For the first time ever, I had no say in organizing the Scandinavian Real Street Finals. It was as if the custody of my child had been taken away fro me. But then again, I was satisfied, as the initiative from somebody else to run it was what I had asked for. So for the first time ever, I was left to be a mere participator of the event. That was alright though: with free Budweiser for everybody the day was destined to become memorable.

The night before the event, I had received the very special honor of hosting 9 Norwegians and 1 Swede in my apartment. As we had been out partying this honor, we arrived a little bit late at the competition, saddened to find out that we had already been kicked away from spot 1.

After a while, we all went in flock to spot 2: The Valby rails. A hip high handicap rail, that slants both up and down making it perfect for a competition.

Most notable here were Michael Dalgaard Nielsen’s royale up, straight, and down the entire rail and Seth Nicolas’ truespin topside pornstar. The hip high rail seemed a little too much to handle for most competitors (including myself), why most resolved to their safe tricks.

After all heats was over, we headed to the combined spot 2 and 3: The Panum Institute ledges.

Spot 2 was the very long Panum institute ledges – the kind of ledges a mortal skater like me use a whole session to do once. So naturally, with 10 minute heats, most tricks wasn’t done all the way. The best tricks here was Jacob Juuls fishbrain all the way, Seth Nicolas’ truespin mistrial, and Michael Dalgaard Nielsens royale up the ledge to gap over the concrete wall. Mark Stamer unfortunately broke his wrist on this spot, why he was out of commision for the rest of the competition.

The final spot was a ledge on the skaters left side, that keeps in level, while stairs on its right side goes down. Most notable here was without doubt Jacob Juuls fullcab backside savannah with a massive 540 out. He actually managed to make the 540 so massive that he jumped over me while I was trying to catch him on camera with my fisheye.

Seth Nicolas also gave his best with a perfect truespin topside pornstar all the way. After that, he tried to truespin fishbrain it, and came pretty close. Unfortunately, the finals had a time limit – so he didn’t get to finally do it.

The afterparty can be argued to be even more memorable than the competition: we crashed a Roller Disco party (as in old-school roller skate dance moves party).

Thank you Magnus Packness, Christian Berg, and Ronni Skovmand for picking up the torch and putting life into our scene again.

Being at a real street competition in Oslo without rain is like Chicken McNuggets without the chicken (Oh wait – is that really chicken inside the chicken McNuggets?)... Anyway – this year was no exception with regards to having a rainy day.

We started out as always at the Frognerparken ledges. This a true classic spot in Oslo that all the locals love and all the visitors hate – primarly because Oslo is filled with so many other way nicer spots. Well – a tradition is a tradition – and actually it isn’t that bad of a spot. The competitor count was only half as big as when we first started throwing the Oslo real street competitions back in 2003 – so that meant having only 2 (very populated) heats at the first spot.

As something different, I decided to step away from almost everything related to organizing the competition – so I actually competed! Wow! Being the one that skates is actually pretty cool… I can strongly recommend it.

Anyways – some really nice tricks were thrown at the first spot. Most notable for me was Olav Norheim’s Alleyoop Negative Acids, Stian Christiansens truespin tabernacle and crazy budget switchups and Victor Nyåker’s fakie 540 mizou. Being part of the competition, I noticed that most people skated really slow – but these three guys as well as some other hardened locals kept it real with full speed.

The second spot was Høyenhall skole – which is pretty much a pair of middle rails (transferrable – but hard to transfer as the top rail ends low, and the next starts high), and 2 more rails put on ledges on each side of the middle rail. Here, Olav Norheim made the trick of the day – first try – a soul to soul transfer on the two middle rails. It was truly amazing – and completely flawlessly executed. Victor Nyåker tried to do the same transfer – just doing topsouls – but totally wrecked himself on the last rail.

