That’s what I was thinking, even Good & Evil and Suffer The Joy were okay videos, right? Before everything went the way of online. Why I wouldn’t put it down to purely having a rubbish team.
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Suffer the Joy appeared at a point where Europe was getting pretty heavy again and those guys were without any Europeans. Royal Family/French Connection, etc. were all front and centre. Seek had happened with Flo and the Flip crew were still smashing it. Handrail skating was also waining. It wasn’t a popular period to skate like that team did then looking very California-centric.
…but Good and Evil was really a huge video. Possibly bigger than Jump off a Building which at the time, was quite low key despite introducing the world to Bam.
Anderson and Steamer were very much a part of the brand when the Maldonado-Getz-Margera east coast crew were on. In fact, wasn’t it over a pay dispute with Bam which led to that second exodus? Ed talks about it in an interview. Elissa, Getz, Bam, Mike and Brian all walked at the same time. Or something like that.
Then there was a weird tour video era they wen’t through with Caswell and Nate Broussard and some other randoms on the team. They never put a proper video out before a bunch of those dudes quit for other sponsors…
And then it was Good & Evil which has that line up you mentioned- but from where I was sitting, it was Ed T following up This Is Skateboarding, Diego Bucherri being Thrashers poster boy at the time, Billy Marks being the techest tech-gnar guy out there, Matt Bennet doing a mad version of the Barley grind and all these sick bigspins and then Johnny Layton being a switch 360 flip powerhouse (Also, I think @anonymity is in the ride out of Laytons ender).
It was heavy.
But you are right that Austin Stephens diluted it. Varial heelflip to fakie on a skatepark flat bank in your first pro video part? Eek.
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Whatever you think about Suffer the Joy (I loved it) that Nick Trapasso part is a classic.
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I just watched the full length and completely forgot about this and how a bigflip on the same bank follows straight after. Insane.
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I hate to be cruel, but Austin stephens had one good part (this is skateboarding), and that might have just been down to the bell and Sebastian track (oxymoron?).
His suffer the joy part is better than his good and evil part but there’s not a great deal between them. Pretty shocking.
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Yep.
Yep!
Yep!
And that TIS part wasn’t a full part, right? Wasn’t it half a song?
All I remember is the song and that I had it on DVD so he got the all new modern age vert button >>I
God yeah I just rewatched and it’s 1:30 mins.
After viewing it right off the back of watching STJ and G&E I think I can confidently say that other than his flip into grinds on hubbas and rails, which were all amazing, he is just a really pedestrian middle size rail skater.
Really boring, which is interesting as he sort of carved out a niche as being a kind of shitty alternative (for the time) skater, although the was really just a rail kid who probably hurt his leg and grew a beard and did a few wallies and bank grinds
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In the extras of one of the Toy vids there’s his sponsor me tape.
It’s absolutely burly as hell but at the end he has the most horrific ankle break at hubba.
I wonder if that ankle was what kept his skating more low key after that?
He was also one of the only guys on for a while after one of the exoduses so maybe Ed felt more loyalty to keep him on?
Had a lovely kickflip though.
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I always got the feeling they kept Austyn on as he was everyone’s best mate on the team and they just liked being around him.
I think that was the deal with Clark Hassler on Enjoi, too.
Hassler was way better though.
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I think I’ve watched all the Austin stephens footage that exists on my train home.
Haven’t seen that sponsor me tape before, but he looks younger in that than his TIS footage so I imagine he recovered from that long enough to put out that one part at least?
I always just presumed he bought a funny hat in attempt to impress girls and became abit of an L.A ponce, that made bad music or talked down to people about his yoga experience or whatever
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I recall hassler saying That the top dog at dwindle at the time just always sorted him out and really liked him so he kind of just ended up ok enjoi because this guy just wanted him to have free boards somehow.
I have a strong memory that He says it was rocco, but was rocco doing dwindle stuff?
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Proto-Team Handsome?
Or just the Nordberg of his time?
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I always thought he wished he was more of a scenester than he always was.
Character assassination. Just born to fail
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Rocco would have still been there as enjoi started, I think. Before he sold dwindle to globe.
Anon would know all this without having to look it up.
But yeah, I’d heard the same.
There’s nothing wrong with putting a guy on who juices up the rest of the crew and helps keep them happy and productive.
Probably best not make them a pro highlight…but good people is good people.
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I think you’re right about the ankle break. He was on Emerica for a while and then joined some start-up shoe brand called Beloe (?) with Ethan Fowler and a few other Vans cast-offs which lasted less than 6 months.
I always got the impression that he was kept on/around as his photos generally looked pretty good, and he was one of the first guys on Team Handsome, swanning about with a fedora and guitar, looking winsome and vulnerable. Not a chase-your-girlfriend-in front-of-you handsome, but winds up in a girl’s knickers almost through being sensitive. Definitely flattered to deceive on the skate side of things…
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Yeah, good for keeping him on if he’s one of the crew, really should have been tighter with the editing in STJ and G&E though. It made the whole company look more amateur by proxy
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It would have been nice to see more videos in the vein of JOAB.
Kevin Barnett who made STJ and G&E was a sick filmer. Just a bit of a bland filmmaker.
I actually prefer STJ as a video but always feel like G&ze got way more love.
Maybe not interesting but I just checked and both stj and ge have exactly the same line up, except for the addition of nick trapppaso.
Stj probably gets more love just cos of trapasso skating to Santo and johnny in his pyjamas. Iconic.
Layton to Patti smith in ge was pretty good too but a video made up of Layton, the butcher, Austin stephens, josh harmony, Billy marks and an Ed that’s starting to take a move further back from the physical side of things…
That’s not a team with much longevity other than Layton. By 2006 (stj) Billy marks moustache and fallen trainers were starting to look pretty dated, even to a fairly young kid like me. The team just wasn’t cool at all
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Layton to Patti Smith was epic.
I’ve not watched either video in the last decade, I don’t think so I’m probably off there.
G&E was definitely heavier. It had the breakout bennet part, too. And more Ed.
Maybe STJ was just a bit tighter in edit?
I just checked and it looks like there weren’t many good videos released in 2006. Maybe that helped?
