Visuals: Mark Suciu

Posted on August 29, 2025 2:10 pm

We were hyped to connect with Mark Suciu while he was in London in recent months, after he returned home we caught up again by way of the “Visuals” interview below. Enjoy learning more about his selection, a series of picks that are united by video parts playing a central theme…

Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Mark Suciu at Mile End shot by Lloyd Davies

Mark Suciu is someone who has appeared on our blog previously, but some serious time has elapsed since then. When we approached him about doing another interview, he was instantly down to work on something, but hesitant about what it should be. It transpires that, having been interviewed more than most over the years, he has decided he has used up that juice somewhat and wasn’t too keen to embark on another conversation dissecting his career. This made settling on a “Visuals” interview an interesting format to explore some things that have inspired him, both recently and as constants. It was nice to hear him elaborate on his choices and the reasons they have affected him, while managing to still check in on his current reality.

Mark has built a legacy by being one of the greatest proponents of the importance and necessity of video parts. This has always been achieved by grafting to create some of the most carefully and thoughtfully crafted parts in skateboarding’s rich tapestry. Here, he gets to pick apart some moments from others and the effect they have had on him. Unintentionally, even the visuals he picked that were unrelated to video parts as such, still had distinct ties to some very memorable ones. When it came to picking a specific video part to speak about, Mark chose a very recent Gabriel Summers endeavour, a stand-alone release which made a marked emotional impact on him. He describes why he likes it so much, how it communicates who Gabbers is, and how it has inspired him personally.

The trick of choice selected for this was Javier Sarmiento’s ender from the Cant Stop The Firm release from 2003, a VHS tape that was in heavy rotation. The nuances of performing “the pinnacle of ledge tricks” is discussed, as is the notion of it being done first try. This is something that has since been debunked, but nevertheless, this idea is something that inspired a young Mark Suciu to tap into a mindset where he too, was performing at the height of his powers. The impact PJ Ladd’s part in the Coliseum video had on Mark’s young mind is no secret; he has spoken on it previously, and even playfully recreated one of his seminal lines. We’re happy we got to explore this important part via an image Joe Brook shot of PJ Ladd’s éS Accel after seven days of skating, an interesting way to expand on this influential moment in time. The final visual selected is a Jason Dill deck from the Alien Workshop Mind Field series, something that is evocative of a period of immense freedom and possibility.

We concluded our call by learning more about his recent travels, his plans for the future, and his feelings about our city and the skateboarders who had helped shape its history. It was amazing to hear how much he loves London and a pleasure to connect with Mark, who is, of course, in the middle of working on another part we can’t wait to see. His recent time in London was a productive one, combining a city break with his girlfriend and a busy filming schedule with Justin Albert and Freddy Schneider. Even with all of this going on, he squeezed in a morning at Mile End with our store manager Lloyd Davies, and we’re pleased to include the results of this mission in the article. Enjoy the following insights from one of our favourite skateboarders…

Gabriel Summers – Zero Skateboards: No White Flag (2024)

As a preface, I realised when doing this that everything I have picked relates to video parts, which is funny. Gabbers’ No White Flag part is one of the latest good examples that video parts still do matter so much.I put this on very recently. I had just been on a trip with Gabbers [Gabriel Summers] and I told my girlfriend about how crazy he is. To help explain him I made her watch his part because I knew she would like the Dido song as well. As I put it on I was thinking of it in the simplest terms of showing her who he is. But then, when I rewatched his part I was so emotionally moved by it, this insanely beautiful part. It’s the strongest emotional impact a video part has had on me in a long time.

