Atmospheric content river | Simply Ranked
Plus: Seasonal content storms, Converse CONS "Evergreen," Monster makes good video, Deedz grinds all, Pool steps back and onto own dick, and more.
The definitive weekly ranking and analysis of all the skateboarding and other things online that I cannot stop consuming and how it makes me feel, personally.
Atmospheric content river
Rank: 1
Mood: 🌊💻🌊
Can you feel it? There's something in the air. Anticipation carries on the wind like static, prickling. Clouds gather and the sky darkens. Soon, the skateboarding content deluge will begin. Concentrated, overwhelming, and rapturous in a way that is both pleasurable and nauseating, what's to come is the result of man's enduring hubris and insatiable appetites.
This happens every year around this time. Or has, at least, for the last twelve years or so. Perhaps not caused by but happened in confluence with the moment Thrasher Magazine's Skater of the Year award was proven winnable in the waning months of a calendar year by way of solo online video part(s). That's about when the skateboarding media environment really began to shift and bend to the whims of the internet.
David Gonzalez's Thrasher-branded Possessed to Skate premiered on Thrasher's website on September 24, 2012. It's credited as earning him the SOTY nod, a hotly-contested and disputed victory, as many thought Guy Mariano's hyper-technical showing in Girl/Chocolate's full-length Pretty Sweet, which premiered on November 18 of that year — not to mention his overall station and storied career — was more than enough to grant him the title.
It was not. However, this wasn't the end of professional skateboarders claiming the sport's top prize by the more traditional means of a standout section in a full-length video or two, which is more-or-less what had decided the victor for most of the award's history from the late '90s onwards. Anthony Van Engelen took Rusty home thanks to his performance in Vans' Propeller (2015) alone, but by then, things had already begun to change. Perhaps irreparably so.
In the years to come, more concerted strategies began to take shape, with skaters and their sponsors running full-on campaigns, which invariably consist of releasing multiple video parts (whether solo or in a full-length) across the final three to four months of the year, as SOTY is generally decided and announced in early December. Most notably, Mark Suciu would be lambasted online for his blatant campaigning (via four-and-a-half video parts) in 2021, but it ultimately earned him the trophy.
In his blog Waxing the Curb, Sam Korman captured the prevailing feeling of that moment (and much more) in the aftermath of Suciu's win.
I must admit, something about this year’s SOTY race elicited a groan from me. When did skateboarding become so obsessed with titles? How did SOTY ever become such a thing?
It was groan-worthy. Impressive, of course, but simply too much. Don't get me wrong, I love debating the horse race that is Thrasher's Skater of the Year. Watching the world's best skateboarders bid for a made-up title means that we get to watch more of the world's best skateboarders being the best skateboarders in the world. It's also that type of conjecture and opinionating that makes sports fun as an audience member and fan — stuff to argue about over beer and nachos.
Which means, yeah, it is then a bit strange to criticize someone for trying hard at their job (as Tyshawn Jones would be in 2022 for his overt efforts to win the award for a second time), but that is one of those inherently contradictory parts of skateboarding culture, isn't it? We want to see skateboarders put in the work, but not, you know, like that, with motives transparent. We want the branded content we guzzle to be authentic.
So then why does it keep happening like this, where professional skateboarders all empty their tanks in the fourth quarter in hopes that we (and most importantly, Thrasher) notice them best? I would imagine it's mainly because this is just the way it has been done for years at this point. The groove has been run deep. Long gone are the days when Arto Saari could win during a year he released not a single video part (he'd win in 2001, despite the fact that his career-defining sections in éS Footwear's Menikmati and Flip Skateboards' Sorry were released in 2000 and 2002, respectively. In a 2018 interview with Saari, current Thrasher Editor-in-Chief Michael Burnett would note, "I was trying to figure out the timeline and the photos from your SOTY interview are Sorry tricks. You got Skater of the Year based off of Menikmati because Sorry hadn’t come out yet"). Skaters have since been conditioned to produce and fans have been conditioned to consume in this manner. This has become the season when content plans come to a head and where marketing budgets are allocated.
