相信大家都看了之前Thrasher发布的Nyjah Huston “Fade to Black”视频吧，里面各种道具大得秒秒钟就能要了你的命，而Nyjah却将它们轻松玩转，看上去凶狠极了。不过有些人却不这么认为，他们觉得“Nyjah这么滑板不就失去了滑板了意义吗？”这种说法似乎也有些道理，一方面我们要追求猛快高飘远，另一方面又要Have Fun，这似乎是一个非常矛盾的话题，现在摘取来自Ian Graham的评论，看看他是怎么看待这个问题的
Everybody must be stoked by the Nyjah Fade to Black part,the obstacles in there can easily kill you but, Nyjah rode it soooo easy! Somebody gonna think,WAS NYJAH HUSTON’S NEW PART “TOO GOOD?”, it seems has some sense, on one hand we chase rad,one the other hand we should have fun, this seems like a huge paradox we are facing, now here we have Ian Graham to talk about this question, check dis out.
你可以说我是个愤青，或者说我是厌倦了这些噱头，在这10至15年里，我看遍了那些所谓“能秒杀所有视频的滑板片段”Jerry, MJ, Koston, Mariano, Bob, Westgate, Jamie Thomas, Danny Way, Chris Cole, Rowley, Arto, Appleyard, 特别是Koston和Mariano,你大概懂这意思就好
不过这似乎是个很奇怪的对比，一方面我见证着滑板的发展，Nyjah能在那些大得要你命得道具上作出那些高难动作，而另一方面我却离这种趋势渐行渐远，是因为。。。我无聊嘛？
不过我并不是一个人在战斗，在如今高画质单反和手持高清摄影设备面前，很多人依旧用着VHS摄影集和VX1000；滑板的双翘形状是这些年来公认的滑板功能性巅峰的设计形状，而很多公司开始将那些奇形怪状的板面以及那些过了时的装备出售给消费者
这就好比音乐人发现了那些喜欢买限量版磁带的人，他们宁愿放弃方便易用的数字文件，用老式7寸录音机来听歌，滑板界似乎也开始了自己的复古之旅
形状不规则的滑板
这是很有道理的：世界上没几个能像Nyjah Huston那样滑板的。套用Mike Vallely在The Bones Brigade纪录片里的话：一个孩子看到了这个片段就会想“看哪！滑板真是又难又恐怖的东西！”
我先看的是Polar滑板的一个预告片，因为它的名字是用我会做的3个招命名的：No Complies & Wallrides +shuvits。看这种片子的感觉就是不一样，片子里DIY的地点看起来与我和小伙伴们做的差不多，有人在欢呼，有人在拿着板子制造各种噪音，有人摔在地上，这些看起来都那么真实
滑板从当初发展到现在都拥有这种元素，现在还没减少到仅仅是滑板帮派之间的斗争，比如Hosoi VS Hawk，Hawk or Ramp Locals vs. Daggers；Girl和Anti Hero的旅途很好的体现了这种元素，时刻教育我们，我们只是一群拿着玩具的蠢货，不论视频看上去怎么样凶狠
滑手创办的小型滑板公司的兴起令人振奋，我喜欢Colin Read的Vimeo里面全用VX 1000拍摄的视频，看着新视频的感觉，成功之后的感觉，这些都是滑手们所熟知的
并不是每个滑手都能上学，都有专业的摄影队伍，都能在青年中心获得帮助，或是得到赞助去世界各地的Spot游玩。很多人在地下室或者车库里滑板，自己清扫地面，解决那些干草杂物，我们也没有钱去买各种首映门票或是去建一些自己的Spot亦或是贿赂保安
Nyjah却是很棒，棒呆了，不过它这种滑板却不是我所推崇的。他滑得很棒，每一个动作都很完美，但我却认为这些都比不上90年代时Nate Jones的一个360flip，Nyjah实在太完美了，甚至在Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater游戏里能绿灯通过拿到奖励。这很棒，却不是我眼中的滑板
滑板并不意味着完美，而是意味着乐趣。我们就是一群怪人，很高兴能看到怪人中有人做出了从来没人做过的东西，很高兴能看到一些怪人将自己朋友的怪诞艺术品印在板面上，衣服上放到BigCartel上售卖
东北部的那种更为街头的风格已经变得非常受欢迎，它用视频告诉位于中西部Nebraska的孩子们“我们什么都能玩，天再冷，我们有棉毛裤，去滑板吧”
看着这些低画质的镜头似乎可以将我们联系起来，朋友们自己的剪辑，后院Miniramp的片段，这些似乎都是你可以参与进来的，你感觉身在其中。而看到那些巨大无比的地点，你只会感叹“这货敢玩这个？”“卧槽！他竟然成了！！”
我最喜欢的是Pontus Alv cruising around的段子，他从来不玩那些大道具，见到什么就滑什么，100%的街头滑板风格。我看他的滑板片就像看着朋友在滑板一样
无论如何我们理解某些人需要做到“最好”。我哦很欣赏那些不断追求猛快高飘远的人们，这就是滑板发展的过程。就如同Geoff Rowley，他认为滑板杂志和视频将职业滑手每天的生活呈现在大家面前，不过这也同样带走了属于他们的滑板乐趣，因为他们要对得起“职业”一词
很显然越来越狠的视频段子将会月来越多，而绝对不是秒杀所有滑板视频，Nyjah的这段视频可以说是规则的改变人，就如同当年Louie Barletta的Tilt Mode视频和Jason Lee的A Visual Sound片段一样
现在来看，谁更好呢？
Now, maybe it’s because I’m cynical or jaded because I’ve seen so many “part-to-end-all-parts” announcement over the years – Jerry, MJ, Koston, Mariano, Koston again, Mariano again, Bob, Westgate, Jamie Thomas, Danny Way, Chris Cole, Rowley, Arto, Appleyard – you get the idea. And that’s just been in the past ten to fifteen years.
