More than this | Simply Ranked
Plus: Ethan Loy, exciting bruises, Nikolai Piombo's x-factor, let the baby be a baby, 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.
All Loys
Rank: 2
Mood: ☯️
There is an understandable degree of entanglement when we talk about siblings. It is, as their relation can be, biological. There is a natural urge to compare two people who come from the same point of origin. Their similarities are something assumed and attributed to that shared background. Any differences become something to highlight and poke at like some odd curio.
Ethan Loy, now a professional skateboarder for Swim Skateboards, is often held in contrast to his brother, David Loy, the longtime Birdhouse Skateboards PRO. Over these last few years, as Ethan has continued to release successive, incredible video parts and come into his own on the public stage, there has surfaced a common refrain when talking about the brothers in how surprising it is the two are related at all, given their contrasting, well, most things, as it would appear, at least from the outside.
If we were to boil it down to its most basal level, Ethan will wear a Sun Ra shirt while performing creatively stunning technical maneuvers, while David dresses as Steampunk Willy Wonka to promote a weed strain. Beyond the sartorial, both are talented skateboarders. Ethan's approach is the more tasteful and interesting of the two, as his recent Thrasher Magazine video part Avalon and his Swim Skateboards PRO part attest.
He is constantly finding new ways to approach static obstacles and always seems to be able to flush out multiple tricks on something that, in any other hand, would offer nothing. His brother goes big, in a straightforward sense. Big ollies, big transfers, big rails. Impressive as stunts go.
While these comparisons are usually used to denigrate David, if anything, their differences make the brothers more compelling. It is legitimately fascinating how each of their approaches to skateboarding has evolved so distinctly. Was it a conscious choice? Did Ethan want to separate himself from David? Is Ethan's style of skateboarding just more fun in practice? Is Ethan his own person and we should appreciate him on those merits and not through this skewed familial less? Yeah, probably.
New and exciting ways to hurt
Rank: 1
Mood: 👍
If you skateboard for long enough, if it becomes a part of your person and the way you move through and see the world, a thing you do to stay centred and connected, you will, inevitably, get hurt in an array of captivating ways.
There are the incalculable bumps and bruises. The infinite loop of scrapes and shinners received as rewards for trying any trick for an extended period of time. Trace your finger along your tibia. Those lumps are a history of progress or process or ambition scorned.
Really, let's think about the shinner. It is at once the purest form of rejection and a signal that you very well may be on the right track. You didn't perform this series of physical movements correctly and are graded with violence. Or, that switch-360-kickflip was once nowhere near close, but the board colliding with your shin is a sign that it is within reach — you just need to control it.
That's where all skateboarding-related injuries originate: a lack of control. Whether it's hitting a stop-rock that sends you sliding across asphalt on your belly or your foot sliding off the nose or tail after landing back on the board and rolling painfully in the process. This will always happen because the skateboard cannot be controlled. We can always get better or more consistent at reining it in and figuring out how to get it to do what we want it to, but it will always have an unruly streak.
That is the one constant — eating shit on a skateboard is different every time. You'll never know exactly how it'll hurt, but it will hurt. In my youth, I once went to frontside 50-50 down a rail, slipped out of the grind on my heel edge, and as I fell, my arm came down on the rail, snapping like a tree branch over a signpost. That is the type of creativity that only skateboarding can offer.
In a way, it is something to cherish. A few weeks back, I looped out while skating a barrier and went to brace myself on its lip with my hand. In the process, my ass landed on my thumb so hard that it immediately bruised, as seen in the photo below. A horseshoe of blood caught and kept. Ever since it has looked like I have ketchup chip dust on my opposable digit. Where else can you get such a variety of pleasures and pains?
The perks of having an x-factor
Rank: 1
Mood: 🎁
Nikolai Piombo is a special skateboarder. He is poised. His trick selection is both tasteful and incredibly impressive. He is of the rare sort to make footage of skateboarding while wearing headphones not just tolerable but cool. The more we see from Piombo, the clearer it becomes that he possesses that indefinable combination of attributes that we've likened to calling "x-factor."
These things — like the way his swishy pants dance around his legs, how he holds prolonged grinds and slides with seemingly little effort, and the easy confidence he carries into and out of each clip — all exist in this roiling cauldron labelled "style" whose contents we then feed on. So good is the concoction that I have no problem calling this a backside-nosebluntslide:
We can all see that he went over the back of the ledge, which might rankle the haunches of more strict trick etymologists who'll note that he approaches it as more of a frontside-noseslide, but to me, that is just fine. He slides it so well either way. I will call it whatever he desires. Such is the power of the x-factor, of style.
Just a baby
Rank: 0
Mood: 👶
Olivia Craighead
I know we're all just having fun here, and it is pretty special in a step-back-and-go "whoaaaaa" kind of way that the son of Tony Hawk and daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love are married and now have a child, but it would be nice if we could be normal about this.
