Nike SB boasts one of skateboarding’s biggest and most intimidating team line-ups. Their latest video, “Constant”, follows the same methodology as their previous releases: rather than shove every team member onto the screen, a carefully curated selection of pro skaters take the spotlight and prove why Nike SB have become a force to be reckoned with in skateboarding. This method has proven to be successful before, but with “Constant”, things are a little more chilled out, and a little more confident, but still as rad as ever.
The video flows right into a joint first section from Carlos Ribeiro and Sean Malto. As far as opening parts go it’s definitely a serious banger. Ribeiro makes his introduction loud and clear for anyone who doesn’t know him, with a boosted Varial Heel over a fire hydrant. There’s also a great line prior to Malto’s first appearance, with a Switch Back 180 over bump to bar, kickflip nosegrind 180, and ending with a switch flip over handrail. Sean Malto has always had a sterling reputation, and this part only amplifies it further. Switch Back Smiths held with ease, a massive Switch 5050 handrail, and a surprising FS Nosegrind drop to Noseblunt all make his footage in this part a joy to watch.
The second part flies over to our neck of the woods, with a UK Section. This might as well be called “The Korahn Gayle Show”, seeing as he is sort of the glue holding this part together. Early on he stomps a Nollie Back Heel at the regular London haunt of Tower Bridge, slides a Switch bluntslide on a bank with ease, and grafts (snapping several boards) on a Switch Heel Back Lip on a bike rack. A line of Switch ollies down 3 consecutive massive sets is proof of his consistent Switch Ollie game, before closing things off with a Nollie BS Nosebluntslide to Fakie into the bank at Southbank.
This isn’t to say that this UK section is a full Korahn Gayle part, as there’s a lot of surprise appearances from other Nike SB UK team members peppered throughout, most notably Casper Brooker. Brooker demonstrates some cheeky ride-on grinds at Lloyds, as well as a FS Tailslide to Fakie 5050 on some weird concrete blob ledge. There were so many UK heads cropping up that it was hard to note down all of the sick tricks going on here- Hey there’s Stefan Janoski!
After visiting the UK, there’s no time to rest – as we instantly enter a section from Daan Van Der Linden, where he opens with a massive hip to handrail straight out the bag. One of Anti-Hero’s all terrain monsters, Daan holds onto a massive 5050 on a wild, kinked handrail, gets a proper FS Slash on a Wallride, and brings out hefty lines on proper street transition. His street transition tricks culminate with a few tricks where he airs out of street trannys to Krooked Fakies. When he does skate more traditional transitions, he throws out mad tricks like a BS Bigspin to Nosegrab. He’s pure, unlimited power on a skateboard.
This section is capped off with an appearance from Toy Machine’s Blake Carpenter. Pulling out sick moves like a car towed FS Heelflip over a massive driveway, he spends his short stint on screen floating beautiful ollies, as well as some more technical tricks, over bump to bars. He caps it off with a SWITCH BACK 360 over a bump to bar.
We’re headed down under for the next section with a montage of the Australian portion of the Nike SB team. This is a blistering section of Aussie rippers throwing down some truly mind-melting street tricks, and hitting up some more eclectic aussie spots. Hayley Wilson turns up to shred steep banks and Noseslide LONG handrails around corners. Nick Boserio pops up for a single tricky Front Board where he lands practically in the skinny doorway to a factory. Also, you’re treated to an inevitable blast of Shane O’Neill madness, as he crops up throughout this section to remind you he is an unstoppable street skating machine.
This section melds into a more laid back montage of the more recognisable faces of the US team. Antonio Durao introduces opens the next section by tanking it up to a switch FS Flip down a big stairset, and then for good measure he also throws one down over a bin. Oh shit: here’s Rainbow Swag Lord’s best mate Eric Koston briefly appearing with a couple of quick footed moves, including a Slappy Bluntslide flip out. Mason Silva puts down powerhouse moves as he gaps to handrails, and over to ledges, and even Nosepicking rocks on less than optimal terrain. Nicole Hause brings some much-needed transition representation to proceedings, but isn’t afraid to hit up some gnarly street spots when it’s needed either. And with the appearance of LANCE FUCKING MOUNTAIN we’ve now entered the Transition Zone.
This opens up the floodgates for Hugo Boserup to take us on an all terrain journey through back alleys, hills and handrails – including some street transitions. He’s quickly joined by everyone’s favourite Swede Oski as he brings more street transition skills, and roof drops onto a curved slide??? He takes things back to the skatepark with some unreal transition shredding near the end of this part, joined again by Nicole Hause and Boserup.
This nicely opens things up for Grant Taylor to absolutely shred in the closing part. I’m not gonna say I’m bitter as fuck, but I had my eye on using this same Bob Seger song in the next full length video I’m working on. Nothing I could film will ever top Grant Taylor boosting around streets and being one of the best all terrain skaters of his generation though! Literally every type of spot imaginable gets skated by Taylor in this part, and there are also a lot of hillbombs and breakneck speed runs too. The video ends with an absolutely amazing road length Frontside Flip to switch hillbomb.
Say what you want about Nike – I’ll leave the musing on massive shoe conglomerates to another time – but they have always known how to put together a phenomenal video. Not only that, with such deep pockets comes a quality and selection of much sought after licensed music that smaller companies could only dream of. I guess when you’re one of the biggest shoe companies in the world, money really is no obstacle?
As mentioned, Nike have an overwhelming and somewhat intimidating roster on their team, and although the well known names on this list will impress, the relative unknowns also hold their own. The variety of team riders are shotgun blasted in such quick succession that it can sometimes be hard to keep up with who is on screen at any given moment, but there’s never a dull moment, and every trick is at the quality you would expect from a team this jam-packed with bonafide legends.
The Terrible Company 