I imagine everyone reading this agrees that Johnny Wilson has filmed and presented much of his/my generation’s most important skating: Paych, Sure, Horny, Beef Patty, and John’s Video are renowned independent works on his resume that also includes significant volumes of branded content for Nike and Supreme. We were neighbors around the corner for a number of years and crossed paths fairly frequently, if not deliberately, as I skated freelance around my full-time retail job and he helmed New York’s most productive crew.
For at least fifteen minutes on May 12, 2015, the initial Vimeo cover shot on Johnny’s HD11 video was a frame of my smiling face in gold-wire glasses, honeybrown hair brushed to nestle on my blue and green flannel’s right shoulder, topping myself in neon yellow beanie with navy leather bow cuff-clipped like a third eye standing up top at the 14th Street Union Square steps on this fall day when Jason Byoun and I had bought shrooms at Tompkins, then rolled up on Johnny’s crew filming at Union Square. My consecutive appearances in HD11 would include this portrait shot upon arrival, plus a concurrent clip of me kickflipping into Union’s southeastern corridor ramp wearing Adidas running shoes. While we shared our stash with Andrew Wilson, Peter Sutherland, who was spectating on the session, called shrooms “boomers,” probably because of how my ears would start popping soon after I stacked my clip, while we watched Andrew boardslide the tall black rail beside the corridor down the long four over the knobs to fakie, then Jason and I went and skated Midtown. My single kickflip may have been the most attainable trick featured in HD11 and I felt grateful to be included in John’s oeuvre at all. However, I sensed my moment in this spotlight might not last, so I took a photograph of the cover shot on my computer screen. Within an hour, it changed to Ben Kadow. The video link is currently broken, so I’m depending on writing memory for recollections. Johnny discusses losing Vimeo hosting beginning at 5:23 in his Say You Swear interview.
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Untitled at night, Johnny’s Vid begins in Houston’s Tranquility Park as his fisheye situates to frame the brick-based five-stair railing of thick round silver where growling urethane approaches from the dark heralding Antonio Durao’s entrance to switch 360 flip noseblunt slide as Omar S’s beat drops with switch-stance rollaway from one of the heaviest tricks ever across brick landing pad into grass wearing bulky Jordans. Sunny soundtrack packs black Hardbody boxer briefs on Puerto Rican picaresque, triangulating between NYC and LA footage to expand the conceptual parameters and nuanced borders of post-Furby stair-set skating, similar to how vert skaters explore distinctions in grab variations, with a Stingwåter style blending Javier Sarmiento and Chris Joslin flying Emirates. Though perhaps Tony does not come to mind as one of Johnny’s tightest affiliates, his Nike-riding presence here is not total surprise, as John selectively inserts an archival clip to remind viewers that he filmed boyish Antonio’s D7 switch 360 flip in 2016. Durao as present-day bearded Fabio switch backside flips over the black Roosevelt Park five-stair rail then rolls off the curb and lands a pop-shove-late-flip on South Houston Street where purple-clad Karim has been watching for traffic in polarized speed-shades, now holding his head in his hands in amazement over witnessing this modern maestro’s work as a woman walking past feels comfortable acknowledging that was cool to witness.
Karim’s smiling presence continues to tease throughout Johnny’s 17-minute Vid like a talisman. A Guy Called Gerald’s “Finley’s Rainbow” (slow motion mix) embarks on its arc as Johnny zooms in from the base of the newly-reopened Brooklyn Banks 9-stair on Karim riding through the upper plaza slapping palms while passing Durao, whose vantage sits perched atop the back of a wooden bench. Tony mouths “oww” and shakes the smart from his right hand, as onward Karim’s tongue sticks out like his hero Michael Jordan with attention focusing on stunt forthcoming, but clip cuts before the trick to Karim smiling in the wake on a Puerto Rican beach. “The sun is shining. The weather is sweet, yeah,” with waves washing around him and his bodysurfing best friends. Slow-motion Upstate bicycle riding lifestyle shots blend to photomontage scrolls through affiliated friends' faces resuming video insert as Karim on Hardies Griptape rides away fakie from the Mulberry Street ledge across the Houston Street median where Wierdo Dave, Vincent Touzery and Tenzin are posted viewing the session. In front of the bowed black Hanover Square handrail, a deliverista stops his momentum as Karim backside power slides to accommodate this surprise presence, again clip cut without trick.
