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Posts by Josh Ellis:

February 4, 2022

Rewind: Mini Video 43 – GC

“Mega ramp this!!!” The 43rd document. Originally posted April 10, 2008.

It appears to feature footage from both the fall of 2007 into spring 2008. Nothing much from the winter in between. I don’t think we were such gluttons for cold air punishment back then. Instead, to pass the winter, we spent our time playing Rock Band on the Xbox 360, texting on flip phones (T9 Mode), wondering what was going to happen on “Breaking Bad”, and probably other various mid to late 2000s activities.

Spoiler alert! The last trick in the video, Danny Stemper, Pole Jam into the street. This was kind of a spot for a second. It still exists. No one skates it, obviously.

Pat Forster, frontside board pole jam. This is the same pole that’s still in Estabrook. The longest running “permanent” obstacle, I believe. Although it is slightly steeper now. Didn’t film this, wish I did.

Saw the band Witchcraft from Sweden. Dude kept tonguing his guitar neck. Sick move, underutilized. Pizzy definitely had me “hold this beer” at one point, which I immediately drank all of. Sorry Pizz, still owe you a beer.

Gabe, plus the crew. Looking as fine as can be. I feel like this should be offered as a stock photo. Imagine all of the products that could be advertised with this image.

Sledding, it’s sort of like skating. Danny goes hard.

There’s Something About Billy. Cream City just turned 16 years old yesterday, by the way.

Clearly all of the skating during this winter took place indoors. Danny blasts a big kickflip fakie on the old mini ramp. Beautiful.

After traveling to all of the local skate shops to deliver copies of Beez 1-3 on DVD, Russ needed to hold Pizz like a young baby boy. “Sometimes you just have to pick him up”.

A classic ass pivot to fakie by Pizz at the Pizzy Bank. As of late the bank was more of a cube. Lately it’s again back to triangle form. But now there’s more crap to hit your head on. Another spot gone. How much more can we take?

Pizz catches gabe in the act of a “Pooner Boy Chainer”.

“The Ghetto is a must on the sesh, man”. DRI tape, red curb.

I’d like to think that this is a behind the scenes photo of me filming Document 43.

Gabe and Stemp piled out. Rock Band drums cast aside. A night to remember?

February 2, 2022

Rewind: Mini Video 41 – Paris

Josh Rewind, Skating Videos

Originally posted Nov 2, 2007. I never really actually liked this one that much. I think it’s the song. Have I convinced you to watch it?

The chronology is a bit confused as this video features footage filmed that came from before Mini Video 40. Why didn’t I use it in that one? I don’t know. Maybe the song was too short. Or maybe I forgot to capture an older tape. Who can say?

This is a “problem” because I’ve already used up some of the photos that should’ve been used on this post instead. Scroll back to get yourself up to speed.

As a special point of interest, this is the very last video I ever edited on a PC.

Pat Forster – Backside Smith Pole Jam. A man of discerning taste executes a classic and stylish maneuver. These pole jams existed for many years, but are now finally gone. By the time they were removed, a couple of the poles had completely rusted through and had become extra mini pole jams. How is it that these bent poles lasted way over a decade, but those giant American pick up trucks are all rusted out after five years? Were these poles made of higher quality steel? Was it the carbon content? Please submit an analysis.

From a series of classy boudoir photos I was working on in my photo lab. Feel free to use them for your Christmas cards and wedding announcements. I had actually gotten prints made of several of the images from this series for a “super serious” photo show, but then Covid hit and the show was cancelled. It was literally the first thing I missed out on when it all first started. The prints are still in a box. In the basement, I think.

Another classic Pizz for the record books. Halloween 2007. I found that “01-01-00”, aka “Millennium Hat” on the ground downtown shortly after Y2K. It resided in the trunk of my car for many years thereafter. I’m not sure how it became part of a “costume” consisting of a lightning bolt tiger shirt (Jack Black wears the same exact shirt in the film High Fidelity [Holy shit, I could not possibly hate Jack Black more]), a millennium hat, a stinky wig from the thrift store, and a low quality Micheal Jackson style jacket that I got at the Salvation Army? Either way, Pizz rocked it, and the look is iconic to this day.

One time after partying all night, Risser wore that same jacket home as the sun rose and he was upon the loudest German moped that the world has ever known. Estimated top speed, 22mph.

Danny Stemper – Backside Disaster. Estabrook junkpile, estimated 3.5ft of vert. I think all that wood junk is still there, under all of the concrete.

John Rockafellow – Cannonball Grab. A rarely seen move.

That pink wiskate sticker had a decade long run on the toilet at Mad Planet. Imagine the things it was a witness to.

Mike Roebke – Slappy Feeble. Did I already mention that Estabrook was literally a pile of trash at this point in time?

SAG! He does one of my favorite manual tricks I’ve filmed in the video above. I hate filming manuals. But that was a good one.

To summarize, more of the same, but a little different. Can I keep the ball rolling? I apologize in advance, it’s difficult.

January 30, 2022

Rewind: Mini Video 40 – Hanging

Josh Rewind, Skating Videos

The 40th Mini Video. The file “date created” is October 1, 2007, which is the same date as the last video, and doesn’t exactly seem correct. But what do I know? It seems as if this one was filmed from around May to September. I think it took sort of a long time because I was trying to focus more on shooting photos.

A photo of the first trick in the video. Rarity. Pat Forster, backside lip up. Miss this spot more than anything.

Victorious with the maneuver, time for a classy portrait. Pizzy and his rooster. I could’ve said “cock”, but too obvious, right? We found that rooster at Riverside High School, and it lived in the trunk of my black Honda Accord for years. The rooster is also featured in Beez 2. Gabe’s nickname was “The Velvet Rooster” for awhile, but that’s not related to the trunk rooster.

