Most Memorable Video Parts of 2009
As much as modern skate videos provide all the pleasantries of acute throat cancer, I still occasionally stumble across a few that remind me all hope is not lost. 2009 saw a slew of skate videos hitting skateshop shelves and company websites and it’s amazing that with even with the over a hundred skate videos coming out, we’re still able to find inspiration somewhere in the pile.
Here are a few of the gems that got me the most sparked this year. I’m not claiming this to be a definitive list of anything more than the video parts that I was lucky enough to see and be inspired by in 2009.
#11 BOBBY WORREST-RIGHT FOOT FORWARD
I wasn’t able to narrow it down to 10, so I had to throw in an extra part. Bobby Worrest stood in as the token east coast guy in Transworld’s latest video offering, but ended up coming correct with some really impressive footage and lots of local DC area spots. I was stoked to see Matt Beach finally get some screen time and I back Joey Brez, but I’m not feeling the MTV, overproduced direction videos have been taking over the past couple years. So much contrived pole jams and lifestyle shots and not enough raw street skating. I give the TWS guys credit for producing some super clean videos with great filming for years and years, but lately with these big company videos it’s felt like we’re watching the intro to The Real World instead of a skate video.
#10 FORREST KIRBY-STATE OF MIND
The Zoo York video was in production for 47 years and featured people launching out of canons and Brandon Westgate actually grinding UP the Empire State building. But, on the night of the premiere, it seemed to be the general consensus that it was Forrest Kirby’s part that had the best overall feeling to it. More than just a series of single tricks, this part had the flow of a skater who knows how to put together a video part together.
#9 ALEX DAVIS-HABITAT WELCOME VIDEO
If I spent over a year filming around the world only to have it end up as an internet “welcome to the team” video, I would emit a sonic boom of anger so loud that even Joe Castrucci and the Habitat Ewoks on the forest moon of Endor would be able to hear it. But, with that being said, I was really stoked to finally see Alex Davis get his time to shine since he’s deserved it for a long time. But I wanted to see this part in an actual full-length dvd. Oh well.
#8 ANTHONY PAPPALARDO- Mind Field re-edit
Impossibles are the new pressure flips. And nostalgia is the new black. Quartersnacks may have produced the video of the year without having to film a single g’damned trick. Brilliant. I was more than jealous when I first saw this re-edit, pissed that I hadn’t thought of this first. But when the Pappalardo part appeared on the screen I realized that my feeble mind never would’ve dreamt up something so ingenius. My prediction for 2010….companies will attempt to pay Quartersnacks to do a re-edit of their videos. No publicity is bad publicity. Unless you just straight up remove team members from the video. Ouch.
#7 ELI REED-STATE OF MIND
Ok….yeah, so there’s the BTO song. But cue up Eli’s part, kill the audio and play Wu-Tang’s “Da Mystery of Cheeseboxin” and you’re set. Pretty insane breakout part for an am. I wish he would’ve had a cameo trick by Gangemi in his part though.
#6 DENNIS BUSENITZ-DIAGONAL
If Dennis Busenitz puts any amount of energy into a video part, the result is going to be epic. Diagonal didn’t disappoint. I feel like he spent a total of possibly 5 days filming this part. But it’s better than most skaters’ 2 year epics.
#5 BOB BURNQUIST-EXTREMELY SORRY
Ok, this is a tough one or me. To applaud a skate video with cartoons and claymation may seem a strange decision. I agree that hiring Jim Henson and some Teletubbies to make your company more sellable to little kids seems an insult to the efforts and talents of such legends as Rowley, Penny, Mountain and Appleyard. But to ignore Burnquist’s video part would be blatantly thumbing my nose in the face of the gods of gnarl. Circus rails aside, just the mere height of the tricks he did on that massive vert wall were enough to make one shit a golden egg. You can’t watch this part w/out at least expressing 7-10 “holy shit”s and 14 “What the fuck”s. Amazing. This part kept me in sheer awe until it turned into a Dukes of Hazard episode with Bob launching into the Grand Canyon like Wile E. Coyote. It was at this point that I set my TV on fire with mental death-rays and left the room.
(Lance Mountain’s pool part really should also be mentioned as well as one of the raddest things that came out this year)
#4 GRANT TAYLOR-DEBACLE/MIND FIELD
Grant Taylor became a new favorite in ‘09. Dude’s style shits on 95% of skateboarding. I wish companies would learn to team up and let their riders just have one really dope part instead of splitting them between two projects in the same year. If Grant could’ve combined his Debacle part with his Mind Field footage it could’ve thrown planets out of alignment and turned Coke into Pepsi.
#3 ANTHONY VAN ENGELEN-MIND FIELD
Speed, power and creativity easily puts this video part in the top of 2009. I just watched this part for the first time in a while and am shocked by how good it is. It likely deserves the 1st place spot now that I think about it. But the overall feel of the combined song, skating and editing still doesn’t grab me like my choices for #’s 1 and 2.
#2 HEATH KIRCHART-MIND FIELD
If rumors are true, Heath Kirchart arrives at skate spots by repelling from helicopters and spies on other skaters’ late night filming sessions like a rogue government assassin. But these eccentricities only add to the mystique of his video parts. I don’t know how the dude does it, but he delivers every time with shockingly good footage and a perfectly chosen song that makes you want to have a good cry and reflect on why your mother never held you enough as a child. Hats off to Heath for proving you don’t have to fly to Kazakhstan and rape the streets of New York to produce a compelling and powerful video part.
#1 JAKE JOHNSON-MIND FIELD
The only complaint I’ve heard about this video part is about the out-of-the-box Animal Collective song. But, as far as I’m concerned, the song was the perfect compliment to Jake’s mix of power and finesse. Rumors of tricks Jake had done for this part were whispered around the streets of New York like unbelievable urban legends. But the part even surpassed those rumors and expectations once it hit the screen. You could make several different arguments for your choice of the best video part of 2009, but I bet that 5 years down the road this will last in our collective memories as the most iconic video part of 2009.