As for my own records, I actually made it on to round number 2. Yipii… so I must have some talents. I got to skate 2 or 3 minutes in round number two, but our group got caught up in the rain. So we moved the heat to Helsfyr – the spot that has been second spot in 3 other Oslo real street competitions – just because it is a nice backup spot for rainy days. And it’s always raining at spot 2 in Oslo.

After spot 2 was finished, we headed to a death kink rail that tops most death kinks I’ve seen. It was nasty! Crap runup, and landing – made better with some wooden plates. Here, only 3 people were brave enough to do the rail to the end: Kenth Ulvedahl, Olav Norheim and Jonas Bødtker – the three winners.

Kenth tried to 360 soul it, and made it all the way through the kink, but as he had too much dirt on his frames from prior attempts, he skates choked and led him into an ugly ugly slam (Check out the pictures). So his regular soul (first try) got him his third place. Olav Norheim only needed 10 minutes to do his soul gap the kink to soul, where after he had proved his worth. Finally, Jonas Bødtker pulled off a number of tricks, including a topside acid through the kink, a topsoul, and a topsoul gap the kink to topsoul, which finally gave him the first place.

After the competitions were parties, clubbing, and nachspiels like the can only happen in Oslo. Good times for sure.

The final results were:

1. Jonas Bødtker (NOR)
2. Olav Norheim (NOR)
3. Kenth Ulvedal (SWE)

Friday, June 30th, 2008 was a great day for rollerblading. Jonas Hansson’s new video entitled FLYGT had its premiere screening. I was among the lucky that got the chance to the see movie. Hopefully the rest of the world will as well – time will tell. Jonas Hansson has made a movie that has been cut and edited to perfection. Really! FLYGT is an amazing skate film – one that I wanted to replay as soon as it was over.

FLYGT is nothing like any skate film you have seen. First of all – there are no profiles and no sections. At one point – and only one point in the movie, you think an apparently very long intro is over as the image on the screen fades to black, only to be blazed with an up-tempo blast of new tricks. Jonas very successfully combines tempo changes and moody images to keep you engaged.

The trick focus isn’t hammers, but seems to be perfect execution and attention to detail – which much resembles what I believe is Jonas’ view on skating: each skater has a unique skating persona, which in its own can be enjoyable enough to watch. And it is.

If FLYGT becomes available on either DVD or as a download this is a true must have!

For a festivitas sneak peak, check out this video report by izm-clothing.com of the event.

How many times do you get to relaunch a webpage 12 years old? Well – possibly many, but unfortunately it hasn’t been the case for toxboe.net. Considering the websites age, relaunches has been very few. The old version of toxboe.net was launched back in 2003 – 5 years ago. So the relunach that happened last monday screamed for celebration.

Fortunately, the summer has finally hit Denmark this week. As means of celebration in the summer – what is better than cold beer in the sun. The stage had been set and I toxboe.net felt like giving. Enter 200 free beers and a bunch of skaters. End result: A good time.

Primarily the celebration consisted of Copenhagen skaters, but a few Swedes and skaters from the outer limits of Denmark also showed up. Legendary Rene Hulgreen also showed up with his 1 and a half year old son Emil.

Check out the pictures.

Ignition is a truly unique shop in that all employees are skaters. And not just skaters, but damn good ones as well. Ignition is a definition of a special atmosphere: the one that is conveyed through the two first (and latest) DVDs from Ignition skateshop. Now this might seem like a lot of blah blah to please commercial interests to you, but it isn't.

The profiled skaters in the first DVD (Ignition DVD 2006) is Jonathan Von Kralik, Friedericke Reich, Leo Donhauser, Thomas Thellman, Jojo Jacobi and none other than Benny Harmanus. What was most fascinating about this video was to see shop owner Leo Donhauser and marketing man extraordinaire Jojo Jacobi skate. Leo skates fast and shows you than he sure can skate. Jojo is even faster, throws in big gaps, and has a profile almost without grinds (although I did see a zerospin fishbrain and a drop rail kindgrind in there): it sums up the unique skating style he has. Truly inspiring to watch. Thomas Thellman's profile has got a whole other glare and style than the other sections which capsulates his skin-tight pants rock'n'roll style even more.

