City Series: Minneapolis
My first brush with Minneapolis skate videos began at the old 3rd Lair on Lake Street in or around 1998. A friend and I bought Rootabega Stix' Apocalypse out of Johnny Vang's backpack for $10—each of use threw in $5—and we hammered out a day-by-day split custody agreement for that VHS tape, then and there. The long tail of Minneapolis and Twin Cities skate flicks predates Apocalypse, but not by much. The city and scene, one in the same, owes much of its visibility to outsiders to nearly two decades of solid skate video exports, and the following is an attempt at picking three that might sum the whole thing up:
Midopoly (1999)
Dan Jackson switch varial heelflips a NYC staple in a MPLS classic, over 15 years ago.
The hands down favorite local vid of skaters of a certain age around here, Midopoly marks the merger of semi-disparate crews coming together to make a video that documented most corners of the now fully-weaponized scene. Likely the most finely produced indy flick of 1999 (artwork and titles were done by Todd Bratrud, video and editing by Benji Meyer), it was held together by three former pillars of Minneapolis skateboarding: Fobia Skateshop, Supernatural Clothing and Roots Skateboards. Put more plainly, Midopoly hits all points, with a scrunchy-pantsed Chad Benson, a raw Steve Nesser, Darren Navarette skating handrails and Clint Peterson skating to Gangstarr. Bonus: Nearly all the dudes featured in the 16-year-old video still skate.
Boondoggle (2008)
Davis Torgerson invents the Torgey grind (Nollie FS Hurricane) in the part that put Davis on the skate world's radar.
If Midopoly is a founding document of one generation of skaters in Minneapolis, Boondoggle was the same for the next [all due respect to venerable titles like Open Iris (2001) and WhoWhat?! (2006)]. Boondoggle's 2008 release integrated well with the burgeoning Youtube age and made the video, arguably, one of the furthest reaching Minne-centric titles out there. Seven years on, Davis Torgerson, who got really, really good around that time and had first part in the vid, still says that people in random places around the globe tell him how much they love said section. Produced by Pete Spooner, Tim Fulton and Phil Schwartz, the video opened things up for a group of younger dudes and a more geographically diverse range of spots. It set up a long run of videos involving the same dudes and serves as a starting point for something that hasn't finished.
RAWMEN (2015)
RAWMEN is full of creative skating. Dalton Jones does something we are not even going to attempt to name, but it sure looks cool.
Recency bias—RAWMEN is the latest short flick that comes to mind from the cohort of yet another group of young skaters doing good things. Dudes like Dan Rusin, Travis Wood and Shane Brown shoot video, edit and appear before the camera along with their amorphous and crossing-over crews. Other titles come to mind, like The Joy of Skating (2014) and uknow. (2015), as parts of what's happening right now in Minneapolis skate videos (“Minneapolis skate videos” being a coverall; most of this generation of video makers tend east metro, as in St. Paul). They don't limit themselves to medium or full length videos either: see Brown's short study of Grady Moquin, Dexterity in the Dark (2013). The kids are reaching their prime; be on the lookout for Rusin and Brown's The Quilt Vid, set to premiere this May.
Written by Mike Munzenrider.
He has his own blog - Platinum Seagulls.
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