38 seconds of struggle in New York: why does Red Bull Skateboarding's failed clip hit harder than a landed trick?

A New York park, trees, a concrete block. A rider in a Red Bull cap kicks his board away, sighs "I'm so over it" and goes back for one more try. On September 24, 2026, Red Bull Skateboarding posted those 38 seconds on TikTok with a single caption: "the frustration is real". Two weeks later, the clip is past 13,000 views.

No slow-motion landing. No epic music. Just a guy struggling, blaming his trucks and calling "last try, guys" like everyone has. A brand built on pure feats is showing the opposite. So the question is fair: why does a clip of failing hit harder than a perfect trick?

"I'm so over it": what Red Bull's 38 seconds in New York actually show

The clip fits in three lines. "I'm so over it" at the start, while the board still flies away on its own. Then the diagnosis every skater has made: "What I really need to do is tighten up my trucks. I think it's gonna help." And finally the sacred words: "Last try, guys."

If you've ever spent a whole session on one trick, you know what comes next. The last try is never the last. Truck tightness rarely changes anything, and we have a whole article on that setting to prove it. But it reassures you. It gives you a reason to go again.

What stands out is the setting. A public New York park, people walking by, a dog in the background. In New York you never struggle alone. The concrete is shared, the crowd is there, and every slam happens in front of someone. Tyshawn Jones, born in Manhattan and raised between New Jersey and the Bronx, grew up in this kind of setting before becoming a two-time Thrasher Skater of the Year, in 2018 and 2022.

The clip names no rider in its caption. It doesn't need to. The subject is the struggle itself.

The last try is never the last. That's exactly why we say it out loud. — Every session ever

June 27, 1999: Tony Hawk falls eleven times before the first 900

One of the most famous moments in skateboarding history is a struggle filmed live. On June 27, 1999, at the X Games, Tony Hawk goes for the 900, two and a half spins in the air. He lands it on his twelfth attempt. Eleven times before that, he fell in front of the cameras and the crowd.

Watch the video once counting the slams instead of the trick. Each fall turns the tension up a notch. When he finally rolls away, his line stuck: "This is the best day of my life." After eleven public failures.

Without the eleven falls, the 900 would have been a great trick. With them, it became a story. The crowd didn't just see a feat, it lived the wait. That's exactly how the Red Bull clip works, stadium edition. You'll find the Birdman's whole path on his rider page.

Point Loma, 1997: Jamie Thomas and the trick he never landed

Some struggles never end with a landing. And they still become legend. Jamie Thomas, who turns 52 this October 11, is the proof. In Thrill of It All - 1997, the Zero video, he tries an ollie melon over the stair rail at Point Loma High School in San Diego. The spot, a 27-stair drop, would become known as the "Leap of Faith".

He doesn't land it. He comes down unhurt, but his board snaps on impact. The clip still makes the video, and it builds his reputation. Others try after him, Richard King among them, with no more luck. Several break an ankle or a leg there. In 2005, the school builds an elevator right where the drop was.

Thomas had started Zero in 1996, a year earlier. The brand turned 30 with that image stuck to it: a guy going for the impossible and owning the failure on screen.

Close your eyes for two seconds. The dry crack of a board snapping in half on concrete. A second of silence, then your friends' nervous laughter. The grip tape hanging, the two pieces you pick up anyway. Anyone who has skated knows that sound. No edit renders it as well as a real bail.

Jamie Thomas never landed the Leap of Faith. Yet that's the image we keep of him. — The legend of the bail

Lyon 25: from Boulala in 2002 to Jaws in 2016, fourteen years of battle

Across the Atlantic, Lyon has its own wall. Twenty-five stairs, about 4.5 meters high and 6.7 meters long. Swedish skater Ali Boulala made it famous in Sorry - 2002, the Flip video. He tried it and never landed it. But the clip was enough to burn those stairs into skate memory.

Aaron "Jaws" Homoki took it on in 2015. He tore a knee ligament. He came back anyway, with his father and Boulala there, and landed a melon grab down the Lyon 25. The photo made the cover of Thrasher in March 2016. In Thrasher, Jaws picked Boulala's Sorry part as his "classic" part.

Thrasher's film takes its time on the attempts. You see the knee, the fear and the hesitation at the top of the stairs. The landing comes at the end, and it only means something because you saw everything before it. A struggle that starts with a busted knee.

Same team as Jaws back then, same logic. In 2018, Lizzie Armanto became the first female skater to complete the Loop, a 360-degree ramp. What people remember is the full rotation. Never the road to get there.

So why does a failed clip hit harder than a landed trick?

Because failing is the only part of skating everyone has lived. Nobody does the 900 or the Lyon 25. Everyone has said "last try" three times in a row, and everyone has blamed their trucks. You watch the perfect trick. You recognize the struggle.

The biggest moments in history prove it. Hawk's 900 is worth its eleven falls. Thomas's Leap of Faith and Boulala's Lyon 25 became cult without ever being landed. Jaws's melon weighs so much because it comes after a torn knee on the same stairs.

Here's the answer, plain: the Red Bull clip works because it shows what parts cut in the edit. What the final video erases is exactly what makes the trick believable. And 38 seconds of frustration in New York remind you that pros struggle like you, on the same concrete, with the same excuses.

Today, brands know it. Red Bull posts its bails, Thrasher films Jaws's attempts in full. Failure isn't cut anymore, it has become content. As long as it stays real, as long as the board really falls and the "last try" isn't acted, that's good news. It finally looks like a real session.

What's your record of "last tries" on a single trick, and which trick? Tell us in the comments ↓