The whole Ignition atmosphere is also shown through the Ignition Valley section and the party section, which shows what has gone down in at the Ignition shop and their skatepark. For a Dane like me, it was even more fun seeing Jacob Juul killing the ignition shop ledge to the same extend, or even more than other pro skaters there. The Ignition Valley is a rallying point for skaters from all across the world. It's the place where you're always welcome and with a smile and a big party too.

I normally get hyped watching skate videos for two reasons: either the skating is really top notch and never before seen (Like B_F_G, Words, and Leading the Blind were) or I know the people in the video. Even though I have only met the ignition guys a few times, the latter reason definitely got me hyped. That the skating is good as well is just a plus.

Just imagine seeing a profile of the guy who handled your last order at your preferred skateshop. How cool is that? Then you definitely know that who handled your order knows what he is doing and is giving you the best service possible.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Frankfurt Allstars section including Patrick Ridder, Andi Doehnert, Andre Lepszy, Chris Weber, and Benny Harmanus. A nice watch as well!

The Ignition Tour 2006 DVD documents the European skate tour the Ignition team went on in the summer 2006. This was especially fun for me to watch due to the Copenhagen stop of the tour. Knowing how much stuff went down during the Ignition team's stop in Copenhagen and seeing how much were left out from the video – the whole tour must have been amazingly amazing! The hardcore brazil (Carlos Pianowski) definitely added craziness with his attendence on the tour, but I think it's safe to say that the rest of the tour crew were responsible for their part of the craziness and party atmosphere as well.

By getting hold of this DVD, you'll gain so much respect for Ignition skateshop. It's a rare insight into the core of our industry. Be sure to stop in the Ignition Valley if you ever have the chance. I'm sure you've already missed out on a bunch if you haven't been there yet already.

"Hey Dude Video Magazine" is a new video magazine out of Germany. It features profiles of Swiss Cladio Bohli and German Guido Rosenkranz. Personally, I have never heard of Cladio Bohli, and only little of Guido Rosenkranz before I saw this flick. Guido Rosenkranz is surely a skater to watch out for in the future.

The video is a cooperation between be-mag filmer Marcel Schubert, Claudio Antonelli, Daniel Prell, and Bassti Beheim. The idea behind "Hey Dude", is to bring you the freshest content twice a year.

The video gives a rare view into the German skate scene, which can't be seen in for instance clip video magazine. Where the Clip magazine focuses on the same known faces from issue to issue, Hey Dude is much broader in its representation of local German skaters. By watching Hey Dude, you get a much better look at how the German scene is all around.

The video is targeted to the local German scene and not so much the broader European scene. There is for instance a long interview in German in the middle of the video with German rolling legends: Sven Schillings, Mathias Peterka, and Matthäus Parobeck – followed by a video section of them rolling. Fortunately, the interview was subtitled, but it didn't hype me as much as if I had seen a video featuring my own local rolling legends: Tom Ahlqvist, Rene Hulgreen, and the likes.

"Hey Dude" uses some unique and creative ideas when it comes to profile intros and motion graphics. These were truly a joy to watch.

If I would watch the video for the 100th time, I would probably go straight to the montage section and then watch the Guido Rosenkranz section. In the montage, it is especially Matze Ogger's tricks that are really nice to watch. Men Cheung has also got some really nice spin tricks. Fullcab truespin topside Acid and 540 soul! Shit!

Matze Ogger: Royale through the bumps.

Friday the 11th of August was the SRSC in Copenhagen, Denmark. The spots this year were all in one place, the concrete beach called Amager Strandpark. What could be better than to have a competition at the beach on a hot sunny summer day at probably the best spot in the country? I wouldn’t know, cause that’s not what happened…

Quite a lot of preparation went into the competition and some good foreign skaters showed up in Copenhagen from the Ignition tour and Grindhouse, so we were all less than happy when we woke up to see the city practically underwater with rain. Oh well, what are you gonna do? So we went on with everything in the hopes that it would stop raining by the time the comp was scheduled to start. We waited and hoped that if we ignored the rain then it might go away… And after what seemed like a very long morning of waiting and denial… THE RAIN FINALLY STOPPED!

