When I was a kid, my parents, perhaps a bit too liberally, allowed me a lot of freedom. I spent my time hanging out at strip malls and attending local shows by questionable bands in dingy venues. It was a melting pot of dorky tweens, burnouts, and straight-edge kids. It was in the parking lot of one of those shows where I first encountered a Baker skateboard.
That night, I immediately rushed home to Google “Baker skateboards” on our family computer and stumbled upon some clips from Baker 3 on YouTube. I was instantly hooked. Watching it evoked the same mischievous thrill as asking a classmate to spell “I CUP” or searching “big boobs” during middle school computer class. It felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t, even though it was just a skate video.
From that moment, every skate video I watched was judged against Baker 3: “Not enough hijinx. Not enough hammers. Not enough memorable lines. Not enough Spanky or Ellington.”
Now, Baker 3 is nearing its 15th anniversary, and its long-awaited successor is almost here. But over these past 15 years, no other video has managed to hold up as well as Baker 3, and that’s not just my opinion. It genuinely set the standard for skate videos, and the crew behind it achieved this with a distinctive formula.
Breaking the Mold
Baker 3 debuted in 2005, following closely behind classics like Yeah Right!, The DC Video, and Mosaic. Skateboarding was enjoying a massive surge in popularity, with Bam Margera dominating MTV and Tony Hawk video games causing carpal tunnel syndrome. The elaborate dolly shots and special effects of Yeah Right!, the hefty travel budgets of The DC Video, and the artistic flair of Mosaic all reflected this era.
These videos are timeless classics, but they were also products of skateboarding’s golden age. They were big-budget productions that sought to push the boundaries of what a skate video could be.
Then came the Baker crew, with a bold, black and red video package and a clear message: “Giving skateboarding a bad name since 2000. Right when skateboarding begins to get socially accepted, we come in and ruin everything.”
The controversial “Gay Bird Moment” clip—which Dollin later clarified was a jab at the overly stylized editing dominating skateboarding—might not be considered PC today, but it demonstrated the crew’s awareness of their counter-cultural stance. “For everyone who was so serious about everything, it was just a little jab. Half of the team is recovering addicts, some of the dudes have been in jail. That’s the part of skateboarding I grew up on and I wanted to keep that alive,” Reynolds explained.
Other videos released in 2005, like Elementality Vol. 1 or DVS’s Skate More also seemed like polished, high-budget productions. Baker 3 was a reaction against the sanitization of skateboarding. It felt like, and genuinely was, a ragtag group of friends capturing their lives with a basic Sony TRV 900. It just so happened that these friends were some of the biggest partiers and most talented skaters in the world.
In a way, Baker 3 shared similarities with the Wu-Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers album. Though the individual team members were stars in their own right, the video felt like an independent release by a crew representing the raw underbelly of the culture. It cut through the noise of major label releases and was packed with the raw, untamed energy that makes a project memorable.
Baker Team Photo
The Power of a Diverse Crew
36 Chambers wouldn’t have been as impactful as a solo release by GZA, Raekwon, or Method Man, and similarly, Baker 3 wouldn’t have had the same impact without its diverse roster.
Just when you think you’ve grasped the vibe of the Baker crew, another skater with a completely different style emerges, forcing you to re-evaluate what you’re watching. At times, it can feel disjointed. What exactly does Terry Kennedy have in common with Spanky?
The city of Hollywood, where most of the skaters lived or hung out, helped bridge the connections between these unique individuals. Hollywood has long been a magnet for extreme personalities of all kinds. It’s fitting that a crew with such star power and charisma would emerge from such a larger-than-life setting.
The Baker crew of the mid-2000s was united by geography, their shared rebellious nature, and a strong dedication to street skating. There didn’t seem to be many other unifying factors, but that’s okay. It perfectly mirrors the friendships many of us have formed through skating.
One of the most lauded aspects of skateboarding by academics, stoner philosophers, and corporate marketing directors alike is its ability to bring diverse groups together, and that power is perfectly captured in Baker 3.
It’s a feeling that the best videos capture, and if done well, it can elevate a project to the highest levels. Just consider the Supreme or Palace crews. Ben Kadow and Tyshawn Jones appear to have as little in common as Antwuan Dixon does with Dustin Dollin, yet their connection is undeniable on screen.
Baker 3 Hollywood High
The Soundtrack of a Generation
With such a character-driven lineup, the soundtrack of Baker 3 had to further amplify each skater’s individual personality.
As Beagle stated, “You just recognize a special sound when you hear it, no matter what genre it is. People will just remember a song forever from a skate part. That’s when you know a song has to be used for sure.” Looking at the final product, the music supervision and the part order are the forces holding this diverse group together.
The sequencing creates a unique narrative – a story of a group of reckless street skaters wreaking havoc through Los Angeles and beyond. Similar to how classic albums like Mobb Deep’s The Infamous or Nas’ Illmatic tell the story of kids from Queensbridge and their daily life encounters.
Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle,” a song itself paying homage to street culture, acts as the video’s leitmotif. “That definitely came from something that people do in movies,” Reynolds stated. “The only movie that I can think of right now—which I’m not really a big fan of—is Requiem for a Dream. That same music just keeps popping up.”
“Street Hassle” has become synonymous with the Baker brand. When anyone who has seen the video hears that string arrangement, they immediately recall Braydon’s giant joint or the unknown skater’s brutal slam at Hollywood High. The song serves as a musical anchor, keeping you grounded as you move through each section. If you start to lose focus as the lengthy 56-minute video runs its course, the familiar strings remind you that chaos and hilarity are about to resume. You just have to get through the two-minute montage of hijinx first.
