What’s Loopin’: Gronze

Crew/homie videos are special, it’s something that I tend to gravitate towards because they feel so relatable. They cause my mind to wander and think about random skate sessions I’ve had with friends, tricks we’ve filmed, and trips we’ve been on. They’re natural; it’s friends skating together because they want to, not because they share a sponsor.

My first memory of watching a Gronze video was the Gronze Island – Episode 1 – Gran Canaria edit on Thrasher. This immediately became a video I always watched before going skating. I loved the song choices, the look of the spots, and obviously, the skaters involved. Gronze’s most recent release, TARÉ, reminded me how much I enjoy their videos, which quickly led to me rewatching their 2021 full length, Gronze World. Here’s a couple of TARÉ standouts to start it off –

The man behind it all, Max Geronzi. I always look forward to Max footage, regardless of whether he’s skating his 80’s setup or not. He came through with 2 clips in TARÉ; just enough to get me stoked while leaving me wanting more. One of them was a line ending with this Nollie Front Heel. Just look at his foot flick and wait for the board to hit it, I wish I knew what the level of control felt like. I also love that he rolled away loose like that, in my opinion it added even more flavor to the clip. Also, if you need a good laugh, watch this.

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Revisit: JB Gillet

For the second installment of Revisit, I had the pleasure of catching up with JB Gillet, a true OG. JB’s career has been made up of many video parts; so we picked a handful of them to go behind the scenes on, as well as catch up on his recent injury, Hôtel de Ville, and some of his favorite skaters at the moment!

🌀: What’s up JB, how are you?

Good, good! How are you?

🌀: I’m good, thanks for being down to do this! So the point of this series is to dive into video parts throughout someone’s career, and you’ve had a fair share of your own. Let’s start with your Rodney Mullen vs Daewon Song: Round 2 part. There are clips in Lyon, SF, LA, and more in here, was this around the time you started traveling to film?

Yeah, Round 2 was the first time I was in LA. I was filming with Socrates (Leal) in LA, and I filmed with French Fred when I was in Lyon.

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Revisit: Paul Rodriguez

Revisit is a new series, and I’m starting it off with P-Rod, since he inspired it. Last month this Paul Rodriguez | 20 and Forever video was released. This piece did an amazing job of highlighting the 20 years of Paul’s professional skate career and it did so in an emotional way. There’s some of Paul’s career that I didn’t live through, and other parts that I remember clearly, like watching Me, Myself and I right when it released. As this piece ended, you can both hear and see the emotion in Paul as he finishes reflecting on the incredible career he’s had thus far, and I felt the emotion myself. It gave me this feeling of being proud of Paul for everything he’s accomplished, as if he’s a close friend of mine, and all that he’s done for skateboarding. I guess the easiest way to put it is that it was incredibly inspiring to see all that P-Rod has set his mind to and done.

Fast forward a couple weeks – I’m driving to work in the morning, sitting in traffic on the 5, listening to The Nine Club Experience. On the show, they begin to discuss this recent P-Rod 20-year piece, and as I was listening, my mind started to wander. I started to think again about all that P-Rod has done in his career; and was beginning to obsess over the video parts he’s released over the years, and the lasting impact that they’ve had on countless skateboarders. As I was having these thoughts, it hit me that I need to write about skateboarders who have contributed so much to skateboarding through their video parts. I’m sure this is very clear by now; but skate videos are my favorite thing, ever. The reason that I love to write about skate videos is because of how much effort goes into making them, I feel like they deserved to be discussed. With that being said, the point of this series is to revisit a skaters video parts, spanning over different periods of their career. I’m not going to necessarily highlight every video part that a skater has released, or give a full timeline of their parts, but just highlight a few of them, as a nod of respect to what they contributed to skateboarding. To kick it off, here are some clips from 7 video parts that Paul has released, think about that for a minute, 7 video parts.

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What’s Loopin’ – 7/10/22

With a couple amazing video projects releasing over this past week, it only felt right to let out my thoughts out. When something releases and I’m stoked on it, I immediately text my friends, start talking about my favorite clips, and become obsessed. It turns into something I can’t stop thinking about, and wanting to talk about. I love that feeling. It’s a feeling that I crave when I don’t have, and I try to cherish when I do. Well, let’s dive into what gave me that feeling this week. First off, an amazing video project out of Boston by … Continue reading What’s Loopin’ – 7/10/22

Lucas Puig Instamix: Beach Curbs 📼 🌀

I’ve been a fan of Lucas’ skating for years, from watching him do amazing ledge/manual tricks, to now watching him do beautiful slappy’s all the time, it’s always special. During his recent trip stateside, he seemed to be skating the beach curbs everyday, and making the most of it. The mix of creativity along with incredible control led to some dope combos from Lucas on these double sided curbs. Over the past month or so that Lucas was in LA, I was excited day in and day out to see what he would post, and now that his trip has … Continue reading Lucas Puig Instamix: Beach Curbs 📼 🌀

Jake Hayes Instamix & Loops 📼🌀

My list of favorite skateboarders could go on forever. About every week or so I have a skateboarder that I’m extra hyped on, it could be someone I’ve been a fan of for years or someone I just saw for the first time. Regardless, I always do the same thing, watch this person’s video parts, read their interviews, and lurk through their Instagram. Well, this past week it’s been Jake Hayes. Jake is someone I’ve been familiar with for years, but this week I’ve taken a deep dive into his footage, just appreciating his simple trick selection, unbelievable pop, and … Continue reading Jake Hayes Instamix & Loops 📼🌀