The weather was grey, cold and windy, but at least it was dry so we all went out to Amager Strandpark to have a Real Street competition. After some stressing and a little late we got the competition started at the first spot, a long straight concrete curb with gaps that seemed to have been magically repaired for the competition, hhmmm. Anyway it was pretty windy and cold so the skaters weren’t really very juiced. I’ll skip ahead……At the second spot, a pretty clean handicap rail, the wind stopped blowing so much, or maybe we just stopped noticing it because of the skating. It was here that you could start to feel the excitement; Kåre Lindberg was showing everybody what stylish switch-ups look like at Mach One speed while Dominik Wagner and Michael Nielsen slammed so hard we had to give them a case of beer each! Daniel Prell, Gabriel Hyden, Martin Gade and Jacob Juul decided to show the rail who’s boss, they got so tech on it that the poor rail must have cried itself to sleep that night.

But after the first 2 spots playtime was over, the third spot was a fast drop curb with a strange angle to it that means you can only skate the outside edge. Not to mention that the curbs angle in compared to the run-up so there’s a tendency to lose your balance to the drop side…

Anybody who’d seen the spot had been looking forward to seeing the best skaters around battle it out since the spot was announced. As hoped, this day was their chance to see it. There were quite a few skaters who qualified for the third spot final that didn’t skate for some reason, we won’t mention any names… (loud coughing sound).

The people who were skating started by feeling the curb out slowly, doing a royale, a backside royale, trying to get a feeling for it. Suddenly Kåre Lindberg decided get his tricks done quickly; a topsoul (farside soul) and a fishbrain, just like that, and he took his skates off. Then Daniel Prell must have decided the curb wasn’t so tough after all cause he started bombing it with some topsides, then halfcab topsides and the competition was on!

Cristopher Herdman took 3rd place with a nice clean fullcab kindgrind, Daniel Prell took 2nd place with an amazing (semi darkside) soyale and Jacob Juul claimed the 1st place title (3rd year in a row!) with; fullcab alleyoop toppornstar, fullcab frontside savannah and a sweet hurricane (450) royale.

1st Jacob Juul 2nd Daniel Prell 3rd Cristopher Herdman 4th KÃ¥re Lindberg 5th Kenth Ulvedal

Gagi wasn’t in the 3rd round, but that didn’t stop him from tearing the spot up.

I would like to thank our sponsors for the great prizes and everything else; Toxboe.net, Grindhouse, Ignition, Izm Clothing, Budweiser, Conference (Powerslide), and Skatepro skateshop. Thanks to: Anders Toxboe, Michael Nissen, Christian Toxboe, Magnus Packness, Ronnie Skovmand, Sally Mortensen, Daniel Nestorowicz, Tom Ahlqvist, Henrik “Høne” Opsahl, Jakob Højmark and more for all their time and effort.

Prizes were given, we all met up at a club for an afterparty with even more drinking (and debauchery) and the day ended. Hope everybody enjoyed themselves!

PS: This street competition was unique in one simple of way; 1. It was legal!, we had a written permit from Amager Strandpark and the Police (woop, woop)

Would I recommend doing it again? I’ll let you know, we just received a bill from the city for about 600 Euro! We’ll see how that goes… (thank god for DSA)

The winner and other snapshots from the SRSC 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rainy, cold, late, but lots of free beer!

Martin Gade: Backside Royale budget Backside Savannah

Jacob Juul: Frontside Torque

Jacob Juul: Halfcab Backside Royale to Switch frontside royale (Photo: Jens Riis)

Chilling in very cold Denmark with Budweiser beer.

