#FSMTOP10 2021
I’ll keep this intro short because against my better judgement, I’ve rambled on like a babbling alcoholic below. What I will say is this: isn’t it refreshing to be able to occasionally watch decent skate videos that don’t have a Thrasher logo at the start?
That’s no diss on Thrasher but their monopoly on all things video related is approaching imperial proportions at times. Hence why I’m here bending your collective ears and ringing a little bell in honour of Free mag’s own video output over the last 12 months.
My brief was to pick my own favourite 10 videos that Free had uploaded to their YouTube this year. No money in brown envelopes changed hands and the only criteria I was working under was, ‘can we have it by the 15th of December?’
I thought it might be interesting to get an insight into Free’s own criteria for deciding what does and does not get selected to be uploaded but to be honest they kind of swerved the question. I got an answer but it boiled down to, ‘if we like it, we’ll hype it’, which is a noble statement but it doesn’t really help me, nor will it comfort anybody who’s been denied but hey ho, it’s 2021, worse things can (and will) happen no doubt.
So with the above said – here are the clips I liked best for reasons ranging from the obvious to the obscure.
Shout out to everyone filming skate videos for the culture: you all rule.
–Ben Powell
Tyler Surrey – Vagando
According to the Internet, ‘Vagando’ means ‘wandering’ in Spanish so I’m going to guess that this Tyler Surrey clip is so entitled in reference to him casually knocking about Spain and fucking spots up. The Romantic connotations of ‘wandering’ seem to be deliberately misleading here though: this isn’t some Baudelaire flâneur business. Whilst it might be poetically correct to suggest that Tyler Surrey is loafing around various Spanish cities observing urban life and musing on it for aesthetic purposes – he’s also unleashing the quietest, least check me out 4-and-a-half minutes of pure foot mathematics I’ve seen in ages.
Reading the paragraph above back, I’ve clearly strayed into highbrow territory as befits skating of this standard. To the casual observer, ‘creative skateboarding’ is often mislabeled, with lazy, half-arsed, simulacra of somebody else’s copy of something actually worthwhile getting praised as being imaginative.
You know what I mean – parts with a handful of actual tricks in them and then a load of filler bullshit disguised as creativity that just stinks of being thirsty for ‘going viral’. Tyler Surrey’s output, and this clip in particular, is the diametric opposite of the above and instead represents a person who has picked up the gauntlet of sponsorship and responded with actual thoughts.
Let’s be honest, the first two lines at that Madrid ledge spot basically shit on lots of recorded ‘creative skateboarding’ that’s been puked into the ether in the last year. Hard way fakie ollie fakie 5.0, frontside half cab flip out at speed in a line with perfect stomped catch. Are you fucking mad? Powerful arm shapes on the switch heel front board too.
I’m going to give myself the liberty of adding a narrative to this part and to Tyler’s skating that very possibility isn’t present but it’s well meant.
There are so many hard tricks in here and so much board control that watching it has even convinced my fat lazy arse that I could frontside nollie heel into fakie manual if I just chilled hard enough in the Spanish sun. (I couldn’t obviously but that’s not the point). Good skate clips are supposed to do that: they’re supposed to be aspirational and make you want to try. This does both.
The whole vibe is very modest, Tyler seems that way too: so much so that there are a couple tricks where it looks as though he’s apologizing for them not being hard enough. Like, ‘Yo, this nollie heel nosewheelie isn’t that sick so I’ve brought a really narrow doorway to ride off through just so it doesn’t seem like I’m being arrogant.’ What a legend. You could probably go for tapas with him and he’d never even mention he was sponsored.
Basically there’s nothing negative to say here, which in 2021, is more rare than it ought to be. There are even two ‘viral style’ tricks thrown in (the trampoline one and the primo grind) for good measure but no attempt to scream, ‘look at me! I’m being creative!’ like a bellend in a wolf fleece for Insta clout. He just does the tricks because he’s able to.
All told – he kills it, the knitwear count is high, and the last ollie over the rail that ended up on the cover of Free is crackers and involves a heavy hill bomb without the need for a bunch of self-conscious machismo crotch grabbing.
