Bag Of Suck.

A Decade of Suck.

enjoi released their first video in the spring of 2006. Bag of Suck featured full parts from the entire team. The pros were Jason Adams, Louie Barletta, Caswell Berry, and Jerry Hsu. The two ams were Clark Hassler and Jose Rojo. The primary filmers were Matt Eversole and Kyle Camarillo with Eversole serving as the creative director and editor. There was also a section of friends that included a variety of pros, ams, homies, and even a few former team riders. It won Transworld's Video of the Year award for 2006.

I think Bag of Suck is one of the best videos ever for a number of reasons. Considering enjoi sticks to only silly business in their ads, Bag of Suck places the emphasis on skateboarding and uses the humor appropriately. You get a sense of who the riders are and that they like to have fun, but the skating isn't overshadowed with endless antics. You have to be a skateboarder to understand it and there probably isn't much crossover appeal to somebody who isn't.

enjoi went through a few team changes since Marc Johnson started the company in 2000. Marc, Dave Mayhew, Rodney Mullen, Bobby Puleo, and Brad Staba all left the team before Bag of Suck was released. Rather than lament over who could have had parts in the video, you have to appreciate the effort from the guys who are in the video. None might have necessarily been huge names in skateboarding, but all the pros were plenty respectable at the time and even more so now. There's a whole underdog quality to the team and it feels like they managed to win the championship in the end.

Bag of Suck is watchable and gets you excited about skateboarding. Having only six full parts plus two montages keeps everything focused nicely. You aren't using the vert button or skipping some am you have never heard of. There are a good variety of spots to keep things interesting, even though it is primarily a street vid. The music works well with a smidge of hip hop, some older classics, and indie rock. Rod Stewart is even made somewhat palatable thanks to Louie's sweet moves on the dance floor. The titles for each rider are handmade and occasionally take advantage of a little movie magic. Everything fits the vibe that has been established by enjoi over the years.

Finally, the skateboarding in the video is relatable. The tricks often fall under the category of timeless good skateboarding without being overly caught up in current trends. There is balance of new and old, serious and silly, that holds up after a decade. Granted this crew is very talented and the skating is at a high level, but it is never rubbed in your face as to how much better they are. If you wound up at a session with them, they would be happy you did your dumb noseslide on the same ledge somebody else is doing a kickflip backside tailslide on. Bag of Suck has an accessible spirit to it, aided by the fact that everyone on the team are friends and actually skate together. It's the ultimate version of a video you and your buddies might make, only at the professional level. Thanks, dudes.

Note: Everybody who had a full part gets a day on here with one enjoi ad and one skateboarding ad. The Bag of Suck feature is going to run until the end of next week. I started on Thursday because it has been taking a little longer to find stuff. I still don't quite have everything scanned for next week yet. I'm also going to take one last shot at finding the ad where Caswell has a bloody face tonight, which I have not been able to track down at all. It could be from 2004 and I have not checked that year at all for this project. No guarantees on being able to find it. Enjoy.

Camera: Transworld - April 2006 Volume 24 Number 4

Miller Time: Skateboarder - April 2006 Volume 15 Number 8