As far as opening lines go, MJ here is pretty untouchable. The backside noseblunt is perfectly poised on a picnic table. With a few pushes, MJ glides through the school ground towards his next obstacle where he delivers a beautiful backside backside kickflip to meet the first strum of Bowie’s guitar. Shortly afterwards MJ drops a kickflip out of fakie 5-0 in perfect sync with the same, repeatedly strummed chord and then proceeds to 360 flip out of the same grind in the following line. Part of Marc’s appeal could lie with how relatable he is. And not ‘relatable’ in the 2015 sense as in wallieing into oblivion…

A prime example being the casper stall on a brick quarterpipe; a completely unorthodox trick and one not expected to be done at all, let alone done that well, but somehow it’s understandable that MJ pulled it off. You could witness somebody robotically dive a 5050 down a handrail and while it may be not more complicated than this casper it would still feel more foreign. Perhaps it’s in Marc’s posture as he rolls away from tricks. Later on into this part he laser flips out of nose manual, then fakie 360 flips out of manual and then bigflip flips out of another manual that has already been switch 180’d into. The tricks may be bolts and there’s a slight stomp, but it’s not a self-assured robotic stomp; it’s a slightly heavy landing you’ve no doubt felt yourself when rolling away from something new for the first time. The brief pause as MJ’s arm hovers in front of his face suggests he’s just as surprised as we are. I’ve waded away from Bowie territory here but, mirroring the opening, the final and more dramatic strum of his guitar matches Marc as he places a heelflip out of frontside noseslide.