Jameel Douglas – Loophole Wheels ‘New Doors Have Opened’
That’s a very SF sounding title isn’t it? Where are these new doors? Are they the same ones that Tyler Surrey carries around with him to add some spice to his manuals? Regardless, this is raw SF street skating like it’s meant to look.
I mention in one of these other rambles about how everyone needs a gimmick these days; well in Jameel Douglas’ case his gimmick is looking absolutely amazing whilst riding a skateboard. You can have all the bells and whistles you like, death-defying stunts, unseen spots, NBDs etc, etc but nothing is ever going to make a video clip more rewatchable than a style like this dude’s.
Given that this part is taken from a wheel company video (SF-based Loophole wheels to be exact) it’s probably not going to be a surprise that there’s a lot of powersliding and urethane depleting hill skating going down. The SF downhill wallride meme is somewhat threadbare by now but Jameel absolutely adds plenty of flavour of his own: the frontside wallride G-turn thing in particular is nuts. Liked that one.
Loophole wheels are hand cut I believe which reduces wastage and puts them firmly into the ‘well yes, we’re dealing with truly poisonous chemicals here but at least we’re trying to be environmentally inclined’ category. I bet Jameel recycles too.
With Zach Chamberlin at the wheel (both literally and metaphorically) if you know your shit then you’ll be expecting expertly handled VX1000 footage, SF spots that you might not have already seem 1 million times and a generally summery, tasteful approach to being dope: all of which is served up in this short but very rewatchable piece.
Magenta (who Zach Chamberlin is also associated with) used to get a lot of stick for their minimalist approach to video making, whereas this part (and the whole Loophole video it’s from) manages to tread the fine line between keeping it too pure and falling into the less is less trap, rather than less is more.
Trying to explain why this is such a good watch is a bit like trying to explain why seeing a beautiful woman playing the saxophone in the rain rings with poetic meaning: effectively it’s self-evident. Not every part has to be a manifesto of intent, sometimes great style, great filming, smooth music and an iconic city backdrop is enough. In this instance, that’s the case. Go watch it.
Oh yeah – major shout out to the pop shove front crook revert on the bank. Utterly buttery.
Dan Fisher-Eustance’s Free Part
Couldn’t really sleep on this one for a number of reasons. First off, Free favourite and expert wrangler of the much-fetishised Sony VX1000, Quentin Guthrie, filmed it. His rapport with the Victorian filming gun is well documented and he’s been churning out mainly UK based gold for years now.
His handle on Instagram is @pertharms, which I thought for the longest time was an ode to the perkiness of one of Free’s softly spoken editors Will Harmon. As in, ‘he’s lovely Will isn’t he?’ ‘Who, Pert Harms?’ It turns out that this mistake was fairly common and in fact his Insta name should be read ‘Perth Arms’ and is a Western Australian way of mocking people’s fake ride away arm steez.
Beyond VX wanking and confusing nomenclature, this Dan Fisher-Eustance Free part has made its way into my top ten because he makes very hard skateboarding look good. Obviously he’s ably assisted by Quentin’s excellent fish eye and clever editing but mise en scene alone means nothing: with no subject, we’d be discussing low pixel rate documentation of rusty ledges outside Sainsbury’s.
Before we go any further, I’m going to address the double-barreled elephant in the room – his name is far too long and easy to misspell so I’m abbreviating it to DFE. Whilst that kind of sounds like a discount furniture shop, it’s going to make writing this easier for me so, tough tits.
Hailing from Brighton originally, DFE has, in time-honoured style, moved to London and transferred the skills he’s developed at The Level skatepark to the street spots of the capital. As such, he went from being a cheery youth dropping switch ledge bangers amidst the clouds of Ket Wenns (Ketamine Wennings) swarming his home spots, to a fully sponno’d up London head fairly quickly.
I’m not sure if he’s posh or not but it’s a bold move for a well-dressed white dude to run black Superstars and film ledge tricks set to Viktor Vaughan (rest in peace). He pulls it off though. Shout out to DFE for filming a backside version of the trick (half cab 5.0 180) that everybody was shitting themselves about Will Marshall doing in the latest Dime clip first too. They’re both well-dressed midgets though so if it came to blows, at least it would be even.
