Relating to The Antisocial Video
Before YouTube was around to give us constant updates on every skate crew across the globe, skate videos were a much different affair. They usually consisted of the very best skateboarders from a particular place or scene doing their top-tier moves. We didn’t have access to much more than that. Spontaneous, hometown-centric, fuck-around type skateboarding was rarely present in big name endeavors, as videos took so much more effort to make. These days, you can see a homie video from any given city, see who the local rippers are, and get a feel for that city's skate scene within a few minutes. Thank you, internet.
Even their logo is great. Pulled from skate.ly.
Back in 2004, videos like That’s Life, Kids in Emerica, The DC Video, and Good and Evil were coming out, blowing our minds with the first ever MegaRamp footage and tricks that before then were incomprehensible, switch bigspin heel flip boardslides being just one of many. The only skate videos you'd see (besides the ones you made with your friends) were filled tricks that very few of us would ever be able to relate to. Yet, somewhere amidst the tight pants and stair counting, a refreshing breath of relatable air graced us from the southwestern corner of Canada.
Antisocial, Rick McCrank's skate shop in Vancouver, BC put out a video. Like most shop videos, it featured a lineup of young rippers whose skating was good, but in a relatable sort of way. A lot of the tricks felt like they could have gone down in a session you were at with the local good kid. Yet unlike most shop videos, the Antisocial video had exposure well beyond its local area. Due to McCrank's status as a popular pro, fresh off the heels of his starring roles in Meinikmati and Yeah Right!, the entire skateboard community paid attention when Rick McCrank was doing anything in 2004. It's not surprising that so many of us saw this video and soon placed it among our favorites.
Since the video debuted at a high point in McCrank's career, he could have easily gone the route of the high production, face-melter, takes-five-years-to-make type of video. This video, however, didn’t feel as if it was created to be "the best" of anything, but more to show you what rad skating in Vancouver was like.
Some highlights:
Quinn Starr was onto something. Frontside 5-0 to fakie.
- Quinn Starr skates transition and transition-ish street spots well. His gear choices, hair technique and demeanor on a skateboard foreshadow a breed of skater we wouldn't see much of until 8 or so years later - the most prominent of which being "Loose Trucks" Max Palmer & Andrew Wilson. Also, his song choice was so on point.
- Noted park ripper Keegan Sauder showed us that skating street is also "so fucking easy" for him. He put out a really solid part, filled with creative boardslides and 50-50s - i.e. a trendy part by 2015 standards.
Most of the skating in this video is pretty relatable, with one clear exception being Mike McDermott's part. This guy must have spent some heavy hours in parking garages and skateparks during the harsh Canadian winters, because the manual skills he shows off in this video are legendary. See for yourself above. He went on to open Green Apple skateshop in Winnipeg and film an equally rad part for that shop's video, Modern Love - another Canadian classic.
It could just be the pants, but we think of Jesse Booi as a more skilled version of Colin Fiske from the PJ Ladd video. Mitch Charon and Mike Christie have parts that remind us that every city has some rad under-the-radar talent. VP favorite Wade Fyfe has a great part featuring some creative manual tricks and a badass song.
- Rick McCrank didn't have to be in this video. He didn't have to lend his name to it, and he didn't have to get it made. But he did, and it's so perfect.
From the 2015 incarnation of Antisocial: Dustin Henry, fakie kickflip to fakie nose manual.
We were sparked to write about this video from 11 years ago after seeing a promo for a new Antisocial video a few days ago. From the look of the promo, Antisocial's new effort will carry the torch for high-quality, relatable videos, even though they're now a "thing".