I love Gabbers, I love skating with him, and we’ve been going on trips together recently with adidas. I feel like we all knew who Gabbers was but then this video which is edited by Jamie Thomas and Vinny Dalfio showed everyone else. It’s beautiful, and it’s absolutely some of his best skating. He is an insane skater anyway, and he always has been, but this part, with the editing and the music, just skyrocketed him and his career. Now we all know and love Gabbers. I think a lot of our skate community does not rely on video parts any more, or downplays their importance, but this is an example of their power. If you make a really fucking good video part you’re going to be rewarded and we will all love you. I could know and love Gabbers from skating with him, and knowing his other video parts. But to have the experience of putting this on to show my girlfriend who he is and then having this realisation of “Holy fuck, this is exactly who he is!” was amazing. Skateboarding is blessed to have him. There is such a crazy change in feeling from this four minute web clip. I think full-length video parts are still so important, and this is a great example of that.

“when I rewatched his part I was so emotionally moved by it, this insanely beautiful part. It’s the strongest emotional impact a video part has had on me in a long time”

If you post your clips on Instagram, we all see how good you are and that’s dope. But when you see a video like this one, I feel like I’m inside Gabbers’ head a little bit. I see what some of the hardest tricks he can do are, what he cares about, and with this editing I see why it’s important. I feel like I’m him in a sense, like I’m in his world and it makes me care so much more about it. You watch a clip on Instagram and the clip happens to you, you’re made aware of the trick, it’s impressive, it’s an update on what people are doing. There’s this extra interiority to a video part. This part makes me value not only Gabbers’ skating but skating in general, and it makes me want to tap into my own vision. It makes me want to fight with a security guard to get a trick. It makes me want to care that much, it’s infectious.

I really love the first line he has, the back tail drop down back tail and then the gap out to crooked grind. Not many people are even doing drop down back tails, it’s hard to do. I love that he does it in a line and there’s no focus on it, then he does this huge gap to crook as the song is kicking in. It’s slow-mo, and I feel like it’s filmed in a really interesting way because he’s gone from the screen for a bit when he’s obscured by the wall. It lets you know straight away that there’s something really special going on with this video part. The part has a lot of slow-mo, lots of time to breathe, and not many lines, which is such a sign of an ender part, a last part like you would see in old school videos like Yeah Right! or Menikmati. The Dido song in Gabbers’ part is an exciting left field pick in my eyes but having spent more time with him I know that he loves The Cranberries, he loves Dido, and music like that, that’s really who he is. He’s always been an amazing skater, and he outdid himself skate-wise but most importantly he switched it up a little bit and it felt organic, and amazing. Suddenly he’s on all of the adidas trips, and he’s a key part of the Thames team, further proving that a video part still has huge importance.

We were all in Toronto recently when he did that backside 50-50 and we were so afraid. We thought he was going to die. We went to that spot early in the trip and he said he was definitely going to skate it but we kept telling him “it’s wood”. He went there to skate it three times. The first time he was rolling up to do a backside boardslide, he went through the process for thirty minutes but psyched himself out. I couldn’t even watch, I was off to the side hoping he wouldn’t try it, and that day he didn’t. Then we went back a second time but the sun was in his eyes. Then we returned when the sun had set. I didn’t;’t even know he had switched up the trick from a boardslide to a back fifty. Then when I heard it I was like “Fuck, really? Is he sure it’s going to grind?” The rail is made of wood so a boardslide makes sense for this. You can clearly slide a wooden rail if you wax it but will it grind? I wasn’t watching, then I heard him pop, the lock in and heard the sound of the momentum going down the rail. I immediately stood up and ran over to see him rolling away. We were all so relieved he did it, and so happy. He just tackled this twenty-stair wooden rail that nobody had ever skated.

Javier Sarmiento – THE FIRM: Can’t Stop (2003)

This trick is so fucking sick because he says afterwards “First try, eh?” So, if we’re taking it as a first try ender, this means that your hardest trick is also your simplest trick—so all of your skills as a skateboarder are within your grasp, you’re at the height of your powers. I just love that aspect of it. This guy could just walk out of his front door that morning, go skate, and do anything he wants to. and this is obviously a really good trick. A kickflip backside noseblunt is pretty much the pinnacle of ledge tricks, it’s always been a next level move to do on a hubba or a rail. It’s even harder to do on a hubba because you have to keep it locked in, you can’t just make contact like you can on a rail and then fall out of it. He does the trick so well. It’s such a sick spot, the hubba looks invitingly low, and it’s perfectly waxed. But also, I think when you actually get down to it, to roll up to this trick knowing you need to be in a tweaked noseblunt. That is already such a weird body position to be able to get into. But, to be able to just tell yourself you’re going to kickflip and then do that straight away, and roll away right now is fucking crazy. I love Javier [Sarmiento]’s skating, this is one of my favourite tricks of his, it’s his ender, and he does it first try. It’s all beautiful.

