Overthinking REAL's 'Three Seasons' Video
Investigation and words by Overthinking Skate Videos
By now, you’ve probably seen Three Seasons, the new Real video, but chances are you didn’t catch all the easter eggs hidden throughout (unless you have an eagle eye and way too much free time). The entire edit is jam-packed with hidden details and subliminal messages spliced into every single title sequence, from beginning to end. If you don’t want to spend hours poring over frames and decoding all the messages within, then consider yourself lucky: we unscrambled everything in the video and broke all the references down for you on a part-by-part basis.
Starting at the zero second mark, we se Real’s spin on the classic Thrasher logo animation, loaded with several references:
Tommy Guerrero, the godfather of street skating and a co-founder of the whole damn brand!
Jim Thiebaud, another co-founder of Real and the head honcho at DLX. (Fun fact: the powers at be kept this one a secret from Jim; he didn’t know about it and would never have approved of it if he did.)
REAL (do you really need this one explained to you?)
Clay Halling, AKA the guy who made the titles and snuck his own name in.
Additionally, the REAL Skateboards title animation includes the following:
DLX
Gabe Morford, legendary DLX staff photographer
Tim Fulton, videographer and newly appointed Real team manager
Three Seasons is the latest in a line of Real Videos that have clearly stood the test of time. If you need a refresher on the brand’s past work, you can start with the video names hidden in the title animation:
Real to Reel, 2001 (a Dan Wolfe-edited classic with one of our favorite Mark Gonzales parts)
Roll Forever, 2005 (this was a free DVD, one of the first of its kind, and was came with the April 2005 issue of Thrasher)
Since Day One, 2011, (James Hardy at his peak and Ishod Wair’s proper introduction to the world)
Thru&Through, or Through and Through, 2015 (a surprise release, Dennis Busenitz’s clip at the China Banks is burnt into our brains)
Be Free, 2020 (Kyle Walker and Ishod Wair’s heavy shared part)
The three main players in Three Seasons are Gage Boyle, Patrick Praman, and Tanner Van Vark. Pay close attention to the jumble of letters when their titles appear and disappear on screen at the beginning of their parts and smash the pause button sporadically to catch these messages. You might learn something new!
Gage Boyle
Since all three riders were close friends with E. Henry Gartland, editor Tim Fulton decided to separate the three parts of his name to appear throughout each rider’s title in consecutive order. Gage opens the video, so the letter E is hidden in his titles.
Real is also hidden in everyone’s titles, for obvious reasons
Gage hails from Simi Valley, CA
Gage’s Uncle Scotty taught him how to skate early on in his life; he passed away in late 2022
His grandfather Takamari Fukunaga, who passed away last year at 99
Finally, one of Gage’s favorite non-skating pastimes is fishing.
Patrick Praman
The first hidden word is Real.
Henry, the second part of the E. Henry Gartland tribute, is hidden in Patrick’s titles.
Patrick was born in Thailand and lived there when he was young, until his family moved to…
VRGNA, or Virginia, where Patrick eventually started skating.
FS Shuv Fifty is one of Patrick’s signature tricks (if you’ve seen the video you know what we’re talking about)
Tanner Van Vark
Gartland is the third and final part of the E. Henry Gartland tribute.
Tanner loves F1 racing and race cars in general.
He also loves dogs (especially his family dog, Rigs); hence, Tanner Can Bark
Friends refer to him by his initials, VV
His hometown is ANDVR, or Andover, Minnesota
Tanner is always heavily caffeinated, given how much coffee he drinks throughout the day
And, of course, one final Real.
Everyone in the montages got a little bit of love, as well.
Ishod Wair’s dog is named Valentine, which makes him Vals Dad
Zion Wright is from Jupiter, Florida
Hermann Stenn is from Larvik, Norway
Harry Lintell hails from Manchester, England and goes by Fish and Chips
Christian Henry’s nickname is Deacon
Jafin Garvey’s nickname is Finity
Jack Olson just opened a skateshop named After Hours in St. Paul, Minnesota
Dennis Busenitz absolutely loves Repo Man (who doesn’t?)
Mason Silva’s friends call him Mr. Clean
Jimmy Wilkins goes by Jimbo
Chima Ferguson’s daughter is named Holiday
Dan Mancina’s non-profit is Keep Pushing, Inc
Kyle Walker’s new clothing brand is Altevolant
Nicole Hause’s nickname is Dicky
The final easter eggs of the video are SF, a nod to Real’s home base of San Francisco, and THANK YOU hidden in the classic oval logo at the end of the video.