In 2019 I flew to Paris to meet a Tinder match. We didn’t click and I spent the rest of my week cruising solo drinking Desparados. One dark rive droit night I crossed paths with Pepsi Kim, Aaron Herrington and the Chrystie Skateboards squad. I said I want to skate the red brick banks at Creteil; they’re headed there tomorrow.
I wake up tomorrow in my Belleville rental and ride the train alone to meet Chrystie crew at Creteil thanks to Thando’s directions. James Sayres films me backside kickflip parabolic across the main brick bank while Brett Weinstein attempts this big channel gap ollie off to the side that I saw a dude do in a Converse video years later. Onward to a stadium adjacent bump to bar where I buy extraordinary chicken and chips from a cart vendor, share with the crew, then we swipe Metro back toward city center. Brett and I talk about Midwest skating, Jackson Hennessey and Soma Fuller. Brett was working at Notre, similar to my then-role at Opening Ceremony in New York.
A few months later I walk onto O.C. men’s second floor and see Brett scanning clothing racks. I say hello and tell my coworker skater Max we have a ripper in store. I find Brett’s Deep Dish to show Max on the register computer, thus Brett is able to have the surprising experience of hearing his part playing through store speakers while he browses. When Brett turned pro for Studio I skated his deck, dipped black with flower graphic. I saw Jump Shot premiered in Montreal and figured it would go online soon. Here it is and here we are:
Jump Shot’s twelve-minute runtime aims to please and seems like something Hopps would put out. The intro shows skater names over royalty free channel surfing before finding haven in posse stacking street footage through Chicago, NYC and Montreal’s triangulation. Studio’s distanced Canadian aesthetic tilts toward colorful modern minimalism amid sunbleached manila in a Frank Lloyd Wright land grant university building. Brett appears at 8 minutes, his offboard face illuminated by camera light. Skaters are chilling as Brett and a vested security guard share words. After threatening to beat Brett’s fucking ass, the guard presses a warning finger to Brett’s nose so Brett shoves the guard’s chest. The guard swings a slap, which Brett dodges then decamps. A discordant intro, considering the jazzy lo-fi vibes that have predominated thus far, but Brett appears as a scrappy Chicago stockyard bruiser with a bouncing beat on Crescent Street to ollie bodega frontage, front 180 a cellar grate, switch pump over a yellow painted petite pyramid, then switch front shove doorstep bank over landing and two stairs, a German Nieves line in shorts and Adidas. At that long curved downward ledge Chachi and Shanahanz have been skating, Brett’s dusty sienna pants compliment rusted railway bridging looming as he switch back 5050s.
Photo sequence shows Brett’s face in approach before video Brett ascends crusty interstate barrier and ollies over the gap nesting a fire hydrant to front lipslide pop down. Northward through Midtown’s CBS corridor, regular stance Brett front tail shoves first ledge then hooks west quickly into tight channel, avoids seated men and nollie nose manuals the out ledge to drop. He blasts ollie up and over a yellow handrail corral by Grand Central, then backnosegrind reverts the long top third step at Astor Place island. His overpass barrier ride-on back 5050 in a leopard beanie jars with the spot’s post-spatial anonymity following recognizably cosmopolitan flourishes. Brett channels Ben Kadow for top rope planter boardslide through greenery and his benchtop front bluntslide pop into front noseslide to fakie on the ledge above and behind is unexpected 1-2 punch. Standing on the Corner’s harmonic cacophony compliments urban incidental noise and skateboard sounds percussing.
At Chicago’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, Brett front 5-0s a bronze statue to drop. Weinstein finds waves behind an exurban industrial park for bank ride to pad gap backside flip to bank in Beef & Broccoli Half-Cabs. Wearing a camouflage pocket tee and denim, he throws down in crusty parking lot to ollie onto black metal steamroom roof, back bluntslides the ridge, pops in and down the far side. He front smiths convex bench backing, then front 5050s ascendant alleyway piping. He wallies a Gold Coast stairtop column out over 6 stairs then finds an intuitive 5050 transfer on a wobbly red railing guarding outer borough dead space.
Speaking of dead space, Brett pushes uphill to blast propped ollie to grind ontop of two rows of empty Chicago newspaper racks in double angle. Jason has encouraged me to skate as the water flows, but from the first time I saw Brett go for that gap at Creteil, he’s had the style of a salmon swimming upstream with his shorter, punchy style that reminds me of Gus. He front 5-0 cuts a tall curved hubba, nudging off when lip turns away, then bangs back hurricane at Myrtle Ave Popeye’s rail in a line. Brett fakie flips up onto the black diamond plate past Paul’s Casablanca, then rides onto switch crooks across the step indentation, dip into front lip on edging and out to sidewalk. He front nosegrinds bridge support then hits an industrial zone’s yellow painted angle iron loading docks with back tail then back 5050 wallie out on ladder support. He front lipslides up and around the face of a pale yellow concrete wave then notches back tail on the multifaceted black sculpture Zered has skated.
Second to last clip is unmistakeable Chicago, back 5050ing the long inside of Chase ledge then popping out to front ride down grotto wall. Last clip Brett front blunts bench then power pushes to blast a two board propped ollie over three further sets of grates, with Brett’s red hoodie matching Calder’s Flamingo sculpture in the background. We see photographer’s flash and imagine this made a nice photo as trick repeats slowly, ollie as bunny hop as jump shot in the jump man’s city, highlight reel ends and channel surfing resumes.