Enjoi's "Still Sucking After All These Years" Article
Party vibes, oddball maneuvers and top-shelf ripping,Bag of Suck brought the San Jose ethos of self-deprecation and skateboarding to a global audience. Watching it in 2006 felt like staying at a skate house where everyone's pro and beer flows from the faucet. Looking back, the fact that it even got made is a bit of a miracle, as it was the first and only opportunity to show the world that a Marc-less, Rodney-less enjoi meant business, sort of. Not only had enjoi never made a video, there hadn't ever been an actual skate trick in their ads. So the uncertain squad of misfits went to work and gave us one of the best skate documents of all time. Here's how it went down, told through the words of the ones that lived it.
Sit down with the stars as they relive the glory days
Evs not only directed the shot, he used Dan Z's gear to capture it too. Jose jams Caswell's pole Photo: Evs
"Me and Chris Avery were hired as filmers at enjoi. When MJ stepped down as brand manager, he recommended me as the brand manager. I was pretty hands on—I did board graphics, laid out ads and did a lot of babysitting and hand holding of the team riders. I should put babysitting on my resume." —Matt Eversole
"At that time Marc and Rodney stopped riding for enjoi and Dwindle put us on the back burner. They didn't have faith in enjoi surviving without MJ and Rodney. That was a fucking huge blessing for us, because we could do whatever we wanted. It's like, Oh, you don't give a shit about what we're doing? Cool. We're gonna go skating. We skated, partied and lived like skate rats. We would go on trips to Australia or Hawaii and stockpile footage without a real goal. We gave the B footy away to other companies that the enjoi guys rode for and we would sit on the—what do you call 'em nowadays, bangers, hammers? They can't still be called that. But we'd sit on them without any real agenda." —Matt Eversole
"Nobody knew what stretching was, or cared. Those were the Evel Knievel glory days of skateboarding." —Louie Barletta
"In my mind, nobody was buying Bag of Suck to watch Louie Barletta. They're gonna buy it to watch Jerry Hsu, Jason Adams and Caswell Berry. To me, those were the three big dudes." —Louie Barletta
"Matt offered me a retainer after we went on a trip to Arizona. He had me go through all the tapes and organize and digitize them. I had Jerry's part, Jose's part and a few others. Matt and Jerry came over to watch the footage. That's where the video became a reality. There was a lot of silence. Jerry watched his footage and just walked out of the room and went outside. He was so bummed on his stuff. It was really weird for all of us. They didn't know where they were until they watched what they had. That really lit that spark in Jerry and he went to work. Matt was pissed, like he always was, but we knew the video was not close to being done."
—Kyle Camarillo
"I give a lot of credit to Chris Avery and Matt Eversole. Their dynamic together with the team is what made a lot of that footage special. A lot of the personality stuff that came out of that video is because of their relationships with those guys. So I feel like I just came in and helped the skating."
Caswell kicked off the vid with a heavy dose of handrails and hammers
First try or die, Caswell ripped a tré flip lip on Quimby and Whiteley prayed the only shot worked Photo: Whiteley
"All I cared about was skating. I knew my job was to film tricks and that's all I cared about—skating, getting tricks, eating candy and drinking Coca Cola." —Caswell Berry
"Caswell is kinda ghetto. He's from the hood; his upbringing was kinda gnarly. I wanted to showcase that side of him. That's why we picked the song "Hip Hop" by Dead Prez. I know Caswell's not hip-hop, but I knew that song was it. I was like, Let's just come out swinging. Let's put Caswell front and center. Let's start this thing off with Berry." —Matt Eversole
There's a reason he can't remember Photo: Hsu
"I was a teenager at the time, not knowing how to deal with my anger in a proper fashion. One time I couldn't land a trick, so I took my broken board and sawed my arm. I didn't think it was going to be that sharp, but I was like, Holy fuck, I cut the shit out of myself! I have weird memories of drinking out of a plunger or being so bored we would drink a bottle of NyQuil to see who wouldn't fall asleep. One time I woke up with a mohawk and one eyebrow and had to go Christmas shopping at the mall. I had to figure it out, hungover as fuck. I shaved off my other eyebrow and walked around the mall like a psycho." —Caswell Berry
Ollie over in Oregon from the first days of filming Photo: Whiteley
"There was a VX1000 on the fritz. The guys asked If I could butt focus it, so I padded my pants with Thrashers—I taped them to my legs. I ran, jumped and butt focused the camera, but it was kind of anti-climactic. We all thought it was going to explode under my ass. So then we all started stomping on it to make it explode more. I was glad to break it. It was fun. It wasn't out of anger. VX1000 lovers out there were bummed, but the camera was broken to begin with." —Caswell Berry
"I wanted to do something new and I wanted to be a part of the enjoi video with my friends. I reached out to Matt Eversole. I was looking to do something more. I had been a Black Label guy forever, but I was skating with all the enjoi crew, so it just seemed natural. Skating, for me, was to be in the moment and get creative. Bag of Suck stressed me out because all those motherfuckers were so talented and I was the oldest and least talented out of all the guys." —Jason Adams