“This trick definitely came to mind because I had spent a lot of time looking at the sequence and reading that it was first try, then seeing it in the video”

I love The Firm Can’t Stop video. I had it on VHS, and I loved everybody in it. I wasn’t a fan of all the skits because they moved way too slow for me but Lance Mountain’s dream sequence was so, so cool. I love Javier’s song, I love the éS shoes that he’s skating in his part, the crazy blue Koston 1’s are so sick. This was also one of the only instances where I couldn’t figure out a skaters stance because of the switch tre flip noseslide on the gap to ledge. There’s a lot of beautiful clips in the part, Venice beach at sunset, twilight clips in Spain, I always loved the backside flip switch manual 180 out that he does in his hometown of Bilbao. I had a CCS magazine, a physical copy, and a sequence of his ender appeared in a Skate One ad. I recall that saying that this trick was first try too. Being from my generation, there was a lot of time spent not watching videos but still thinking about skating with a print publication in your hands. You just dream about stuff, and this trick definitely came to mind because I had spent a lot of time looking at the sequence and reading that it was first try, then seeing it in the video.

PJ Ladd’s éS Accel. PH: Joe Brook (2003)

As I mentioned with all these picks being unintentionally about video parts, here is a photo of a shoe and still it’s somehow about a video part. That is a marker of my generation and I think we are moving away from that a little bit so it’s interesting to note. This photo of the shoe I first saw in PJ Ladd’s SLAP interview which came out slightly before or at the same time that PJ Ladd’s Wonderful, Horrible, Life came out. I got that video for Christmas and watched the whole thing immediately. I had it on DVD so it had all of the bonus features on there, you could see PJ doing little ledge tricks in the garage. The whole thing was such a vibe, and it was so exciting to watch. I was really into tech skating from a young age. I clearly remember seeing someone do a switch nose grind – 180 on a box in a City Stars video, and my brain just could not comprehend it. The trick looked easy, but confusing at the same time – What did he do? Which way did he go? That’s even though I had spent years playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and knew what all of the tricks were.

So, technical skating always had this mesmerising hold over me and PJ [Ladd] in that video was completely stepping it up to a new level. He made it look like a lifestyle, he’s totally in his own world, he’s way better than anybody you had seen before, and he’s doing it in Boston, a place that doesn’t get a lot of love in the videos I was watching at the time. This shoe photo in the interview stands in for a portrait and the caption reads: This is what PJ Ladd’s shoe looks like after seven days of skating. It says in the intro that this photo was taped up at a skateshop [Slam City Skates] with the statement: PJ Ladd is God. I didn’t think I even had favourite skaters back then so to know that there was this one guy who was having this effect on people, and on me too, was really interesting and cool. It’s like when someone has their favourite celebrity and it feels like they’re speaking directly to them.

“This shoe photo in the interview stands in for a portrait and the caption reads: This is what PJ Ladd’s shoe looks like after seven days of skating”

