What's the most amazing skateboard video?

September 25, 2007 10:19 AM

What skateboarding video is most likely to make my monocle pop out, my top hat fly off, and cause me to run around the room slapping my ass with both hands and declaiming a total lack of belief?

I've never been much of a skater and couldn't tell the difference between a flipside nosegrind and a goofy suicide ollie if my life depended on it. But I enjoy good sports camera work, and since my 6 year old son's life now revolves around Tony Hawk (praise be unto him), I'd like to see and show him some really great street/bowl/ramp skating work. Highly dangerous is fine, but since the audience might include a 6 year old anything with dramatic failure involving compound fractures might be a bit much.

posted by felix to sports, hobbies, & recreation (23 comments total)

Yeah Right! is fun. The whole thing is up on youTube, which is... interesting.
posted by smackfu at 10:26 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Ban This!

Which is the single greatest skateboarding video ever made. It came out in1989 and is still the most incredible skate video you'll ever see. The breadth of styles and tricks is amazing, the skills are still unequalled in many respects, the editing is fantastic, and the original soundtrack still plays in my head all the time, even after all these years.

Ban This is still regularly shown on Fuel TV and played in skate shops, not because it is dated and funny, but because it is incredible and awesome.

Oh, and it has an amazing extended Tony Hawk part.
posted by The World Famous at 10:27 AM on September 25, 2007

Rodney Mullen is the most amazing skateboarder ever. Here's a sample.
posted by milarepa at 10:28 AM on September 25, 2007

I did a roundup of 1980s Powell-Peralta videos available through Google Video back in May. All are still highly watchable and plenty of fun.
posted by porn in the woods at 10:48 AM on September 25, 2007

Google Video also has a full-length version of Ban This which is indeed incredible.
posted by porn in the woods at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2007

Seconding Rodney Mullen. Definitely find a better quality video though, it will make him more incredible.
posted by lain at 10:51 AM on September 25, 2007

Gotta add my voice to the Rodney Mullen crowd. Just unbelievable what he can do with a plank on wheels.
posted by kepano at 11:00 AM on September 25, 2007

The thing that made my monocle pop out for the first time was seeing a skater land in a manual (balancing on either the front or back wheels). Mullen does it at about 1:10 in this video. That man and his tricks!
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:17 AM on September 25, 2007

I could pretty much watch Rodney Mullen skate for the rest of my life and not be bored.

If you want some classics, check out the old Bones or H Street videos or something. The Search for Animal Chin is probably the all-time classic skate video.
posted by atomly at 11:18 AM on September 25, 2007

It's not *quite* skating, but Youtube has some videos of a guy named Rollerman. I think they were featured here a few weeks ago - the guy has a suit of body armor with 30-ish rollerblade wheels attached to him; the videos show him going through city traffic, and also screaming down the alps.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 11:23 AM on September 25, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Search for Animal Chin is the best skateboarding video ever made.
posted by BSummers at 12:05 PM on September 25, 2007

No Compound Fractures Here
posted by Xurando at 12:46 PM on September 25, 2007

For some crazy rube goldberg type skateboarding, check out Cheese and Crackers
posted by smithygreg at 1:50 PM on September 25, 2007

I nth the Rodney Mullen suggestions. There's a utube vid of him doing stuff set to Sweet Home Alabama that's pretty much unbelievable.
posted by Autarky at 4:02 PM on September 25, 2007

Not that it's needed ... but I nth + 1 the Mullens vote. I don't think that guy is subject to the same laws of physics as the rest of us.
posted by Tsar Pushka at 5:46 PM on September 25, 2007

The Plan B video (forgot the name exactly) from around 1992 is the one with the Rodney Mullen part that lots of people remember. It's a pretty incredible video.
posted by mathowie at 7:18 PM on September 25, 2007

Owen Wilson shredding a staircase... def raises some eyebrows. (from the YeahRight! video) He skates after talking shit for a couple minutes and then gets called out.
posted by pwally at 10:19 AM on September 26, 2007

nthing mullen. His creativity is astounding. Look for him just standing in one place, dancing around with the board without going anywhere.
posted by milestogo at 1:26 PM on September 26, 2007

Almost Round 3 is great, both Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song's parts blew me away. Youtube.

Danny Way's part in The DC Video was pretty ground breaking stuff. When X-Games added big-air to their competition is was pretty much a result of this part. Youtube.
posted by cheerleaders_to_your_funeral at 2:56 PM on September 26, 2007

Blind–Video Days is the best skate video ever.
posted by generalist at 11:09 PM on September 26, 2007

The Owen Wilson segment in Yeah Right is actually Eric Koston taking the rail. Watch closely and you see Wilson step out of frame to be replaced by Koston.
posted by roofus at 2:15 PM on September 27, 2007

Another vote for Mullen! He's the skater who made me want to skate, and then want to quit when I realised I had no hope of getting that good!
posted by opsin at 6:23 AM on January 27, 2008

I saw Rodney Mullen skate at the Muenster Championship in Muenster, Germany in 1990. That was amazing. It was just before he switched to street and was still skating freestyle at the time. At one point he was taking on the ramps of the street course...on his freestyle board, and well.
posted by Chocomog at 1:26 PM on January 27, 2008