On the subject of being well dressed: DFE has posted some fits here. This guy is not afraid to put a full package on in one go, nor is he scared to run a fully coordinated white outfit at Southbank, a spot not known for its cleanliness.
In the wrong hands some of DFE’s fits would look a bit try hard, but if you’re wearing them doing the stuff he is then you’re good. Better to look a bit ‘package day’ than to film a section looking like you’ve covered yourself in glue and run through Oxfam I suppose. Another point in DFE’s favour is that he’s obviously sound since he’s let his mate Dougie George film by far the best trick in the Southbank interlude. Shows strong character, to let your boy do you like that.
Is it too wanky to talk about ‘sound design’ in a 6-minute YouTube video filmed on a 25-year-old camera? If it isn’t then knuckles to Quentin for all the interesting bits of audio throughout this. Gave it a bit of an otherworldly feel which is pretty hard when your film making is taking place whilst genuflecting in junkie urine round the back of Victoria coach station. Basically, I like nearly all of this – it’s got lots of hard tricks filmed really well and it’s got cameos by his Brighton homies which shows that he hasn’t fallen victim to London Chameleon Disorder and disowned his past as soon as he inhaled his first balloon in Peckham.
Last words – switch ollieing that rail in Brighton is fucking diesel and switch backside 360 ollies definitely look better if your feet stay on them.
Brayan Albarenga x Yoryo
Let’s not mess about here: every single trick in this part is pinnacle.
When you have this much skill and a style this beautiful there is absolutely no need to be throwing your tender body down sets of stairs or onto handrails like an attention seeking child.
Barcelona has produced a lot of amazing skateboarders, along with providing a low effort backdrop for a lot of highly paid visitors to book hotels and re-film tricks already done by local heads. These days, it’s Barcelona’s indigenous skaters who are finally getting some shine after years of watching ABDs get jerked off by a skate media ignorant as to what was happening in the city before it was ‘discovered’ by everyone else.
Brayan’s lineage seems, at least in terms of style and tricks, to follow in the footsteps of other delicately gifted Barceloni. You can sense the influence of BCN OGs like Enrique Lorenzo, Pablo Dominguez and Raul Navarro in the way Brayan skates. Nothing is done the easy way – every ledge or manny move has that extra finesse to make it just that bit harder or more beautiful than any other version you’ve seen before.
The primary difference here is that yeah, technical difficulty is of paramount importance but, (and it’s a big but), the tech is tasteful and aesthetically pleasing.
Switch front heel nose manny revert for example – what a combo: likewise, his trick on the lower level manny pad at MACBA. Generally I’m not a big fan of those manny tricks where people go into a nosewheelie and then do a trick in the middle back to a different manual. There are lots of reasons for not feeling them: Joey Brezinski is one; the other is that in the wrong hands these kind of multi combos can look like the skater is having a seizure midway through what might otherwise be a tasty move. In this dude’s hands though, everything is calm.
Nosewheelie to nollie frontside flip midway back to fakie manual – it’s difficult enough to type. Hopefully any aspiring balancers watching this who have even the slightest intention of filming the old nosewheelie to fakie manual, which is NEVER legit, will now leave it the fuck alone as Brayan has snuffed it out forever.
I’m sure there will be plenty of people who won’t like this video part because it’s ‘not gnarly enough’ or ‘he doesn’t go fast enough’. To those knobheads I say this: get fucked. The filming and editing is cohesive, the Parrita track is basically serenading the city as though she was beautiful woman and the spots? Well, it’s Barca isn’t it? Architectural perfection. Even his fits are good: Stan Smiths and ledge tech? Come on…
I’m feeling every single piece of this one; from the 1980s footballer/Spanish Anarchist haircut and moustache, through to the fact that he’s constantly grinning regardless of the mind-bogglingly hard tricks he’s doing.
Anyone who has ever disgraced themselves on Las Ramblas or been thrown out of one of the porno cinemas after a hash-induced moment of genital misadventure is morally obliged to watch this part on repeat.
