I want love to be the law of the universe | Simply Ranked
Plus: Vitória Mendonça's poetry, Crailtap bids farewell to Lakai, SOTY likely decided at 9am PST today, guys you thought were gone were just out of sight, 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.
Object permanence
Rank: 20/20
Mood: 🙈
In the world of professional skateboarding, if a skateboarder is not in our immediate line of sight, we often forget they exist. Posting has become a means of existence. This wasn't always the case. When skateboarding's media environment was on a monthly cadence for magazines and yearly, or every other year, for videos, waiting was a part of the fun. Each issue a glimpse into the future, every video a portal.
Now, with the constant content churn of our modern era, the sport's top names release multiple video parts per annum and are constantly in our social media feeds. It's a lot to take in and hold onto. Can you honestly remember more than one trick from Jamie Foy's Scorched Earth video part for Spitfire that came out in September? Probably not. That's not a knock on Foy either; we just see so much skateboarding now that when we stop seeing it, it stops existing. I mean, you probably forgot that his part is actually titled Charred Remains.
So, to my great surprise and pleasure, a number of names reemerged from our content ether over the last week. The Brunner twins, Pierce and Chris, self-filmed, produced, and released a shared video part, Separation Anxiety. It is a fantastic and fantastically frightening display of skateboarding, with both brothers risking lives and limbs on rooftops and bridges with the sole intent of getting clips to upload to their YouTube channel. Once positioned as a pair of wünderkind in the early-mid 2010s, the Brunners now don't appear to make money from skateboarding and, from what I can glean, are only sponsored by Corey Duffel's board company Adored. Despite a distinct lack of industry support, Separation Anxiety is by far the best we've seen from them. All we had to do was wait for it.
Remember Bert Wootton? The guy who released a video part seemingly every other day, rarely held a sponsor, and then "changed" his name to Rob? Well, Bert is back.
Not only is Bert back, but he's still good as all hell. It would be easy to memory-hole Wootton, a name on the periphery who never seemed too concerned with breaking through in a more substantial way. But here he is, having gone nowhere but wherever he's been. A place we just didn't know about. But, we now know he's still out there, how soon will we forget?
Update #1: Crailtap bids farewell to Lakai
Rank: 25
Mood: 🪦
Following last week's very public falling out between the founders of Lakai Limited Footwear, Rick Howard and Mike Carroll, and the company's new owner and CEO, Marc Roca (an ordeal I spent a great many words on), it seemed pretty clear that there wouldn't be any reconciling of differences between the two parties.
Over the weekend, the Crailtap camp would make that official, in a way, with Carroll and the Crailtap Instagram all posting what is, in essence, a eulogy to the brand they started and were involved with in varying capacities for 25 years. Carroll would go into a bit more detail in his accompanying caption.
All I’ll say is that on October 29th, Rick and I were let go from Lakai by the new owner because we refused to cut the team.
I feel like we failed the team and everyone who loved and worked for Lakai. For that, I’m sorry to everyone I love. I appreciate all of you and thank all who supported Lakai and everyone we crossed paths with over the last 25 years. #FeeLakai 💜
That is more or less aligned with the public understanding of the situation, and Roca didn't exactly deny it in his "statement." As of writing this, Lakai team riders Riley Hawk, Jimmy Wilkins, Simon Bannerot, Vincent Alvarez, Tyler Pacheco, and Cody Chapman have all either publicly announced their departure from the brand, alluded to it, removed Lakai's handle from their sponsor shout-outs in their Instagram bios, or have been seen skating in other brand-name shoes.
For Roca's part, since the tumult came to the fore, and in a sign that he's willing to just post through it, Lakai has been flooding the internet and its various social platforms with embarrassingly off-brand and, frankly, spammy reading ads.
If these ads were always a part of Roca's plan, I imagine it wouldn't have been long until the team quit anyway, even if he didn't axe them all. As I wrote last week, this bald, tasteless money-grubbing is how Roca and his particular business ilk operate. They don't care about people or authenticity or creating anything meaningful; the only goal is accumulation. To find a way to siphon the last bit of gas out of the tank of "distressed brands."
