Marc Johnson #14.

Welcome to Flavor Country.

Marc closes out Fully Flared with a three song magnum opus of a part. I only ever watch the first third where he skates to Q Lazarus. That section has such a mellow and fun mood compared to the other two thirds. I did watch the full part for the sake of this review. He covers a ton of ground in terms of tricks. There is some serious ledge dancing, handrails, DIY spots, a caveman to darkslide, a pole jam to fakie a la Daewon Song, and difficult manny combos. It's easy to see how he earned Thrasher's SOTY.

I thought I'd mention some of the things I enjoy about Marc's first section. The song creates the perfect atmosphere to go with the skating. He's not killing himself jumping down big gaps or getting overly technical. The tricks are carefully selected or created and he busts out some obscure ones. There's a frontside 50-50 to back foot flip, a cannonball off a loading dock, and a late shove-it over a bump to bar, to name a few. I really like the rock to pivot he does on a natural transition in Australia. Also the straight nollie over the same bump to bar as the late shove-it is cool. As an added bonus, Marc is riding the Girl reissue of Rick Howard's Blockhead Skunk board for some of his tricks.

Fully Flared holds up as more or less a classic. I think your opinion of it depends on how old you were when it was released. Being a little bit older, I picked out the sections I liked and was fine with those. It's honestly not a video I watch very often. I probably hadn't seen a good chunk of it since it was released so it was interesting to revisit the project.

The photo is by Atiba Jefferson.

Thrasher - February 2005 Volume 25 Number 2