Best of 2023: Brayan Albarenga 'Yuyu'
After years of upheaval and turmoil in the way we consume skate media, 2023 was perhaps the calmest 12 month period for over a decade. All the major websites kept churning out top-drawer footage and the few entities still producing physical magazines kept on printing. Whilst most thoughts invariably turn to Thrasher when the skate press is mentioned, the likes of Free Magazine and The Skateboarder's Companion are still very much producing top quality articles and hosting the best Euro parts, as Free did back in July with Brayan Albarenga's tremendous 'Yuyu'
You've gotta hand it to the lads at Free Skateboarding Magazine, not only do they manage to knock out a world class skate mag that's distributed completely gratis through Europe's premier skate shops, they also showcase ungodly talent on a seemingly daily basis. Which is exactly what we've got here in this latest installment from the perma-stylish Brayan Albarenga!
Looking like Deedz' Spanish cousin, each time a bit of Brayan content pops up it takes us by surprise and reminds us just how fantastically skilled the lad is. After all, regular readers of our twice-monthly musings will no doubt recall us waxing lyrical over 'Yoryo' back in May 2021 and his new part 'Yuyu' is every bit as deserving of your attention.
Once again filmed primarily around the Catalan capital, the grinds are long, the tricks are technical and the style is oh-so-smooth. It's everything you could want and Free always delivers. There's nowt more we can really say than that!
Best of 2023: Quasi 'Simulation'
Full lengths are still a thing in 2023. Who would have guessed that when everyone and his dog was lamenting their demise ten years ago! From Vans Felch to Foundation's Whippersnappers, Lakai's Bubble to Huf's Forever, long play videos are still dropping regularly, both from mainstream brands and independent underdogs. Quasi skateboards got in on the action back in July and Simulation has been on constant repeat ever since!
In a world of Instagram gimmicks and YouTube contrivance, Chad Bowers' Quasi Skateboards is a name you can rely on. Synonymous with high quality skateboarding and top-notch video production, it's been that way since day one.
Hailing from Dayton, Ohio and rising out of the (ultimately temporary) ashes of Alien Workshop's 2014 demise, the team of Dick Rizzo, Tyler Bledsoe, Jon Rowe and Gilbert Crockett exists to serve the needs of the discerning adult skateboarder. It is, for want of a less trite term, the connoisseur's choice and their brand-new video 'Simulation' is a choice cut indeed.
Jason Nam opens with harsh east coast winters, reminding us that is won't always be summer, closely followed by Dane Barker, a CeeBlues car jump, Dick Rizzo finding the most creative bank lines and fellow NYC local Josh Wilson keeping it strictly East Coast. Jon Rowe closes proceedings with a Mark E. Smith inspired all-out crust assault and 17 minutes is wrapped up in the blink of an eye. When you're avoiding contrivance that's all that needs saying - click that play button now.
Best of 2023: This is Not the New Sour Video
Sadly our hopes, relayed in the final paragraph of the write up below, are yet to be fulfilled but we still got plenty of Sour footage this year through the excellent Jante Series, Oscar Candon's Abseiling Down (which we reshared in part one of our end of year review) and this 'Not the New Sour Video.' And whilst any Gustav footage is better than no Gustav footage, we're still pining for another full part - the boy just makes skateboarding look so gosh darn good!
Regular readers of our skate-centric bloggings will be more than familiar with the high regard in which we hold Sour Skateboards' head honcho Gustav Tønnesen. A veritable renaissance man, excelling with both his film making eye and on-board wizardry, our feelings for Gustav are peak man-crush. Understandably, it sent our hearts all a-flutter when we saw Free Magazine was due to release a brand spanking new Sour video this week and we're thrilled to report it doesn't disappoint (as if Gustav ever could!).
Featuring all the usual faces, from Vincent Huhta to Nisse Ingemarsson, as well as some standout footwork from close friend Tyler Surrey, Gustav's creative endeavours have once again delivered the goods for us all to enjoy.
And the best thing of all? If the title is to be taken literally, and this isn't the new Sour video, we're now getting hyped for the promise of the actual new Sour video, whenever that may come!
Best of 2023: Hanging Out With Akwasi Owusu
Every year a new skater takes the world by storm. Sometimes it's a wunderkind like Nyjah in 2005's Elementality, others it's due to social barriers being broken, like the amazing Arin Lester blowing up on Insta back in 2020. This year was definitely the turn of Akwasi Owusu; a Village Psychic feature, leading the ASICS skate program and topping his year becoming part of Jerry Hsu's ever-awesome Sci-fi Fantasy team. Back in August, Jenkem caught up with the lad, just as things were popping off:
In an era when anyone anywhere can share their footage with the world, often immediately after filming the make, it's become a trope of skate journalism to call an up-and-coming skater "one of the most exciting new talents in the world today!" So what do we say when that really rings true? That's the quandary we find ourselves in discussing Akwesi Owusu!
Having recently exploded onto the world stage via his astonishing Sci-fi Fantasy part, hosted by Thrasher, before cementing his name in the Zeitgeist being confirmed as a key member of the new Asics team, Akwesi really does seem to be riding the crest of a wave of public excitement.
Which is probably why Jenkem, those bastions of entertaining skate journalism, have recently spent nine edited minutes hanging around with him in Manhattan's Lower East Side. They know an "exciting new talent" when they see one and, if you watch this, you will too!
Best of 2023: HUF 'Forever'
Every other highlight of this past year we've preceded with a retrospective comment as a means to present the piece. HUF's Forever needs no such introduction.
When Keith Hufnagel tragically passed in September of 2020, the skateboard world lost one of the jewels in its crown. Born and raised in Manhattan but with a career forged in the hills of San Francisco, his full speed approach transcended the East/West divide and built bridges in the burgeoning street scene of the early 90's, laying the foundations of skateboarding as we know it today.
HUF's eponymous brand, birthed through his Tenderloin store, may have become best known for its Footwear line (most famously Dylan Rieder's era defining shoe) but it's in its apparel that its longevity remains, carrying the HUF name forward as a tribute to its creator.
And now, honouring his life and influence, comes 'Forever;' a full-length video filmed and edited by Tyler Smolinski. Featuring everyone from Tyler Bledsoe to Brad Cromer, Mason Silva to Cyrus Bennett, this magnificent celebration of HUF reminds us that skateboard video can be so much more than a thirty second Insta real or going viral on Tiktok. When it comes down to it, a skateboarding video like this can be the ultimate testament for one of the most important to ever do it.
HUF forever.