Wrestle with Pizzy, go to brunch. A classic 2007 weekend morning. A little slice of heaven. At the time, brunch at Comet on the weekend was literally the worst service one could ever imaginably receive, yet we always went back.

Two more (bad) photos of video adjacent maneuvers. These are both in suburban Chicago. We traveled down there to collect my Canon 5d that Gabe had fixed for me when he was working at Canon. He told me once, while on the clock, he got in trouble for loudly farting and laughing about it with his friend. I hope he doesn’t mind I said that. Anyway, I had bought that camera on Ebay, broken, and Gabe had gotten it fixed for me. An expensive gamble at the time, as a broken 5d was still over $1000. But the gamble paid off, and the camera worked great for many years. Vince has this same camera to this day, and uses it often. I lied about the second part.

Flea market visit for heady goods. Another weekend morning past time. Especially when too hung over to skate.

Gabe Chan, switch crooked grind. I didn’t have radios for my flashes yet, so this is with a sync cord that was like 2 feet long. Couldn’t really light with much depth.

Danny Stemper, over the hip to lipslide. I believe footage of this exists (that I filmed), but I don’t know why it’s not in the above video. Half of Danny’s clips in that segment were filmed on a day where I called in sick after partying too hard. Remembering that, the switch shove it over the hamburger suddenly has much more meaning, philosophically speaking.

Classic backyard BBQ Wonk. That pile of bricks came from County Stadium after they tore it down.

I think this “game” was something like – Miss a strike on Wii bowling, get shot in the butt with the airsoft pistol. Neal takes one. The house in the background looking nice & neat & organized. I sold that white Trek on the right to Sleepy right at the beginning of Covid.

Very classic Gabe Chan pic. Backside tailslide shove it out. Obviously you have to take my word for it on the shove it out part. He claimed it was easier to shove it than to just come off straight or fakie. It doesn’t really compute for me. I think this photo was also printed in Stuck Mag, where I’m sure they managed to spell his name wrong, even though it’s a grand total of eight letters long. One time John Rockafellow’s name was spelled three different ways in the same issue. Amazing.

Buying this Mexican wrestling mask is what gave him the power to do the above trick. Speaking of, why isn’t it in the Mini Video? Good question. Again, I think I just wanted to shoot photos. Maybe even retire from filming. I’m still trying to retire from filming 15 years later. I do think Gabe has footage of the trick, maybe on his own camera. Who filmed it? I wish I knew. I’d love to see the clip again.

Another classic. Mike Roebke, backside disaster the vat at the Pabst Brewery. I feel like I’ve told the story a million times, but we were all handcuffed for this one. It was no Scott free clean break. Worth it, I guess. I know for sure that Gabe has footage of this.

Gabe surveys the ruins of post industrial Milwaukee. Looking a little like post war France. These are all either demolished or condos now, of course.

Update! Gabe was kind enough to send me the footage of the criminal beer fueled backside disaster.

All the 2007 homies, all RIP. Pour one out for the kitties.

Pizzy WILL NOT COMPLY. I think Gabe has the footage.

“Watch out, here comes Pizzy!!”. Running away from Pizzy in the woods next the the Milwaukee River. On my birthday. Otherwise known as a slice of heaven.

Common to this era was fishing in a weird quarry in Brookfield. We had to inflate a fish hunter raft in a church parking lot, and carry it through some woods. All for some amazing lunks like above. This photo has been on my Flickr account for 15 years and has thousands and thousands of views. I’d like to think guys send it to their homies to make fun of their wack fishing exploits.

Max Murphy. Wallride the garbage “bowl corner” at B.C. (Before Concrete) Estabrook. This is the first photo we ever shot together.

I realized I end these types of posts very abruptly, so I guess we’ll go with a “’til next time…”.

January 29, 2022

Rewind: Mini Video 39 – Here She Comes

Josh Rewind, Skating Videos

“Hey, y’all wanna kick it with Pizzy?!?!” Originally posted Oct 1, 2007. This one is novel in approach as it was all filmed in one weekend. 9/22 to 9/23 2007. George Bush was still president.

I don’t know why I remember this, but this is the same weekend that Brooks Schuping from Louisville was in town and he executed what, as far as I know, is the first documented “off the top rope” at the US Bank Hubba. Uncle Will was there and captured it on his Canon Elph.

Since the time frame covered by the video took place only over a weekend, we’re quite limited in related media.

Pizzy Fred Flintstone Upskirt Ollie – a brand new phrase that Google AI has never seen before. Does this change how humanity is thought about? I hope the cold unfeeling processes have learned something new about us.

It makes much more sense that we had a Flintstones costume in the car knowing that Russ was also around at the time. I hope he still has the tooth he found on the ground in his collection.

Tim and Ben, Pabst and Mt. Fury. Weird masks. A typical 2007 Saturday night.

This more artful image also exists, shot on film, so the ART value is much higher. Not the same weekend, but related, by tangent.

I told you that I didn’t have much to work with here. I happened to take this image of our 80s BMX selection that same weekend. Three Dynos, a Kuwahara, and what I think was a Diamondback Silverstreak. These were the best ways to transport yourself to Mad Planet.

I must have been trying to test an off camera flash, and I caught, quite by accident, this image of my September 2007 living room. A true “god bless this mess” scenario.

November 20, 2021

On What Tho?

Josh Skating Videos

Filmed by Alex Keck

Skaters – Rory Morgan, Noah Benson, Benny Fosco and a bunch of other players.

November 14, 2021

Mini Video 93 – Qual

Josh Skating Photos, Skating Videos

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”.

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