There could also be something said for the arrival and success of athletic shoe brands in the industry and the support they put behind their riders, both financially and promotionally, that has pushed the SOTY race into the high-stakes, sometimes suffocating affair it's become. Beyond Olympic medals and sales numbers, it's not a stretch to picture a catch-all trophy like that as the easiest way to convey industry success or a big marketing win (the best skateboarder in the world, as determined by a reputable intracultural entity, wears our shoes) to whichever corporate execs hold the purse strings.
The last six SOTYs have been backed by, in order: adidas, adidas, adidas, Nike, Converse, adidas. The last person who won that rode for an endemic brand was Jamie Foy in 2017, who was sporting Diamond Footwear at the time (remember those). Funnily enough, Foy is the odds-on favourite to win the title again in 2024, and if he does, it will likely be secured thanks to his upcoming section in New Balance Numeric's Intervals.
While August has, in the last couple of years, become a hotspot for video releases, autumn remains the time to be seen. It's why we're already two new Foy parts deep since September, are now getting a pair of Tiago Lemos part(s), a Converse video (more on that below), and what is fair to assume will be a coming flood of skateboarding "content" meant to entertain and sway us and the small group of people who actually decide who wins this thing — this thing they made up and we ascribed meaning to.
In the end, that is the likeliest of reasons why SOTY has become the beast it has: we agreed to treat it like one.
The non-skateboarding that makes skateboarding
Rank: 1
Mood: 🌲
Whether intentional or not, Converse CONS latest production, Evergreen, is contributing to the current atmospheric content river. It is welcome. Like most Ben Chadourne and Ryan Lee projects, Evergreen is not your usual fare. Yes, it is a video full of great skateboarding from the likes of Shane Farber, Ariana Spencer, Eddie Cernicky, Zion Effs, and Brian O’Dwyer, but it also does what Chadourne and Lee excel at, which is making the viewer feel something.
Most of that comes in the b-roll and interstitials. There's the small narrative arc of watching Farber watch a murky river carry his skateboard away, the wry wholesomeness of Spencer's daughter sing-songing "My mom is Ariaaaana Spencerrrr and she does skateboarding every day — becauuuuse she wants to have moneeeyyyy," and an introductory montage of Effs that gives a charming, if superficial, glimpse into the young prospect's personality.
It's those pieces outside of the skateboarding itself that make a skate video more than — to unfortunately quote myself — "a highlight reel set to music." They help a project stand out in the constant roil and churn of "content" and the skateboarders featured in them become more than flat avatars stuck in our screens. That should be a consideration at all times, but especially so during this content-sodden season.
Can you be mad at the monster?
Rank: 2
Mood: 👹
It is upsetting, in a very particular way, for Monstery Energy, purveyor of FDA-approved petrol for sleepy people and sponsor of everything from MMA fighters to bull riders, gamers, and a blandly retrograde category of "girls," to also be responsible for the production of a legitimately good skateboarding video. It shouldn't be surprising that DOWN STRAIGHT UP! Volume 2 is of quality, given that Monster Energy appears to have bottomless coffers. That's allowed them to build a roster of skateboarders that includes, in just this video, Ishod Wair, Gabriel Fortunato, Filipe Mota, Rayssa Leal, Charlie Munro, Jorge Simoes, and Daiki Ikeda. That's without mentioning other high-profile names like Grant Taylor, Fabiana Delfino, and Nyjah Huston, who do not appear.
What is surprising is that Monster Energy has continued to give the reins to filming and directorial talent Daniel Galli, whose work like YOU CAN'T WIN for Beyond Medals and independent projects like Cheap Motel and Angelina are all visually distinct, excellent watches. Galli's efforts seem far outside the stale machismo that Monster Energy has branded itself with from the outset. Yet, here he is, making aesthetically, sonically, and emotionally cohesive videos that I would enjoy sitting through more than once.
That's the upsetting part. This ugly, unfeeling energy drink corporation has done something genuinely good. And that's not all: from all accounts, sponsors like Monster, Red Bull, and the like are the last best way for professional skateboarders to make skateboarding their profession, as in, one that pays. They also don't make their riders wear giant "M" logos anymore, with most on the payroll opting for small, sometimes imperceptible iron-on patches.
Can you be mad at the monster if the monster treats you well? If the monster is, increasingly, your only friend? Absolutely. Fuck that garbage. It tastes like ass. Good video, though.
We need to talk about Didrik
Rank: 1
Mood: 🪨🪨🪨🛹🪨🪨🪨
Specifically, how he's cornered the market on skating long, meandering, crunchy, awkward, and potentially ancient ledges. He established his dominance in the field with his closing section in Nike SB's QuickStrike, but drove the point home last week in Didriko, an independent project filmed and edited by Leonard Beazotto.
I mean, what is he even doing here?
What the hell...
Bro...
Between these parts, his solo section for Ace Trucks back in April (also filmed and edited by Beazotto), and appearances in several Galli and Beazotto projects throughout the year, Galasso has once again, like he has in each of the last few years, put together a solid dark horse candidacy for Skater of the Year. I'm not sure something like that is even on Galasso's mind, but for someone who keeps doing such absurd and fascinating things on a skateboard like this:
He's someone we should keep in mind come December.
ROFL
Rank: 1!
Mood: 🤣
Tim Pool, infamous idiot, bigot, and unwitting asset of a foreign influence campaign, announced this week that he's scaling back his content creation operations to spend more time with his family. It's unclear if this is actually going to change much about his routine, given that Pool is a career liar whose business model is saying stuff to generate attention, but it is very, very funny for someone to claim that they are going to work less to spend more time with their family when they do not, in fact, have a family. He blames not having a wife or kids on spending so much time creating content — which is a danger, I'm sure. To be fair, Pool does have a father, brother, and sister, all of whom he's apparently estranged from and have either sued him or think he's a dangerous moron.
From getting so upset that the Martinsburg, Virginia, skateboarding community rejected his advances because he's a horrible person that he bought the land their DIY skatepark sat on and alienated himself even further, subsequently getting torn apart by the greater skateboarding community (most viciously by Gifted Hater on multiple occasions) to being at the centre of an international news story that shows he accepted incredible sums of money from an arm of the Russian government who thought his slopaganda was doing a good job of causing social unrest in the United States, it's been a rough past little while for Pool.
To make matters worse, as of writing this, his most fawning, embarrassingly obsequious champion in the skateboarding space, ShreddER News, hasn't posted on Instagram since September 6 or their website since September 7. Curiously, that's also the week the story about Pool accepting money from a foreign agent broke. Wonder what that's about?
Something to consider:
Yousef Aljamal and Rawan Yaghi
Good thing: Joe Allen is back at it again. Looking forward to this one.
Another good thing:
Ian Michna
Yeah, that's right, another good thing: Max HC is also back at it again for Village Psychic.
Village Psychic
Don't let them tell you there can't be another good thing:
Jaime Owens
A good basketball thing:
Maitreyi Anantharaman
Wow... :
It's time... for one last good thing:
K dot
Until next week… if you accidentally double or even triple-book yourself, don't panic. Refrain from hasty cancellations. Try to make all of your scheduled appointments. Anything is possible. Remember Archie Andrews? Now, there's a master of time management.
Laser Quit Smoking Massage
NEWEST PRESS
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My new collection of essays is available now. I think you might like it. The Edmonton Journal thinks it's a "local book set to make a mark in 2024." The CBC called it "quirky yet insightful." lol.
Book cover by Hiller Goodspeed.
Right, Down + Circle
ECW PRESS
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I wrote a book about the history and cultural impact of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater that you can find at your local bookshop or order online now. I think you might like this one, too.
Here’s what Michael Christie, Giller Prize-nominated author of the novels Greenwood and If I Fall, If I Die, had to say about the thing.
“With incisive and heartfelt writing, Cole Nowicki unlocks the source code of the massively influential cultural phenomenon that is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and finds wonderful Easter-eggs of meaning within. Even non-skaters will be wowed by this examination of youth, community, risk, and authenticity and gain a new appreciation of skateboarding’s massive influence upon our larger culture. This is my new favorite book about skateboarding, which isn’t really about skateboarding — it’s about everything.”
Photo via The Palomino.
