By now the “holiday” has passed and our productivity took a hit, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to look back at the best skate vid to come out in April. You might not know JP by name, but unless you haven’t watched a good skate video in years than you’ve definitely seen his filming. JP Blair has been a filmer with the Bronze crew since their first video, 56k but this is one of the first videos that he’s edited and released on his own.

***420 Vid*** (smoke dat shit), is made up of footage from 2016 – 2019 featuring all the Bronze regulars. Instead of just posting the vid and rolling back into bed, we hit JP to answer some lighthearted questions about it and the smoking habits of his friends. Sit back and remember a time when the world was only kind of terrible.

Since the video came out on 4/20, who smokes the most weed out of the crew?
Brian Costadina, Danny Dipp takes the title for most clapped.

What’s your stance on CBD? Is it for posers?
Neutral, do you b.

Do any of the homies smoke mids?
Kevin Tierney for sure.

Is buying weed an essential service?
Essentially.

This was filmed over 3 years, what changed in your life over those years?
Shit man, honestly a lot has changed. I started traveling a lot at the end of 2016 for work and also going on Bronze and Grand Collection trips a lot. I don’t want to talk about myself too much, but I do feel grateful that I am able to travel the world with my friends and support myself doing the shit I love.

Was any of this footage used in anything else or were you sitting on it for this?
A lot of the footage is footage Peter hadn’t used for It’s Time or the 2020 Promo, and there’s a grip of footage that was originally going to be in a Labor video that we were filming during the summer of 2016. Shoutout James.

How long have you been filming with the Bronze dudes? Do you have a hand in editing the Bronze videos?
It’s hard to say because I’ve known a lot of the “Bronze dudes” before Bronze was even a thing. I’ve known [co-founders] Pat and Peter since 2005, I’ve been contributing footage to Peter’s video since then. Think the first clip I had in one of his videos was Flipmode 2006. I met Kevin Tierney in 2005 as well, and met Billy [Mcfeely] when I first moved out to New York for school in 2007. Vega I’ve known since I was 14 maybe? And then people like Josh Wilson, Richie, Chachi, I’ve known them since they were like thirteen years old.

The crew and company has grown so much since the beginning, so hyped to see my friends making noise for so long. But to answer your question, I guess it’d be early on, or the beginning. A lot of footage in the first Bronze video was footage I had filmed for my video that I put out in 2012 that I just didn’t use. But yeah nah, Peter [Sidlauskas] is the mastermind behind the editing of the Bronze videos.

What made you want to put this video together and release it on your own channel?
Me and some of my friends have been joking about a 4/20 vid since 2017, and with the quarantine and all the leftover footage I had, it just felt right to make something. I honestly just miss my friends and going skating with them, so I tried to make something I thought they’d like.

Who is the don of New Jersey skateboarding right now?
Fred Gall, always and forever.

If you could only film one Jersey skater for the rest of your life who would it be?
Brian Wenning early 2000’s.

This is the first Jacob Gottlieb footage that’s come out in a while, where’s he been?
He’s been around, he never went anywhere. He was getting super busy with production work, but never stopped skating or anything. With the exception of four or five clips, all of Jacob’s footage is from the summer when we were working on the Labor video.

How do you think skating and filming will change (if at all) in a post-Corona world?
I mean it depends what tier of skating and what kind of skater you are. If you’re a street skater, I don’t think all that much will change honestly. I don’t tend to be hanging out at skateparks or any of that shit, so we’re usually on some cutty block away from people to begin with.

I think the only thing that will change for me personally is going on trips. I think the lack of travel especially internationally will be limited, so maybe we’ll just plan some trips stateside and make a road trip out of it. If you’re a contest skater, I hate to say it but, you’re fucked for a minute.

“If you’re a contest skater, I hate to say it but, you’re fucked for a minute.”

Do you still have any work right now? As a filmer has stuff dried up overnight?
Nah, nobody is really working right now-at least in my field. Filming skating is just something I do because I love it and enjoy doing it, but I don’t make any of my money from it.

I do other video work outside of skating, whether it be shooting, editing, coloring, etc. But since everything’s shut down there is no work in any of those departments. Luckily I wrapped up a job right before the quarantine began, and was able to get a day working from home doing a coloring job for a day…so I still do have some money coming in. Bummed though, I had a shoot with Gigi Hadid at the end of last month that got canceled because of the coronavirus :(

If Gigi Hadid said she’d be down to “Netflix and Chill” with you right now and risk Corona, would you?
Fuck it, mask off.

What’s the optimum amount of times to jerk it per day during quarantine?
Four hundred and twenty.

Interview: Larry Lanza
Portrait Photo: Adrian Vega
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