Wearing red/brown flannel and khakis, Karim dips his back smith grind on a red ledge in a shady plaza and expands to snatch kickflip out with tangerine swoosh on white Blazers as Nik Stain and Andrew Wilson remark in background while Vincent whips his wrist to celebrate. Elissa Steamer watches Karim rip a piece of rotisserie chicken from its bagged nest. “Can I try a piece,” Karim, with the meat in hand en route to his mouth, asks Koston. Johnny’s camera zooms on Karim’s chewing teeth answering his own question, “Can I try a piece, dude? That was a good piece.”
Aphex Twin and Dystopia (demo) soundtrack Andrew Wilson and posse, as Ben Kadow gets tasered and Kush Cowboy gaps into a couple benchtoppers beneath FDR. Hammer-thirsty Stu Kirst contributes and Elissa banks a back tail grind to fakie, while Dr. Franco pops up as spectator and performer. Nik Stain visited Chicago for the Supreme store opening and skates poignantly to Migo’s “Slippery,” hands up flexing balance beam through lengthy two-wheeled transits across vast spaces including this amazing dry waterworks ditch down past the homies applauding in the basin for a nollie backside flip to end the line. Cyrus’s quickdraw flick seems faster than ever, as he shares his return to world-class form with a somehow even more-controlled understanding of his body attained from a focused rebuild; consider this footage releasing weeks before his commercial part in Huf Forever featuring switch nose manual half-cab flip into Courthouse Drop banger. I’m always happy to see the long four-stair kinked rail on Allen Street appear hosting back lipslide shove-it out.
Enzo’s blonde hair blows back like he’s just faced an explosion, which is what each daredevil trick, including steep subway system railgrind toward wall Kristian Svitak homage, hits feeling like. Max Palmer’s routes explore sweet spot embellishments such as the lightpost between Battery Park bench sections and show his continued affinity for making flexible delineators flap. He bumps up to back smith grind the southwestern Seward Park pillar’s tip, then Johnny reminds us that he filmed Max’s Loisaidan ollie to needle threading hippy jump where his board bullseyes between the handicap ramp’s two upper silver railings.
A comment made while he’s throwing down prompts Karim’s laughter to ring with his goofy roll down a SoCalifornian alleyway capped in a thickly cuffed black Supreme / Duck Down Records beanie and a black Do a Kickflip t-shirt over a white longsleeve, adjusting his ample khakis as he carves up to pass Johnny’s filming station before hopping upon backside 50-50 grind across a slab-topped rock wall then popping into back nosegrind 180 on the concrete end-cap, silhouette poised before arms slice swinging blindside down drop to alley, crucial pivot perfectly dodging the mouth of the curb, fakie left foot forward on tail in UCLA Bruins Blazers zooming switch rollaway with mouth open until his hand raises to cover looking into traffic as piano keys tinkle and camera pans past Cyrus’s smiling foreground face and further friends applaud across the street.
Switch-stance speeding in red Supreme Joe Roberts sailboat tee, canvas cut-off shorts, white shoes, and white socks, Karim arrives already crouched in Tribeca for switch heelflip over the flat black loading dock gap to drop where Enzo impossibled earlier as a pedestrienne pauses before his incoming projectile path. Karim’s switch rollaway toward the Greenwich Street corner leads him to fast approaching a trash can with some garments draped in its hooptop over which he jumps switch, leaving his board at rest on the sidewalk and lands in a jog across Hudson Street with his arms raised in victory, black ballcap backwards, turning laughing to Johnny with both fists clenched for double bumps with his documentarian in the fresh adrenaline burst of success spontaneously navigated, butterfly bandages on right elbow, gold watch on left wrist. “I don’t even know what the fuck just happened,” Karim says as Jessica Pratt’s “Opening Night” soundtracks with glamorous understatement the golden magic in late-afternoon metropolitan plain air beneath the brick building at 75 Morton Street that compliments his t-shirt.
Spare piano allows downtown skate sounds to resonate between echoing towers as Johnny’s see-through angle below the glass panel of B.MC.C.’s silverbacked eight-stair hubba above a handrail shows Karim’s dive-bombing frontside nosegrind on Limosine’s Max Palmer Trash Bag deck absorbing rollaway on Jordan IIIs, past successfully-flashed photographer standing downchute rolling past chain-link fence-topped orange barricades channeling constricted sidewalk traffic toward the claustrophobic corner skidding frontside powerslide before a paused woman in sunglasses and sweatshirt and Durao, who is watching beneath the lightpost knocking his deck on the ground. As tattooer Ryan Mettz films his angle, Durao says, “Son,” to the audience in general then turns and says, “Papa,” to Karim before throwing down for a short push over to congratulatory embrace.
