Ten years ago this month, one of the most impactful videos to ever come out of the Minnesota skate scene was released. Boondoggle, which was named after co-creator Phil Schwartz Google searched “cool words”, introduced to the world a new generation of Minnesotan talent both on skateboards and behind cameras. Initially intended to be a sequel to Phil and Pete Spooner’s 2006 release WhoWhat?!, the two decided bring in the help of Tim Fulton, who brought with him a new group of skateboarders from the metro area's Eastern suburbs.

When asked about the video, Phil Schwartz had a clear idea of why the video was the success it was. “One of the big things about Boondoggle is where the internet was at that time.", said Schwartz. "YouTube was only 3 years old. Not everyone was posting good stuff online yet, and we were regularly posting these throwaway montages and people were getting stoked for the full video”. After Davis Torgerson's part was posted online, word of the video spread like wildfire, selling copies in Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, Denmark, France and the UK.

Here's our take on some of the more specific reasons this video made the splash it did:

A NBD, when not too kooky, is bound to turn heads. Davis dropped a heavy one in his part.

Davis Torgerson opens the video with a part people still reference today. He’s always been good, but this was the time period he started to get really good. His part featured a young Austin Kanfoush, a NBD down a handrail, and undoubtedly helped the world of skateboarding get familiar with him.

What a great spot. Thanks for the memories, Gregg.

Gregg Clover’s part, which was filmed in the final 2 months of production, serves as a time capsule of how amazing Minneapolis’s Nicollet Mall was at that time, a bulk of his part having been filmed at spots that are now only remembered in things like this video.

Casey Copenhaver and Tim Huey share the next part. Casey was an early pioneer of the no-comply tricks which have now become a little too common, but at the time his take on skating was fresh and a welcome change. Tim Huey does one of the all time great flat ground switch frontside shove-its in a line.

Current Frog pro Pat Gallaher was already doing his signature gnarly switch tricks with his unique style we have all come to know and love. He also locked down a serious jammer of a song for his part.

The friends section featured a wide range of Minnesotan skateboarders, spanning multiple generations. It also featured Russ Miligan (instantly making the entire video a certified classic), a young big spin heelflipping Jon Dixon, Aaron Herrington, a fakie flip melon down a gap, and Larry “we out here” Redmon doing an ollie south in a line.

Tom Rohrer does one of the only hippy jumps to ever matter and skates to a song that is very 2008.

Tabari Cook and Neal Shipe shared a part. Neal threw out the elusive pinched shove-it (see above), which may be heavily influencing Pat G. these days. Tabari’s jean shorts are hilarious <3

Dan Narloch “went raw” (ie started wearing brown Dickies and skating alleyway spots) while filming for the video and had to re-film a handful of his clips to match his newer footage. Dan made it a mission to find new spots and really expanded the horizons of what people were skating in the Twin Cities at that time. This remains to this day one of our favorite video parts to come out of Minnesota.

CJ Tambornino’s part is something to be treasured, because as you likely know, in the Summer of 2017 we tragically lost him. Thankfully we have this video part to remind us all what an incredible skateboarder and human being he was. Mike Munzenrider put it perfectly, saying “who else could have had NBDs in their postscript?”.

David Jaimes closes out the video. Following up his WhoWhat!? part, David was now fully grown. See his line on Nicollet Ave. with the half-cab crook 180 pop out for a shining example of the man’s strength, or his first try nollie backside 5050 down the Saturn 10 rail in St. Paul. Jan Jacobson's guest trick is also possibly the gnarliest trick done at One Financial gap.

In celebration of the video's ten year anniversary, Real is releasing a Boondoggle board for Davis, and the boys got together to film a montage in the style of their original throwaway montages (down to the song choices!):

There are skate videos we watch a few times and move on from, then there are the videos that we still talk about a decade after. For us from Minnesota, pretty sure elsewhere too, Boondoggle is one of the latter. The Minnesota skate scene is better off because of videos like this and we feel grateful that nearly everyone from the video is still ripping and making videos. Hell, some even went pro! Rest In Peace, CJ.

Boondoggle is Back