In that sense, Crailtap's eulogy to Lakai is not just a heartfelt gesture to the people who made the brand what it was but a savvy final fuck you to Roca. They are drawing a firm line in the sand, letting the skateboarding world know that if you are one of the few who still buy Lakai, don't. The people who made it what it was don't live there anymore.
It should be noted that Carroll and Crailtap's use of the #FreeLakai hashtag is a bit funny, considering the company was first sold years ago, initially to HUF and then when HUF was acquired by TSI Holdings in 2017. While they were still driving the company creatively, it hadn't been theirs for nearly a decade. This is a terrible fate for Lakai and everyone involved, but it is also a reality of the business world, and it was their decisions that ultimately led them here, even if they had no say in Roca's acquisition of the company they founded. Everything you build can be bought, sold, and destroyed.
That said, I'd like to picture #FreeLakai as more of a spiritual sentiment. "Free your memory of Lakai from what's to come." We should all do that because unless something drastic happens, what's to come will be ugly.
I dare you to click. Ad saved and shared via The Secret Tape.
Sports feelings
Rank: 1
Mood: 🎾🎳⚾🥍⛸️🏀
The danger of being an observer, an audience member consumed by the comings and goings of professional sports, is that we are all susceptible, and even encouraged, to develop our own narratives. That, in a way, is fandom. We superimpose what we think is happening or would like to happen onto someone else’s reality.
Sure, the Toronto Raptors are winless on the road, but does that mean its young squad, in its current phase of reconstruction, requires the roar of the hometown crowd to push the team from merely scrappy to scrappy and competent, like a toddler needing encouragement from its parents to take its first unassisted ride on its bicycle? Nah, probably not. But it sort of feels right, no?
In a similar manner, doesn’t it feel like Tiago Lemos releasing two new video parts before the online release of his part in New Balance Numeric’s Intervals — which will go live at 9am PST today on Thrasher's website — is an attempt to compete with his teammate Jamie Foy, who is also in Intervals, has also released several video parts previous to this one, and is currently the top contender in the race for Thrasher's Skater of the Year award (and getting the rub from the mag itself)? And doesn’t it feel like having two stars from the same team duelling for the top prize will sow a little turmoil in the ranks?
If Lemos pulls off the upset, would it be surprising if that caused a rift between them? One unable to be Bondo’d even by the steady hand of a compassionate team leader in Andrew Reynolds? If Foy wins, as most expect he will, is there a chance that Lemos, snubbed once again while Foy gets his second Rusty, will take his talents elsewhere? This is all idle, ill-informed speculation, but it’s fun to think about. Much like pontificating about the fate of the flagging Philadelphia 76ers or picturing how a nearly 60-year-old Mike Tyson knocks out a 27-year-old Jake Paul later this evening.
These dramas, real and imagined, raise the stakes of the sports we enjoy, and skateboarding doesn’t often lend itself to these types of hypotheticals, so why not give them a whirl?
Feels good, no?
Update #2: Stop the steal
Rank: ...
Mood: ✋
Last week, I touched on this year's X Games Real Street contest, the gist being "good, but meh, and also, wow!"
This year, not a lot of the skateboarding stood out in Real Street. Skill-wise, the sections are all solid, as these are top-level athletes, like Felipe Gustavo, who does a number of impressively technical maneuvers, but for most of the skaters involved, it felt like these were their offcuts. Braden Hoban, who, while again, is very good, offers us what appears to be his warm-ups. John Shanahan does some cool tricks, yes, but nothing that tells us this was an inspiring project for him. Carlos Ribeiro being Carlos Ribeiro, looks to have filmed most of his part in a single pair of shoes, and that is an astounding feat on its own, but besides his last two tricks (which are nuts), nothing else indicates he spent much time in high gear (in relation to how goddamn good he is, of course).