The Kid batters Del's Wall with a boardslide top to bottom—just one of his four tricks at this famous SJ spot Photo: Rhino
"I really liked Jason Adams' part. It's so sick. It's so unique and so himself. I was really proud of him. The song, the skating, everything was so right." —Jerry Hsu
"Matt knew I was an Elvis freak and he had me submit five songs. I told him, 'You're the director. I'm going to skate and give you my ideas and you direct and filter through to make the best video with whatever works.'" —Jason Adams
"I was skating with children all day, acting like a kid. Then I would go home and try to be an adult, a dad and husband with a pregnant wife and my daughter waiting for me." —Jason Adams
"We were halfway through filming Bag of Suck in 2005 and I was in a crazy car accident. I got rocked; I was out for a full year. I was on the outside looking in at that footy party. For me, it was a bummer. Everyone's footage looked so sick; people had full parts and I had what I had." —Jose Rojo
"Jose had a rough one. He had the wind literally taken out of his sails—actually his lung when it collapsed after his car accident. He almost died. I was in the hospital with him holding his hand and he was crying, "The video." He had a collapsed lung and a broken neck. I told him to heal up; that was the main goal. He was so concerned about his video part." —Matt Eversole
Backside 50-50 in Cupertino before it was an Apple building Photo: Whiteley
"I was there for Jose's car accident. Jose and Daryl got T-boned—Jose was screaming and Daryl was dazed. I told my friend Steve to call 911. I was just standing there. I had no medical skills to help. Daryl had a really tiny car and Jose is huge. I think his fuckin' legs went into the dashboard; it was so bad. The paramedics sedated him on the spot after they arrived. He was kinda out as they were putting him in the ambulance. It was wild—opening that door and seeing those dudes thrashed in that car. It was so scary. I called Eversole and Jerry and said, 'Jose's really hurt.' I remember going to the hospital to see him. Once we knew he was gonna be okay, it was like, Jose's part's done." —Kyle Camarillo
Pushing through the distractions, backside flip nosegrind while Jani screeches on the stairs Sequence: Brook
"One of the hardest tricks for me was the backside 180 flip nosegrind at UC Davis. Me and Joe Brook went to shoot a sequence of it. Jani Laitiala was living with me at the time. We borrowed a VX and Jani filmed that clip. It was so hard to focus on the trick because Jani is the loudest dude ever. Every time I rolled up, Jani would scream. When I watched the footage, Jani yells after I land and pans up immediately. He just got enough of the roll away. Fortunately, it was good enough to use in the video." —Jose Rojo
Broken boards, Rod Stewart and an overdose of good times, Louie's Bag of Suck part can get the most jaded hater stoked to skate
"Louie has a reputation with Tiltmode videos of goofing around, but he did take Bag of Suck very seriously, but not in a corny way. It shows in a dedicated kind of way. He treated the part seriously. With how good he is at skating, to see him smash it like that and that he mixed in fun stuff with top-level skating, I was super proud of his video part." —Jerry Hsu
One of many hammers of the evening, Louie dips 95 percent of a switch back Smith Photo: Brook
"For me, it was really refreshing. When I think about Bag of Suck and why the trick selection was what it was, I was sitting back and realizing that I was never going to compete with Marc and Jerry. I was just comfortable doing my own thing, and thankfully Matt Eversole was able to harness all of it. I wanted to have tricks in there where you can say that I legitimately knew how to ride a skateboard, that I wasn't 100 percent a gimmick. I was only about 95 percent gimmick." —Louie Barletta
The board cracked more every try, but he got the clip and the flick before the final split. Backside tailslide Photo: Tanju
"I brought my little brother up to watch the premiere and afterwards I asked my mom and dad what he thought about everything. I guess he said to them, 'Louie's name came up on this big screen and everybody in the theater was screaming for him. And then he was doing tricks and everybody was cheering. Then after the premiere he beat some guy up, and then he was making out with all these different chicks!' In my brother's eyes, I was like this superstar. Obviously, that's not me at all. But I think it's kind of funny." —Louie Barletta
Louie found this spot while driving around with Avery. To this day he can't remember where it was. Nose press the corner Photo: Whiteley
class"The NFL training mascot seminar randomly showed up at the Tempe park. They started running around and getting silly. Louie saw an opportunity and got chummy with them. It would have turned out lame if we hired them." —Matt Eversole
"On the premiere night, I don't remember whizzing in my bed, hopping fences or ditching my mom and girlfriend at the time, either. I don't remember a damn thing. The lights were on but no one was home." —Caswell Berry
