of my favourite companies, and my adoration for this rad English board company is perfectly summed up by the likes of Nassir Roumou – skaters who like doing tricks where they put their feet on the floor, early grabs and skating really sketchy bank bank spots in back alleys. Therefore, if you know me, then my reasoning for enjoying Nassir’s 2020 mashup will be all too obvious.
Fresh off the back of some choice cameo clips in Film Trucks’ Premier Amour comes this compilation of sick footage all filmed over the course of the past year. Some obvious radness from Roumou’s usual skatepark haunts (Bay Sixty Six’s mini ramp, and The Pioneer in St Albans), coupled with assaults on some rough and rugged terrain in back alleys and dingy multi-storey car parks. It’s as British as you can get, and it’s rad as hell. Yeah Nassir!
Heroin’s “Dead Dave Lives” Video
Dead Dave is PRO for Heroin Skateboards! During the last weekend of January, Heroin made the surprise announcement that the owner of Skateboarding’s best mullet is now joining the ranks of Heroin’s pro team, alongside such greats as Craig Questions, Tom Day and Deer Man Of Dark Woods. Heroin is one of my favourite board companies on the planet, and part of that is very much down to the team Fos has curated – full of the most innovative, rad, creative skateboarders with the best tricks. After the 2020 Dead Dave had, with full parts and constant rad clips coming throughout the year filmed by friend of the blog Forde Brookfield aka Baghead Crew, it was no surprise that this move was gonna happen eventually.
That brings me to this special surprise full part, now live on the Thrasher site. Filmed and edited by Forde, it’s 4 minutes of fast, flowy, old skool inspired punk rock shredding, as Dave footplants, handplants, tailblocks and grabs his board on any and all street transitions he approaches. There’s even a sneaky little cameo from the brilliant Mr Chris Pulman (an alumni of Heroin Skateboards himself), because in all honesty you can’t have a Baghead video filmed in 2020 without him. Truth be told there are a ton of tricks in this part that blew me away, and I had a hard time focussing on even just a handful to list here. The part chugs along at an incredible pace through 2 songs with amazing, unique trick after amazing, unique trick – it really is worth your time to just stick this thing on, and bathe in the excellence that is Dead Dave.
The Terrible Company 
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