Australia's Ben Lawrie has one of the more entertaining performances of the contest, from tricks to style and spot selection, making him a worthy contender. But the clear winner, for me, is Julian Lewis. While comprised of only nine different skate clips, we still see the full breadth and evolution of Lewis' game. There are big rails, wild street transition spots, a techie-ledge combo, a primo slide, and an ender you should watch on your own, as it is a jaw-dropper.
It turns out that the judges of this year's event, Vern Laird, Jason Rothmeyer, and Jamie Thomas, along with the host of the finals broadcast, Ryan Sheckler, felt differently. Not only did Lewis not win, he didn't even make the podium, with Braden Hoban, Felipe Gustavo, and Carlos Ribeiro taking gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
As stated previously, those parts are all impressive displays of skill, but they are routine. Hoban's especially, as we've seen him do all those tricks on much gnarlier spots. Beyond that, each of those edits is resoundingly boring. They carry no emotion, certainly in comparison to Don Luong's edit of Lewis. You can imagine them passing by in an Instagram Story without a second thought. When explaining what he's looking for as a judge, Thomas goes on at length about the importance of how a video part is constructed and the way a filmmaker helps flesh out who a skater is as a person. That criteria wasn't heeded here.
If there's any positive from this robbery, it's that the internet agrees. The comment section on the announcement video is full of Lewis supporters, as is Instagram. Peter Grannis of @competer_programmis on Instagram even started a #JusticeForJulian campaign, which I wholeheartedly support. This wrong must be righted. Sins must be atoned.
I want love to be the law of the universe
Rank: 1
Mood: 💚
On Monday, adidas released a video part in celebration of Vitória Mendonça and her Superstar ADV colourway. As with all Mendonça-related endeavours, it is excellent. She remains our reigning heelflip champion. One of the more notable parts of the promotional campaign, and the shoe itself, is that a poem Mendonça wrote can be found at the end of the video and on the shoe's sockliner.
It reads:
I want to see my people in the same place, I want to be able to exist without having to fight, to live who I am without fear of what others will think. I want dreaming not to be a privilege, I want love to be the law of the universe.
That is a surprisingly moving piece of writing to slip one's feet into. It is both mournful of our present and defiant for a better future. Certainly not something you'd expect to find on a professional skateboarder's semi-signature model shoe, which is a testament to Mendonça.
It's also not the first time she has incorporated her poetry into a product. Mendonça's recent capsule collection with Element Skateboards features a jacket and pants that are covered in her poem "Sem Título" (Untitled), which an Element Europe email blast describes as "the inspiration for the collection, symbolising her journey, growth, and freedom." That's a little corny when read in the context of a product description, and I was unable to find the poem itself, but that is still pretty cool as a whole, as Mendonça continues to prove herself to be.
Some things to consider, post-mortem:
Gabriel Winant
David Roth
Culture Will Not Save Us Now
A good newsletter round-up:
Walker Ryan
Village Psychic
A good museum of modern art thing: 'sletter friend José Vadi is doing a reading at SFMOMA if you're in the neighbourhood.
A good looking back fondly thing: Boil The Ocean highlights some of their favourite of Lakai's media output.
Another good Max Harrison-Caldwell thing:
maxhcsfstandard.com
A good ad:
A good podcast round-up:
Justin
A pitching thing: Farran Golding over at Skate Bylines talked to a bunch of nice folks and me about pitching stories in the skateboarding media space.
A thing from earlier this week:
Cole Nowicki
A new place: Bluesky seems to be a thing that's happening, with a good chunk of #skatetwitter making the move. Olivier Jutel even made a #skatetwitter starter pack. If you partake, you can find me there at @colenowicki.bsky.social.
Until next week… if you happen to fall asleep on public transportation and are woken up by your own snoring, that's okay. It's great even. You got what you needed, and everyone around you got what they didn't know they needed: a vision of adorable, sleepy you.
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.