This is the city of Barcelona in skateboarding form: stylish, artistic, creative, innovative and modestly imposing. Put the Damm Limon down and go inside MACBA for once, you might learn something.
Maité Steenhoudt: It’s Important to Try
And now for something completely different…
The top YouTube comment on this one reads, ‘Everything about this clip is good for the soul’ and I wholeheartedly agree. Maité rips, everyone knows that already, it’s the other things she brings that make her a valuable human in today’s skateboarding universe. As conscious as it no doubt is, her innocent, child-like, wide-eyed commitment to personally having fun and for using her elevated sponsored status to force feed the cynical with a reminder of why you skate in the first place is something to be cherished.
All the daft shit at the beginning with the ‘special effects’ and her appearing in a red phone box; it’s just so wholesome. You’ll probably not think it’s cool if you’re an angry tit who judges skateboarding via the medium of counting things but if your mindset is like that, you’re unlikely to be reading this anyway.
I guess this clip is probably the furthest away from a traditional single skater section of the ten and is closer to a tongue-in-cheek mockumentary but it still deserves its place here. In 2021, good skateboarding is everywhere, so much so that it’s no longer enough to just do hard tricks in front of a recording device.
Everybody needs a gimmick these days and it seems like hers is really enjoying skateboarding. Could be worse, eh?
This Maité piece is a kind of kid’s TV perspective that focuses on the magical joy of riding a kid’s toy. Very much at the reverse end of the spectrum from the ‘gang gang on road busting up the spots’ vibe which has invaded skateboard film making a bit of late. There’s space for the angry gangsters and the Muppets in the current year – let’s all have a tea party.
Honestly, if the sight of a Belgian woman clownishly mugging somebody for their bike and then cycling through the London streets reciting trick names doesn’t make you chuckle then you need to unscrew your screw face a bit. It’s daft and it’s meant to be. Even Jake Snelling’s down and he could demolish a Starbucks with his head. Speaking of Jake Snelling, he, along with Rich West, Nasir Roumou, Ewen Bower, Alex Hallford and a host of other London heads connected to Stockwell and Hackney Bumps pop up as supporting characters. This fits with the atmosphere of the whole thing which is absolutely not on a ‘I’m Maité and I have an adidas shoe, bear witness to my superhuman abilities and buy some product’ tip.
Trick-wise it’ll be what you’re expecting if you know Maité. Lots of loose-limbed transition obscurities, funny faces to camera and smiling. I dunno if it’s the accent or the weirdly coloured eyebrows but Maité reminds me of Joan of Arc, (if Joan of Arc got pissed and smoked weed obviously). Or Alice in Wonderland I guess, or other vaguely appropriate comparisons. Regardless, this will make you pine for warm weather and dossing about with your mates and, best of all, there’s only one of her now trademark wacky smith stalls on this and she only does it to provide an opportunity for Snelling to lob his blokeish self over her petite frame for lolz.
Noah Mahieu – Zen Brain
What the fuck is going on? Is this kid 10 years old? How can you be this good at anything and still look like a drawing of the healthiest kid in France?
Weirdly, the first thought that came into my head when I watched this was, ‘Isn’t that the same spot from Jason Lee’s Video Days section?’
The setting of the first line after his name comes up in horror movie writing with a spider web – the half cab followed by the ride on back tail 360 out – looked familiar so I checked. I was correct; it’s the same spot where Jason Lee also does a line with a half cab down the top stairs and a feeble grind, (Gonz does a caveman dark slide there too).
I’m not sure which is more surprising, the fact that I noticed that, or the fact that any building in southern California is still standing 30 years later given that most of them are made from dry toilet roll.
With the above aside out of the way, the immediate mention of Blind’s Video Days in relation to this Zen Brain part makes sense. Clearly this little fella is on some skate prodigy trajectory. Comparing anybody to Video Days era Mariano is a strong claim I know, but look at this kid.
I wonder what the title refers to. Is he Zen maybe? He does look pretty composed whilst flying down big rails and he lives in Seignosse, which is surfy I think. Maybe he’s already into all that pseudo-Buddhist stuff, only the French version where you get to stuff your face with expensive cheese whilst swerving the emptiness of the material world?
