While gearing up for Christmas we have already started reminiscing about 2017 and the video output which has greeted our eyes, culminating in a loose selection of videos which made an impact. There has been a heavy UK presence out there this year which saw Slam team rider Lucien Clarke in the running for Thrasher SOTY. This was of course because of his ‘Palasonic’ part but also because of his prolific Instagram presence. It’s a crazy time where the 1 minute Instagram constraints are what seem to run peoples psychology. While we are all for this medium it is weird that the attention span for full length skate videos seems to be diminishing yet people will binge watch a 12 episode Netflix series in a day. Ty Evans talked about bigger companies deeming a full length video unnecessary in his recent Nine Club. He disagrees and we do too. What will the next premiere at the Prince Charles be? What will the end of 2018 bring? Whatever happens here are some of our picks which are made up of single parts but also some bigger projects which punctuated the year past…
The long awaited full length video from Palace Skateboards ‘Palasonic’ arrived and proved that it is well worth making something with a bigger punch behind it. Ever since the first VHS camera arrived and Lev Tanju got to grips with using it this project was on the cards. Years of filming plus hundreds of video tapes made this a huge project to edit but the end result wins out. We are biased seeing as Slam team riders Rory Milanes, Blondey McCoy, Charlie Young, Danny Brady and Lucien Clarke all have amazing footage. This is an unapologetic love letter to our city. We all enjoyed going to the premiere and long may these labours of love occur and continue to bring the scene together in celebration. Lucien Clarke’s part beginning with an ode to Victoria Benches is the reason full length videos need to exist. The emotion and story behind this could not be communicated in any other way 🙏
From Jacob Harris’ Atlantic Drift series the second part really made a dent in our psyche. His crew consisting of Tom Knox, Sylvain Tognelli, Nick Jensen, Mike Arnold, Chris Jones, Remy Taveira and Casper Brooker focus their attention on St Paul’s, a famous London proving ground. These guys really opened up the spot with visionary lines and NBD’s which have resonated as it has been seen a fair bit since.
This DC Promo Video was an unexpected mind boggler. Tristan Funkhouser, Wes Kremer and Evan Smith have amazing parts full of what we would expect from them. Then Tiago Lemos’ assault on 2017 begins and confirms that he is on a whole other level.
Nike SB had a steady video presence throughout the year. Instead of posting a single video we thought this round up was a better option. This features Luan Oliveira’s “One For All” part, the “Loud Pack” video featuring Grant Taylor, Ishod Wair and Cory Kennedy, the “Elite Squad” videos featuring Oskar Rozenberg, Kevin Terpening and Cyrus Bennett and “Camp Pain” featuring Ishod Wair, Grant Taylor, Eric Koston, Vincent Touzery, Cory Kennedy and Kevin Terpening. This ends with Shane O’Neill’s epic “Levels” part filled with his superhuman skill set.
This was Jamie Foy’s year and what a mad one it was which paved the road to him winning SOTY. This is his “Welcome To Deathwish” part which came out in January. In November he had more footage in the “Deathwish Part One” video where he shared a section with Jake Hayes which came out in November. He also went nuts for the “Am Scramble”. To top it all off his part in Ty Evans’ “The Flat Earth” came out in December. This is no longer available to view legit. See Jamie Foy’s battle with the rail at El Toro which appears in “The Flat Earth” HERE which is the stuff of legend.
Is it weird having Tiago Lemos in this list twice? Not really, he was the other contender we thought would win SOTY. This part for Independent which came out in November and cemented him as one of our favourites to watch. This is a rabbit hole we could easily descend into further but we are going to put a cap on it right now. Just to add some symmetry here is another Palace part to finish the list. “The Merchandise” came out in August…
Once again we may be biased but seeing Slam team rider Danny Brady absolutely killing it in Miami and NYC was another highlight of 2017 for us. There were a ton of other videos which didn’t make it into this list and what you see here is a few of the more predictable ones. This list picked from the ether is made up of fairly obvious visual milestones, expect to see some more obscure staff and team picks in the coming days.