"Skater Of The Year; the only award that matters." That quote is, in many ways, true. Nobody gives a fuck who Transworld names off at their academy awards of skateboarding, all we care about is what some forty-something year old SF crackhead says about who ripped it the hardest this year. Your votes don't matter, it's not really about skating, and it really just says who got the most Thrasher approved coverage over the year. Even after realizing this, everybody, including myself, still takes SOTY as the law, the truth, and the most legitimate award in skating. This year I had a few dudes I was rooting for, so I'll run through those real quick before I talk about the winner.
Dylan Reider:
Between his controversial pretty boy swag and being featured in one of the most ridiculous Epicly Later'd episodes of all time, this guy could probably win most talked about skater this year by a landslide. But on August 11, 2010, Dylan shifted all the attention on him from his pretty dress shoe pro model to arguably the best video part of the year.
Overall coverage (that I can think of):
Footage of all of these covers and all the ads I forgot are in Dylan.
No Thrasher covers and no appearances in any big skate productions made me not really consider Dylan to be a realistic SOTY choice. Maybe next time...
Andrew Reynolds:
After Chris Cole got his second SOTY last year, I felt like Andrew had a good chance at this one. Stay Gold was the best video of the year and yur boi Andrew Reynolds put out a part that proves 20 years of hard impact doesn't change much. His part in Stay Gold was the tear jerker, the ender ender, and the gender bender. The music, the big skating, and the no filler editing that Jon Miner took to it created one of my favorite video parts of all time.
Overall coverage (that I can think of):
Footage of all of these tricks can be found in Stay Gold, the latest Emerica video (sorry, no link)
With two amazing covers in the part year, a top notch video part, and a history of being down with the mag, I saw Reynolds as having a pretty good chance of taking SOTY 2010. But alas...
Leo Romero:
"That guy who grinds up rails". Leo had two great parts this year and a style of skating not to be fucked with. His covers stand out because of innovation and the near death skating situations he puts himself in. At the bottom of it all I suppose that's the main thing we look for in the best skater, "shit that makes you go, woah". His mix of thrill seeking and talent make him a Thrasher favorite, and with two solid full video parts (Stay Gold and Brainwash), Leo was obviously a SOTY contender.
Overall coverage (that I can think of):
-Plenty of ads I'm not going to search out (Emerica ad where he hits his face comes to mind)
The footage of the Skateboarder cover is in Stay Gold and the Thrasher cover is in Brainwash
(a Toy Machine production)
It helps that Leo is buds with the Phelper and has a dirty mustache, but he also skates rails like no other and kills everything else as well (see back nose grind nollie bigspin heel in Stay Gold).
As many people expected, Leo Romero took Skater Of The Year 2010 like a champ. For any award like this I can always think of people I would rather have seen won, but Leo without a doubt deserves his SOTY, so congratulations to him.
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