Josh – Page 3 – wiskate.com – Skateboarding in Wisconsin

November 14, 2021

Mini Video 93 – Qual

It’s always difficult to think of something to say, so I’ll keep it basic. Here’s the 93rd short video created for this website, wiskate.com. (This is how we chill from 93 til…). Like an Adrenalin “Industry Section” from a 411 in 1995 it features an inordinate amount of wallie grabs.

I had promised the group chat that that I’d make at least one new Mini Vid in 2021, which I already did, so this one is just money in the bank, as they say. It had taken me from May until yesterday to collect the measly three minutes of footage contained herein. Too much bicycle riding, I suppose. And/or continuing the rich tradition of completely neglecting this website, wiskate.com.

Skating by: Max Murphy, Vince Stranc, Sean Hanley, Mikey al Wathiqui, John Mcguire, Taylor Lalk, and in his triumphant return from injury, Nick Mistele.

My friend Bradford Bishop was kind enough to provide some photos taken during the time period when number 93 was made.

Should I stay, or should I go? Does anyone still look at this thing? I’ve been considering letting it go. 1998-2021, R.I.P.? Email me (wiskate@gmail.com) if you still think wiskate.com is the beez kneez. Hate mail is ok too. It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten some good old fashioned hate mail.

October 3, 2021

19 and Life

Josh Skating Videos

During early pandemic I had captured many of my ancient Hi8 and Digital 8 tapes and made short videos for the Instagram. I never posted any on the site. (Suprise?). This one features a lot of early wiskate.com content, so if I’m going to bother, this should be it.

Feat Vance, Bunch, and the Lutz. 2002. The audio was out of sync due to the daisy chain of devices needed to capture the old tapes. It was too much work to fix it. Most of these skate spots no longer exist.

Jon Bunch, slightly anachronistically presented doing this backside 180. From 2003, I believe.

Bonus! Here’s an even older one. Late 90s. Lots of slams, not many tricks. A lot of these spots still exist. I’d even claim the city looks exactly the same. What does it mean?

The freeway to nowhere. Now the location of “Scott Walkers’ Penis”.

June 10, 2021

Still Ill

Josh Skating Videos

still ill from pizzy on Vimeo.

The new full length by Patrick Forster.

Starring Max Murphy, Sean Hanley, Nick Mistele, Chad Benson, Dan Jackson, Jerry Mraz, Pat Murphy, Jon Rockafellow, Danny Stemper, Cory Stubing, Alex Keck, Jacob Mumford, Drew Rickaby, Payne Counihan, Tavis Schulz, Vince Stranc, Chase Hopper, Brent Menchaca, Benny Fosco, Roger, David Gackstetter, Taylor Lalk.

Production photos below all by Bradford Bishop.

April 27, 2021

Mini Video 92 – Witch Hunt

Josh Serious Art, Skating Photos, Skating Videos gorf life, mini video, paranormal, skating, sorcery

During pandemic lockdown I claimed I was going to make a new Mini Video in 2021. Promises delivered.

The saga that started over 20 years ago continues..

Starring: Max Murphy, Vince Stranc, Gabe Chan, David Gackstetter, Mike Al Wathiqui, Rory Morgan, Nick Mistele, Sean Hanley, Taylor Lalk, Jacob Mumford, and Payne Counihan

Additional behind the scenes media provided by Bradford Bishop.

March 14, 2021

Heat, On Laser Disc

Josh Skating Photos

2020 into 2021.

Not much going on, right?

During this pandemic I was a decent citizen. I stayed home, and if not, I was meandering all over the city on my bike taking b/w photos of crap in alleys.

To maintain a bit of sanity I would occasionally ride the bike downtown to meet up with the skate brethren and shoot a telephoto spaced out photo or two.

I haven’t been good at sharing this stuff because well, no one looks at the site anymore. It does work as a decent photo repository for self use, so maybe I’ll keep adding more here or there.

Here’s some recent-ish selections from who knows when.

David Gackstetter, backside smith. This set up was less Berra than one might guess by just looking at the photo. All materials were found onsite, so any tricks here receive a slightly higher score than if the materials were brought in from an outside source.

A mother load of debris. I felt blessed to find this post apocalyptic scene, while actually living in an apocalyptic scenario.

Drew Rickaby, backside nosegrind. Look at Bradford’s dumb hands creeping into the scene. I shot this on a Canon Rebel 2000, the same camera I used to shoot photos of Ben Vance for use on wiskate.com twenty years ago. Ben Vance did not already do this nosegrind though.

I lied, this is from pre pandemic. You can tell, because there are humans in the photo acting like normal people. Remember that? I wonder what Pizzy is showing to Hank here? Maybe they’re looking at the wiskate.com Wiki to find out what tricks Ben Vance already did.

Sean Hanley, wallride nollie. This is also from before the pandemic. The debris used to make the cellar door skateable were found onsite in this scenario as well. It’s weird how over the years you could either skate this spot forever, or get kicked out in one second.

Vince Stranc, boneless. I really am a dummy, this is also pre lockdown. I guess I’ve just been sitting on all of these photos for longer than I realized. Landing on that grate is kind of scary. I know it’s not likely to happen, but if you fell into that zone you’d be living a similar scenario to the South Korean film “The Host”.

Max Murphy – Boban assisted tailslide. Now we’re back on track. I rode my bike over here, and Risser was unloading the Boban from his van. Some points lost due to offsite material logistics, but still a nice scene. He did the same trick on another taller loading dock roughly fifty feet from here. This photo is nicer.

Safety first! I hope we’re all through this soon, friends!

November 14, 2020

Handy The Movie: Edition 2

Josh Skating Videos

Handy The Movie: Edition 2 from Josh Ellis on Vimeo.

I feel like I’ve written this diatribe at least six times now, but here we go anyway.

Instagram is great to quickly film up a few clips, edit them together with some quick cuts and LOLs, and post. You might get some sick comments and several “likes” leading to that nice dopamine blast. But that’s it, one or two days later, it’s never watched again.

The Handy series is an attempt to rescue these clips from the Memory Hole. Above is Handy Edition 2, the cream off the top of my cell phone data from 2015. The clips are presented in chronological order, more or less. Enjoy?

Below, same idea. One photo per month, from the cell phone data. Year 2015.

November 2, 2020

Rewind: Mini Video 22 – Ben Vance Does Nashville

Josh Rewind, Skating Videos

Mini Video 22 – Ben Vance Does Nashville (unoffical recreation) from Josh Ellis on Vimeo.

A reasonably accurate recreation of Mini Video 22 from February 22, 2001. Nearly 20 years now.

I have the original web sized .mpg from 2001, and I found the raw footage on a Hi8 tape earlier this year. I put the old file in the timeline and overlaid the raw footage over it. The audio is original to the 2001 .mpg. Making the “cool” animations was more annoying than it should’ve been. But I persevered.

Comparison of today vs. 2001 web quality. People used to wait 20 minutes for videos that looked like this to download, and they loved it, damnit.

Anyway, back to the past. The crew wanted to skate. It was too snowy and cold in Milwaukee. I remembered a great plaza in Nashville I had skated once on the way to Florida a year or two before. Might as well drive the ten hours.