The Making of a Skate Video

By Scott Rafferty

There's a little less than two weeks before the world premiere of "Look Left" ‚Äì Traffic Skateboards' first full-length video in five years ‚Äì and Josh Stewart still has some clips to record before the big night. He's on his way to meet Luke Malaney, one of the newest members of the Traffic Team, for a trick he believes is "almost impossible."

"The thing he's landing into is so steep," Stewart says. "I've never seen anybody do anything into that bank that way. Some skaters have a different way of seeing things altogether, like different ways you can approach, and Luke has kind of a unique eye for stuff."

While Malaney comes close to pulling off the impossible, he can never quite get it. Stewart estimates he's landed about 20 times, but he "just hits the ground like a sack of potatoes" upon impact. Malaney and Stewart have been at the same spot for almost four hours trying to get a clip that will live for only a couple of seconds in a 40-minute long video, and they have nothing to show for it by the day's end. Malaney, drenched in sweat, can't help but display his frustration.

Such is the life of a self-proclaimed "skateboard video maker," where it's more common to spend an entire day out filming and not get anything. Stewart shows what goes into the making of the types of skate videos he has become famous for. Watch our behind the scenes mini-doc of the making of a jaw-dropping skate video above.