Wilson’s camera spends a second focusing through the upper Westbeth courtyard to settle on Karim standing with skateboard tucked under his right foot, hands raised in prayer before and beside tall walls of glass panels and painted white brick, an unseeded planter the only adornment in this ultramodern space as organ music and choral voices swell to heighten the holy feel surrounding this skater’s presence in minimalist secular cathedral. Karim wears Hardies Hardware’s The Hand I Was Dealt button-up, a black short-sleeved collar showing allover print of customized playing cards, with light denim cut below his knees, tall white calf socks and Nike Blazers. He crosses himself twice as he tugs up trousers, grabs his board for a quick cradle then throws down to approach a ring-shaped concrete bench for frontside nose manual across three counterclockwise hours, then the pulsing elegiac soundtrack snatches to strictly ambient upon cavernous boom of wheels stomping then carving rollaway before a situation-setting backside powerslide echoes while he ducks toward ceilinged passageway where Johnny’s tucked behind one pillar twisting his turn in tandem with transit to reveal the round kinked 12-stair rail where Karim hops onto front 50-50 hanging his balance through the terminal pinch kink dodging a big backside column toward the light at the end of the tunnel with a brush of front fingertips on the ground swiping as soundtracking DJ scratch enters, ripping back between beat drops, emerging from this covered corridor to pass the lineup of Caleb Barnett, Andrew Wilson and Enzo all howling applause in slo-mo zooming out to reveal Ben Kadow and Nik Stain also constitute this attendant row of gentlemen bearing bicycles and backpacks while automobile traffic passes up the West Side Highway.
“Marked for life, a million to life, thug for life…” mammatus clouds hang low over Shea Stadium and the World’s Fairgrounds where this Queens native pops from the outside onto Flushing’s fountain ring with a frontside flourish wearing the Mets’ colorway Dunk hightop as Solomon Childs’ vocals detail “‘89 stick-up kid, king of New York,” blue shorts and orange tee with blue screenprint, Knicks colors too, backwards white Mets hat, gold chain with a charm, back 360 off the ledge into baby blue fountain, take a push and backside ollie back onto the ledge no push necessary to pop “daddy-hardbody” back backspin back tail on the extension panel to fakie drop “rowdy Brighton god-body” cerulean record scratching with Dunk straps flapping.
Smooth like a leopard in blue beanie and navy Supreme hoodie with white Ss embroidered allover passing white cinder wall tagged by Frogtown Trigs up the bump where Cyrus pop-shoved and Jake Anderson varial heeled to the street earlier, Johnny’s departure-point angle shows Karim stretching backside flip off the lift and over the two sections of sidewalk gap past curb to switch rollaway beside the tripod across an underpass-bound road with friends watching sidewalk and street for traffic while Johnny’s pan shows the ivy wall Karim was facing as he made his approach ride to record scratch.
Up the bump to “Top of the world, get it rizzight, dick to your wizzife,” red box logo chest embroidery on olive hoodie hanging oozy red uncuffed beanie crooked grinding down same white jersey barrier Cyrus skated with rusty tears down its face over black-marker Mourn tag to fakie off the island on down Cardinal Hayes Place in autumnal red/brown Blazers.
Karim ascends the mildly graded eastern access ramp passing the Houston Street entrance to Union Market and pops into front feeble grind down the ramp’s black railing onto the corner at Avenue A riding creamy white Spitfire wheels, Limosine End of Part One deck and flannel shirt buttoned proper to neck carving before school bus waiting at the light.
4-5-6 dizice roll hits jackpot where a tall burgundy Titan bin on wheels rests at the bottom of the World Trade-adjacent seven-stair providing elevated target for Karim to leap gap out onto back 5-0 grind across the bin edge to overhead drop hopps in Jumpman kicks.
This is real lizife: Facing Johnny, his camera and a growing wall rolling down a walkway with a tall black handrail at his backside, Karim wears yellow t-shirt over a navy longsleeve to match his navy/yellow Blazers with khakis in between while he pops from a brief landing into back smith grind down the high-waisted embankment railing past the entrance nook for Checkers Restaurant at downtown Los Angeles Hilton using his lifted swinging momentum to release and carry backside 180 out past technoyellow hydrant to fakie off the curb in front of the valet parking beneath yellow Ped X-ing signs hanging from stoplight poles.