For me and all my friends, we all loved him and we dissected this photo. We would isolate the kickflip mark, and there’s the ollie. We would deliberate about where the tre flip area was, and discuss how he obviously heelflips with the side of his whole foot there. The reason I chose this photo is because it’s really a map in that way, of all his potential tricks, and it holds everything within it. I love skateboarding for the potential and this was, within one photo, the potential of this one amazing skater. The start of his part focuses in on the front of his shoe and the filmer grabs the toe panel that’s hanging off, the shoe is completely synonymous with the part. This was an era of me loving éS shoes as well, I would only skate in éS shoes from the age of nine or ten until I was fourteen. I skated Accels and I loved the Eric Koston EK01. I also like the Contract and the Rover which had some rubber on it, Javier Sarmiento skated in them quite a bit. Some of the adidas shoes I like skating in the most nowadays feel like some of the really good éS shoes from back in the day. There’s a good ethos around wearing your shoes into the ground which is obviously best referenced in this photo but that is also part of the style attached to adidas now. They have the Originals side of things, and the fashion side, but there’s this grimy sports, soccer-focused aspect of the aesthetic too.

PJ Ladd’s interview intro from the february 2003 issue of Slap Magazine. PH: Joe Brook

I love all of the lines in PJ Ladd’s Wonderful, Horrible, Life part, they’re so good. He doesn’t really play by anyone else’s rules. He’s doing exactly what it is he wants to do, which is to skate a lot of flatground. He doesn’t try and film a different video part where he emphasises the middle trick in a line, which is the one most people just try to fling out and get past. Imagine Corey Duffel doing a tre flip on flat, he’s putting that in there to fill space so he can get to the next handrail or hubba. I love Corey’s skating but he, and lots of other pros have a rote idea of how a line should be filmed. PJ Ladd, completely organically, inverted that and it was so interesting, it wasn’t premeditated and I love that. These days, as somebody who is trying to film video parts the whole time, I want to make it feel fresh for the viewer but also primarily for myself, so I think these things up – What if I change the emphasis of the video part to be on something people don’t think about as much? PJ did that in a completely organic way because he is an amazing skater and now that video part stands out for not only that reason but for others too.

There are so many good things in the part that I can’t narrow it down to one in particular. That is why I chose to shout out his part through this photo of the shoe. I love everything about his output from that era. I really enjoy the clip at the start where he misses a kickflip in a line and has an existential crisis, the clip before we first see this shoe. The photo of the shoe I selected though, it’s a map of the potential, you have to have knowledge of PJ’s skating to understand how sick this is. This is a glimpse behind the curtain before we had Instagram, before we had Rough Cuts. This is so precious.

Alien Workshop – Mind Field Series: Jason Dill (2009)

You asked me what my favourite board graphic was and I remembered a Tosh Townend Element board which I really loved and coveted as a kid. So, I went back and looked at it and it did give me a great feeling of stoke. I remember liking Don Pendleton’s graphics for Alien [Workshop] and I went back and looked at those. They are really cool but I didn’t really feel anything. Then I looked at the Alien Workshop Mind Field series in general and I was, immediately, completely excited. It’s so evocative for me of all the excitement I was feeling at the time toward the brand, the video, and the artistry in skateboarding in general. They designed this board, I care about it so much, and it looks so cool! I wish I could properly express the feeling it gives me. I was looking at all these other boards and they’re just images on paper, this one is cooler than this one, I like this one more than that one. But when I see this board I get such a clear feeling and it’s not just of nostalgia, it’s a memory of stoke that is still a feeling of stoke, and it’s so vivid with this board. I have to say I’m not really a board graphics person. Lots of people know what this or that Polar board are referencing, what thing in the 80s or 90s inspired the board. I have just never been that way. I think my feelings about this board are not really even about the video. But, the video is obviously one of my favourites, I think it’s one of everyone from my generation’s favourites. It reminds me of the amazing titles work they did, and I can even hear the Animal Collective song [In The Flowers] just from looking at Jason Dill’s name in the font floating in that weird solution.

“when I see this board I get such a clear feeling and it’s not just of nostalgia, it’s a memory of stoke that is still a feeling of stoke, and it’s so vivid with this board”

I did get one of these boards, the Rob Dyrdek board from this Mind Field series. It was in my first box from Alien Workshop. Opening that first box felt like my universe was getting smaller, I couldn’t believe it. It was the summer before I graduated from high school so it’s associated for me with a great summer vacation and an immense feeling of freedom. That feeling of freedom was because of my school situation but also because of the box of boards, and the option to maybe not go to college, to really get sponsored, and make a career out of this. I got two or three boxes from Alien before they switch me over to the Habitat program. So that board was in there, but even without that personal connection I would still say this is one of my favourite graphics.

