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I’ve been a fan of Roger Skateboards since Bill Pierce was Roger of the Month. 20% Skateboarding, 80% weed and cobras shows the fried egg in a ditch outsider art perspective I’m glad exists in an Austin, Texas alternate universe that kept going after Slacker ended and never veered into vindictivism. I can’t name a person on Roger’s team off the top of my head, but when I see Transworld hosting this 17 minute SuckerPunch I flip on my internet shack’s modem and dial up:
Roger’s Mr. Yuk icon sticks out his tongue at us, then a nod to the good folks at no-comply and we’re straight into scene. An unnamed skater with Diego Bucchieri style hair and raver flair takes a little push atop a high ledge, drops onto 5050 for 10 feet grind along a mellowly descending flatbar as camera pans out to reveal the 11 foot drop he pops off backside to make. He scoops an instinctive impossible fresh in his body high and rolls into his friend in a yellow basketball jersey’s waiting embrace as the rest of the gang, including dude wearing an airplane pillow, gathers in congratulation. We get a second angle of this daring do as Loretta Lynn starts singing “Well you thought I’d be waiting up when you came home last night,” and the extended afterpartying, wherein fellas empty Lone Stars into an ice bath, shoot craps against the sideways skate deck, and generally carry on suggests Loretta might have just cause to be upset with her wayward man until in next clip, another skater hits the same spot’s double set with a back 180. Camera pans to our unnamed first skater, with holes shredded through above the back pockets of his wallet chain jeans to reveal purple underwear, ecstatic for a friend to share in success. If he comes home late he had his reasons like these and I’m curious to see what else he’s been getting into.
Here he is in lifestyle footy, wearing a PunkAndYo shirt with a smoke ready to light, pouring out the first taste of his cold popped can in a show of respect that hints at hard lessons learned at a young age. Next clip he’s rolling shirtless in baggy black jeans, checkerboard belt, and black shoes to slappy a tall corner pocket crook out fakie, then Kevin Romar’s a switch front 180 into next bank, ride off that drop regular to don’t look back while we see scraped scars above his pilonidal that explain the blown out pants we saw earlier. Next line switch backside carves frontside powerslide to regular, then hits slappy crooks over an out ledge. Some skaters go so hard to reach diminishing returns on investment, so good to see this fellow making a statement with style to spare, a postmodern, anti formalist tactical no tricks approach where to do anything more complicated would be foolish.
I guess this dude is 22 years old (just found his IG before publishing, today is his 23rd birthday!) His sidewalk gap to noseblunt slide across pedestrian island comments on Texas transit spaces, followed by a narrow, high flat gap to back 5050 to pop out and down, quite gnarly in the same style as his first trick. Next clip he lifts nollie into lipslide over a little bridge as a single. The tricks alternate between subtlely fried and highly frazzled, suggesting constant pedestal operation from galaxial vantage. Another no pop nollie into front tailslide shove facilitates another second trick impossible with hang ten landing along black sidewalk on black wheels. A close up beetle shot zooms out to see said scarab is chilling on his t-shirt. No comply front tail shows further commitment to this no pop lifestyle where the easiest way out exists for a reason. I think Roger made coozies that said “Drink smarder not harder” and this embodies that.
Don’t forget Texas heat envelopes these sessions, so he and a cohort buy bottled water from a roving vendor, drink to fill and pour the rest in their hair. The friend uses a W guardrail as transfer aid to crooked grind pop into bank. Starboy here follows with back 5050 pressure heel flip out and down. Excitement over this harebrained dream turned real, make way, prompts a longlocked friend lurking below to pantomime rolling dice along exit route since his friend just hit six and a snake eye looking like Trainwreck Gall. Or maybe he looks like Sean Pablo mixed with Aiden, mugging through a fence. He finishes an endless unnumbered afternoon at the quikcreted Austin High Ditch in long shorts and camo tee popping an ollie one foot over random rock then smile to grind front 5-0 across the bank to bank breatdh before body varial out. He pops fakie front shove on flat and his homie backs him up with a combo that shows how hard the rest have to work in attempts to keep up with this elusive cool breeze. Part over, we watch until credits, when he reappears to run up a seawall and backflip off. His name is Cosmo Martinez-Glenn, which makes sense and is what we needed to know. It’s still yesterday in Texas…
Topic: ROGER Skate Co New video SUCKER PUNCH (Read 1924 times)