5. Chris Jones — ‘365 Days On Planet Earth Pt. 1’

Atmospherics fog and drip through the efforts of Jacob Harris, probably the UK’s leading videomaker now working — his long lens is less claustrophobic than Bill Strobeck’s, letting the spots, places, squishy ocean creatures and, importantly, his Isle-aligned subjects room to shape the part or clip or whatever it may be. It was Chris Jones earlier this year living and surviving abroad and at home, conveying gray skies, memory, apprehension, comfy sweaters, switch backside ledge tricks and sometimes gathering one’s self inward to fit through tight spaces. All the brick and muted tones and plinking piano easily carve a place for this alongside the best of Britain’s output over the past 20 years.

2. Hjalte Halberg – ‘I Like it Here Inside My Mind, Don’t Wake Me This Time’

In Polar’s kinetic, nervous and occasionally poignant ‘I Like It Here Inside My Mind’ – the best-crafted, most cohesive ‘company’ video this year and maybe for the last few – Hjalte Halberg brings probably the most straightforward street-purist approach, helping ground some of the body-varialing and handrail-bonking flights of fancy from Dane Brady and the Blobys, and (along with Aaron Herrington and Pontus Alv) injecting some of the trick-selection diversity often lacking amongst an industry where the easier path sometimes comes off like targeted appeals to specific niches. Hjalte Halberg in this vid rains down force and precision on his Copenhagen blocks, blasting backside flips from bumps and rifling off some of the fastest heelflips committed to digital video. He seems immune to friction and there are moments, like when he’s backside 180ing out of a manual, where he seems maybe not fully in control, but these are rare and pass quickly. Between his video with Bobby Worrest and various other footage Hjalte Halberg could’ve made his own whole video of this shit over the past year.