Bootleg Five - Pepe Betancourt
Bootleg Five, the latest in the bootleg series from Pepe Betancourt premiered on the 21st of October in Seattle, and as a typical south sound old head I spaced it and hoped it would find its way to my phone in a timely manner, and thankfully it didn’t take long. The video blended a mixture of formats in a manner that left me with that feeling of seeing something that if I were a part of, would make the dopamine flow like Ranier’s at the butter bowl on a summers day. With parts from a good chunk of the Genesis crew and their adjacent homies it showcased their journey across the state and the country doing all the things you should do; Be living life, with all of it’s experiences and memories.
The diversity of terrain surprised me as they pushed the boundaries on what could be considered a spot, while paying homage to classic northwest terrain. It truly felt like I had a sense of what a day of skating might be like with them, and the fun vibes were well documented and accentuated with music that often matched the emotion of the trick/spot with impeccable accuracy. The east coast clips added a level of travel I wasn’t expecting, and at a robust running time of 45:00, this is the fullest length vid that I have watched more than once since the upload in a long while.
The Seattle skate scene is healthy and was fun to see the evolution of tricks and pants with the big boys being traded for more flared and bedazzled attire. It’s very liberating to see the tropes of skate culture being cast aside to experimentation, as young people should do. I think my favorite aspect of the video was the mixing of photos within the project, and the aesthetic was a bit more raw which added to the feels. I’m not a camera guy, So don’t ask me to comment on the filming but I enjoyed his angles and transitions. I don’t want to call out to any specific part because I really did enjoy the whole thing. The Genny homies have a lot of creativity and energy packed into everything they do and this is no exception, I finished watching excited to skate and work on a project and hope you do too after a viewing.