Title: Real to Reel
Author(s): Gabe Morford & Dan Wolfe
Publisher: Real Skateboards
Year: 2001
-The opening montage feels as foundational to my sonic sensibility as the opening of DJ Shadow’s equally important Endtroducing...
-I love all of the atmospheric shots of SF. That was such a magical city, at that time, for an LA boy. Some of my most cherished skateboard-related memories are of teenage trips to skate EMB and Pier 7 for a weekend.
-I’m sure part of why this video is so significant for me is down to the fact that I went to a screening of it on release day at my local skateshop. I still vividly remember the excitement in the air as everyone clustered around the TV in the back of the shop and let this video wash over them. The shop also had a raffle going that day, which I won, so I got a copy of the tape, a Real t-shirt (SF Chinatown gate graphic, gold on black), and maybe some stickers? I remember the t-shirt got mixed in with some stuff my mom was taking to the dry cleaners, and when it came back, the graphic was totally cracked and flaking off. Shirt ruined, but destiny sealed.
-This video is the coolest that Gonz ever was for me. His skating is so joyful and artsy in the best possible way, pre-Supreme. I’m not saying anything against Gonz in the slightest, just that this is the sweetest sweet spot. This is my Video Days, I guess.
-Nate Jones is the smoothest motherfucker not named Gino Iannucci who ever rode a skateboard.
-Matt Field’s hill bomb at the beginning of his part, with Karl Watson, that golden california hill, the music, into the Sizzla song... it all rules so hard. Field’s got amazing sketch style, like a less...autistic?...Gonz. Wonderful.
-Ipaths were cool shoes. I got a photo of a 50-50 around the curve at 3rd and Army in the back of Thrasher, pretty shortly after this came out, where I’m wearing Ipaths and baggy olive chinos, in total Field/Jones fashion mode.
-Fuck, Huf’s part is going to make me cry. The heart song is such a perfectly unexpected fit, and he just had such amazing style, I could watch him do ollies for days. So smooth and precise, but still heavy and fearless. RIP, Huf.
-The world seen through a fisheye lens on a VX is how my life will look on the heavenly videotape. That’s my world.
-I love how brief the parts are.
-”Ain’t no love in Oakland, bitch.” I’ve never been a vert guy, but i love Max Schaaf’s part in this. A lot of that is down to the song, but it’s so sweet that Onio’s in there. The $$$ board, the adorable dog, Gonz skitching on the hog to ollie over Max, this is all just a perfect bit of vert spice in a street skating masterpiece.
-I have no words for Busenitz’s part, beyond just, “I love skateboarding”.
-The Modest Mouse song in Cairo Foster’s part is an all-timer. MM and Built To Spill were important bands for me at this time, helping me define my own musical taste as distinct from what my dad or the radio could show me. In fact, Built To Spill was my first real concert, all ‘cause I’d heard so many of their songs in skate videos.
-Gonz’s part belongs on the Voyager golden record. This is humanity at its finest. I cannot believe how much joy and pure creativity is packed in there. This makes me feel like being alive is ok. I love this part as much as anything else in life. I can hear the influence of the song in my own music. The through-the-rail hippy jump was the craziest thing I’d ever seen at the time, and even if I’ve seen more challenging stuff since, nothing comes close to it for my personal sense of amazement. God, his mobbed kickflips are so beautiful. The powerslide-body varial-front shove...it’s absolute unadulterated beauty.
“I do the tricks, not you!”