News: Donny Barley: Skate Providence
It’s not often that we’re able to see the most classic styles in skateboarding featured on screen for more than one or two 3 second clips these days. Although we’re force-fed a new online video piece every time a skater brushes his teeth, it seems like the only time we get to see the skaters with the most iconic, classic street styles it’s only with a quick guest clip here or there in a random montage. I think it’s often forgotten how powerful it is just to see some of these guys just skate, without analyzing the technicality of the tricks being done, or the number of stairs at the spot. The beauty of the Ride Channel “SKATE” show we’ve been doing is that we get to pick the skaters we want to feature and the pressure to focus on the level of tricks we film doesn’t exist. Jeremy Elkin helped us make it possible to get someone with one of the most classically dope street styles his own Ride Channel episode. And I couldn’t be more stoked.
I remember when Transworld magazine started using the silhouette of a skater mid-oliie for their little sign-off icon at the end of editorial content and, although this little character was just a silhouette, it was immediately apparent that it was taken from a photo of Donnie Barley. Donny’s style is unmistakeable and it’s surprising how refreshing it is to see him push down the street when this “SKATE Providence” episode first starts playing. After arranging the details of this show it became apparent that I was too busy to travel the 3 hrs north to shoot it and thankfully Jeremy Elkin stepped in to make it happen. This episode was shot and edited by Jeremy and I can’t thank him enough for taking charge of it and doing a great job.
Oh, and did I mention Donny’s guest in the show is Eric Pupecki? Amazing. Thanks to Donny, Eric and Kevin Lynch for taking part in the show.