The Best Full Length NW Skate Videos of 2023
A "best of" list often resides in the realm of shit journalism. It’s low hanging fruit for bloggers, SEO chasers and Chat GPT-ers. So why do one? Well, we are living in a world where everyone’s skate footy whizzes passed our attention on an infinite content conveyor belt, inevitably fading into the depths of obscurity. We don’t tend to scroll back, unfortunately. The constant stream of new edits, stories, reels, and videos vying for our focus can be great at times, providing a drip feed of insane skateboarding, but it’s also kinda overwhelming, even for those like us dedicated to scouring every nook of the Northwest for skate content. TBH as I embarked on the mission to compile this list, I was reminded of entire videos from the past year that I absolutely loved, yet had slipped completely from my memory until friends brought them back to my attention when discussing the best videos this year. So what’s the point? I want to offer a momentary pause, a chance to slow shit down a bit and appreciate all of the hard work over the passed year from the Northwest’s skaters, filmers, editors, shops, brands, spot fixers, knob busters, sweepers, DIYers and all the other homies. I hope this article can be a place where we all can stop in to appreciate the output that our collective Pacific Northwest fam has produced in 2023.
Here’s our list of the best full length NW skate videos of 2023
What does ‘full length’ even mean in 2023? We dunno really haha. So we just decided to call it anything over 10 minutes, that felt right.
Soundtrack
This 40+ minute VX video by Kevin Stake was one of the greater Seattle areas resounding favorites to hit YouTube in 2023, and for good reason. The video features Simon Bannerot, Greg Dehart, William Douglas, Caden Smith, Ryan Kartes, Patrick Haynes, Noah Holmes, Alex Harr, and lots more heads. While it technically premiered in Seattle in 2022, the upload date to the internet is January 2, 2023 so we’re going to count it.
Groundscore
‘Groundscore’ is a video by Keaton Rodgers featuring David Gravette, Sota Tomikawa, Fern Covarrubias, Tony Ellis, Corbin Hindery, Lorenzo Martinez, and many other friends, filmed primarily in Portland, Oregon. The film has one of the best intro/outro title sequences in all of the videos on this list, and the illustrated name titles are a nice touch as well. The video features tons of creative skating, fun spots and excellent filming/editing.
Bootleg Five
Pepe Betancourt’s latest video ‘Bootleg Five’ showcases several years of skating and filming with his homies around the Seattle area. The 40+ minute film has its own distinct flavor with custom collage photo art titles, tons of homie clips, heavy hammers, park clips, dork tricks, not-a-spot spots, where is that spot spots, and just general fun vibes. Lastly, we did chat with Pepe about the making of the film, and it is worth a read (check out the interview over here).
Task
‘Task’ by Jon Colyer (Portland, OR) is one of the shorter videos on the list, but what it may lack in length it makes up for in incredible skating paired with near perfect filming/editing. The video features Cody Wilber, Dane Ichimura, Trevor Clark, Alex Isenberger, Dan Charlton, Joey Schiavi, Jacob Passantino, James Lorimer, Garrett Moore, Garrett Lemieux, Nile Gibbs, Brandon Avery and Aidan Olmstead.
Genesis 3
Seattle’s Ian Ostrowski is the man behind the Genesis videos, and probably produces more skate content than anyone in the northwest over the last few years. He’s so prolific that there are actually several 10+ minute videos that we could have included in this year’s list, but we decided Genesis 3 showcases the evolution of his craft the best. The video is just a few seconds short of an hour, which makes it the longest video on the list by a good margin. Genesis 3 features parts from Caden Smith, Jacob Ball, Darrian Williams, Kj Phanissay, Elise Hedge, Tj Robinson, Rafi Dadd, Bao Nguyen, Jasper Levine, Romel Torres, and of course Genny’s 2023 MVP Dylan Clark.
This is Authentic, too
‘This is Authentic, too’ is the 2nd full length Authentic video released this year by myself and it is one of the only full length skate videos out of Tacoma. I kinda cringe at commenting on our own video on the list so I will refrain and just quote CJ’s writing on the video "As far as skateboarding goes this video has it all. It’s got ledge skating, rail skating, manny clips, hippy jumps, 4 downs, hehe's, slappys, gaps, wall rides, no complies, regular, switch, hill bombs, bam bam, summer clips, winter clips, high fives, fist bumps, some gnarly shit, some tech shit, some weird shit, some goofy shit, Etc. Whatever kind of skateboarding you enjoy, there’s someone in this video doing just that.” The video features parts from Edgar Titchenal, Conrad Weiser, Dave Waite, myself, CJ Cabiles, Jacob Roman-Melje, Brandon Barber and Tom Brittain.
Case Study
Austin Greer Smith is the man responsible for ‘Case Study’, the full length video out of Seattle featuring Willem Steenstra, DJ Morita, Josh Lee, Tony Besabe, Ben Hamblin, Seth Ceely, Isaac Davis, Joel Cendejas, Scott Purcell, Chacho Avena and many more. I don’t know a ton about the crew, but the video is well made and definitely worth a watch.
Comforter
Vincent’s ‘Comforter’ is an almost 30 minute VX video out of Portland. The homie centric video is full of both crusty and buttery looking spots, approachable skating and an overall fun out skating with the crew vibes. This seems like a really fun squad to skate with, and makes me feel like I really gotta make a trip down to Portland soon.
Welcome to Everett
‘Welcome to Everett’ is the only full length dropped by a NW skateshop in 2023 (we think?). The video features the Pop’s Skateshop crew skating much more than the just the city they call home, as we see them venture all over the NW from Tacoma to Bellingham, and even makes a trip to SF while filming for the video. We get full parts from Justin Duong, Austin Fischer, Taylor Clark, Yvette Wasserman, Timmy Saeparn, Daniel Ramirez, Charlie Krieg, Jefferson Elliot and Jon Drinkard. The film runs 34 mintues and was put together by Jefferson Elliot, who beyond the editing, is also a really talented artist who created the animations throughout the edit.
Silent Moves
‘Silent Moves’ is a video by Banchi Jimena featuring his squad of friends skating their hometown of Portland and beyond. From the outside looking in, this is one of the youngest crews on the list, and it’s really dope to see the yg’s out here ripping and making full length videos in 2023.