4. Erik Herrera – ‘Introducing’ (Chocolate)

This year’s laureate for best hair in skating, Erik Herrera last winter got the official bump up to the rejuvenated Chocolate team, a move that seemed overdue the minute he stepped on one of those boards. This dude has a feathery grace and a way with the tank tops that has been primed to push past all those SoCal spots he has been ripping these past few years. As per Choco’s fantastic ‘Bunny Hop’ vid that’s all in progress, but this one from earlier in the year laid out all the components — the backside 180 nosegrind revert out past the steps, the fakie 360 flip up and over and down the brickpile, heelflips landed way up on the nose, the dive-bomb catch on the massive backside flip past the sidewalk and up the steps. As a bonus, Erik Herrera, like putative future Chocolate teammate Hosea Peeters and a few other dudes, also shops at the same underground outlet still hawking HORTY apparel.

1. Jake Johnson – “Mind Field” Quartersnacks Edit

The discerning observer will realize that it’s hard to come up with many knocks against Jake Johnson’s Alien debut in “Mind Field,” what with the strange and free-flowing arm motions, eye-pleasing urban environments and magic carpet wallrides that are sometimes of the switch variety. Beyond the absence of any rumored handrail switch b/s noseblunt, only two possible complaints are even to be comprehended, one being that more clips would be nice and the other that the original section lacked the hollow rasp of one Young Jeezy to really capture the bleak glory and cash profits to be found in ruling over an empire of crack cocaine consumers.

Helpfully the computer scientists employed by Quartersnacks.com dug into the b-roll footage and Jeezy’s triumphant 2008 song about “putting on” to peanut butter up the chocolate that was already among the awesomest video parts of the year. Due to my hapless internet coding capabilities I have failed in posting the actual video above succeeded in convincing the Quartersnacks bros to upload it to Vimeo. The full AWMF Re-edit can be viewed here, where the part in question starts around 3:00, or you can download it in superior quality off the QS site here. Watch it again for the first time, marvel at the majesty of the switch 50-50 on the bench-back and the b/s noseblunt shove it, and ponder whether Young Jay Jenkins maybe has the game locked by default in 2010 with nearly every other worthwhile competitor jailed.

Update: Original edit here, with the AC music that honestly I don’t hate at all and cameos from that springy bug thing.