Skate video premieres are inherently poorly organized. Tricks filmed the night before, editing tweaks the morning of, the inability to find the right HDMI cable. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a premiere that didn’t face some sort of logistical or technical difficulties the day of, or even minutes before the doors opened.
Vanish was no exception. I don’t think Zach Sayles, the mastermind responsible for filming and editing, was even settled on the title until a few days before the premiere. Picking a name is no easy task. With the amount of content invading the skateboard media landscape, it’s difficult to ensure a song hasn’t been used, let alone a name.
The name defines the project, it sparks initial interest in the viewer. Imagine if he’d called it “Danish,” which had been thrown around in group chats countless times by a member of the project who shall remain nameless. Would it have had the same impact?
Filming and editing a full length is a triumph of will, but securing a venue that’s willing to tolerate a bunch of rowdy, most likely inebriated (and oftentimes significantly underage) skateboarders is an Odyssey in its own right. Fortunately, through a myriad of connections, we were able to secure a space courtesy of the art collective Space 1026 (thanks Kees!)
The space, centrally located in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, provided the ideal setting for gathering Philadelphia’s eclectic skateboard community. Located on the top two floors of what I’m assuming was a converted mansion, the hardwood floors and high ceilings provide a solid safety net for a raucous crowd and the liberal spilling of beverages. Once the location had been set, there was no backing out: The video was going to premiere.
As logistically challenging as premieres can be, the interconnectivity of skateboarding community never ceases to amaze me. Artist homies secure the locale, check. Need booze to appease the crowd, no problem. Turns out that a bunch of skateboarders work within the marketing departments of some damn fine adult beverage producers. All you have to do is send a few pleading text messages, and voila: let there be shrubs.
What differentiates skateboarding from other “extreme sports,” or whatever bullshit category you’d like to force it into, is the willingness of the community to show support. I believe the max capacity of the venue, according the fire marshal, is around 100 people. Because we pulled this together in less than two weeks, with really only a few days of marketing and promotion, we assumed we’d be lucky to get maybe 50-75 people. At the risk of snitching on ourselves and our courteous hosts (I doubt anyone from L&I or whatever regulatory agency is reading this), let’s just say we’re lucky the floors didn’t give out. People showed the fuck up.
The video itself is amazing. That’s really all there is to say. Zach did an incredible job, and the skateboarders involved (full disclosure, I have a part), put a lot of blood, sweat and tears (emphasis on the tears) into making this the best project it could be. None of us are able to skate “full-time.” We work, are in school, or have other responsibilities outside of skateboarding. The in-person premiere acts as the ultimate culmination or catharsis of a nearly two and a half year effort. Seeing how roughly 21,900 hours can be condensed down into 33 minutes is humbling: It puts into perspective how we spend our time and the rewards that our efforts yield. It provides a stronger sense of accomplishment than just blasting something on Instagram and forgetting about it. Humans crave the instant gratification, but sometimes it’s nice to hold on to things to make a larger collaborative effort.
A huge thank you to everyone that came out in support of the video, Space 1026 for hosting us, and all of those willing to sponsor the event: TJ at QC Shrubs, Zeke and Drew at Narragansett, Jay at Neshaminy Creek Brewery, and Walker for his plug at Lagunitas. Thanks to Skate Jawn for publishing an interview with Zach to hype up the video, and letting me include this little recap. You can buy the video at https://vanishvideo.bigcartel.com/. The video features footage from Matt Militano, Neil Herrick, Ricky Geiger, Sean Spellissy, Toly Bitny, Jeff Carlyle, Eddie Cernicky, Carson Reuther, Kris Arnold, Zack Peacock, Josh Feist, Kevin Liedtke, Dylan Pearce, and more. Buy and support independent skateboarding before physical copies disappear for good. Oh, and Sean Malto was there. I think he might have bought a copy.
You can peep Ricky’s part from the video here, and buy his board while you’re at it.
