Skater of the year videoThrasher magazine has released a video compendium honoring the Skaters of the Year chosen over the past 13 years. Starting with Tony Hawk, it works its way through the years to last year’s recipient of the award, Tony Trujillo. Each skater is given a vignette comprised of archival footage, interviews with contemporaries, and what appears to be some new footage.

This had every opportunity to be a regurgitation of old footage we’ve all seen before, but Thrasher put in the extra hours on this one. They dug up plenty of unseen footage for this release. Some of the footage is from sessions covered in other videos, but usually the specific clips weren’t in the other videos. For me, the footage of Tony Trujillo as a 12-year-old kickturning in an Albuquerque ditch in neon spandex was perhaps the most poigniant moment of the film.

Kevin Mouton, who is very scrutinizing when it comes to skate videos, was sorely disappointed with this effort. Not even the extensive John Cardiel montage could win him over. "I have finally decided that Thrasher is incapable of making a good skate video," he said after watching SOTY. "What about Beers, Bowls, and Barneys," I asked. "Ok. That one was good," he admitted.