Richard Hijacked the camera yesterday
And I’ve been working my ass off with no time for new content, although I’ll be skating for the next two days.
In the meantime enjoy another great part from Element’s video Trio.
Make sure to head to Vertical Urge at 4 for a demo as well!
James’ new project is brewing and of course it’s gonna be something special.
Here’s a little teaser he just posted on Post22.
Crawl put a clip together featuring the homies.
Not much more to say than what the description of the video says already:
Enjoy some skating from me and some friends from around the year 2000.
Order of appearance: Ray Koren, Devon Drosdeck, Nads, and myself.
My opinion, like many others’ regarding Shane O’neil’s breakthrough professional performance in his Skate Mental x Berrics video part has been dismissed based on confusion and some sort of wanting to view something mind-boggling by hungry skate nerds and skaters alike.
Don’t get me wrong, Shane’s part is amazing, a great step forward in street skating and moves that could make a grown man cry (*sw bssmith/sw heel, *nollie bsheel 15? *sw flip backtail, swbigflip..damn)
But at no point while watching Shane’s part did I have a similar reaction that many of those who viewed the part on the Berrics’ candid computer cam had, and sadly, that’s what I was looking forward to. I guess what I mean, is that this part did not ‘blow my mind’ like Jake Johnson and AVE’s MindField Parts, Cardiel and Heath in Sight Unseen, Buzenits in Diagonal, and most recently Andrew Allen in Thrasher’s Prevent This Tragedy and Wes Kremer in Skateboarding is Forever did.
Now, many are afraid to step on toes, or disagree and others attribute this disappointment to The Berrics’ over-hype. I agree somewhat, but not completely. I attribute it to some sort of sense of skate video jadedness. I was talking about this with my bud Bosco in NY over the phone last night and he recalls similar tricks done by Daewon on oversize curbs with yellow hair a little less than a decade ago, again, not dismissing Shane, the name of the game is progression. I was expecting to see something brand new, something astonishing. Sure, I would eat human shit to skate like Shane, pounds of it, but I’m merely a viewer who wants to be entertained whilst judging, and the fact that this has even become an issue that I choose to address is because I’m hearing so damn much about it.
As far as payment is concerned, many were weary that Mr. Berra’s motives were malignant, and that he was applying his ‘Unified’ tactics and trickery to Shane’s video. The Berrics’ already flawed reputation for accepting money in my opinion had a great deal of negative influence the video part in general. Also, the Berrics’ use of skateboarding’s major players to promote the video, may have in part either negatively or positively influenced the viewers’ satisfaction or fueled their disappointment further, which is why touching that aspect of promotion is tricky.
The point is this; in my opinion as a skater who’s motivation was high and stress levels were low in 2001 when my skating was at it’s peak (which by today’s standards is a pretty meek statement) and as one who has a genuine love for the game and its progress in videography and actual skill, Shane killed. However, there were many efforts that could have been made in order to avoid the whole debacle (not a reference) surrounding the part, leaving the toe stepping to fade and opinions to be allowed at will.
At the same time, this is easily the most talked about video part that I can remember coming out in a while, and maybe Steve and those that control the Berrics got together and planned all of this out in order to raise Shane to super-stardom on many a Facebook wall and message board.
To all those who are shitting on Shane’s part, take a step back and remove the 3 dollarss and Berrics aura surrounding it and view it as merely another video part, then be happy that a skateboarder is actually getting paid to skate (however, I am still uncertain of how the filmers are making any money, is Skate Mental dishing it out?)
And for those dismissing the opinions of those who don’t think that this part is all it was cracked up to be, understand that some of us like grit and grime over poised and balanced, others prefer wizardry to wall rides. We wanted to put on ‘O’ faces like Greco and claim it was the best video part ever, trust me, we did.
In the end we all have to remember the cliche’d phrase used in all editorials that touch on the subject; ‘this is just skateboarding’. Take a deep breath.
I’ve been slammed with post-graduation work before I exit Grad School on Thursday, in the meantime check out Chad Tim Tim’s killer part in Element Trio, thank god Element Shoes went by the wayside and this dude is actually getting hooked up legitimately.
