"The first ever skateboarding chiasmus"
March 6, 2020 1:51 AM   Subscribe

"Like all forms, the skate video survives—is destroyed and remade—thanks to the innovations of its avant-garde. A recent attempt to remake this form premiered on the Thrasher website this October: Verso, an eleven-minute solo video part compiled by skateboarder Mark Suciu and cinematographer Justin Albert."

A remarkable read about skate videos in general and one in particular, by Stephen Piccarella, writing in N+1 magazine.

"Verso’s final section of four total sets up a series of tricks that Kyle Beachy, writing for the skate magazine Jenkem, calls 'the first ever skateboarding chiasmus.' Suciu performs seven tricks, beginning with a frontside 50-50, a deceptively simple grind, and then the same seven tricks in reverse order, now in the opposite stance, or from the opposite side of the board, or with a rotation in the opposite direction; a loose analogy might be playing every position on a baseball team, both as a lefty and a righty."

There's also a less rewarding reaction / breakdown video which gets instantly derailed by a discussion about why Suciu chose a 50-50 as his ender... totally missing the point of the structure of the final section of the video.
posted by ZipRibbons (18 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
He is so fast. Bam Bam Bam! What an amazing video. I wouldn't have picked up on the reverse at the end without you mentioning it, but that's even more amazing.

Great post.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:09 AM on March 6, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm like, so someone figured out how to do that stuff. Everything you can do in Skate, but IRL. Tricks you'd fantasize about, "Dude, fuckin backside boardslide to frontside railslide. Pshhheww Just bloop shove it around. Then yeah, do a double kick flip out of it "" [plays with finger board]
posted by rhizome at 3:48 AM on March 6, 2020 [3 favorites]


Gnarly! (Am I using this right?)... Seriously, the skating part is ridiculously impressive. But the "I'm going to cinematography the shit out of this" aspect seems kind of grafted on, like somebody applied a photoshop filter.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 4:41 AM on March 6, 2020 [2 favorites]


Is the music in the video Morrissey or a Morrissey soundalike?
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:05 AM on March 6, 2020


Sick. Sick.
posted by gwint at 6:32 AM on March 6, 2020 [2 favorites]


I liked the part where he rode his skateboard.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:06 AM on March 6, 2020 [1 favorite]


I also liked the part where he rode his skateboard.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:06 AM on March 6, 2020 [1 favorite]


No offense, Slarty, but I also enjoyed the part where the board man is doing boarder tricks.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:13 AM on March 6, 2020 [1 favorite]


Doesn't avant-garde as hard as Alien Workshop's Memory Screen. Still rad.
posted by photoslob at 8:21 AM on March 6, 2020


Sk4te. I want to believe.
posted by Nelson at 9:29 AM on March 6, 2020


Is the music in the video Morrissey or a Morrissey soundalike?

The one at the title card is from the Virgin Suicides soundtrack by Air.
posted by rhizome at 11:01 AM on March 6, 2020


I made the decision to leave high school a bit early to try and become a professional skateboarded.

I had 800 bucks and a greyhound ticket. I was convinced the only thing holding me back was the 1996-ish rain in Oregon. So I went to San Diego. On the bus, with what I would soon learn was essentially zero money.

For some reason I thought things would just work out. They didn't. I'm not really sure how I expected to live. I couldn't even rent a hotel since I didn't have a credit card.

Went to some punk shows and ended up at some house parties and crashed there. But mostly slept outside in bushes. And then I would skate all day. I made it about two weeks before running out of food money. But I had a blast. And my family only gave me minimal shit for failing and crawling back home. I think they admired my stupidity. But it was also good, looking back to know that they thought I was equipped with the tools to not die. Or they didn't care. But I am the eternal optimist!

And I was actually not a terrible skateboarder back in the day. As long as I did my homework I didn't have a curfew so I would skate 8+ hours a day.

But the one thing that struck me about the video is the choice of shoes. Those Adidas are about the worst skate shoes I could imagine wearing. No arch support. His poor feet. But he is about a bazillian times better than I ever was. San Diego Part II.
posted by johnpowell at 9:08 PM on March 6, 2020 [5 favorites]


Fantastic story johnpowell.

Also the linked article above briefly mentions that tons of skaters are sponsored by Adidas these days. Turns out I am an old.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:00 AM on March 7, 2020


Is the music in the video Morrissey or a Morrissey soundalike?

I'm pretty sure it's Beirut.
posted by IAmDrWorm at 10:41 AM on March 7, 2020 [2 favorites]


> Is the music in the video Morrissey or a Morrissey soundalike?

This incredible track by La Femme is on there.

Full tracklist in the end credits and YouTube comments.
posted by ZipRibbons at 3:58 AM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


As I read through the YouTube comments and the OP again, I realize that "[video] part" is apparently a term of art of some kind, but I can't make out for sure what it means. Part of what?
posted by sjswitzer at 7:41 AM on March 8, 2020


> Part of what?

Usually a skate video is put out by a team (like Santa Cruz or Enjoi) or a magazine (like Thrasher) or just a bunch of friends. The video is made up of a bunch of parts or sections. Each part showcases one particular skater doing their thing.
posted by ZipRibbons at 10:55 AM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


> Part of what?

Yeah, part [of a longer video with other skaters]. I want to say it comes from the Natas part in Wheels of Fire. There were individual parts in videos before, but that was the first one that would become the only reason to watch the video at all.

After that, people who wanted to be sponsored ("endorsed" in other sports) by companies would send in their own "parts" in the form of homemade demo videos. Then, most if not all videos became compilations of parts rather than having some overall "plot" (such as they were), and then YouTube came along and now "parts" are pretty much all that get made and all that get watched. Even going back and watching old videos, I only ever want to watch certain sections.
posted by rhizome at 1:35 PM on March 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


« Older Music for Pleasure is dead   |   And what is better than a good woman? Nothing. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments