Filipe Mota: The Pro Interview

At only the age of 19, Filipe’s accomplished quite a bit, and just last weekend, he checked off another goal: turning pro. Having known him for years, I’ve watched him push himself to get where he wants to be. We sat down to catch up about the pro surprise, his process in the streets, and to touch on the sacrifices that both he and his dad have made for him to get where he is today.

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Andy Pitts: The Burn Squad Interview

The recent Burn Squad Pro Editions with Max Palmer, Andrew Wilson, Karim Callender, Johnny Wilson, Antonio Durao, and Cyrus Bennett got me thinking about what goes into a collection like this. Seeing signature graphics of the iconic Spitfire Bighead is always exciting, and there’s no better person to speak to this than Andy Pitts.

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More than just tricks, Vol. 2

About 2 years ago I wrote an article titled More than just tricks… and the time has come to follow it up.

That article got a ton of responses of clips that fit the mold of More than just tricks and now I get to highlight some of those. If you read the first article, this is just to refresh your memory; the point here is to look at moments from clips that are memorable, although they might not be a trick.

This time around, I connected with either the skater or filmer to get their perspective on the clip, enjoy.

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Behind The Loops: Primitive’s “WILDFIRE” Video w/ Trent McClung and Eric Iwakura

Primitive followed up their AM video, DAYDREAM, by dropping one more video before 2024 came to a close, this one is titled WILDFIRE.

This video had a slightly different feel than most other Primitive videos; the 4×3 HD look included. WILDFIRE follows a format that seems to continue to increase in popularity, a few riders from a brand film full parts, and the rest of the team is included in a montage or two. Personally, as a viewer, I’m a fan of this format. If you compare it to a brand taking years working on a full length, it gives us more videos to watch, and they’re at more digestible lengths.

Along with the video premiere came the pro surprise for Kyonosuke, which was more than deserved. As Skatefol.io proved, Kyo’s been incredibly productive and has already left his mark on skating with his talent and creativity. Congrats on the pro nod, Kyo!

I decided to pick my favorite clip from each full part in this video and then chatted with Trent McClung and Eric Iwakura to get some behind-the-scenes stories on what went into these clips. Watch below for some commentary over raw footage, and then read the interview in its entirety below that. Enjoy…

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Behind The Loops: Ed Sanchez

This one’s special. Ed and I have known each other since elementary school and grew up skating together in the same crew through middle school and high school. We’d all watch the new videos together, we’d skate together after school, and go on missions of the weekends together, it’s an era that I know means a lot to both Ed and I, as well as everyone else in the crew.

Since then, Ed’s done so much for skateboarding, specifically the skate scene in San Diego. He’s worked at Slappy’s Garage for a handful of years, and when he’s not there, you can find him out filming or shooting photos on just about any session. As you’ll hear about in the interview below, he’s dropped two videos this year, with the most recent one being “leaveurbodyleaveurmind” which just premiered on Oct. 25th. We dove into the process of filming and editing, how it is working on a video with a big crew, and got some insight on some stand out clips. Enjoy!

Scope Ed’s latest full-length here
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Behind The Loops: Matt Bublitz

If you’re not familiar with Matt Bublitz’ work, I’m excited for you, you’re going to enjoy his videos. If you are familiar with Matt’s work, I’m excited for you, you get to read about what went into his latest piece, BACKWASH, and you get to enjoy his videos, again.

A good ol’ homie video. Classic skateboarding.

🌀: What’s up Matt! Stoked to dive into the video with you! First off, being someone who is a filmer/editor for Thrasher, what keeps you motivated to continue to make homie videos?

It’s kind of a natural thing. I think it comes from my friend group being motivated, just us being good friends even outside of skateboarding. It’s a no-brainer, honestly. It’s not like, “Are we going to skate this weekend?” It’s pretty much every weekend my friends are hitting me up to go skate. They all have full-time jobs but they’re still motivated to try and get tricks. I don’t really like set out like, “In two or three years I’m going to make a full length.” We just get footage and then at a certain point, there’s enough to make it into something. With every video that I’ve worked on, I get to a point where I feel like I’m holding people’s footage hostage if I’m sitting on it for too long, so then I’m like, “Ok, it’s time to make something, and do my part of the job.”

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