In 2000, skateboarding felt like it was expanding in every direction at once. Bigger stages. New cities rising to prominence. New ways of seeing what was possible. And right in the middle of that moment, éS released a video called Menikmati.
Menikmati turned 25 this year.
menikmati red VHS
Photo: Dimitrie Eyashkewitch
When Menikmati came out, I was twenty years old. I was lucky enough to attend the London premiere and what we saw twisted our melons. I was beginning to travel a lot with skateboarding globally and this tape seemed to live in VHS players worldwide - people just didn’t take it out. Rewind. Press play. Day after day.
For me, the team felt like the first truly global team and the video just pushed so many boundaries.
Photo: Seu Thrinh
As someone filming, I studied it. The crew I filmed studied it, too. This was the new standard. From production values to the cleanliness of which really technical tricks were being executed - the bar had definitely been raised.
Since then, the red VHS became a marker of a specific era.
This video gave all of us the feeling that this thing was bigger than a single scene or city. Because this team were tying into every city of importance at the time. And for that reason, a kid from London had that connection in the same way a kid from Paris or Los Angeles did.
And under the direction of Fred Mortagne, the way skateboarding was documented shifted in real time. Because Fred lit those spots better than anyone else back then. Fred introduced us all to the now-standard rolling long lens. Even the music he curated was from a really ecelctic global list of artists.
Photo: Jodie Morris
Photo: Fred Mortagne
You can draw a line from this video dropping in 2000 to all the way through videos today. And this author will put money on there being points in 99% of every video from then until now where you can say “Fred influenced that”.
But we can’t forget team!
Production and geography aside; the roster alone reads like a snapshot of skateboarding history: Eric Koston, Tom Penny, Ronnie Creager, Bob Burnquist, Rick McCrank, alongside breakout moments from Arto Saari and Rodrigo TX.
Three of these are already in the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
Three of these people hold Thrasher Skater of the Year trophies.
All of these skaters had at least a decade as professional skateboarders. Some are in their third decade!
It’s crazy, like.
Photo: Dimitrie Eyashkewitch
This was a career defining video. Paths were redirected. As skateboarding was in ascension, Menikmati put this crew to the forefront.
Twenty-five years on, Menikmati still looks good.
It feels like a whole production and this is part of the legacy of the video - from the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack mess around section as the credits to the curation of the team to them all being shot in the same way - and every trick still stands up as something useable today.
it looks good because with all of these factors combined, it was a statement piece to skaters, filmers, and the culture as a whole.
To mark the anniversary, we’ve teamed up with Storied Skateboarding for a documentary piece revisiting Menikmati with new conversations with some of the original cast and with skaters who grew up under its influence.