"MEDIA BLITZ
his picks for
Here it is, Thrasher's picks
for best skate videos of
1990. These awards were
given on the basis of an
informal-very informal-
poll of skaters, Thrasher
readers, staff writers, pho-
tographers, the shipping
crew, friends and people on
the street. Then it was
mixed with repeated view-
ing and digested with gut
feeling. Here goes:
BEST OVERALL
Propaganda
Powell/Peralto
No doubt the people at P and P
have run the tightest, brightest
and most focused skate cam-
paign in the past ten years.
Those qualities show up in
"Propaganda." There is also
plenty of blood, sweat, tears,
progressive skating, heart and
soul, sense of humor, raw tal-
ent, an appreciation of the past.
present and future. You might
tions. Rough cuts include the
abuse of static and scratchy
backyard editing (maybe my
copy was flawed) and less than
powerful musical score. Other
videos may occasionally top
Propaganda in the tricks
department ("chink-chink to
chink-chink to ollie Smith stale
grab on the flat bottom", as T.H.
says) but, once again, a P/P
video sets a standard by which
all others should be measured.
SPONTANEOUS
COMBUSTION
Risk It
Speed Wheels Team
One of the first images in the
new 'Risk It" video is a No
Trespassing
sign on a pool
fence. "It is
chock full of
rapid fire, non-
stop action,
lawlessness,
blood and guts
with lotsa
flames and
broken stuff.
Speed Wheels Productions is
the most indiscriminate with
their coverage-everybody's in
it-sometimes even to the
exclusion of Santa Cruz team
riders. Bod Boyle doesn't show
up in "Risk It." Jason Jesse
steals the Oscar for acting with
ing in your his "art" shtick but gets shafted
say they even had a screen
play. The result is a video that
crosses over in its appeal to
interested non-skaters (mom,
dad, sis and bro) without com-
promise, yet
still. throws
skateboard-
face in mod-
ern back to
back fashion.
This vid has
you alternat-
ing from side
splitting belly
laughs during Lance Mountain's
opening spoof to pissing your
pants as Frankie Hill lofts a
soaring olie launch a la mute
over serious real estate. The
insane antics of the modern
Bones Brigade covers a world
of skating adventure that
includes Australia, Canada,
Scotland, England and the
Euro-Brigade HQ in Denmark
(very nice!). It's also nice to
meet newer rulers ike Harata,
Diaz, McKay, Mortimer, etc.
The rest of the tape is laced
with treacherous skating from
the likes of Lasek, McGill,
Caballero, Barbee, Saiz,
Sanderson and Underhill.
Cameron Martin hosts a special
freeway freestyle segment. It's
got the best bails and plenty of
comic relief. Tony Hawk as-
sures the final seal of approval
with blistering ramp routines,
fence clearing aerials and
crowd pleasing street demoll-
74 THRASHER MAGAZINE
on the vert coverage. In fair-
ness to T.R, he had mass
footage ripped off, which could
be the reason for some gaps.
Still, this film could lose fifteen
minutes of tape wasted on try
ing to give everybody coverage,
though. Other than that, Tony
Roberts puts his lens on the
line with some of the best fol
low-the-skater-with-camera
being done. It's stoked with
plenty of scenes like when a
ped asks the camera lens,
"How the hell do you do that?"
in reference to an ollie. Stalwart
skaters Salba, Kendall, Oster,
Jason Rogers, Eric Dressen,
Mike Youssefpour, Alan Peter
sen and Mark Partain take you
from street to mini to vert.
There are pools-a-plenty while
tunes from Blast!, Primus,
Crankshaft and Mind Over Four
assault you. Want to see more
of: Schneer tail dropping ten
feet of vert. Tim Jackson's
Venice stylee, Ricky Stiles and
Dave Ruel pool partyin', Todd
Congeliere's vertical golf shots,
Colby Carter skating with a cast
of twelve security guards,
police, dickheads, etc. Also,
there's the ditch that Todd
Swank rides and Danny Way's
to be continued" 900 attempt.
