Who Are The Sex Hippies?

Tasteful Ledge Lines and Niche T-shirts

The workstations at Skatelier are generally real untidy. All available surfaces are covered in bits of griptape and fabric. There’s Unit tools with missing screwdrivers strewn about amongst bearings, thimbles, and notes scribbled on little scraps of butcher paper. Recently, when trying to straighten things up, I came upon a particularly-weathered scrap with the words “Mitch Swongo” written on it and was scratching my head. After wracking my brain for a minute I remembered that Mitch Swongo is the name of the Vimeo account where you’ll find video offerings, including the magnum opus Sextapevol1compressed, from the elusive Sex Hippies crew. This was a helpful realization, as I was looking to enjoy some solid “adult” ledge skating and didn’t want to navigate the minefield of weird XVIDEOS.COM links that come up when googling “Sex Hippies Sex Tape.”  

I decided to rewatch Sextapevol1compressed and nostalgia took over as I remembered how much I enjoyed the clip when it came out 6 or so years ago. In 2020 everyone knows about the mental fatigue that comes with looking at excessively beast/buttery/gnarly skating on your phone all day. It’s just no fun. Taking a step back and watching medium-hard ledge skating from regular-ass dudes is a breath of fresh air. It’s that whole relatability thing. Aside from the solid skating, the Sex Hippies know how to put together some pinnacle normcore ‘fits. 

The Skatelier HQ is located in Northern Cali, and there’s a prevalence of dudes around here that either work the trades or just like to dress like laborers. These guys get together after work and drink beer and do slappys or skate DIY parks in Carhartt vests or whatever. I’m not clued into the mysterious origins of the name, but from what I can tell, Sex Hippies is a cooler, East Coast, ledge-based expression of this same phenomenon. The backside tailslide shove-it on a medium-height ledge is their pivot to fakie on a crete’d barrier. The post-work tennis court session is their little Fight Club type scenario and they probably daydream about trick selection while pulling espresso shots, updating spreadsheets, or possibly gripping boards for little kids. 

‘Fit wise, Sextapevol1compressed holds up really well despite the less-than-generous cut of some of the trousers on display. They skate fast and confidently. It’s easy to imagine half-full tall cans lurking just out of frame in most of the clips. The best ‘fits pop up in the first 3 minutes of the feature. We’re talking about absolutely roached non-skate Chucky-T’s, real-tree jumpers, single-cuffed denims, etc. A homie-wallie/back tail line features the aforementioned Chucks with black Nike socks and some kinda sports jersey (The Skatelier team is too artisan-minded to differentiate between the garments worn for each sport.) There’s also a line starting with a very casual 360 flip next to a moving vehicle that features a tan bucket, patterned fleece top layer of some sort, and dark-wash denims. An immaculate outfit.

Here’s a list of highlights found in the remaining 12 minutes of Sextapevol1compressed:

-Shirtless switch manuals 

-Glove footage 

-Two lines with regular backside noseslides on plain ledges 

-A pretty chill coach’s jacket 

-Button-downs with the sleeves rolled up

-Feedback Ted doing a switch backside smith grind wearing Supreme x Hennessy 

-Nollie frontside flips at speed in thin-ass canvas shoes

-Ball caps, both forward and backward 

-A Palace zip hoodie 

-A fakie inward heelflip in Reeboks

-Ribbed tank/A-shirt footage 

-An oversized camo jacket 

-A delightfully lackadaisical flatground switch flip in black Half Cabs and LADs

I watched Sextapevol1compressed and a few other Mitch Swongo videos, went and skated some flatground, and felt happy. A few days later during a bout of obsessive online shopping (or “reconnaissance” as some people like to call it), I came across some amazing garments at Seasons, one of Skatelier’s favorite core shoppes. After 4 years with no video output, the Sex Hippies had collaborated with the Albany-based shop for a T-shirt and crew neck sweatshirt paying homage to Trilogy. I was floored, and have since added both items to my cart multiple times without actually pulling the trigger. 

The tee features a red “Trilogy” front print, and a white back print of the tracklist from the video in the wavy font from the credits. The crew is set up the same, except “Trilogy” is embroidered on the 450-gram heavyweight cross-grain jersey fabric. The crew of fine artisans at Skatelier are extremely surprised that either of these items are still in stock, and recommend that you head over to the Seasons site immediately and make a purchase. Grab a pair of shoes or something while you’re at it. These are some “if you know you know” type garments that will make you immediately become friends with other 30+ skate nerds if you wear them in public.

The Sex Hippies making Trilogy clothing is extremely on-brand. We don’t have the time (or frankly, the expertise) to go in-depth on the importance Trilogy holds in skate video canon, but it’s worth briefly pointing out a few congruencies between the 1996 masterpiece and Sextapevol1compressed. Both feature meandering ledge lines, light-ass denim, that comforting vignetting, calming tunes you’d find being played at a cool dive bar, and tasteful trick selection. 

Last but not least, they both feature a ton of switch mongo, which brings us full circle back to the little scrap of paper I stumbled upon while cleaning up at Skatelier HQ.

Support Seasons Here

Mitch Swongo on Vimeo Here