What we accept as ‘normal’ in skateboarding changes quickly. Here 2020, skating that pushes the boundaries of what’s accepted seems to be everywhere around us. Boards with hinges on them, girls skating in Jerusalem, buff skaters - it’s all out there. ‘Serious’ skating is nothing more than a genre within a vast collection of ‘skateboardings’.

Yet this was not always the case. In decades previous, skateboarding existed in a state that was much more homogenized, one that was less accepting of tricks and ideas that seemed weird. The Beez videos were an early look at what was to come in skateboarding, a hint that something that was more fun and that had less rules was possible.

As we enter this new decade, we couldn’t be happier to chat with with Josh Ellis, founder of the legendary skate site wiskate.com and the beloved Beez series, about his latest project, WAZPZ. Also, expect a comeback.

For those who don’t know, tell us a little about the Beez series.

Beez is a trilogy of skateboarding videos made from 2003-2007. Russ Clark was the editing mastermind behind the series, and I did a lot of the filming and some motion graphics. What became WAZPZ was meant to be the fourth Beez video. I had filmed the majority of the footage in 2016 and sent it over to Russ, but he never found the time to put it together. I'm an impatient human and in Fall of 2019 decided to make this new unofficial, unauthorized addition to the Beez Cinematic Universe.

Why did you start doing these videos?

As I remember it (I have a terrible memory, and I'm a completely unreliable narrator), for purely evil purposes. (If we) rewind to 2003, skateboarding was in an extremely different state than the lovely "anything goes" form it is in today. The joy of skating shown in videos like H-Street’s Hokus Pokus and the Junk Skating segment in Ban This couldn't have been further from the mainstream of skateboarding. There's other offenders, but I'll pin it on the Emerica This Is Skateboarding video. It was the nuke that destroyed any and all creativity in a midwestern teenagers mind. Suddenly there was a blueprint of "this is what you have to look like, and this is how you have to skate". Northeastern Illinois was ground zero for this poison idea. Every tween to young adult was suddenly in women's jeans, and was searching the suburban wasteland for moderately sized rails to test their mettle on. This behavior was dutifully filmed and put into extremely over serious videos, usually featuring the ever present "stress montage". Russ and I were discussing this situation, and decided to answer the question "What would bum out these humans the most?".

Are you a VHS collector? What’s your process like for sourcing the non-skate clips?

I'm old! I grew up on VHS. While I do have some prized tapes, I wouldn't really say I'm a collector of VHS curiosities. I collect too much other crap to delve into the depths of that world. I'd argue the sourcing of material isn't all that interesting. I just watched a ton of weird movies. While working on WAZPZ I had been reading a book about all of the grindhouse movies shown in Times Square in the heyday, and that really inspired a lot of what I used. I've also had clips in mind that I wanted to use for years and got to throw some of those in. A lot of the so called "wasp" clips come from killer bee movies that were popular in the 70’s. I'll admit I used the internet to figure out some of those, but I did use some clips from a killer bee movie that I had seen on broadcast tv when I was a kid. It scared the crap out of me!

Tim Olson. Think this is technically a no-comply flip to firecracker.

What’s the skate scene like in Milwaukee in 2020?

It's great! There's all kinds of ripping and tearing going on. I honestly think its a symptom of something that most would see as a problem. I'm almost certain we're the biggest city in the USA that doesn't have a public skatepark. We skate garbage, the spots are bad. I think it makes you stronger. If someone actually gets to skate a good spot for once it probably makes it easier. Our terrible winters are another ingredient in this cornucopia of pain. Picture a sword folded over and over again making it stronger. But instead of a cool sword forging montage in a Samurai movie, we're treated to a gnarly spanking of a combination of nowhere to skate and super brutal winters. Again, somehow I feel like this is a good thing. I guess there's some kind of sick masochism outlined in my skate mindset here. Suffer for your art, and all of that.

On a more positive note, Shout out to Cream City Skatepark, Sky High Skateshop, and Phase 2 Skateshop! All are great places and have been the glue holding the scene together for many years.

What have you seen change in skate videos (in general) since you started doing the series?

As I mentioned earlier, skating has changed a ton since we started doing the videos. Anything is acceptable now. Back then it would be unthinkable for a pro to feature something like a no comply flip in his part. A one foot tail grab crooked grind only lived in the memories of Henry Sanchez fans. Now I could easily see a 19 year old am in lavender pants doing the same trick. It's great, I think skateboarding is in an excellent place.

What’s your take on current videos that feature Beez-style skating?

I love it! A lot of those videos out-beez (can beez be a verb here?) the shit out of anything we're doing. Fancy Lad, Golden Egg, those dudes took it all to the next level. I'm amazed at the creativity in those videos.

What keeps you going in an era when we’re all pretty much overwhelmed with videos?

I've been doing it for so long that I don't know what else to do. I just keep on going! As for the oversaturation, you sort of have to have some sort of internal zen about the whole situation. No one else is going to give a shit about your video in 2020, so you have to just do it for yourself and the homies in the vid. I admit it's a hard pill to swallow after putting that much effort into it, but that's just how it has to be. If others like it, great! But you are right, there's new great videos coming out practically every day. Essentially it's akin to pissing into the ocean.

Beez Presents: WAZPZ