"The premiere was psycho. Jesse Erickson was sitting behind me and my family. He was throwing beer cans into the crowd and screaming crazy things. I just got my neck brace and arm sling off and I was pumped! I was nervous because it was my first big video premiere and I was shaking thinking about my video part. I thought people were going to boo. When it came on and people were stoked, that's when it got fully ripped. There was an after party and there were lots of fights and crazy harassment going on. That after party lasted for three days after the premiere. We were on a super high from the video!" —Jose Rojo
"When Jerry's nollie backside heel played on the screen, the theater went nuts. It was fucking bonkers, like a concert. People were going crazy—beer was being thrown everywhere. There were fights. Shuriken Shannon went to jail for some reason. It was a crazy night." —Kyle Camarillo
"You know whose part was incredible to me? Clark's. He didn't get enough clout for it. If you watch that part now it's so sick and it totally meshes with all the stuff you see online these days." —Jose Rojo
"I was only present for Clark's intro because it was in my basement." —Jerry Hsu
"Clark on the crane was my idea. I'm gonna hold that one close. That was one of the few things that I contributed to the video that I think worked. The only thing I was bummed about was that I didn't get to film it; Matt filmed it." —Kyle Camarillo
No crane required, Clark hoists into the clean Colorado air Photo: Zaslavsky
"One time we were on a trip somewhere during the early 2000s when the Bluetooth earpiece things for phones were big. We were chilling and out of nowhere Clark got up and walked over to this guy with the Bluetooth thing in his ear. He walked right up to him and said, 'You look like a motherfucking android,' and then walked away!" —Caswell Berry
"Clark Hassler wasn't a verbal communicator; he was a sign communicator. After a while you knew that. You could tell what he was talking about by facial expressions and hand gestures."—Jose Rojo
"When they brought the crane, Clark was so bummed. Every time he went up in the air, he was super scared but he didn't say anything. And then after a while he was just like, 'That's the last one.' They left him hanging up there for like a minute or something. He was spinning, saying 'Get me down!' and we were all just laughing." —Matt Eversole
Jerry nearly killed himself making this part. Rewatch it again to see what a human body is capable of
"Friday night I would hit up Jerry and make plans for Saturday. Jerry would go to a spot and get his trick or he would destroy himself. And if he did his trick fast we would go to the next spot. Monday through Thursday he wouldn't skate; it was like he was dead. He killed himself every weekend." —Kyle Camarillo
So hurt his graphic felt it Photo: O'Dell
"We all knew how good Jerry was. Jerry was one of us but he was way cooler. That's part of his personality. His skating is cool; his photography is cool; Jerry is next-level in terms of coolness. That's why his part shined so bright in Bag of Suck." —Matt Eversole
Push-powered back noseblunt on the second trip, Jer's strength was superhuman Photo: Tonascia
"I remember asking Matt if I could be next to Jerry's part, because I always liked Mike Carroll and Rick Howard being next to each other in videos." —Louie Barletta
"I have a tweaked point of view about Bag of Suck, because to me, my video part was not finished. As crazy as it seems, there was so much stuff I didn't do for it. I was so tired and done with it at the end. My skill level was at a certain place and there were things that I couldn't do anymore. So those things were kinda lost. There wasn't enough time or enough of me to do it." —Jerry Hsu
Danny Garcia told Jerry this rainbow-rail back Smith wasn't possible—that probably only motivated him more Photo: Mehring
"I cared a lot about what I did in that video. I put a lot of pressure on myself. My friends that love me the most were trying to talk me out of doing tricks. In the context of filming a video part you can end up hating everyone around you. At the end of the video, me and Matt really butted heads. When the video was done, it was like our friendship was reborn. It gets dark at the end of making a video. No one wants to hang out or skate together." —Jerry Hsu
"That last trick, I wasn't going to try the nollie backside heel again. I went there a month before and bruised my heel and smashed my head. I was coming to terms with not doing it in my part. I went to see Matt at his house and he saw the footage of me trying it. I asked if there was anything I could help with the video or the team or anything at all. He didn't even look at me and asked me to just do the nollie back heel. It pissed me off and I was like, Fuck you. I hated his response. Matt was under an enormous amount of pressure at the time as well. It pissed me off. I got so in my head about it and I said, 'I am going to do the trick.' So I went home to paint the "The End" sign. When I was painting it I was so sad and full of anxiety. It was so stressful. Luckily, I made the trick. I have to give Matt a ton of credit for pushing me to do that. I would have not done it. That's the thing about Matt—he rubs people the wrong way sometimes, but it's because he likes to tell the truth and people don't want to hear the truth." —Jerry Hsu
A concussion in the French Alps made him think he might die—wrote a note and everything. Praise be to Switzerland's socialized medicine for takin' care of Jer Photo: Barletta
One final blow to end the war: two trips, one hospital visit, 13 stairs and an ender we'll never forget Sequence: Whiteley