Karim kickflips into crooked grind on a flat ledge over a long three-stair beneath CCTV surveillance rolling away on cobblestone toward Cucina Italian beneath rounded upper balcony corners. He pops early to meet the black handrail exiting red brick Cherry Street park in front boardslide across its tall flattop and on down over the three stair section with white tee underneath gusty unbuttoned flannel.
Supreme’s red flames tee covers Karim’s white long-sleeve with red backwards hat and red/black Dunk lows throwing down into a Los Angeles curb cut street crossing with Johnny at his side showing next block’s boost onto back smith grind along cutout white modern windowsill ledge pop out riding past a closed tortas cart as Solomon’s verse ends.
“You are now listening to the sounds of Supreme Clientele,” stardusted femme fatale voice reminds us as Ben Kadow pops up in the West Village onto chest-high frontside 50-50 across a green-painted I-beam-topped barrier frame protecting a mature tree from vehicular damage where an afternoon crowd stands smoking in front of a bar.
“Step into the party, it’s me, God almighty.” From the session with Cyrus at the Allen Street four-stair rail, Karim front smiths through the kink in short-sleeve flannel over long-sleeve white tee.
Back on the westside Hudson riverfront, “ghost still holding that shotty,” Karim gaps past three-stair silver railing into back 180 nosegrind on the out-ledge drop to fakie.
Tyshawn’s flatground Ferrari ollie was obviously a Summer 2023 landmark so Karim speaks to entire vehicular blasting conversation with tuck-knee melon grab over a car off a platform in the shadow of “three-quarter Timbs” Kyle James’ Brooklyn Banks.
Karim boardslides up a black handcap railing in Greenwich Village and pops over the perpendicular corner to straightahead sidewalk landing as Johnny zooms on Karim’s crimson Blazers, “cherry cornrows” with front right toes hanging off his Limosine but not touching so clean “crisp hundreds in the envelope.”
Along the grey-painted sidewalk cutting through green grass leaving a tended Los Angelean building, Karim pops off two stairs onto a tall black lamb’s-eared railing backside 50-50 grinding past red and green bougainvillea swooping down over sidewalk grading in white Venture Trucks Paid shirt with multiple logos lining longsleeves.
A white shirt wraps Karim’s head, like Bastien starting the trend at Sants in Sorry, wearing undershirt and khakis with black and red Dunks on shaped concrete bank to ledge for front tailslide kickflip to regular, chain on chest, watch on left wrist, “up 3-nothing in Salt Lake City, burgundy minks,” Karim stacks on Puerto Rican cuts with bump up to flattop rail noseslide releasing down access ramp ride to roadside. Johnny’s earlier angles of Durao skating the big nine-stair painted as the Puerto Rican flag made sure not to reveal this grey hubba down its side where Karim back 50-50s in same yellow socks and shirt as previous clip.
Karim frontside 50-50s across the top of a white painted barrier wall protecting the corner of a Los Angeles liquor store parking lot in recognizable navy/yellow shirt/Blazers combo, “Black Boy George, dusted on my honeymoon,” and white hedgetop crooked grinds where Antonio and Cyrus skated amidst tropical residential landscaping. Karim gaps back 180 nosegrind down the Puerto Rican hubba where Durao switch back 5-0ed. The red sailboat tee reappears over white longsleeve with brown pants as Karim uses a bump in the broad Los Angeles sidewalk to frontside flip over a discarded sofa from front to back.
“Bitches think that I’m Dominican, slaf-hash Indian,” on the green University Settlement courtyard ledges on East 2nd St, Karim half cab noseslide heelflips out to regular wearing yellow shirt, navy/yellow Blazers, Hardies allover logo jacquard socks, backwards black/yellow Hardies speed cap, “milk on my mustache, drop to my chinny-chin.”
Up the fallen lightpost propped to reach a concrete bank where Max skated, undershirt-topped Karim scales front 50-50 then pulls the trigger on backside flip out down the bank with brown pants habitually tucked into his red socks to protect from bicycle chain bite and best show off white swoosh on two-tone brown Dunks.
