The Best NW Skate Documentaries
A "best of" list often resides in the realm of shit journalism. It’s low hanging fruit for bloggers, SEO chasers and Chat GPT-ers. So why do one? Well, we are living in a world where everyone’s skate footy whizzes passed our attention on an infinite content conveyor belt, inevitably fading into the depths of obscurity. We don’t tend to scroll back, unfortunately. The constant stream of new edits, stories, reels, and videos vying for our focus can be great at times, providing a drip feed of insane skateboarding, but it’s also kinda overwhelming, even for those like us dedicated to scouring every nook of the Northwest for skate content. TBH as I embarked on the mission to compile this list, I was reminded of entire videos from the past year that I absolutely loved, yet had slipped completely from my memory until friends brought them back to my attention when discussing the best videos this year. So what’s the point? I want to offer a momentary pause, a chance to slow shit down a bit and appreciate all of the hard work over the passed year from the Northwest’s skaters, filmers, editors, shops, brands, spot fixers, knob busters, sweepers, DIYers and all the other homies. I hope this article can be a place where we all can stop in to appreciate the output that our collective Pacific Northwest fam has produced in 2023.
Here’s our list of the best NW skate documentaries of 2023
e11even
E11even is a documentary by Nolan Wilson and Jack Saffle who are both based in Tacoma. The 27 minute film details the history and story of 11th st DIY in Tacoma.
Nile Gibbs - Venture Guest Artist
In this quick piece by Venture Trucks, we get to see the artistic side of Nile. While he’s no longer living here in the NW, he is carrying the torch for all of us while living down in SF.
Established: 35th North
Thrasher’s ‘Established’ series takes a look at skate shops and discusses their impacts on the local scenes. In this edition they speak with the 35th North crew and friends about the shop, the community and the skaters of Seattle.
Jasper Dohrs & Griffin Gass
Filmed & Edited by Anthony Claravall, this edit was hard to decide where to put on our lists this year, but after reviewing it again we think this Jasper Dohrs and Griffin Gass edits deserves to be on this list. Beyond just great skating from both dudes, we get a bit of history on how Jasper and Griffin's met as kids and then how their paths connected again as Girl & Preduce Skateboards launch their collaboration. Enjoy.
Aaron’s episodes on ‘Lurking with Lou’ were a great watch. While these might not be your traditional documentary, they’re also not a skate part, or a regular skate video, so we thought these fit best here on this list. Enjoy.