Baker 3 TK Dancing
Erik Ellington’s part is the first to kick in, set to “Reckless Life” by Hollywood Rose. As good opening parts do, it sets the tone at full throttle. The song’s lyrics hint at the vice-filled and haphazard lifestyles of the Baker crew. At a time when his peers were getting sober, this part was a testament to Erik’s continued commitment to “Getting fucked up tonight,” and that lifestyle was still part of Baker’s essence.
The video continues, and we see Antwuan paired with Biggie, Dollin with Children of Bodom, Spanky with Morrissey, and Greco with Johnny Thunders, among others. Each part, with its respective song, acts as a miniature character study of the skater.
Moving towards the end, Bryan Herman’s closing part is set to David Bowie’s “The Width of a Circle”. It’s the capstone to a video that has taken us on a wild journey. The song is a dark, psychedelic tale of a man lost in the underworld, dancing with the devil. By the end, we, as viewers, are in the same position. We’ve been immersed in the world Baker has built over the last hour, and as the final note plays, we know we have reached the end.
The festivities begin to wind down, and we reflect on the night as “Good Times” by The Animals plays. But like any good party, it’s time for the after-party, where only the closest friends are invited.
This is where the stragglers who were sidetracked earlier start to trickle in. Ali Boulala and Beagle make appearances. The first was too far gone to make it to the main event and is now eager to keep the night going. The second was too stoned and preoccupied behind the lens, but is now free from his duties.
As everything winds down for good and the final credits roll, we see Reynolds and Spanky sitting in a living room, presumably just getting home after a long night out, sloppily jamming away on guitars. They don’t seem ready to call it quits, but all good things must come to an end.
Baker 3 Technology
“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal”
External influences always seep into artistic work. The origins of the Baker aesthetic have always been something that has fascinated me.
Two of Baker 3’s most defining qualities are the hijinx and the hammers. Clips like the recurring “Baker, Baker, Baker” chant, the use of slow motion, and footage of the crew being reckless are just some of the things that make the video so special.
“I really like Antihero’s Fucktards and [World Industries’] Rubbish Heap, videos where you see some street people,” Reynolds said. After rewatching these older videos, the comparison is clear. There’s footage of street dwellers, raw street skating, and silly antics all throughout, just like in any Baker production, past or present.
“It’s amazing, to this day Andrew backs [that] culture of Baker,” Beagle said, as I asked about the R-rated hijinx in the video. Reynolds handled the editing for the video after getting sober, but there’s no censoring of any kind. “He doesn’t frown upon it, he just knows it’s not for him to do. He just knows the essence of Baker. No candy coating.”
As for the skating itself, Beagle, the primary filmer, isn’t shy about his influences. “When Andrew and I met… we were psyched on the Zoo York Mixtape video. It was just cool and raw. Zero videos like Thrill of It All and Misled Youth, too. That was a big influence on just doing risky, stunt style skateboarding,” he added.
Baker 3 fs flip
One of the last videos you might compare Baker 3 to is eS’ Menikmati, but Beagle says French Fred’s filming angles in that video were also big inspirations. “I really like his rolling long lens, up top angles. It just developed from there. Then to be able to pan out into the trees after they land, and you can fade into the camera panning into the next trick…It all started coming together.”
“There’s a lot of fucking around and having fun, but when it gets into some of the editing, I’ll use some of those Jamie Thomas techniques to make someone look epic,” Reynolds said. “Big slow motion to the big parts of the song…Jamie was a big influence with the way he edited Welcome to Hell. He looks like a superhero. I wanted to look like that, and I wanted to make my guys look like that.”
It showed skaters everywhere that a good video could feel like a homie video with an affordable budget. You don’t need to be a master at editing or have the most expensive equipment like Ty Evans and Spike Jonze. What matters most is having a team you can work with to create something that feels genuine. If it pays homage to what came before without directly copying from the source, even better.
Instead of feeling like a blatant rip-off or a rehash of the past, the way everyone seems to copy Bill Strobeck or Ryan Garshell’s filming and editing styles today, Baker 3 was a breath of fresh air.
Baker 3 Kids
Starting a New Wave
Today, the lasting influence of Baker 3 is undeniable. The OG Baker crew and the video have earned the same reverence that Beagle and Reynolds had for Jamie Thomas and Fucktards. Most members of the crew are recognized by a single name, and their leader is universally known as “The Boss.”
In our 2018 interview with Tyshawn Jones, he specifically named Bryan Herman as one of his biggest influences. He also recalled coming home from school and watching Reynolds’ frontside flip down Hollywood High on repeat, before moving on to Antwuan Dixon and Bryan Herman’s parts. And according to Reynolds, Alex Olson and Logan Lara of Call Me 917—who together created some of the most influential videos of the past five years—admit to drawing inspiration from his editing style.
“They openly tell me they try to make their videos look like a Baker video. I’m like, ‘Sick!’ What Logan doesn’t know is that I see some of the edits he does and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna use that’ [laughs],” Reynolds said.
Lara’s videos for 917, as well as Strobeck’s for Supreme and Garshell’s for GX1000, have been some of the best of the decade. Reynolds says they all share the same vision when it comes to what makes a good skate video. “We talk all the time about making videos. We all know that these are the way videos should look. I would never think somebody bit our shit because I’m influenced by them too. We’re all in the same side of skateboarding.”
Words by: Alexis Castro
Illustration by: Micheal Giurato
