February 2023 Video Roundup

Hey would you look at that – Another video roundup, and I got it posted within a month of the last one. Gold star for me.

Betongpark At The London Design Festival

This video from The Skateboarder’s Companion features the whole Betongpark crew + friends shredding a bespoke lovely mini ramp at the London Design Festival. Of course, with this being Betongpark this video includes a healthy dose of our old mate Daryl Nobbs flying about with his mullet on display doing the fast mini ramp grinds and wallriding his way out of the mini ramp. Betongpark are one of the most exciting park builders in the country at the minute and projects like this are exactly why.

Bohdan Porada’s “SOBER” part

Ukrainian shredder Bohdan Porada dropped this slick new technical street skating part this month. The editing is fantastic, the energy is fast paced, and the tricks on offer are a very lovely selection of technical street moves – flip in flip out manual shit, long ass grinds, long, cruising lines around European plazas. It all has a bit of a 90’s vibe to it, and it’s rad as hell.

E.S.P Vol 2 Expanded: Jaakko Ojanen

It might not be cool to acknowledge Element Skateboards stuff anymore, but it’s worth recognising that as a company they have always curated an absolutely mind-blowing team. Element have had many amazing skaters as part of their team, including Brent Atchley, Evan Smith, Brandon Westgate, Mark Appleyard, Madars Apse, Nyjah Huston, and let’s not forget Bam Margera at the height of his career.

So it’s with that context that their latest full length video E.S.P Vol 2 features a lot of rad skaters – and now Element are dropping raw footage from each other skaters featured periodically. This rad mix from Finnish shredder Jaakko Ojanen is amazing, because his pure selection of quirky, quick footed, technical wizardry has an almost zen like quality to it. Most people like to listen to storm noises or white noise to relax, but listening to Ojanen’s wheels navigating spots as he adds “just one more trick” to an already complicated line is really soothing.

Cata Diaz’s “Cachái” Part

How do you like the sound of Barcelona based boardslide variations, bank tricks and the odd, tricky gaps sound, all sound-tracked to the vocals of Stevie Nicks? Well then you’re gonna love this full part from Cata Diaz!

“Konton”

Since I first became aware of Japanese skaters with videos like Heroin’s “Live From Antartica” and the video output of Evisen Skateboards, I’ve been enamoured with the scene in the country. “Konton” is just another video that shows how absolutely rad the scene is in Japan, approaching the architecture and growing a collection of skaters who attack all terrain with confidence, consistency, speed and absolute authority.

Ishod Wair’s “Spitfire” Part

Ishod Wair skating to MF Doom. What more do you need?

OK, if you need more convincing – Ishod Wair is one of the most exciting all terrain skaters of all time, and this part solely focusses on how just his street skating is top tier and even if he never touched a bowl or transition, he would be Skater Of The Year material. He’s purely focussed on eating handrails, double sets and hefty gaps for breakfast in this part.