While Johnny filmed Max’s clip on the Seward Park pillar from the departure zone, he now stands in the landing area to show Karim’s back nosegrind 180 on the tip of the tall stone block with beanie-bead Ben Colen sitting crosslegged holding a flash in left hand and hiscamera in right to shoot Limosine’s ad in Thrasher’s February 2023 issue.
RZA’s verse arrives in the brick Two Bridges park with Karim’s tongue out throwing down like Larry Johnson under backwards blue Hardies speed cap pulled down over his eyebrows. Karim mounts the diamond-plated silver prop to pinch front crooks over the top of the electric box releasing low Dunk cup-sole to fakie drop over the brick to sidewalk Tony Montana flow.
In Karim’s Followed feature for Pocket Skate Mag, he teases that he has something in mind for the cutty Queens downhill driveway with implanted white ledge/manual pad where Max and Cyrus have already set high standards. That idea of his was kickflip backside noseblunt slide in Hardies Hardware x Supreme shorts and high white Limosine socks brought down to fakie alongside the wall with gold New Era sticker gleaming on top of his black Supreme flat brim.
“David Banner gamma ray shots spray” Karim’s brick ground carve past the pebbled block before his kickflip into back 50-50 grind down City Hall’s square black seven-stair rail along brick wall.
Red socks stay tucked into pants at Irving STEAM Magnet School in Los Angles where Karim half-cabs into manual on the blue backside pad past six long stairs and places his descent off the drop into back tailslide on the blue curb to fakie. “We splash the glass, ice rocks / our cash high price stock / our logo’s on your rice box.”
Three crouched serpentine carves precede Karim mounting the bowed black rail where he powerslid earlier, now in front 50-50 past the seven stairs to transfer down onto more 50-50 down the black marble curb along the parallel ramp to bottom, “plus your dice box on the side upon your white socks” as Johnny shows Karim’s ankles in such stockings.
“Bobby got the mic cocked / Buck, buck, nice shot” bestows Digital accolades to accompany Karim’s frontside flip over a loading dock bump to rail with Johnny filming from the landing side as Karim blasts off with kickflip peaking at stretched and compressed flashpoint with frontside twist bridging descent to switch rollaway mouth open World Famous past Johnny’s twisting stationary vantage that includes Caleb with his remarkable wicks viewing from the safe harbor behind Johnny’s shoulder. Audio continues for a second after footage has cut to black with no credits onscreen. “Oh my god.” “What the fuck, *****.”
I remember calling Scarr’s Pizza on Christmas Eve 2020 and ordering a Sicilian pizza with anchovies and banana peppers. When I arrived to pick up the pie, Karim came out to hand it over and complimented my order. I certainly enjoyed the slices, while admiring Karim’s ability to skate hard while holding down a job. My parents had visited a few months earlier, and we had been leaving a screening of The Velvet Underground documentary at Film Forum when my mom pointed out Karim going for front lipslide on a metal barrier outside of TF West. Kadow and Max were watching Johnny and Atiba shoot the session on this busy corner, so I kept our hellos brief and enjoyed the coverage later. I told my parents how one time I’d spent the night at Max’s parents’ house in Ohio, Kadow had featured my Double Decker BLT recipe in his food ‘zine, Atiba shoots photos of NBA players too and Johnny is my neighbor. At 25 years old, Karim is younger than Johnny’s most documented subjects, and a New York native among transplanted crew. He was a 5 Boro-sponsored 15-year-old when he became first friends with Cyrus, now a decade later Karim’s star continues with the support of most of the hottest sponsors in the game. This part shows why: Streetwise and confident, stylish and surprising, a young man who respects tradition, Karim ends Johnny’s Vid with a part that feels instantly timeless.
The day after I first watched this video, I cruised up to meet Shawn at Tompkins, where I saw Karim with Antonio posted along the fence. I told them how much I enjoyed their new parts before setting about my session. The sun beat down as I practiced my repertoire and Karim soon rode onto the pitch. He complimented my pleated shorts. “Thanks. They’re Bianca Chandôn.” Karim crooked grinded the long flatbar a couple times, then crooked the flatbar and grabbed a transfer over. He front lipped the bank to barrier after a slam on his first one and I landed a switch 50-50 on the box. Thirsty and satisfied, I rolled back over to the fence and took a drink from my water bottle. “How is it out there?” Shawn asked me. “I was hot under that sun already, then things got blazing once Karim started skating.” He agreed as we kicked back and watched.