Written by Evan Shieflebine Comic by Beardo. 

The historical topic of Alchemy has been an ongoing conversation over here at the Free Press. I cannot speak for everyone over here, but there is something about the old hermetic tradition of transforming materials, that creates a draft of intrigue in beliefs of the past. A general explanation of the ancient discipline is that all natural materials, like metals, were naturally apt to move (very slowly) toward “golden” perfection, and from this theory individuals, who date back to ancient Egypt, explored the malleability and metamorphosis possible with various metals. And by the by, do not get me wrong here, I am not fronting, I get most of these ideas from a combination of google and past professors, but they are worth passing on for the sake of skate nerdery….I hope. 

So linked to the beliefs of Alchemy, is the belief in Humorism; a belief that people are made up of a combination of four fluids that influenced one’s general health as well as their personality type. Humorism related back to Alchemy because the belief was that humans were composed of elements that naturally strive for alchemical perfection. In Humorism the belief was that one’s personality was a result of whichever of the four fluids held the most real estate within their functioning body. And this was the general medical belief with the Greeks on up through not too many hundreds of years ago. The four humors of Humorism are Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic (look them up). Several of the Elizabethan wits, like Bill Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, toyed with the ideas of the humors and the specific chemistry of personality types. I mention these two because they were innovators/ mad-legit, and also in hopes of showing that the idea of Humorism was widespread, and around for a long time. 

So now, with the dusty idea of the four mentalities in mind, and the chemistry of melding materials for valuable results, let’s nerd out on the alchemical results of skaters working together to create video parts of golden standards……  

The first video part that comes to mind is Daewon Song’s mind exploding part in DVS‘ “Skate More”. What is impressive about Daewon’s part aside from his impossible abilities, is the impossible to miss shift in Daewon’s choice of terrain. Where Daewon had always been a LA school district “picnic-table-lover” throughout most of his past, “Skate More” sees him focusing his skills on the unexpected: natural street-trannies (insert trani joke here). Viewers may have become accustomed to Daewon stacking tables and pushing the technical envelope, but his DVS part became a part that not only involved Daewon’s versatility, but also, Daewon doing transition tricks that are equally as far ahead of the times as his school-yard innovations are known to be. There is a huge bias here, but that should not overshadow the fact that, as a direct result of collaborating with “Skate More” director, Colin Kennedy, Daewon’s stylistic choices, and therefore his DVS part, took on a valuable transformation.

The second part in mind is Guy Mariano’s part in Lakai’s “Fully Flared”. Like most shred enthusiasts, we’re all too familiar with the bitter-sweet anticipation of Guy Mariano footage. Bitter sweet, because aside from “Mouse” and “Video Days”, Guy’s parts tend to be an average of three tricks long. When Guy made his come back and became a part of the Lakai roster, the expectations for him to put together a part longer than several tricks were pretty low on this end. With Lakai’s roster of young and old talents it did not seem that Guy would really have to put together a full part since so many rippers would easily fill Fully Flared with top notch content. Yet, after so many short parts in the past, and the cushion of a stacked roster, Guy put together a part that is long in minutes and groundbreaking in content. It is a part that is easy to make a case for as the best part of the Lakai video, which is really saying something! In a recent episode of Patrick O’Dell’s Epic’ly Later’d, Guy jokes about Ty Evans informing him that he would have full part for the video. Depending on the individual, such an announcement could lead to any result, bad or worse, but the collaboraiton of Guy and Ty produced something historic to skateboarding.

Isaac Newton and countless others that pursued the alchemical disciplines, took great labors in exploring the art of tempering materials that would combine to create the highest material potential as gold. And then there are the likes of Daewon, Guy, Colin, and Ty, laboriously pushing for a golden standard in skateboarding. And each with his own skill set and temperment. Just for kicks let’s mix these pairs up. What would result from Guy and Daewon producing a video part? Or how about a collaboration between Colin and Ty? Pair these four individuals up in any variation outside of the original pairs, and with each pairing would be a unique product! With the amount of talent and vision between these four dudes, any pairing would probably yield memorable results. But, most importantly, each collaboration would be its own alchemical result, and that is exciting, isn’t it?

DVS Skate More – Courtesy of DVS and Youtube – Buy the video:

Guy Mariano in Fully Flared – Courtesy of Lakai Shoes and brought to you by youtube. Buy the video: