This capacity to produce so much is undoubtedly a troublesome development for the elder statesmen of street skateboarding who seem to struggle to produce even a minute or two’s worth of the good stuff over the course of a four year, full length video filming process. A sort of suspicion at its best or downright disdain and jealousy at its worst towards Suciu is already making itself apparent as an unseemly undercurrent within the industry. There is no greater Irony to the Suciu backlash than the fact his what many would consider one of his greatest strengths is being suggested by many as something to criticise, his plundering of the wealth of visually appealing spot and legacy of the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia.
Philly has established it as one of skate culture’s many multitude of Meccas but also possess a reputation and association all of it’s own, one that to some degree hinges on the notion of authenticity. An essential otherness to Californian skate industry hubs and a more blue collar, no bullshit aesthetic and attitude almost single handily put into place through the efforts of one time Philly Godhead and truck driving misanthrope Ricky Oyola than New York the other great east coast skate destination. Now, the fact Suciu not only seems to be some sort of skate deity the likes of which we haven’t seen since Eric Koston paired with the fact he is occupying the rugged streets of Philly, producing some of the best lines ever seen at the fabled love park should be reason enough for him to be beloved by both technical fetishists and east coast authenticity obsessive’s, right? Wrong. Because Suciu not a Philadelphia native and to make a bad situation worse he hails from the land of perfect schoolyards, teeny tiny picnic tables and countless uber talented skatepark dwelling swag merchants, Sunny California.
Whether Suciu is “authentic” has become something of a hot-button topic as the world wide skateboarding community eagerly tries to do what it does best, hate. There is an eagerness to find something, anything to criticise Suciu about and he frankly isn’t giving us enough fodder. He has the consistency and technical flair of the batch of young men that are currently dominating the contest circuit while still approaching less than pristine east coast spots with the same sort of vision that is so praised in creative skateboarders. He seems to have it all and that simply doesn’t sit right for a lot of people. The readiness of many to accuse Suciu of a kind of insincerity, a calculated decision on his part to present himself as other to the glut of teenage flip in flip out ledge dancers or stair-count gap jumpers is probably a little unfair.
We as third parties simply cannot know his motivations in presenting himself as he does and it is probably somewhat naive to assume that he and he alone makes decisions about his public imagine. Skateboard companies have marketing departments just like anyone else after all and even that statement carries a certain cynicism that is potentially unwarranted. For all we know what Suciu skates the way he skates because he wants to not because the people bind “Mark Suciu” the brand think that is the way we want to see him skate. Either way,” authentic” or not, the lad’s talented is equal parts undeniable and astonishing. It seems almost an understatement to say Suciu is “one to watch”. He stands to be one of the best there ever was if he carries on progressing at the rate he is and regardless of how this story pans out in the coming years you can be guaranteed people will still be talking about the breathtaking, fully formed wunderkind quality of his rise so let’s enjoy it as it happens week to week shall we? Because you can be sure people aren’t going to forget it.