Skills-wise, my man’s got the full kit: rolling into massive bowls and concrete vert ramps, tech street moves, big pop, rail gallantry: it’s all there on tap.
Another thing that stood out was that he’s on trend with the ride-on tricks but does some actually sick ones and added a bit of personal spice to a wearied category. In particular, the ride on 5050 on the abstract looking handrail with the corners is fantastic. It’s made even more fantastic by the fact that it’s got Olympic athlete BGPs with Vincent Milou hugging him as he rides away from this Rubix Snake of a ride-on.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine represent!
There’s really not that much more explanation needed as to why this is one of the ten best Free videos of 2021. Watch it if you haven’t and get clued up on the future before it happens. Little man is going to follow in the footsteps of Oski, Daan, Bastien and all the other children of Europe who’ve gone on to make waves globally.
Charles
Did I miss a meeting? Has Charlie Munro been rebranded?
To a British ear, ‘Charles’ is always going to sound posh in comparison to the working class ‘Charlie’ and as such switches the vibe up somewhat from plucky outsider to chinless aristocrat. Seems like an odd decision to make once everyone is used to his old name though. Maybe it’s because Palace’s Charlie Birch is on the come up and we need to differentiate between the ginger-haired power midget and the lanky Scouser with long black hair, just in case people get confused?
For whatever reason, this edit got a bit of a kicking on the Slap forum. Or to be more precise, the filming and editing did. I was surprised to see this unfold amongst the generally not at all negative or picky denizens of that shit-talking clubhouse. I jest of course, the neggy dads need their outlet too but personally I thought the filming and editing was cool, if a bit austere.
Lots of this part looks as though it was filmed during one or more of the many Covid lockdowns that have happened over the last year. Despite being shot (mainly at least) in London, one of the busiest cities on the planet, there are barely any lurkers or bystanders in the background in the majority of the clips.
That, combined with the morose track and repeated cuts to Charles’ disappointed face post-trick, gave this a bit of a maudlin feel if I’m honest.
Similar to how that whole generator and lights craze seemed to result in videos where nobody looked like they were enjoying themselves because they’d been trapped at the spot for 10 hours trying the same trick.
With that said, it’s mind blowing that a kid from Cambridge who quit skating between 13 and 18 has ended up riding for the nearest thing to a legit super team that modern skateboarding has.
Highlights trick wise for me were the fakie flip over the Bridgewater rail in Manchester, (which is absolutely rinsed but he still found an NBD); the nollie noseslide big spin and the half cab flip into the bank where he goes into 50-50 on the kerb on the ride out. Those are all peak performance maneuvers right there.
I’ve not even mentioned the half cab heel over the concrete bollard into the bank made of Victorian cobbles deep in smackville in Leeds. I chuckled to myself imagining P-Rod watching this and asking, ‘Hey Charles, the next time we’re in the UK can you please absolutely guarantee that you will take me nowhere near that excuse for a spot?’
I also liked the way there are a few slams and non-makes edited into the bangers: kind of added to that overall mournful feel that anyone who lives on this piss wet island run by self-serving rich bastards will know only too well. Maybe that’s why Charles looks so upset so often throughout, maybe in his head he’s thinking, ‘stoked to be filming this Primitive edit out here in So Cal’ only to land the trick and realise that he’s still in Catford and it’s still grey and freezing and every spot is made from century old bricks and tramp’s tears. Poor bastard.
It’s probably wise to wind in the attempts to be funny here though and reiterate that I’ve picked this as one of the Free top ten because it’s really, really good.
Not least because I once saw Charles (back when he was still known as Charlie) rip his t-shirt off outside a pub in Northampton and one-bang three aggy Kevs in quick succession after they’d decided to start a fight with his mate following a skate contest. Charles is not just super good at skateboarding; he’s equally good at fighting when necessary. Cheer up goth.
e2 Solutions – Eetu Toropainen
Wasn’t this kid on Etnies about a week ago? When did he get Swooshed?
