Ah here it is, nothing to do with being distributed by The Kite Company, it was Ed’s shite team, got ya!
5 Likes
True, that’s the general consensus I think (though personally I think Bennett came into his own late career), but they’ve had a solid team for a good while now and notable output throughout the years.
I don’t think they ever fell off graphics wise, if anything that’s always been their constant, they’ve just not always had the cool team.
They seem in a good place at the moment though - like they’re making a specific effort to get new talent.
Isn’t just a case of the company being past it’s peak? Once the main pros who make a company popular start to wind down their careers or leave hardly any companies stay on top, not too many I can think of anyway.
I see my mistake, I say sorry, hope you except, oops, haha…
They were good early- mid 00s with Billy marks, Diego Bucchieri etc. Maybe they had a similar fate to zero in being an classic company before the bedroom startups and couldn’t keep up with that trend
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.
3 Likes
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.
5 Likes
Whatever you think about Suffer the Joy (I loved it) that Nick Trapasso part is a classic.
6 Likes
I just watched the full length and completely forgot about this and how a bigflip on the same bank follows straight after. Insane.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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
1 Like
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.
3 Likes
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.
4 Likes
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
4 Likes
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?
4 Likes
Proto-Team Handsome?
Or just the Nordberg of his time?
2 Likes
I always thought he wished he was more of a scenester than he always was.
Character assassination. Just born to fail
2 Likes
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.
2 Likes
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…
2 Likes
