Exhibiting faint signs of life
Plus: the PSL takes a tentative first step, Fritte Söderström take a bow, EDGLRD keeps us on edg, DGK x BA. KU.??? 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.
Exhibiting faint signs of life
Rank: ...
Mood: ...🏆
After watching their debut exhibition event over the weekend and after much consideration, unfortunately, I do not think the Professional Skateboarding League (PSL) "will change everything." At least not in its current state. To be fair, that was professional blowhard Mikey Taylor's opinion. The co-founder of PSL, former PRO Mike Mo Capaldi, has been much more measured about his new project. He knows it's a difficult, uphill climb to get an upstart competitive skateboarding event off the ground and has said he's open to feedback and making changes as things go along. This exhibition event was designed as just that — a test. To see what works and what doesn't.
For those unaware, what sets PSL apart from other competitions is its format. Essentially, it's a game of S.K.A.T.E. with four teams of two competing in a mini-tournament of three games (two semi-final games and one final) to determine the "champion" for that event. Instead of accruing letters and going "out," teams earn points for their opponent's failure to land the tricks they set. The team with the most points at the end wins.
The breakdown.
For each game, there are five rounds. Each round is broken into two halves, where the teams split one offensive and one defensive possession, similar to a baseball inning. Once the team on offence misses three attempts, they swap to defence, you know, like baseball. And like baseball, they even have a first-pitch analogue with their "first trick," which saw 49-year-old Eric Koston, clad in EDGLRD gear, bail a switch-heel as the ceremonial start to the event.
Overall, as the left-field commentary booth of Clint Peterson, Dan Plunkett, and Sean Malto noted many times, there are still many kinks to work out, and feedback is welcome. So, Mr. Mo, if it's helpful, here are my thoughts and suggestions after taking in two hours (!!) of PSL action:
- It's too long. Full stop. Watching people play a game of S.K.A.T.E. is boring on a good day. With the PSL format, it's a tad more engaging, but five-round games are a real slog. It would dramatically improve the pacing if the semi-final games were only three rounds and give more importance to the championship matches if they stayed at five rounds, similar to how bouts are structured in mixed martial arts, which was clearly an inspiration here. Speaking of...
- The championship belt is dorky as hell. That is a combat sports-styled trophy; using it here doesn't work. Case in point:
- It's unclear if all future events will be held "down stairs." If that's the case and the PSL courses will only consist of gaps of varying sizes for competitors to skate, I foresee the novelty wearing off quickly if it hasn't already. I understand how playing a game of S.K.A.T.E. down rails, hubbas, or a manual pad also has limitations, but can you call yourself the "Professional Skateboarding League" if all you're showcasing is one aspect of professional skateboarding?
- This isn't so much a PSL thing as an issue in competitive skateboarding in general: commentary booths are both too speculative and definitive. You can't declare that Nyjah Huston "has got it" on a forthcoming attempt because there's the very real possibility that he might not. There are numerous examples during the PSL broadcast of the booth claiming that so-and-so is about to land something and then the skater bails. You don't have to do that! Make room for more useful commentary instead of drinking-beer-on-the-sidelines commentary.
- That said, Clint Peterson has a great voice. It can sound a bit forced and "sportscaster-y" at times, and he isn't great in the play-by-play role (yet), but by god, does he have some dulcet tones.
- Gary Rogers... man, the schtick wears thin, huh.
- I'm being a bit nitpicky here, but PSL was promoted as different from other competitions due to its black-and-white nature: there are no judges who decide what amount a trick is scored. Every maneuver has the same worth and you either land it or don't — pure objectivity. However, there is a judge. They decide whether tricks count or not, which then goes toward a team's score, and the crowd booed the judge mercilessly throughout the exhibition for questionable calls. Having that role makes sense, but don't promote PSL as a judge-free endeavour when there is one doing instant replay on the sidelines.
- Bro, what's up with those jerseys?
