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one thing i always thought really made PJ's part in WHL what it was, in addition to the phenomenal tech skating, is the vibe of the spots he was skating. i have never been to boston so i wouldn't really know, but watching that part (which i still do a lot, it's fascinated me ever since it first came out) it just transpires that he's mostly skating local spots, on which he looks totally familiar with the terrain which more often than not looks rugged as fuck. he goes really fast the whole time too, does all those shifty flip tricks that kind of look like a tech extension of oyola's style. he has that city skating vibe going on all the while doing fucked up hard tricks, which are seldom seen in such settings and consequently look all the more impressive and rad. that plus the typical rugged skate rat look, it's really easy as the average skater (especially of that era) to project themselves in the dirty hoodies or identify with the worn-out shoes - it just feels a lot more like what we all know, the basic struggles of street skating, except the way PJ 'street skates' is out of this world. skating was never the same after PJ's part dropped, and in a way it pioneered the tech ledge and flatground movement then displayed by the likes of mike mo, then cory kennedy then shane o neil, except i never thought any of them ever matched WHL PJ in terms of flavor. the way i see it, suciu's part was a good part by a really good skater, but PJ's contribution to the culture really changed the game
i remember seeing the video at the local shop back then and the guys all were like " it's only a shop video but that guy makes all the pros look so bad- yes, he is that fucked up good!" but when i saw that part i could not and still cannot believe. don't get me wrong i am a huge fan of sucius skating but you just cannot match the impact of PJs part back then.....wich had the advantage of still being filmed in an era before youtube and shit. i still think that sucius SABOTAGE 3 part is his most definate part though above cross continental.
the epoch the video came out is actually a very good point to bring up, for several reasons. it was pre-youtube as you rightfully said, back when local full-lengths and shop videos still mattered to the majority of skaters as long as they had any sort of quality to them (something i find is still a thing, but has been diluting ever since the epoch where the big corporations started to explicitly take over and, more generally, exploiting the internet as a massive marketing tool gradually became the main thing to do with it). it came out at a time when we weren't being massively overwhelmed with information and 'content' yet, so it was easier to focus on individual projects and outputs.
moreover, i feel like the industry still felt kind of 'ours' back then - although some questionable shifts were happening already, in reality topics such as the x-games, or extreme sports groups purchasing skate brands were most suburban soul skaters' biggest worries at the time - gear manufactured by outside corporations were less of an option (whereas nowadays, is it fair to ponder if, realistically and outside of our demographic, it's become the average kid's go-to ?). case in point, it was probably easier then for the average skater in general to relate to what felt like our common dirty secret - secret society insider shit - and PJ's skate rat personality as portrayed in WHL totally embodied that vibe. it may have been one of the strongest cultural contributions (of its time, at least) to make the average skater feel like they belonged to something special, thereby enhancing the effect of the obviously incredible skating.
and that being said, at the same time the digital age actually really was just around the corner and as far as i recall, the video was one of the first ever to benefit from the worldwide exposure inherent to being massively shared on p2p networks such as emule, kazaa, soulseek, limewire... back when not just about everything and anything was being shared (or even filmed with cell phones in the first place). i don't know how all of you first got to see WHL in the first place, but from what i saw here in europe most everyone would download it from there, some actively going out of their way to look it up upon reading about it in the most up-to-date of the few skate magazines we had, others just because it was one of the hot files sitting there right next to, say, classic vids such as questionable and video days, as well as the few randomly popular clips of the time, like that now ancient eric koston vs. paul rodriguez flatground game of skate, or 'the blowjob video' in a pre-free-porn-streaming era. it was a pretty convenient film to find, before the internet got flooded so even in those regards, it really came out at the right time.
sorry for the wall of text, but that particular video part represents a key time period in skateboarding for me, it changed the way i looked at it at the time so obviously it is going to be one of my favorite things to nerd out on despite its age (which is an argument i think is irrelevant in skateboarding anyway - great skateboarding is timeless, only trends come and go). funny to hear about people going out of their way to learn 360 flips after it dropped, i did the same thing, with nollie 360 flips too. and in general it just influenced me to try and make my lines more frantic for a brief moment - putting more tricks into them, popping a new one sooner after landing the former one, quickly shifting my feet. may be a stretch but i'm now starting to ponder if that part alone might have had an effect on the general pace of pro's lines at the time ? like the rhythm at which they were doing tricks as opposed to just flowing in between them (think donger or SF skaters for a vulgarization of what i mean). as though long lines with little tech action were suddenly being thought of as boring. again, trends...