Andar de skate nunca foi uma actividade bem vista por parte dos poderes instituídos. Coisa de vândalos, jovens que não são de boas famílias, destruidores de propriedade pública e privada, isso de andar aos saltos em cima de uma tábua com rodas. Esta é pelo menos uma das perspectivas que alguns teimam e manter.

Felizmente, a última década foi de explosão para o skate, com Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Rodney Mullen, Paul Rodriguez ou Eric Koston a representarem o desporto nas suas mais diversas variantes e a quebrarem barreiras nas várias edições dos X Games ao longo dos anos.

Actualmente, o skate é já uma indústria que move milhões. Contratos milionários, publicidade que move montanhas, eventos de dimensão assinalável, revistas, livros, documentários, todos estes elementos chegaram com o passar do tempo, e com a globalização da modalidade.

Para além destas, outra das áreas que acompanhou o skate foram os filmes publicitários. Apoiados pelas grandes marcas de street e sportswear, os skaters começaram a aparecer em vídeos de promoção, mostrando ao mundo as suas capacidades, ao mesmo tempo que vendiam a sua marca e o seu próprio nome a toda uma geração de futuros fãs.

Tudo isto para vos dar a conhecer os quatro vídeos concorrentes (e o vencedor) do prémio «Skate & Create 2010», um concurso criado pela revista TransWorld SKATEboarding para eleger o melhor vídeo de skate do ano. DVS, C1RCA, DC, e etnies foram os concorrentes da edição de 2009, com o filme da etnies a sair vencedor da contenda, o que lhes garantiu a presença em 2010.

Assim, etnies, Adidas, Fallen e Lakai tiveram ao seu dispor durante nove dias um armazém com o mesmo material para todos, assim como um director artístico no local, sendo que as quatro equipas seriam compostas por seis skaters cada, quatro pros e dois amadores, entre outras regras da competição.

O vídeo da Adidas, intitulado «Light, Shape, Color», realizado por Matt Irving possui a seguinte descrição:

I’d wanted to do Skate & Create after seeing the first one. I had ideas for some unique shots and different angles. We didn’t want to follow a strict narrative. We wanted it to be more abstract—less of a plot and more about finding new ways to show skating. But, it still had to feel cohesive throughout the film. We really wanted our team to be involved in the creative process. One of the first things we did once we got in the warehouse was build Tech Deck-sized models of the obstacles so that the team riders could move stuff around easily and not be stifled by lugging around the real obstacles. Creatively, it’s natural to dive in headstrong, focus on your ideas, pull back and then learn from that experience. By the time you finish, you’re exhausted and over it. But you’re always your own worst critic. From the viewers’ point of view, it might look easy to do S&C, but once you’ve gone through it—worked through all the kinks—you know it’s gnarly.

No caso da Fallen, a realização de «Lose Your Illusion» ficou a cargo de Mike Gilbert, que teve isto a dizer sobre o projecto:

We solidified the idea for S&C four days before we actually went into the warehouse. We had a different idea, but I guess it didn’t work, so we were like, “Oh shit, gotta think of something!” With our manpower and budget, we had to simplify it to what we could realistically do. S&C is kind of like the normal process of creating something. Comparing it to a normal skate video, I feel like S&C never feels as good when you’re done—you’re worn out at the end, even if the concept is good. But I have to look at it from the point of view of someone who’s not involved, like my wife. She’s like, “That was cool!” But seeing every little detail that anyone else may not notice, I’m my own worst critic. The best thing that stands out was the weird tilted Hubba. The dudes were all skating, then, Tommy Sandoval came out from the chiller room, and was like, “Wha’?” Within a half hour he did three gnarly things on it. I was shocked.

Com o título de vencedor de 2009 em linha, a etnies decidiu apostar no trabalho de Benny Maglinao para realizar «Crap Shoot»:

The idea came when I was sitting around with Oliver Barton and we were thinking about everything that went into it last year. I didn’t know how we could top it. I just wanted to have fun. So I started thinking about how there’s so much emphasis on indoor skateparks now. It made me think of recreating the old World Industries days, because that’s the park I saw on videos from when I started skating. We didn’t want to script it. We just got the first batch of clothes from that era, which took a lot of work to find—those really baggy pants, T-shirts with thick collars, like cotton was really thick then. I got little iron-on graphics for the shirts, like the Rudy Johnson 40 ounce. I was psyched on using a camera from that era, too, so I thought it’d be cool to film in Hi8. Oliver shot on film, too, so it looked authentic. I wanted guys to skate and I just ran around and filmed it, kind of how they probably did it back in the day. I think everyone was surprised on how much footage we got in the end. The video we made was only part of all the footage we had.

Finalmente, o último vídeo a concurso e aquele que saiu vencedor do confronto pertence à Lakai, marca que nos trouxe uma das melhores intros de sempre num filme de skate, em «Lakai: Fully Flared» e que decidiu voltar a apostar nos mesmos nomes, com Spike Jonze à cabeça a comandar o realizador Ty Evans na criação deste magnífico «Lakairomania». É o favorito do ilícito e foi o de muita gente e com boas razões, desde logo presentes no momento da criação, o que lhe valeu o prémio do «Skate & Create 2010»:

About a year ago, I was talking to my friend Tim in the band Ima Robot. He asked me to do a music video for their new song. I had just filmed Neckface throw a Molotov cocktail against a wall at night and loved how it looked. I transferred that idea to skaters skating burning spots from Molotov cocktails, but it was hard to pull off at real spots. But, unfortunately, Ima Robot just went independent, so they couldn’t fund it. Six months later, Rick Howard’s at my house, and we’re talking about Lakai’s yearly budget, and he mentioned that Lakai might do S&C. I showed him my idea for the music video and he was like, “Let’s do it.” I’ve said it before, but there was so much bullshit with making Fully Flared, so it was cool to have everyone psyched and not stressing about their part. It felt how the intro to FF should have felt. So it had a redeeming quality to it. In the end, Lakai used Ima Robot’s song for free, and they got a music video out of it. Funny how things come full circle.

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