Unified vision
Rank: 1, 2
Mood: 📹🎥🤳
It's not an overstatement or a novel observation to say that the filming of a skateboarding video is often the deciding factor on whether that video is "good." Lousy angles, shaky follows, bad lighting, and a mix of different cameras can have a certain charm, but they never do the skateboarding or the skateboarder any favours.
Consider Kevin White's recent solo part Sabbatical alongside Fritte Söderström's recent video project Marre & Nisse for Free Skate, which features Martin Sandberg and Nisse Ingemarsson. Both feature great skateboarding and interesting spots, but Söderström's work is head and shoulders above the production of Sabbatical. Of course, this isn't the most fair comparison, as White's part is compiled of footage filmed by a variety of people of varying skill levels, and Söderström is one of the best videographers going, but it is a prime example of the power of a cohesive, unified vision.
White, on his skateboard, has a somewhat stiff, herky-jerky style that I find a pleasure to watch. There's an "everyman" quality to it — from the short slides to the sagging flip-ins and outs — that does, to a degree, suit the patchwork filming and editing of Sabbatical, but he's often left sitting in broad patches of open space in the frame, his charming awkwardness overexposed like catching an unflattering glimpse of yourself in a security camera display at the corner store.
With Söderström, there never seems to be a wasted frame or a distance left to linger. Sandberg and Ingemarsson swerve in and out of view with haste or Söderström finds his way in front of or behind them multiple times in a single line. It's a dynamism that makes each clip feel active and alive, as opposed to flat and, in many cases in Sabbatical, out of focus.
Kevin White in Sabbatical | Martin Sandberg in Marre & Nisse
Not every skateboarder has the luxury of working with a craftsman of Söderström's level, but here's hoping more get the opportunity and that we appreciate it when they do.
EDGNG
Rank: -7
Mood: 👉☁️
Last week, I wrote that EDGLRD Skate's debut "anti-skate video," Point Cloud, was due to be uploaded to YouTube on January 31. It is now February 7, and it has yet to go live. This false start follows EDGLRD's use of the high-profile "strategic consultancy" firm Culture Counsel to pitch the video's January 31 premiere to several writers in the skateboarding space for promotional pieces, an effort that, from most accounts, went over poorly.
While there is now a teaser for Point Cloud on the EDGLRD website, the concept of the "anti-skate video" remains somewhat of a mystery. If you're wondering what we can expect, a New York Times article from December titled "Don't Worry About Whether Art Basel Is Cool" (h/t to SLAP for the link) makes a pit stop at the in-person premiere of Point Cloud during the aforementioned art fair.
Later in the night, at El Palenque, a Latin club a few miles away, in Miami proper, the artist and director Harmony Korine was throwing a party for his studio EDGLRD to introduce its skateboarding division and premiere a skate film, “Point Cloud.”
Shouting over the pounding club music, Mr. Korine said he was inspired by, among other things, “brain rot.”
When the video came on, the crowd hollered as skateboarders, including Elijah Odom, landed tricks or wiped out onscreen. As Alphaville’s “Forever Young” scored the film’s final stretch, some people clustered around Mr. Korine — a 51-year-old father of three who has been hailed as a creative genius since his early 20s — tilted their heads back and sang the song’s refrain: “I wanna be forever young.”
So, there you go. Amidst a not-so-subtle dig at Korine, we get the mood board for Point Cloud and EDGLRD as a whole: brain rot. A bold, creative leap into the moment that has already consumed us.
Sacrificing on the altar of hesh and fresh
Rank: 1
Mood: 🤝
Longtime readers of Simple Magic know I have complicated feelings about the "brand collab." Most collabs, in my opinion, are bad. Some are obvious half-baked ploys to smush two logos together in order to appeal to their respective fanbases and arouse that dual consumer base. Others are corporate brands using a core brand to launder themselves to the community. Occasionally, it's just friendly brands being friendly, which is fine. Nice, even. But collabs are also overdone. We've become oversaturated with them — hell, I've done one. We are complicated beings.
