DC Shoes and Thrasher released Nyjah Huston’s new video part last week. It is bonkers. It takes some pausing and rewatching to really understand how crazy it is, because nobody should look that relaxed front blunting and flipping a board onto rails that big. Go watch it.
Now, maybe it’s because I’m cynical or jaded because I’ve seen so many “part-to-end-all-parts” announcement over the years – Jerry, MJ, Koston, Mariano, Koston again, Mariano again, Bob, Westgate, Jamie Thomas, Danny Way, Chris Cole, Rowley, Arto, Appleyard – you get the idea. And that’s just been in the past ten to fifteen years.
It’s a weird contrast – on one hand, I’m witnessing the literal progression of skateboarding. Nyjah is doing tricks that have never been done on spots that could easily kill you. But I keep catching myself drifting away. Am I… bored?
I’m not alone. In the age of film-quality-or-better DSLRs and pocket computers that shoot in HD, people are making skate videos with VHS camcorders and VX1000s. The popsicle shape is the pinnacle of functional skate deck design, plus or minus a few tweaks over the years, but companies are selling weirdly shaped decks and popularizing once-passé gear.
Like the musicians who have found (or kept) an audience for limited-edition cassettes and 7” records despite the ease and accessibility of digital files, skateboarding is developing a taste for the throwback.
It makes sense: there are only a small handful of people in the world who can skate like Nyjah Huston. To paraphrase Mike Vallely in The Bones Brigade documentary: a kid watching that video part might think, “wow, skateboarding is really scary and hard, look at that.”
So I put on the Polar promo, which I first watched because it’s named after all three tricks I can do: “No Complies & Wallrides +shuvits.” It’s a totally different experience. There are DIY spots, like the ones I’ve made with my friends. There are dudes hollering and making weird noises when someone makes a trick. People fall down. It seems… real. Relatable.
There’s been an element of that throughout skateboarding’s history, only now it’s not reduced to gang-style rivalries like Hosoi vs. Hawk or Ramp Locals vs. Daggers. The Girl/Anti-Hero tours parodied the idea, reminding us we’re all still a bunch of goofy dudes playing with toys, no matter how different our video parts look.
The surge of small skater-owned companies is heartening. I love that Colin Read put out a video filmed entirely as seen in a VX1000 viewfinder. The feeling of watching a new clip, seconds after finally making it, is something most skateboarders know.
Not every skateboarder has perfect schoolyards, a professional film crew, a TF, or paid travel to literally any spot in the world. Most of us spend a few months of the year skating in the garage or the basement, or shoveling spots and dealing with frozen bushings. We don’t have a budget to cover tickets, or “optimize” every skate spot, or bribe security.
”There’s a certain polish, an air of artifice to it; it’s perfect, but not in the way Nate Jones’ 360 flips are perfect.”
Nyjah is good, one of skateboarding’s best. But his skating doesn’t speak to me. There’s a certain polish, an air of artifice to it; it’s perfect, but not in the way Nate Jones’ 360 flips are perfect. It’s perfect like you got the green bonus on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. And sure, that’s great, but it’s not MY version of skateboarding.
But skateboarding isn’t about perfect. It’s about having fun. We’re all a bunch of weirdos. It’s cool seeing some of those weirdos do things that have never been done before. It’s cool seeing some of those weirdos printing their weirdo friends’ art on boards and shirts and selling them on BigCartel.
In that way, the kind of Northeast-inspired urban skateboarding that’s become so high profile is welcoming. It tells some little kid in Nebraska on YouTube, “We skate shitty spots, too, but look what we can do. It’s cold as hell here too, but we’ve got thermals and flannel and coats. Let’s do this.”
There’s a feeling of connection you get watching those lo-fi videos. The homie montages, back yard miniramp footage… you could be skating there with them. You feel like you’re at the session. That spot looks so gnarly. How did he even ride up that? HOLY SHIT he made it!
My favorite new video is that clip on YouTube of Pontus Alv cruising around. He doesn’t skate “spots” he just skates whatever’s there. It’s pure 100% down-for-life skate rat, compressed and stored in YouTube forever. When I watch that video, I get the same feeling as when I’m watching a friend make their trick.