I do love Jason Dill’s part in Mind Field although I think his Photosynthesis part would be a favourite of mine. I much prefer the Mind Field vision of his skating than the DVS Skate More part. In that DVS part they are really playing up his idiosyncrasies, and they’re hilarious but the Mind Field part is way more beautiful in comparison. His Animal Collective song in The Mind Field part is just so good, and it’s not such an epic part, Photosynthesis was the epic part for him. This part is just 2 minutes 40 seconds long but still his legacy is doing the work for him, and you feel you’re getting this glimpse of Jason Dill, the song gives him such mystique. You’re tapping into this side of him you don’t get from the DVS part. Mind Field is an incredible video in its entirety.

What personal graphic stands out as a favourite?

Joe Castrucci has made so many great graphics for me over the years, and I love them all. The Cross Continental graphic is special because it was a board graphic before I was pro and they reissued it for the 10 year anniversary of that part. I liked how they souped it up and made it an even sicker graphic. I have been skating a twin for the last four years so for that they made it a twin too, they mirrored the image at the middle point. With the twin shape I think what I really needed to do was get a smaller nose because I was missing my nollie pop, that helped me do that. If I get a bad chip in the middle of trying a trick I can just take it apart and turn my board around.

You recently visited us at the shop, what brought you to London?

I spent three weeks in London. My girlfriend and I love to do a summer travel, pretty much every year we try to go somewhere. This year she actually had two trips of her own planned in Europe on either side of June. She didn’t really want to fly back and forth, she wanted to save money to stay out there so I leapt at the opportunity and suggested we find somewhere to stay for those three weeks in the middle. We decided on London and I asked adidas if they could fly some filmers out. We swam in the Hampstead Heath ponds a lot, and had the best mornings which bled into the afternoons. Then I would skate long days,

Justin Albert met me there and hung out with us for the first week. For the last week my friend Freddy Schneider who has lately been filming for adidas met me there. They both stayed separately but I told my girlfriend Claire when it turned into a work trip, meaning I would be out all day skating and filming. She and I had some great time together in the middle though, we went and stayed in Dorset, spent some time in Durdle Door, looked at some old cities, saw some horses. Then I got to skate with Lloyd [Davies] from Slam for a couple of hours over at Mile End skatepark before we left.

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Mark Suciu making quick work of a Mile End morning filmed by Slam store manager Lloyd Davies

Then you left for Canada?

Yeah, Claire stayed and went on her next trip in the UK. I flew back to the US because there was an adidas event in Atlanta for Go Skate Day. I stayed in Atlanta after that to shoot with Jaime Owens for Closer. I filmed with Chris Mulhern, skated with Joey O’Brien, it was a tight crew, just the four of us sweating in that crazy heat. Then I went back to New York for a short time before flying to Toronto for the Thrasher Weekend.

And now you’re in California? Was this a last minute trip?

No this was planned but there was an unexpected last minute addition to the trip. Every year on my birthday I do the same thing, I come and spend it at my mum’s place with friends and family. We have dinner in the backyard and it’s always a great time. My friend Jake Gascoyne who works for ASICS now, who I have known for thirteen years, was planning to come and visit. He lives in Oregon so I suggested we do a road trip. He told me he was already flying to Phoenix with his fiancée to pick up a new car and then driving back to Eugene, Oregon by way of my birthday party. I was excited to join them on that so I flew to Phoenix instead of California and we drove out together. It was two day drive, we stayed out in the High Desert one night, and on the coast near Big Sur the next night, before driving up. It was a really beautiful kind of landscape trip.

What projects are you working on for the rest of the year?

