The First and Best Skate Video of 2024: Habitat Skateboards XXIV
At the start of 2024 one the first new skateboard videos released: Habitat Skateboards “XXIV”. Skateboard videos are traditionally 25 to 40 minutes in length but as internet streaming has become the main output, many what are considered official skateboard videos are less than 20 minutes. This skate video was made in anniversary of Habitat Skateboards 24 years as a company and has a brisk runtime of 18 minutes.
XXIV comprises three full-length parts from Alex Lobasyuk, Kaue Cossa and Rommel Torres. This is supplemented with two shared parts including all the other Habitat team riders. The intro section is formidable with Mark Suciu, Zac Coyne, Sean Evans, Silas Baxter-Neal and Jiro Platt, the youngest team rider who’d recently won the Damn Am NYC 2023. I really enjoyed the choreography of skaters sharing the obstacle in his part, highlighting him as the Habitat skate team lifeblood.
Absent from this video are much in the way of artistic flourishes or the coveted fisheye lens that the canon Habitat video “Mosaic” featured prominently. The video very much lets the skating speak for itself. Clear high-definition throughout that can make a big spot look smaller is an HD era skate video trope Habitat is intent on overcoming. Trick selection alludes nostalgically to “Mosaic”. Where the bar is raised is with hitting out of the rough spot conquering of uneven terrain.
Alex Lobasyuk proves himself to be the quintessential modern Habitat rider in this sense. A laundry list of undoable curved handrails and flip trick outs on inane ledge spots are breezed through. His part climatically outdoes itself with a kickflip up and over a highway mid-section barrier and a kink rail feeble grind slow motion careening through tall grass his front skate truck dares to clip.
The musical choice of Habitat video is always a focal point and the second shared part makes use of 80s Japanese rock band MARIAH’s Shinzo no Tobira. Marius Syvanen tag teams a massive bricked down ramp hill bomb with the filmer showing extreme coordination in what is “XXIV’s” fastest clip. Tyler Dietterich later wraps his finger around never been done spots with tech mastery. The sounds of MARIAH start to warp the camerawork and spot selection into a kaleidoscope. Headlights obscure Tyler’s varial flip landing from an unconventional ground gap, a stock ticker fades to black while working a downtown ramp to ledge, and a fakie hardflip is spun into a lone fluorescent parking garage bulb.
Habitat subtly stakes their claim to stay as an art fan skateboarder mainstay. The final parts are suffice to say “worthy”. It is the skill with which Habitat grabs your attention that proves testament to their staying power as a top video producer. What skeptics suggest it lacks in big trick overkill is easily succumbed by a modern refashioning of good old rough ground spot conquering. A short runtime early arriving 2024 internet skate video to beat.