It’s a weird contrast – on one hand, I’m witnessing the literal progression of skateboarding. Nyjah is doing tricks that have never been done on spots that could easily kill you. But I keep catching myself drifting away. Am I… bored?
I’m not alone. In the age of film-quality-or-better DSLRs and pocket computers that shoot in HD, people are making skate videos with VHS camcorders and VX1000s. The popsicle shape is the pinnacle of functional skate deck design, plus or minus a few tweaks over the years, but companies are selling weirdly shaped decks and popularizing once-passé gear.
Like the musicians who have found (or kept) an audience for limited-edition cassettes and 7” records despite the ease and accessibility of digital files, skateboarding is developing a taste for the throwback.
welcome skateboards unusual shapes / photo courtesy of prestige skateboards
It makes sense: there are only a small handful of people in the world who can skate like Nyjah Huston. To paraphrase Mike Vallely in The Bones Brigade documentary: a kid watching that video part might think, “wow, skateboarding is really scary and hard, look at that.”
So I put on the Polar promo, which I first watched because it’s named after all three tricks I can do: “No Complies & Wallrides +shuvits.” It’s a totally different experience. There are DIY spots, like the ones I’ve made with my friends. There are dudes hollering and making weird noises when someone makes a trick. People fall down. It seems… real. Relatable.
There’s been an element of that throughout skateboarding’s history, only now it’s not reduced to gang-style rivalries like Hosoi vs. Hawk or Ramp Locals vs. Daggers. The Girl/Anti-Hero tours parodied the idea, reminding us we’re all still a bunch of goofy dudes playing with toys, no matter how different our video parts look.
The surge of small skater-owned companies is heartening. I love that Colin Read put out a video filmed entirely as seen in a VX1000 viewfinder. The feeling of watching a new clip, seconds after finally making it, is something most skateboarders know.
Not every skateboarder has perfect schoolyards, a professional film crew, a TF, or paid travel to literally any spot in the world. Most of us spend a few months of the year skating in the garage or the basement, or shoveling spots and dealing with frozen bushings. We don’t have a budget to cover tickets, or “optimize” every skate spot, or bribe security.
Nyjah is good, one of skateboarding’s best. But his skating doesn’t speak to me. There’s a certain polish, an air of artifice to it; it’s perfect, but not in the way Nate Jones’ 360 flips are perfect. It’s perfect like you got the green bonus on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. And sure, that’s great, but it’s not MY version of skateboarding.
But skateboarding isn’t about perfect. It’s about having fun. We’re all a bunch of weirdos. It’s cool seeing some of those weirdos do things that have never been done before. It’s cool seeing some of those weirdos printing their weirdo friends’ art on boards and shirts and selling them on BigCartel.
In that way, the kind of Northeast-inspired urban skateboarding that’s become so high profile is welcoming. It tells some little kid in Nebraska on YouTube, “We skate shitty spots, too, but look what we can do. It’s cold as hell here too, but we’ve got thermals and flannel and coats. Let’s do this.”
There’s a feeling of connection you get watching those lo-fi videos. The homie montages, back yard miniramp footage… you could be skating there with them. You feel like you’re at the session. That spot looks so gnarly. How did he even ride up that? HOLY SHIT he made it!
My favorite new video is that clip on YouTube of Pontus Alv cruising around. He doesn’t skate “spots” he just skates whatever’s there. It’s pure 100% down-for-life skate rat, compressed and stored in YouTube forever. When I watch that video, I get the same feeling as when I’m watching a friend make their trick.
Look, we all understand someone has to be “the best,” if only because of semantics. I appreciate that there are people out there who always strive for bigger, faster, longer, higher, and more. That’s progress. They produce people like Geoff Rowley, who famously assumed magazines and videos represented how all pros skate every day. But they also turn away a lot of kids who miss out on the simple pleasures of skating because they can’t live up to “professional” standards for one reason or another.
Serious, heavy-hitter video parts will always exist, but they aren’t the end-all, be-all of “good” in skateboarding. Nyjah’s part is a game-changer, but so was Louie Barletta’s Tilt Mode part, and so was Jason Lee’s part in A Visual Sound.
So, which is “better?”
author：Ian Graham
Find Ian on Instagram.
All sorts of crap over on our Facebook
Get brainwashed on Instagram
Post a comment