My WiFi goes down for five minutes and when I return everybody with more than 20k Instagram followers is running Stock X resell SB bangers whilst filming wallies. The humanity of it, honestly…
I’ve got another question too. What’s ‘e2 Solutions’? It sounds like a plumbing company or somebody you’d call if a pigeon had died down the back of the oven. Do skaters ride for plumbing companies in Finland? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Every Finn I’ve ever met has been absolutely insane. And I mean that in a good way. Like ‘insane’ in a ‘let’s go sing Venus in Furs in the karaoke bar at 5.30 am and then go straight to work designing mobile phones with no sleep’ way.
Is it a Northern thing? Having like six months of darkness and it being minus 500 degrees for most of the year? Is that why they’re all so good at skating? I guess they need to compress twelve months of ripping into the tiny amount of time that it’s warm enough to go outside. I could be wrong but it looks to me like this whole section was filmed in Finland. So they can’t have had much time to compile it, I mean he’s wearing shorts in a few of the clips. Madman.
Insane talent on display here though: Eetu skates mad fast and does all kinds of actually creative things which involve thought and skill rather than balancing an iPhone on a hackey sack and trying the same late flip dogshit 3000 times until you’ve landed it. This kid looks well healthy. He must be too young to drink ethanol yet, or maybe it’s in his Element contract that he has to stay away from the lighter fluid until the snow season begins in November. Either way, he’s destined for greatness I think. Let’s just hope he follows the Arto path rather than the path of that Finnish guy who used to be on The Firm. I think he sells houses or is big on TikTok or something now.
There are some really cool looking spots on here. Why are architects in that part of the world allowed to build solid marble waves or transitioned tunnels as street furniture? Are they part of a different union or something or does the UK just have shitty architects? With that said, this section does contain one of the worst DIY spots that I’ve ever seen. It looks like three mini jersey barriers with a cough’s worth of cement forming the ‘transition’. Somehow this crazy cunt backside ollies from the first to the last one and lands into it: not possible.
There’s great tempo to this section, little man starts to go turbo tech as the saxophone solo kicks in and then the last three enders are without music. Kind of gives a pause to appreciate how good he is. That one spot, the metal halfpipe thing with the logs above it: somebody is taking the piss here – that can’t be just in the forest, can it? What the fuck is it for? Grizzly bear discos?
He looks mad young this kid – he’s going to be massive as long as he leaves the booze outside of the sauna for a few years first. Big up e2 Solutions (I think).
Leonardo Favaro – OBRIGADO MKD
Did anyone order 1980s Gothic shoe gaze, XXXL denim shorts and massive ollies in Nike Air Trainer 1s? Turns out I fucking did. This part is nothing short of perfect as far as I’m concerned and had I been asked to rank these ten videos in order (I wasn’t) then Leonardo Favaro’s would be number 1.
I consider myself something of a geek when it comes to skateboarding but I had never heard of him prior to watching this when it first dropped in August. Drawn in by the banging thumbnail that looks like he’s been shot out of a cannon, I pressed play with little to no expectations. Within seconds I was his newest fan.
That first line bruv, it’s not even on concrete: my man is filming explosive stair lines on bloody mud. What the fuck? It just gets better from that point onwards too. Leonardo has a style somewhere between Rodrigo TX and Javier Nunes – all mega pop and wild arm steeze – so, so good to watch.
The filming and editing is on point, proper danger fisheye throughout and whoever’s idea it was to set his skating to This Mortal Coil just…bravo. Inspired.
I’m that stoked on this kid that I’m actually considering starting a company just to sponsor him if I’m honest. It’s likely that I’ll write less here than on the other selections but that’s simply because he doesn’t need gassing up. If you watch this yourselves, you’ll agree.
Few other things worthy of note: he’s wearing both Nike and Cons throughout this, which I hope doesn’t mean that he’s still paying for shoes with this amount of skill. I mean I guess he could be on Nike and Cons at the same time, couldn’t he? Maybe there’s a bidding war going on? Either way – Leonardo better be getting paid Mutant Ninja dollar off one of the big box brands, he deserves it.
Watching this gave me the same feeling as watching Alex Carolino’s Lordz part or Shiloh Greathouse in Trilogy, which is strong (and justified) praise indeed.
