Now that everybody can do all tricks and caballerial kickflips are a prerequisite for post-roshambo strategy I kind of have no idea whether restraint as a concept is still in play. Probably not the time or the place to have the conversation about whether or not the bro going for the kickflip frontside blunt down the park handrail can do it consistently on a curb but maybe there’s some similar elements. Pretty sure that Spiderman explored some related themes of power and responsibility in his new off-broadway production, I think it’s called “U Do U And I’ll Do Me: Turn Off The Dark While I File This Workman’s Comp Claim On U” or something.
Speaking of responsibilities young Zoo Yorker Brandon Westgate has professionally designed footwear to sell and name recognition to build ahead of a potential retirement gig as an “extremely” informed home renovation specialist on HGTVX. Your more seasoned pro might get his companies to pony up for a mini-ramp jam in a strip club and let the blurred web-only footage do the heavy lifting, but instead you’ve got handyman Westgate continuing to push the old boulder uphill with a whole new video section after an teeth-rattling entry in the Emerica vid a couple months ago.
To me this one’s way better — half the length and zeroes in on the more dramatic aspects of his skating, bombing down those San Francisco hills like he’s riding a snowboard* and the ungodly pop up onto some of those bars. The run where he 50-50s the fence off of the sidewalk bump is the kind of clip you want to watch every day, all the time, one of those little slices of what skating is perfectly captured on a digital video-making machine. The nagging reservations I harboured around his sort-of weird-looking flip tricks in the past are basically washed away here with not a lot of complex moves — Quartersnacks and Platinum Seagulls are riding for the giant kickflip but over here I’m promoting the 360 flip over the rail that seems like a totally ridiculously long distance to launch that particular trick. Later on the ender quietly asks the world at large how much better they can do with the up-rail movement in 2011, the answer could be some time coming.
*in a good way, dudes
Tags: Brandon Westgate, Broadway, Dr. Teeth, Emerica, HGTV, hills, launch ramps, pow-pow, revenge, San Francisco, sea harbours, Spiderman, Stay Gold, workman's comp, Zoo York
boil the ocean 
January 20, 2011 at 2:43 am |
The snowboarding comparison doesn’t work because those fools can’t/don’t push going down hill. The kickflip still wins because of the form; legs touching legs and historical comparisons. It’s madness. Also a shame that the bump to 360 flip didn’t have multiple angles, because yes, it was ridiculous.
2010 was supposed to be the year of “up,” but that didn’t happen, thus I agree with “some time coming.”
January 20, 2011 at 5:32 am |
Thanks for ruinning my post Mike. I woke up hours ago because of heroin withdrawal, saw a new post here and got all exited. Anyway, this is what I wanteed to say.
Funny that where others might have powerslid to keep the speed down Mr Westgate (Great name for a great soon to be man) pushes the envelope even futher.
But it does not matter, SEVEN days clean!
January 20, 2011 at 10:13 am |
I saw the Spiderman musical. It was hilarious, but not in the “trying to be funny” way, rather in the “took itself way too seriously” way. Oh and the music was done by the same great minds that brought us “uno, dos, tres, catorce,” so you know it was extra-special.
There was nothing funny about Brandon Westgate’s part. He absolutely slaughtered it, and best of all he didn’t pull out any of the pretentious “I had to work for it so you have to pay for it” bullshit that Steve Berra pulled out for Shane O’Neill or Daewon Song. Not that I don’t agree with that sentiment to a point, but the high horse has fragile knees. He’s just setting himself up to fall.
January 20, 2011 at 11:24 am |
I am so happy with the current “trend” in skateboarding moving away from the Fully Flared combos and towards big burly manly fast dangerous skating, with Matt Miller, Westgate, Hardy, Leo leading the way.
Reminds me of when Duffy, Markovich, and Rowley rescued us from the pressure flip era.
January 21, 2011 at 3:12 pm |
I wonder if the song choice was something of a nod to Tincan Folflore, with so much SF footage and all…
January 21, 2011 at 3:36 pm |
Agreed about the 360 flip; its just ridiculous. That kickflip is sick but it kind of stresses me out to watch it. Between him and Leo I can’t stomach watching skating get too mo much gnarlier.
That Tortoise song as the soundtrack was a nice touch, too.
January 23, 2011 at 1:29 pm |
the tortoise track was most likely a throwback to this is skateboarding’s intro song which was by the same group, it was a good touch to bring things full circle. im still a little pissed about some of minors editing decisions in stay gold but this web part was the perfect adjunct to relieve my woes.
January 24, 2011 at 3:26 am |
Goodness gracious…..enough with the fake positivity about the Tortoise track. That song was shit, plain and simple. What a blatant slap in the face to this dude’s unbelievable epicness. If I produced the kind of 4-wheeled insanity that this kid produced in such a short time I would be smashing through the Emerica offices with an axe like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Good lord, don’t you people have an ounce of good taste? Skating was shit-tastically amazing but the music was an abomination. I don’t even really know what that word means but it is often used to describe things like cancer and Hitler, so it seems appropriate here.
January 24, 2011 at 11:26 am |
@SummerCamp: Interesting point but of course you’re totally wrong. That song is dope as fuck AND its totally surprising to hear in a skate video, in particular one coming off the heels off Stay Gold’s stoner/sludge rock soundtrack. And, obviously, Westgate slays so hard that his part really doesn’t need music anyway.
January 24, 2011 at 12:11 pm |
“dope as fuck”…….”totally surprising”.
yeah, it IS pretty surprising, considering Tortoise was used in “This Is Skateboarding”, Emerica’s last video offering, as well as Pontus Alv’s “Strongest of The Strange”, The DC video, Photosynthesis, TinCan Folklore and about 10 other random skate videos.
Again, my whole point is that Westgate’s skating is so epically incredible that he was done an injustice by that video part and the music that was chosen for it. So this ain’t no judgement on Westgate himself. Just the way his insane footage was presented to us.
January 24, 2011 at 5:45 pm |
I’ve gotta agree, though I can’t take your hard line that the song was tantamount to cancer or genocide. The song was just background music; it added nothing to the part, but was bad enough to take things away. Oh well.
January 25, 2011 at 11:43 am |
Obviously I took kind of an asshole route on the response but I was mostly bugged by the suggestion that the song is so self-evidently bad that anyone who likes it and thinks it an awesome choice is an idiot. I definitely don’t want to help this thread devolve into a downward spiral of taste arguments.
January 24, 2011 at 1:00 pm |
Gotta side with @SummerCamp on this one. That video part would have been better off set to a song from Spiderman the Musical, which if you missed my last comment, says a lot for how bad that Tortoise song was. I watched that part with the sound once, and every time since has been on mute, because that song is just plain bad.
January 24, 2011 at 2:12 pm |
I love people arguing over personal taste.
“You totally changed my mind, what I liked has really sucked all this time!”
I’m convinced this is the internets sole purpose.
January 31, 2011 at 10:47 am |
so what song would you guys have used?
February 3, 2011 at 4:06 am |
“servant” by Mashado
or
“wuthering heights” by Kate Bush
February 3, 2011 at 4:09 am |
or “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa (unless its already been used of course)
March 3, 2011 at 11:00 pm |
The real reason Brandon Westgate is so rad is that he’s the only ripper with hydrocephilia.