If their kid, at some point, fills in as a talentless drummer for an aged Foo Fighters or gets a do-nothing role as a higher-up at Activision, then sure, that's a nepo baby. But right now, in its first handful of days on this earth, he is just a baby. A baby who will likely inherit a lot of money.
Is there more than this?
Rank: 2
Mood: 🤕
There has to be something more than this. Or not. It is fraught, this place skateboarding's "legends" exist once their heyday expires. Most top professional skateboarders of a certain era likely did okay financially. If they were smart with their money, they might have been able to cobble together a quality existence long past their athletic peak. Something that would preclude them from aligning themselves with the half-baked vanity projects of other PROs that might damage their legacy more than add to it.
However, we must also consider the possibility that Mark Appleyard's pocketbook is doing fine and that he simply wanted to join the roster of Nyjah Huston's Disorder Skateboards. That is almost the bleakest option. Skateboarding is one of the rare sports where an athlete's brand is just as, if not more important, than their ability. A PRO with a NAME is a boon. Especially one as respected as Appleyard. That's what sells products. To have him on Disorder allows Huston to tout that a legitimate icon is in his stable. It's a co-sign for a skateboarder in Huston whose abilities cannot be questioned but, as a person, is widely considered to be, in the eternal parlance of the culture, wack. This acquisition likely means more to him than the pride of Oakville, Ontario.
That is one of the follies of being human: within us, there is an unceasing desire to feel wanted. Needed. Relevant. If you are a professional skateboarder, long in the tooth and having faded from the spotlight, how could you resist an offer like this? To be associated with one of the sport's very best and have your name slapped on another, in this case, dogshit board graphic. To wear a branded t-shirt that says, in all seriousness, "Please allow the chaos."
To be fair, he's endured worse.
That's something else that can't be discounted here; this could actually be an upgrade. Have you seen a recent Flip or Element Skateboards graphic? Appleyard's former board sponsors have been floundering for years, in all areas. That's putting it politely. Take a look at Flip's current social media presence:
That is their pinned tweet. I screenshotted it six hours after it was posted and it had only received two likes. The Flip Twitter account has 170k followers. Polling those followers about where they "consume skateboard media content" is not just bizarre and out of touch but desperate. Is that what this legacy brand, responsible for culture-defining epics like Sorry, has come to? They recently slapped the hashtags #FlipAM, #determination, #skateboarding, and #skate onto a clip of their team rider, Basral Graito.
Element Skateboards isn't doing much better, having shed much of its roster (including Ethan Loy) and credibility over the years. That said, their European faction and video direction under Alexandre Deron and Phil Zwisjen have been fantastic. It's unclear if that continues.
All of this leads us again to the unsettling reality that this is the best there is for someone of even Appleyard's stature. That there isn't more than this, and the, one assumes, pittance he receives per month from Disorder and the limited exposure online is preferable to the alternative. That it's better than just stepping away.
Something to consider: It's been heartening, fascinating, and sickening to watch the reaction from the media as Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of America's premier thinkers and writers, does the rounds to promote his new book, The Message, which looks at the brutal reality of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine (not to mention its ongoing genocide).
Good thing: Where Do You Want Us? is a "documentary exploring issues of safety concerning the female and gender minority skateboard community in Leeds," directed by Sarah Oglesby and Harry Meadley.
Another good thing: lol
Follow
That's right, another thing that is good: h/t to 'sletter friend Farran Golding for sending over Mash Life crew's latest video Wildflower. Great watch with lots of cool spots.
A collab update thing: Big thanks to everyone who has jumped on the perfect collab that Simple Magic has got going on with Antisocial Skateboard Shop by becoming paid subscribers. If you'd like to get your hands on some Top Tier Swag, we've still got lots of mugs, and as far as shirts go, we're running a bit low, but as of publishing this, we've got a few of the berry Stinkbug tees left in 2XL/XL/M/S and M/S left in pepper. The stuff is now on Antisocial's webstore, too. (We might do another run of tees, no timetable has been confirmed for that yet.)
Cole Nowicki
Owners of this swag report unrivalled comfort from the tees and that their morning coffees have never tasted better when sipping from the mugs.
A literary thing: If you happen to be in Edmonton anytime between October 17-19, I'll be at LitFest, taking part in the "Books with Buzz Cabaret" with rad folks like Kate Black and Jeremy Appel, and also leading a workshop where I talk some shit about what I like to do with the essay.
Until next week… if you find yourself on the bus and the person sitting beside you starts eating soup from a thermos, there are a few things to keep in mind: They may very well spill it on you as you are riding in a moving vehicle subject to the reality of the road. But, if you get up and move, it might be embarrassing for the souper who is just hungry. Also, is it wrong to eat soup on public transportation? These are just a few of the heady conversations to consider as you wait for your stop.
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.
