(Totally) Beachy Keen

Ah yes, an opportunity to get a pun in the title and to pimp my own wares, YES. But that's not the point here.

Today I saw the new TWS Video, Right Foot Forward, a part of, at least right now (I read somewhere that Thrasher was about to throw some salt into the "big deal" skateboard video game once again), the almost defunct genre of high production value magazine generated videos. As with all post-Ty Evans TWS vids, it delivers to an extent, though it mostly seems to be somewhat of a toned down re-hash of what Feedback set in motion, and what culminated in Modus Operandi; no offense, but whoever TWS brings in to fill Ty's long shadow only seems to imitate, not innovate. As a reality check, the skateboarding within is bananas, the NBDs abound, and the production is wet platinum smooth (whether or not I checked the special drawer for that last bit is up for conjecture).

The line up is filled with some of our favorite goofy footers, one of whom, is the oft polarizing but always ripping Duffman, Corey Duffel. While most of the modern skateletariet mostly and only comes to blows with his female hairdresser on 'roids look, most of the older bloc remembers him for his seemingly (at the time, completely) unforgivable trashy Stevie Williams SNAFU; needless to say, he weathered the storm, and even presented some award this one time with Stevie himself. I might have been there, it was awkward.

Anyhow, it seems that about five years into this young millennium, Duffel had last part on reserved lock, no questions asked. And simply put, I fully expected him to be anchor man in the aforementioned production, though, as some old dude, I was really hoping for some Matt Beach as well. The video went on and on, and as the younger dudes ripped and then the montage came it became increasingly possible that Beach was holding down the quite-respectable second to last part position. Then something funny happened; Duffman came on before Beach. And there you go.

Of course, Beach rips, and his ender will leave you smiling, scratching your head, and saying "oh shit" as he ads a little exclamation point on the end of it. What impresses me most about Right Foot Forward, as maybe you surmised, is that the editing duo of Jon Holland and Chris Ray eschewed the obvious and went with Beach as the ender ender. We could extrapolate many motivations for this move; a reverence for the comeback or pretty much legend status, or that they simply thought it was a better fit. Who knows? What is known is that this, in a way, makes up for some dubious ender ender choices in previous TWS vids, ironically from the Ty Evans era.

Grievance number one is Matt Mumford over Stevie Williams for last part in The Reason. Perhaps, ten years ago in 1999, a smith grind down El Toro was a greater asset than a hardflip frontside noseslide on an above knee high ledge. In fact, many things have changed since then; perhaps Ty would have been more comfortable giving a young, mainly shirtless, black man last part if he'd witnessed the inauguration of a black president. Baseless theories and race politics aside, it seems that Williams' sprawling, sweaty, inner-city opus (plus Kalis and KT, c'mon!) should have won out over Mumford's momentum grinding, slo-mo happy, (pointlessly?) black and white section. But there's more.

Grievance number two can, in hindsight, only be recalled as a fuckup. As Modus Operandi is remembered as having a bangin' sort of coming out party part with recently to grips "I'm going bald so I'll just shave it" Marc Johnson, as well as a section showing glimpses of the still Expeditioning Brandon Biebel (who stole last trick in a part that wasn't even his part), most and many remember, well, two words, one name; Mike Carroll. Whether it was the "possibly best line ever" line at the SF Library, or the nollieflip five-oh frontside revert, or the perfectly synced feeble grind, or SJ's assist with the frontside 180 switch K-grind, or the general Kuruption of the part, or the ending backlip to dust ride, when the dust settled, Carroll had won.

And then there was the Brian Anderson/Brad Staba ender part. Set to Muskabeatz? Need I say much more? The two parts, even at the time, paled in comparison, and it baffles me to this day why Carroll wasn't given last part.

If I ever get the chance, I'll ask Mr. Evans what he thinks about that editing choice almost a decade on. Maybe it was just giving props to BA as the '99 SOTY, but that, frankly, is a little thin. Cool if you read this far. Oh yeah, I oozed over MC's part so much that I decided to embed it:

On another note, Mr. Tambo gets his name spelled wrong but also gets a sequence up at Thrasher.

On a utilitarian note, does having the links open in a new window make things less frustrating than things were? Comment if you want.

Happy weekend. Avoid the tipped up TV and go get the real thing.