On Video: Natas Kaupas 'Street Skating 101'
Back in 2003 production (and consumption) of skate media was an entirely different beast. There was no immediate gratification available by uploading tricks to Instagram seconds after completion, no daily vloggings of average park moves by kooky personalities, and the quality control exercised by the content producers of the time mirrored the fact that the pieces you were paying upwards of £15-20 for were likely to be watched 20 times or more.
As well as traditional full lengths, video magazine's were rife and 411VM's cerebral cousin 'On Video' sat proudly as one of the most magnificently concocted audio visual outlets of the era. Fast forward to 2018 and Transworld have finally begun to upload these in all their original glory (not god awful 240p the early days of Youtube appeared content with), opening up with the now legendary retrospective of street skate pioneer Natas Kaupas.
Being the first to skate handrails alongside the Gonz would have been enough to cement Natas as one of the greatest of all time but now, in this modern era of wallies, slappies and downtown cruising, his contribution seems more pertinent than ever.
Back in 2003 this was essential viewing with skaters young and old huddled around shop VHS players the world over, remarking on how spectacular the stunts on show were 20 years on. Throw another 15 years on top of that and we can safely say you kids of today are gonna have your minds blown when you see this; Natas started it all...