That said, if the means and effort are available and employed, the brand collaboration can be good. When there is a story behind it that makes sense, even if it is silly as hell. Silly is great. Just look at Wednesday's announcement of DGK Skateboards and the Barrier Kult's unlikely team-up.
Video via DGK and BA. KU. on Instagram.
Strange, fun, and more than "hesh + fresh." When I talked to Deer Man of Dark Woods and Depth Leviathan Dweller while working on a piece for Thrasher last year, they told me of their kinship toward DGK, specifically in how their crews share an almost singular focus on a particular obstacle. I expanded on this more in the accompanying feature I wrote for the newsletter:
The Barrier Kult has put meaning in limitation. This, to them, is “purity.” It’s why, in our conversation, Depth Leviathan Dweller expressed admiration for DGK, the skateboard company helmed by street skateboarding icon Stevie Williams. The skateboarders who represent DGK, on the whole, haven’t strayed from a strict regiment of technical ledge and manual skateboarding. The company and its riders haven’t bent to trends or even more lasting shifts in popular skateboarding’s focus. It’s a lane they’ve occupied and haven’t strayed from since the company’s founding in 2002, around the same time the Barrier Kult was formed.
That's good stuff. I don't even care what the product looks like; it's the concept that sings. It's something worth collaborating over. The end result is perhaps, and I don't say this lightly, the apex of the brand collab.
Posting through it
Rank: -100
Mood: 🫣
It's not so much a metaphor as an obvious and burning example. Last Friday, news broke that Peter Akemann, a former gaming and tech executive and one of the founders of, as SFGATE reports, "Treyarch, the studio that, after selling to Activision in 2001, went on to lead development of the massive Call of Duty franchise," was the person responsible for piloting the drone that crashed into the wing of a Quebecois "Super Scooper" waterbomber that had flown across the continent to help fight the Los Angeles wildfires.
Stephen Council
The plane needed repairs and was out of commission at an incredibly dire time. As CBC notes, "Akemann agreed to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement, which also saw him agree to pay full restitution to the Quebec government and the company that repaired the plane. The total costs are estimated at $65,169 US. As part of the agreement, Akemann will also have to complete 150 hours of community service in support of the Southern California wildfire relief effort."
What was Akemann trying to do? "... observe damage caused by the Palisades Fire," apparently. Something any person could achieve by watching the news or, if you were near the area, looking outside their window.
This is what civilizational crises have become to the rich: something to gawk and poke at. Content. An opportunity. A future to mindlessly — or with great horrid purpose — usher in. To be fair, I don't know anything about Akemann besides the fact that this dumbass flew a drone into a waterbomber during devastating wildfires. He's small potatoes comparatively and has, importantly, faced consequences, but tech and business elites have earned our collective scorn.
They control and manipulate our primary forms of communication, wield incredible (and seemingly unchecked) power in government that's having far-reaching effects, and bend to power whenever it is advantageous for their businesses. They are stupid and cruel in equal measure. They're capitalizing on and participating in our collapse.
At the risk of being too much of a bummer and posting too hard about this...
Something to consider:
Janus Rose
Phew, a good thing: Ted Barrow's "This Old Ledge" series breaks out of the bubble and gets a nice feature in AV CLUB.
A.V. Club Staff
Another good thing: Daniel Empey crushes some (non-alcoholic) cans and tricks at Vancouver's Terry Fox Plaza.
Aha! Another good thing:
Snack
A good thing from earlier this week: The debut of Christian Kerr's "Waxing Poetic" series.
Christian N. Kerr
A small victory:
Richie Assaly, Joshua Chong
A sure, why not at least try thing:
Paris Marx
But, also, what about the fuckers here already?
Catherine McIntyre, Laura Osman, Murad Hemmadi
A good thing as a palette cleanser but also just as a good thing:
Until next week… make time for your friends. Have them over for dinner. Play a board game. Or, if available, Mario Party. Play as Luigi. Make an effort to collect as many stars as possible. Enjoy yourself and your company, but be ruthless. Send your friends, now enemies, into the Bowser Zone. Steal their coins, their stars. Claim victory. Revel in it.
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.
