Do you like your DIY polished or raw?

Wieden+Kennedy, the add agency behind Nike and some other high profile companies has a series of original audio and video content. We’re here to talk about the series called D.I.Y. America:

A serialized show focusing on leaders in the youth/punk/DIY movement. Subjects include over two decades of leaders from the skateboarding, punk, grafitti and hip-hop worlds. Assembled using footage shot for (but never included in) the Beautiful Losers film. Examples: Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Glen Friedman, Tony Hawk, etc.

Now I get it. I watched the episodes before I read the description. It’s leftover footage from another project, and as such it comes off more as an extended trailer than an actual feature. There’s come good footage in there, and it’s very slick, but a little unfulfilling. The skateboarding episodes skip an installment, and are numbered in parts, so it’s a little confusing. (DIY America Episode 3 , Skate and Create Part 2….) Best begin at the beginning. Is it just me or does Ethan Fowler sound and look like he’s doing a Jason Schwartzman impression? (See episode 4).

On the opposite end of the scale, check out this video from reader Tim Laidlaw. It’s actually a video from his father Tom. It seems Tom is hell bent on helping his grandson press his own skateboards, a fact that Tim found ironic considering skateboarding didn’t exactly help endear Tim to his father while he was growing up.

– Thanks to Zach Olsen for the tip.

From Tim:

This is just the start of the process of making a board for his grandson. He noted some things that didn’t turn out quite right and will move forward with the wood mold and press from DIYskate. I’ll be getting over there this weekend to help him with the mold, but for a nonskater I’d say he’s well on his way to making a fine board for his grandson!

Dad’s true passion can be found on his web page

The voiceover on this vid is priceless. I can imagine this being the sort of project my grandfather and I would have worked on together had the Internet been around and I wasn’t riding a plastic board at the time. I’m trying to get Danimal to write up his experience with pressing his own board. He built the mold last summer but only recently got around to pressing a deck.