1. Lucien Clarke – “This Time Tomorrow”

As far as young bros on the come-up in 2010, this Lucien Clarke dude’s got it all — form, cool looking locales, those snapback hats with the different colored brims that took over Britain a year or two back, the accent, backside noseblunt slides on command, etc etc. There is a leisurely air to the lengthy lines he skates that promise a lifestyle behind solidly latched doors among woodgrain and glasses of brown liquor, if you could hang out there in a baggy sweatshirt and said hats with the colourful brims. The cliffhanger frontside shove-it over the crunchy hubba and the nollie backside flip shortly thereafter are highlights with heaps of night filming and switch backside kickflips. Bouncy older rap song and he’s on the Palace board company, this was my favorite part all year.

When Your Friends Are Watching

Through all this bullshit

I got to thinking the other day, while pondering yet again how awesome it would be if Anthony Pappalardo and Brian Wenning got the band back together and rented a place in Philadelphia and teamed up to liberate Love Park under the tutelage of an older, wiser Matt Reason (like a sitcom)…

Despite Pappalardo’s Midwestern grandpa dress code I think he may still be too young to qualify as a true curmudgeon type, but probably can safely be called a sourpuss. So seeing the footage from “Photosynthesis” where he gets all giggly after nollie 180ing the Brooklyn Banks rail warmed the cockle-burrs of my heart and later got me thinking on earnest, honest smiles after landing tricks. Sometimes frowned upon, especially in these troubled times of trophy-tossing Austin Seaholms and back-flip fly-outting Ryan Shecklers, we may need an occasional reminder that it’s okay to show some emotion after negotiating a particularly hairy move. Or else you risk looking like a scary-eyed serial killer. (See Caswell Berry, backside lipslide, “Man Down”; Heath Kirchart, all videos)

So, a handful of good, decent, god-fearing smiles over the years:*

Mike Maldonado, “Welcome to Hell”
East Coast powerhouse exhibits a stubbly underbite after dismounting a tall backside 5050, affirming to the viewer that the spot probably is as fun as it looks and sapping a little doom-n-gloom from the Misfits song to come.

Cairo Foster, “The Reason”
Following a blistering line through Pier 7, Cairo’s skull-like features soften as he catches his breath and looks forward to a heavy helping of Ty Evans slow-mo for what will remain his best part to date nearly ten years on, in one of the best TWS vids. So, what’s not to smile about.

Ben Stewart, “Seasons 4”
Kickflip-to-smith-grinding Hubba Hideout admits young Ben Stewart into a fairly select membership of skateboarders to have stepped to the crack cocaine-themed ledge, and his innocent schoolboy smirk is well earned, if not crack cocaine-themed itself.

Devine Calloway, “Let’s Do This”
Pearly whites, can-do attitude and a seemingly constant grin, but for the purposes of this posting we’ll highlight the post-nollie varial flip period in the 2007 Transworld video, the name of which could double as a subtitle for the next installment of “Thug Motivation.”

Jovontae Turner, Mike Carroll’s part in “Questionable”
The haircut gets him over I think. I’d smile if I was running around with that look, early 1990s or no. A proper ear-to-ear variation here.

*Ray Barbee and Karl Watson are disregarded because, too easy.