Text: Tuka Piziniztee.
So, whilst everyone and their stylist is currently hammering out their ‘Best of 2013’ lists to show off how down they are with what’s occurring, here we are doing a similar thing but with the criteria for inclusion slightly altered.
The click bait you’re about to read has absolutely fuck all to do with any preconceived ideas about what we, (or anyone else for that matter) think is the ‘best’ and EVERYTHING to do with which skateboard related clips have generated the funniest and most controversial comments online over the past 12 months.
Personally, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse whether you think Nyjah should’ve been crowned Robin Hood Prince of Theeves or whether you’re still crying that Jason Park’s fakie benihana wasn’t included as a special move on GTA 5: I’m here for the lulz, and the lulz alone….
The following are in roughly chronological order of release – enjoy, or don’t.
Entirely up to you…
Check back tomorrow for Part 2.
POWERS SURGE – Feb 2013
So to start us off with the first of 2013’s most hotly debated online skateboard clips is the inimitable pint-sized Puerto-Rican himself – Shawn ‘Espy’ Powers and his official ‘welcome to the team’ Powers Surge clip from Palace.
Boasting an impressive 75.9k views on Vimeo and with Facebook as its number one traffic referrer, Espy’s magnum opus utilizes all the visual tools that one would associate with the words ‘Palace’ and/or ‘New York’.
This is 6 minutes and 32 seconds of vignetted fish-eye footage, VHS tracking, fire hydrants, Umbro tops, shove-its and the man himself dancing in front of annoyed taxi-drivers. As expected, plaudits were as numerous as detractors, and for every genuine online ‘thumbs up’ for the line at Flushing Meadows or the banging fakie tres over the bench, you can find an equal number of disgruntled internet fiends frothing disgust into their keyboards at the kebab-esque nollie flip at 2:49 or the possible baby-death incident 4 minutes in.
Put simply – Powers Surge served its purpose – namely to expose Mr. Powers to an audience far greater than those who already knew about him because they either frequent the QS site, live in NYC, or have heard the story about how Shawn may or may not have seen that pop singers’ pink bits…
Masterfully controversial.