I’m just trying to work on an adidas video part. I have tons of footage but it’s jus not feeling right. The deadline is February but I’m hoping I can push it back. I’ve been doing a significant amount of travelling in Europe. There was the London trip, I went to Germany a year back, we have footage from Barcelona and Northern Spain filmed the year before that. I have some Copenhagen and Malmo clips, some Netherlands clips, a nice swathe of European footage and I want to add to it. Right now the tricks aren’t really forming a whole for me. I’m really trying to push myself to get some higher impact tricks, jumping down some stairs and rails. On those European trips I haven’t ended up finding so many of those, or you’re surrounded by so many cool spots you don’t gravitate towards the handrail. So the main thing I’m working on is this adidas part, and I’m stressing about it which is a sign that some important work is being done.

“I love London so much. I think it’s my favourite city to skate, I love how every block looks, I love the feel of the sidewalk, I love the tiles, all the estates with random banks”

What does London ignite in you?

I love London so much. I think it’s my favourite city to skate, I love how every block looks, I love the feel of the sidewalk, I love the tiles, all the estates with random banks. There are random banks everywhere, I did a little Instagram Story post where I had a photo of every bank I saw that wasn’t a skate spot, and there were about twenty of them. It’s fun because they all look so skateable and it’s a cool look at the architecture of the city through a skaters lens. The photos are fools gold but it shows that the city is capable of spitting out spots left and right. The classic spots out there I love so much, they have such a time-honoured feeling.

Whose stamp on the city has made an impression on you?

I grew up absolutely loving the Lost & Found video, specifically [Danny] Brady and [Nick] Jensen’s parts. When I was making Cross Continental and honing in on my top ten video parts they were right up there for the song choice, the spot choices, the feeling, the alternative rock or indy rock emotion of those parts. That was always what I really liked. Skating around London I will always think of Olly Todd so much, I love his Static III part, and his personal take on things. Sometimes I try to skate like everybody and then I watch an Olly Todd part and he just skates like himself. I’m sweating skating a handrail and stairs to make a well rounded video part, and I do like skating those things too, but then I watch him skate and his approach is so refreshing. I like Bobby Puleo’s Static II part also where he’s skating a lot of London spots. They are two people who are so dedicated to their personal vision which doesn’t include all of these other things in skating but are a whole without them.

Also Tom Knox of course. He’s one of my favourite skaters. On this trip I had dinner with him and got to meet all his kids, such a good time. While I was in town I tried to watch every clip he’s ever released with the help of skatefolio.com, but damn it’s a lot. I made it to about 2019. I was watching for spot ideas but also for what not to do—he and I skate similar and I can’t get caught slipping, doing something he’s already done in his own city. It’s incredible what he’s done there. Ever since that emerica part in 2013 with that line in that narrowing alleyway. To me Tom is the most London skater—other people have taken what skateboarding is and brought that vision to the city, but his vision of skating is a way of looking at London. He sees more of the city than other skaters do.

Can we expect to see you back in London in the near future?

Yes, definitely! I have unfinished business with the Pimlico spine bank, the one that runs behind the phone booth. It’s my favourite spot in London.

Editor’s Note: In an interview with Anthony Claravall by The No Comply Network it came to light that Javier Sarmiento’s kickflip backside noseblunt slide ender was not first try but mentioned afterwards as a joke between the two of them. This in no way detracts away from his flawless ender or the impact it had on Mark’s mind.

As always, we would like to thank Neil Macdonald (Science Vs. Life) for the mag scans. We would also like to thank Farran Golding for the photo of the Alien Workshop deck from his personal collection. Thanks also to Lloyd Davies for the portrait and Mile End clip.

Previous Visuals Interviews: Hayley Wilson , Mike Sinclair , Tom Delion , Sam Narvaez , Tyler Bledsoe , Daniel Wheatley , Braden Hoban , Jaime Owens , Charlie Munro , Lev Tanju , Jack Curtin , Ted Barrow , Dave Mackey , Jack Brooks , Korahn Gayle , Will Miles , Kevin Marks , Joe Gavin , Chewy Cannon