W.C.H.T.F.S.U.
fuck shit up
A Film by Jake Burson
W.C.H.T.F.S.U. is the latest skate film by Jake Burson. The film shows skateboarders Tyler Koons and James McMahon flying down the mountain roads and steep hills of Southern California. Jake Burson gives us an insight into his process behind making the film, shares how he’s grown as a filmmaker, and emphasizes the importance of pushing your skills to the limit.
Glendora, California, USA
What is your history as a skateboarder?
I started skateboarding when I was about 13. I got my first board for Christmas and the first thing I did was go bomb down the steep hill behind my house. I knew that I wanted to go fast. I didn’t really start to see myself as a good skater until I was 16.
I started competing in downhill competitions around California and meeting everyone in the area who shared that same interest. A couple companies started to sponsor me around that time. But in an industry that is not doing that well, they eventually went out of business or simply did not have the money to support a large team of riders.
I have had plenty of accidents, as anyone could imagine. One of them happened on New Years Eve of 2017, where I was skating down a hill in Malibu and ended up going head on with a car. I broke my arm, shattered my wrist, and completely messed up the nerves in my hand. It was a long and painful recovery process.
The moment I was cleared and got my cast off, I went skating around my house. Let me tell you, it was one of the best feelings you can experience. As I grew older, that interest for competing against other skaters in races started to drift away, as I was more interested in developing my style and skating down hills at my own limit. I focused more on having fun and skating down steep hills with my friends rather than the racing aspect. However, if I do get the chance to race, I will. And I can get pretty competitive.
How did you get into making skate films?
I used to focus more entirely on skating, and never really took videos or pictures of anyone. I noticed that there wasn’t really anyone in our scene that took skate pictures or videos. When I was probably about 13-14 years old, I broke my foot, and wasn’t able to skate. During that time, my parents bought me a camera, as my interests for photography started growing. Since I couldn’t skate, I figured I would go along with my friends and take pictures and clips of them while they skated.
When my foot was fully healed, I took my two passions, and mixed them together. I made a number of skate films on my old YouTube channel throughout high school, many of which got lots of recognition. My friends and other skaters in my area were also interested in what I was doing, so I constantly got asked to take pictures or record videos for them. Over the years I started to enjoy it more and more. That blossomed into the high quality media I try to push out today.
What is WCHTFSU about?
W.C.H.T.F.S.U. Is an acronym for “We Came Here To Fuck Shit Up”, when we thought of the title, we figured it would only be best to have everyone in the video push their skills to the limit. The video features close friends of mine, Tyler Koons and James McMahon, both of which I have been skating with for a very long time and have grown to be my best friends. I know both of their skating styles very well and can comfortably film them. I made sure to push them to skate their best every time they dropped into a run, needless to say, they did just that.
What was your process?
We usually had a call or group chat talking about where we would go skating, what roads we would be skating, and who would be getting filmed. That is about as specific as it got. I felt that to fully express their styles of skating on camera, they had to skate down the hill doing whatever they wanted to do, and not just what I wanted them to do. I always told them before the run “Skate however you want, do whatever you want to do, just make sure you send it”. There were some times where we went skating and just so happened to have the camera equipment in the car. So we would occasionally take it out, mount it to the car, and “Fuck Shit Up”.
How do you think “WCHTFSU” shows your growth as a filmmaker since your previous release, “Jame Moment?”
For those who don’t know, “Jame Moment” is a film I released in August of last year. It showcased my friend James McMahon, an extremely talented skater who was not well known in the skate community. Before Jame Moment, my last skate film was made in early 2017. There was a pretty big gap there, in that time I upgraded most of my equipment and had access to more resources than I did before.
I believe that WCHTFSU helped me grow as a filmmaker, I put a lot of time, effort, and money into making this film. A lot more than what went into Jame Moment. Everyone I know always tells me that every film I make gets better and better every time. I use that and push myself to make a better film every time I do make one, and that will always apply for future films I make.
What’s next for you?
I have a few ideas for films I have been wanting to make for a couple years now. I don’t have an exact plan yet, but I wanted to take a small amount of time to focus more on skating rather than making more skate films. But I can promise that when the time comes, There will definitely be more films coming in the near future.
