Shred Wednesday | A Skate Video Retrospective [Part 20]

The reason I called that Thomas clip my "personal favorite", was because the 'best skate part ever' title belongs to only one. On our 20th entry*, Ian finally lets us have it. He writes in brown, below.



Song: “I Am the Walrus” (The Beatles) cover by Gray Matter
Skater: Geoff Rowley
Video: Flip Skateboards; Sorry (2002)

Prospectors Top 10 (in sequence):
Front board (1:00)
Switch Ollie (1:16)
360 Flip over Roof Gap (1:35)
360 flip Lip-Slide (4:30)
180 Nosegrind down the Wilshire 15 (5:02)
Boardslide (5:19)
50-50 (5:32)
Ollie (5:45)
Frontside Flip (6:03)
Varial Heel-Flip (6:23)

I have never been more in awe of any part in any skate video than Geoff Rowley’s section in Sorry. Rowley proved that he was more than worthy of his Skater of the Year 2000 award. He’s skating’s version of a punk icon. Various interviews from teammates have confirmed that Rowley shows up thinking, “either I land this trick or I die trying,” and he means it.

This part is so good; it’s hard to believe that it's just one video part and not a compilation of highlights from an entire career. In my opinion, its been 7 years since this came out and the rest of the sport is still yet to catch up.

He combines the perfect amount of big (handrail/gap) tricks with practically unfathomable technical tricks. (see: heel-flip dark-slides (3:10) & (3:48). I know I usually do a top 3 above, but even a top 10 was kind of hard.

The song makes sense since it was written by a little band also from (Geoff’s home town) Liverpool, England.

Surely none of its many covers could ever top The Beatles original. What makes a cover great though, is not if it can compete, but rather if it can present a song in a different light. That's why Gray Matter's 1984 punk rendition works.

I don't need to hear its parent album (Food For Thought) to know that it's not my cup of tea. But for a segment this insane, no song could've done it better. Gray Matter's version plays with our expectations; we want to sing at a familiar speed, and it keeps rushing us, like Rowley's impatient outbursts at his rails/boards/obstacles/self, it simply psychs-out everything in its way. From Johnny Rotten's introduction to Rowley's bloody rawness, this clip is punk rock. Forgive me for attempting to draw another parallel but: "I Am The Walrus" changed popular music, and in a similar sense, skateboarding was never the same after The Rowley part.

*Now you may be wondering when/if this feature ever ends. We initially planned on wrapping it up right here. Expect a little mixtape giveaway next week that does just that. Still, this has been too much fun, and there are plenty of shreds still in us, so that may be a lie...