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Matt Rodriguez Footage Feast

Cover photo by Jody Morris

Soulful street shredder, OG Stereo rider and jalapeño hoarder – Matt Rodriguez is one of skateboarding’s most most unique and interesting characters. Playing in bands, hunting down obscure ditches, DJ’ing dancehall nights, scoring his own sections on more than one occasion, creating spots from plywood and even just cruising down the street, everything the man does is bursting with a creative urge.

Matt has always embodied the ‘quality over quantity’ approach to video output but, with a back catalogue of sections from 1994 up until this year displaying his trademark loose style and eye for unusual spots and lines, we had plenty to put into our Matt Rodriguez Footage Feast. Kick back and enjoy one of the best styles out there.

Stereo Skateboards – A Visual Sound (1994)

There probably isn’t a better way to kick this one off than with a high speed city tour courtesy of Matt’s section in the classic ‘A Visual Sound’ – the first offering from Stereo and one which would put them firmly on the map, at the same time building on Mark Gonzales’ use of a jazz soundtrack in Video Days to create a truly unique project. Matt’s fluid style and high speed, lengthy lines fits in perfectly with this vibe.

Stereo Skateboards – Tincan Folklore (1996)

The first line is the epitome of flow, he does the best fatman grind ever committed to film at 1:45 and, as someone who was out on the piss last night, I can confirm that this is a perfect hangover section.

Supernaut – Urban Canvas (2002)

With the first Supernaut video ‘Infinite Momentum’ a tough one to get hold of on line, unless you have it on VHS you’ll have to content yourself with imagining what went down in Rodriguez’s section in that and enjoying his dope part in the 2002 release ‘Urban Canvas’. A driving dub beat compliments Matt’s ability to make high speed shredding look as nonchalant as possible – the high speed pop shuv at 11:50 highlights exactly why style is everything…

411vm Issue 56 Roomies (2003)

Matt Pailes and Matt Rodriguez share their house space and cruise the streets of Sacramento. The kickflip frontside stand up grind at 3:10 is a high point…

iPath – iPath Promo (2005)

If you haven’t seen 2005’s IPath promo, it’s definitely time to dig out the whole edit! In the mean time, here’s Matt’s dope section set to his own music – watch it then go out and find a ledge to try front board nollie 270 front 5-0 on. He also had some killer footage as a guest on Anti Hero’s Tent City tour the year before this dropped.

Sole Rebel (2011)

A rad documentary on Matt, just before the Ipath crash…

The Other Ones (2011)

The missing iPath video, released when the shoe company dropped the majority of their team after filming the best part of a video. Luckily for us the footage still saw the light of day as a scene release, and a banging one at that. Less street-focused than a lot of his earlier sections, this one sees Matt flex his ATV wings as he hits a variety of parks and ditches and throws down some tricks you won’t see that often – heelflip body varial noseblunt anyone?

Paradise Wheels – Pairidaeza (2012)

2012 saw the recently formed Paradise Wheels team up with Mexican duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela for a full video, avoiding the problems which can arise when a skate video is scored by a single artist and creating a heady combination of crusty ditches, SF hill spots and plywood bank set ups all set to some lighting-fast fretwork. Stoked on Rodriguez throwing down the Heddings trick at the end!

Paradise Wheels – Keep Life Rolling (2015)

Paradise Wheels’ short video which dropped last January saw another full Matt Rodriguez section featuring some of those US suburban spots that dreams are made of – backyard ditch features, painted red curbs, rickety wooden banks…go get some!

Stereophonic Sound Volume 26 (2015)

Bringing us up to the last couple of months is Stereo’s Stereophonic Sound Volume 26, featuring a short Rodriguez section in the middle. While some footage is reprised from the previous clip, it contains enough new skating to be worth a watch…