I also loved the way that the opening shot mirrored the last trick too – simple but extremely effective. Finally, as far as I can work out, the video’s title is Leonardo thanking his local skate store MKD – how legit do you want it to get?
Go watch this right now if you haven’t then buy yourself the baggiest jean jhorts you can find. Obrigado Leonardo!
Jante – 10:34
I’d have picked this one based purely on thumbnail. Look at that shit.
Obviously Gerard’s photo makes the spot look sick but you know for a fact that if you went there it’d be absolutely fucking horrible and probably have a dosser covered in his own piss lying in the run out. Regardless of that, Gustav’s just blessing that shit with the warlock man bun, innit? Brown cords, chiselled jaw, Nordic ninja catch, the shadow. I mean – do I even need to press play to have complimentary things to say here?
It’s quite a cerebral video: from the juxtaposition of some of the establishing shots, to the almost classical music, right through to the filming and editing. I think it’s safe to say that the person behind this definitely didn’t spend Year 10 drinking white cider behind the bus station. As we’re on the subject of the filming – my man deserves extra special props here because his use of fish eye in particular is astounding. Filming all those lines from the front so each new spot is a surprise is really exciting. It’s also really dangerous if you’re not super-aware of your surroundings, which this dude obviously is. Bravo.
They blur a filmer out on Josef’s switch fs feeb so I assumed he was a poacher who they were pissed off with, then they used his angle anyway. Is that bullying?
Can anyone tell me why Swedish housing complexes have wooden snake runs in them? Or subways that double as bobsleigh downhills? That one spot with the two down banks reminds me of that subway that everyone used to skate in Philly except the Swedish one probably smells of falafel rather than crack.
That dude Vincent Huhta has some really good footage in here. I’m glad he’s stopped doing that shrug to camera every time he lands something nonchalantly though. I’ve never met the guy and I’m guessing he’s sound but that shrug used to get on my tits. It put the ‘huh’ in Huhta. Joking: well kinda, I’m going to like anything that him and Gustav are in to be honest. If they’re both in the same video then fuck it – it’ll be banging. And it is. I enjoy the way that Vincent simultaneously looks like the most naturally gifted skateboarder you’ve ever seen and also like some guy who just picked up a board on his way home from the pub and has no idea what he’s doing. There’s a purity to it – he reminds me of Ben Jobe a bit. I bet he’s sick on those Melodica things that look like bongs with piano keys on them. He could probably MC a kid’s birthday party no bother.
Gustav Tønnesen comes last. It’s difficult to find adequate superlatives for how good this cunt is: ‘supernatural’ gets as close as I’m able. I hope he’s getting paid loot from adidas because he’s making their shit look well tasty. He probably lives off cashew nuts or something though, like a Buddhist.
To speak seriously for a moment: if you don’t rate Gustav then you’re dead to me. I’ve met him in real life a few times but I’ve never heard him speak. As far as I know he could be mute and only communicate via the medium of undoable skateboard tricks. He’s too hot to be that good – you know what I mean? I’d be scared to introduce him to my wife because I’d be worried that she’d just melt in the presence of his man bun and get pregnant off his breath. I’m not even sure I’d be that upset if it happened.
I read up on what Jante means because as I said, this video felt brainy. Apparently it’s an attitude very specific to Scandinavian countries, which frowns on being a big head or on gassing yourself up as the Don. I’m assuming Pontus must’ve missed that meeting. According to Wikipedia, Jante ‘characterizes as unworthy and inappropriate any behavior that is not conforming, does things out of the ordinary, or is personally ambitious’. If that’s true then everyone on this video is in deep shit. Especially Gustav. Perhaps it’s ironic? Fuck knows. Regardless, watch this you bellends. The filming alone deserves it.
I’m still not down for Lättöl beer though. Bun Systembolaget.
Shoutout to Kev Parrott for the technical assistance, Flo Mirtain for the sexy voiceover and to everyone who released a video with us this year. Oh and obviously to Quartersnacks for coming up with the coolest presentation ever for their expert filtering of the interweb’s sk8clips.
