Re-view - Harvesting the Crust
Harvesting the crust was the first truly street video. From the guys at Scribe Industries in Minnesota, this video came out in 1996 (edit: actually 1995), just a few months after Mad Beef. It showcased local skaters from Minnesota and Nebraska with some of the most progressive street tricks. Specially, the farside tricks and switches on rails were incredible for the time. And Steve Thomas. Damn, Steve Thomas was so good.
We were all obsessed with Steve Thomas after this video. He had the most incredible style and did tricks we’d never seen. Don’t think we’d seen him in any magazines before this either, so it was our first exposure to him. That sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore.
Unfortunately, the video doesn’t hold up all that well. The quality is pretty bad and there’s plenty of repetition with rails and rails and more rails. I had to start it a few times to make it through. There are a bunch of gems though if you dig for them:
3:00 Jon Robinson does switch ups on a rail. Mad Beef was where we first saw switch ups on a rail but this was with no-name skaters doing the same tricks as the big guys.
3:10 Steve Thomas grabs a backslide on a rail. One footed grinds just weren't done. Neither were any royale tricks.
3:30. Matt Hermanek wearing a helmet skating street. Pretty sure this was the first time we'd seen that and most likely thought it was dumb. I don't skate without a helmet now.
4:13 A girl skating with their crew. Was one of the first girl street skaters we'd seen. I remember this was something strange, not many girls skated then.
4:27 Mark Nepple with a farside miszou. Mad Beef had Dave Kollasch doing them but this was someone new. Then he switches to frontside. Clean.
5:30 Think this was Steve Thomas but he has this crazy progressive line. Second stair alley oop soul, then an alley-oop soul to backside the short way. Really crazy what that guy was doing back then.
6:13 Shane Nelson a one foot switch up from frontside to alley-oop soul. Thankfully these didn't get popular.
7:00 Steve Thomas gap to soul on the flat and down.
7:10 Not sure who does a long rail frontside. Maybe the longest we'd seen. I know we looked all over for long rails after this.
8:20 Guy does a kinked rail in the snow. Being in California we hadn't even considered what skating would be like in the snow. Man, these guys were committed.
8:29 Matt Hermanek does a farside soul with serious control. Great shot of the rail.
8:40 Steve Thomas does a royale on a ledge, but these weren't boot down like they're done now. You could tell he was on the outside edge but still very upright.
8:52 This guy. Steve Thomas farside miszou on a curved flat rail, then switching the long way to backside around the curve. Such style.
8:58 Alley-oop miszou on a ledge. First time we've seen that trick I think.
9:00 Steve Thomas true frontside. Guy was just incredible.
9:30 Shane Nelson frontside to frontside switchup. Another new one, only B Hardin was doing them up to now.
10:25 Brooke with more comedy. He was always so great in videos.
11:40 Steve Thomas farside soul to backside at the kink.
11:45 Shane Nelson soul down a kink transfer to frontside on another rail. Switching from one rail to another was unheard of. The rail was so slow you can see him push himself off a lamppost to go a little further.
12:15 Matt Hermanek front sides the long long rail Dave Kollasch did in Mad Beef.
12:30 Matt Hermanek fakie to farside miszou. This guy was so good.
12:45 Nice line ending with a gap to soup on a planter and a gap back out.
13:10 A skit with Shane Nelson and Steve Thomas. Wasn't a huge fan of this bit. Shows how much Brooke brought to the videos.
24:30 Steve Thomas soul down two kinks then a 360 off over the last stair set. Guy had so much style, just floated off rails.
25:00 Fast frontside on a kinked rail with a big leap off into the snow. Snow. I can't even imagine skating in snow like this.
26:45 Frontside to backside to frontside.
27:09 Steve Thomas does an acid soul. This trick was still really new at the time.
27:20 Dave Kollasch clears a stair set to frontside on a ledge. Not the cleanest, but that was a huge trick.
28:24 Arlo with maybe the first cess slide.
32:10 Steve Thomas with a far side Acid Soul, first time that trick was seen.
40:40 Bonus section starts with some random stuff. No music, just a lot of silly stuff mixed with some skating. This was probably the first bonus section.
41:30 Dave Paine makes a cameo at some random skate comp. Yay Dave!
42.34 Steve Thomas fakie outspin to backslide the fakie. This somehow wasn’t good enough to make it in the full video? Jesus.
44.30 Steve Thomas alleyoop soul on a ledge gap to frontside on another ledge. It’s like they didn’t want to include any more Steve Thomas footage in the regular video so the other skaters wouldn’t look bad.
45:10 First misty flip I’d seen. Not sure who this was.
45:15 Mike Opalek cameo apparently judging the comp sporting a broken arm potentially that he got during the filming of Hoax 2? (confirmed with Mike, yes.)
46:40 Shane Nelson line at the comp ending with a crash into these weirdly placed rails. This comp looked horrible. One launch box, a halfpipe and some random rails scattered around.