Look, we all understand someone has to be “the best,” if only because of semantics. I appreciate that there are people out there who always strive for bigger, faster, longer, higher, and more. That’s progress. They produce people like Geoff Rowley, who famously assumed magazines and videos represented how all pros skate every day. But they also turn away a lot of kids who miss out on the simple pleasures of skating because they can’t live up to “professional” standards for one reason or another.
Serious, heavy-hitter video parts will always exist, but they aren’t the end-all, be-all of “good” in skateboarding. Nyjah’s part is a game-changer, but so was Louie Barletta’s Tilt Mode part, and so was Jason Lee’s part in A Visual Sound.
So, which is “better?”
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December 10, 2013 12:07 pm
I totally agree with this guys point of view, Nyjah definitely killed it and made a game changing part for skateboarding but its nothing new really. People have been doing this for years and its just on to the next one each year, I’m sure someone will put out a part next year that will have everyone going just as crazy as this one, but Nyjah gets shit for it because he represents so many things wrong with skating as a whole. He plays into this crazy corporate sponsorship and skates every contest and It honestly seems like for him skating is just about the money and status. I mean I’m sure he loves it to an extent but he knows he’s extremely talented and he definitely takes advantage of that fact. I’m glad he didn’t win SOTY for sure too. Ishod put in way more work than Nyjah and Ishod is a skaters skater. Sorry to rant, I just feel that these things matter when considering the current state of skateboarding as a whole. I’d rather watch that footage of Pontus Alv 9 times out of 10, its just simple cruising around having fun, which is why we all started skating to begin with right?
December 10, 2013 12:55 pm
Most of the people who argue that skateboarding is about style and about having fun, and who claim that Nyjah has neither style nor fun (with skating), do not realize that “style” and what it means to be stylish is quite subjective. People might think that Nyjah’s skating is boring to watch (and that’s okay- everybody is entitled to having their own opinion), but to say he has no style is just pure stupidity. he just has a different style than many others. His skating is technical and he skates massive rails, while looking like it’s nothing, and I personally think that is amazing and it DOES inspire me, even though I couldn’t do one single trick that he did.
and why do people tend to think they know whether Nyjah has fun skating or not? people don’t know shit. I bet he has more fun skating than most others do. Give him a break. Just because you don’t like the way he skates does not mean he “has no style”, “has no fun” or anything else. it just means that you don’t like him. then don’t watch him and please stop the fucking bitching.
I like Nyjah, but that does not mean I don’t like Ishod Wair, Louie Barletta or someone else, who skates different from Nyjah Huston.
I like the skaters who do perfect tricks (YES the kind of tricks that would get you the green bonus in THPS) like for example nyjah, p-rod, shane o’ neill, pj ladd and so on, but that does not mean that I hate on other skaters just because they DON’T skate like that.
stop hating and accept/respect that skaters are different from each other.
December 10, 2013 5:27 pm
wake up
he skates like a fucking robot objectively and thats terrible
December 11, 2013 11:30 am
He skates like the best there ever was. That’s what he does. Just because tricks come easier for him doesn’t make him a fuckin robot but fucking the most talented skater of the century. Just because he isn’t pushing around doing little funny Ollies up curbs doesn’t mean he can’t do that, maybe he just don’t wanna show.
December 10, 2013 2:54 pm
I think of Nyjah’s style of skating similarly to how I felt about vert in the early/mid-90’s. I recognize the difficulty and gnarliness of it but it has no effect or influence on my local skate scene. I can see where some skaters would think the same way about the shit I like.
December 11, 2013 12:55 pm
nailed it
December 10, 2013 3:24 pm
I think you’re all fucked in the head.
December 10, 2013 4:45 pm
my favorite comment besides my own.
December 11, 2013 4:21 pm
Wilson!
Wilson nooooooo!
willsssoooonnn!!
January 31, 2014 1:12 am
oh Wilson, i’ll kill you till you die