Encore.
HOME MOVIES
Splendid Eye Torture
Blockhead
The Blockhead video comes
straight out of the "anybody
with a camera
SPLENDID can do this
TORTURE school and
works. It also
starts with
total chaos
and stays that
way. A quick
outline: junk
yard skating.
indoor skat-
ing, lawn mowing, oven sliding.
children's playground terrorism,
Tijuana marketplace, donkey
nostrils, bowling. lawnmower
skating, barefooted, bare
assed, supermarket sweepers.
rail swallowing and backwards
skating. All of that and Torture
still manages solid profiles on
stallions in their formidable
amateur stables. Jeff Taylor,
Andy Scott, Steve Teague,
Andy Braymer, Geoff Ortlip,
Frank Atwater, Mike Barnes,
Rick Howard and JD Gibson all
tear. Heavyweights, Sam Cun-
ningham, Omar Hassan and
Ron Cameron round out the
action mostly centered on the
Blockhead multi-mini ramp
facility. SET has one of the
best, most consistent sound
mixes of any tape and it's never
lightweight. Punk tunes from
Fugazi, Committed and Olive
Lawn are cranked right along
with board noise loud enough
to keep your neighbors on
edge. Other sounds are sam-
pled from just about every
where (TV, soundtracks, etc.)
and mixed with the video
graphics, tints, high contrast
and plenty of slow mo to create
a wild ride.
CURRENT RAW FOOTAGE
"Useless Wooden Toys
New Deal
Without introduction, UWT
"useless
wooden
toys
takes off and
seems to let
up only when
a skater does
a long manual
roll. Even
when some
one (Justin
Girard) finally
speaks, he's
out of breath.
"Useless" is basically just
cleaned up raw footage but it's
some of the most current out on
commercial video. It showcases
talented New Dealers like John
Duff, Tim Brauch, Joe Ryke-
bosch, Paul Zitzer, Chris Hall,
and Anthony Hancock, ripping
the latest ollies-to-nose slides
and Smith grinds-to-rail slides-
to-Smiths. Proven pros Andy
Howell, Andrew Morrison, Brent
Fellows and Steve Douglas go
through their paces. Music is
provided via the debut of Jam
soundalikes Odd Numbers and
full throttle crankers Hemi. On
the down side, Useless WT
takes the 'most appearances
by camera man's shadow"
award. At one point Danny Sar-
gent ollies the shadow repeat-
edly while the camera-boarder
click clacks down the sidewalk
in pursuit. Summary: Worth it
for any Andy Howell footage,
Ali Mills' simultaneous nose
and tail slides and insane allie
kickflip to the dark side and
back. Neal Hendrix shows why
he's the brightest star on the
horizon. Lastly. Rick Ibeseta's
hydrant jump before a large
posse tells it like it i
it is.
BORING RIPPING
Hokus Pokus
H-Street
Hokus Pokus was the first
video release of 1990. Skate
or 20
film vet Mike
McEntire shot
and edited it
with a basic
philosophy:
take one of the
best teams
going, use no
wasted shots,
make every
maneuver
incredible. Still, there's no plot.
plan or structure, some feeble
attempts at humor, many of the
same tricks are done over and
over (even the same shots) and
it's hard to figure out who's who
by the mumbled dialogue.
There are virtually no board
sound effects and slides and
the weak music doesn't com-
pensate. But, but, that doesn't
hold back the obvious talents of
the H-Street crew on street,
vert or mini. Sal Barbier, John
Sonner, Brian Lotti, Tony Mag-
nusson and part-time H-boy
Danny Way tear. You can't get
enough of Matt Hensley in this
vid. He should have one of his
own. Also popping in are Alfon-
so Rawls, Noah Salasnek,
Mikey Carroll, Sean Sheffey,
Steve Ortega and Jon Reeves
and the Donger. A real treat is
the segment with master Eddie
Elguera and there are some
hellacious beefs and bongos.
GRIND KIИG
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