David Grant: Backside Fahvergnugen (Photo: Jens Riis)

Daniel Prell: Soyale at the final spot

Jacob Juul (1st place): 450 Royale – winning trick

This must be the all time greatest cooperation over the borders, its clearly to see that some skaters have been traveling thousands of miles to the far corners of the earth to get these clips and to do what we love. Last time we saw something like this was VG BMC3 which even didn't include as many nations.

The 3rd release from be-mag, 35 minutes and over 60min of bonus.

On the DVD jewel case front you see don bambrick doing a 540 with style, and the entire print has lots of details to it all worth a closer look. Besides that you get a big a3 or a2 poster with the Cameron card disaster.

You start with a simple and nice animated main menu and a song that will be annoying when left playing in loop very fast unfortunately. But push play and you will see some small commercials for conference, grindhouse, skatepile, ignition and gangstore.com

The intro starts with one hell of an atmosphere, first all the names of the riders go trough the screen animated very beautifully and the first clip you see is enanoh going full throttle towards what seems a giant object doing a bs shifty almost to the top, this followed by a lot of sick acid tricks and disasters which continues and with the god like music it makes a perfect feel and hypes up the intro to the limit. All this ended by the Cameron card disaster you get on the poster. Sweet.

As always Ricardo Lino is full of fun and joy so the first thing you see in his and enanohs part is Ricardo dressed up like a gangster maybe even like 50 cent, double that and you get one dollar thats how cool he looks. If you have seen him you know hes not the most baggy skater in the world, its a good laugh. The same Rolling stones: paint it black song that was used in Medium: film of the year to the Bryan jaggers profile (brings back memories) is used for this part and fits both Ricardo and enanoh very good! They both skate creative, enanoh does some cool tricks on a lot of different objects, also a truespin wheel barrow, but he adapts to the environment and gets everything out from every little bank or curb thats in the city and that plays along very well with mister fun lovin Ricardo which has the same quality's but besides that he does not fear heights resulting in skating enormous and special objects that seems impossible. Only skating can describe it. Of course some of theses spots are in Barcelona.

The first montage is sick, as they say on the rear print on the cover this dvd contains skating from all over the world. And here you get it, the best tricks from all over the globe all in one part. All tricks are sick, from giant kill yourself disasters in old Russia to super tech 270 back backslide to budget topacid in the states. Looking at tricks its one of the most varied montages ever, not really one standard trick everything is special thats what makes this montage good.

The little gangster gonzo is going wild style, with a list of 11 tricks on the screen, he eats this list for lunch it looks so easy and stable even though he might look like a small ball bouncing on the rail it just shows how skilled he is. The same idea with the list as in be unique: freestyle rolling, for Sean kelso. But after this list his part starts and if you have been in Europe summer 05 you can recognize, the spots and some of the events he skated at so you can see they have been touring a lot in Europe 05. Besides all of his super fast tech rail skating as you have probably seen so often he now does a lot of sess slide spinning tricks which is pretty amazing.

Second montage is again full of big and incredible tricks or maybe i should call it stunts from all over the world and from names like Haffey, Al hooi, Sean kelso, Billy o Niel, Stefan horngacher, Shima, Evgeniy leonov, Chaz sands, Rob g, Brian aragon and so on. I wont even mention what tricks they are doing but just look at the names and think for yourself. The music in this montage follows the skating very good, though with a instrument you don't hear that often in skate movies a trumpet but it gives a good sound. And from all that great action it goes slowly into the conquering Europe tour together with sweet butterfly music it only gets better with all the American pros visiting Europe. Al hooi starts this wonderful part with a disaster 360 to a banked wall under a bridge and 360 out, nothing you have ever seen, just imagine how easy Al hooi makes things look. Eric perkett and super stylish Mathias silhan does some trick people only imagine of. Just the escalators Eric back backslides is so big and acid that i get scared looking at it. And M silhan shows some skills on everything plus a curb where he goes fakie to makio to backbackslide down a downwards banana curb, maybe sounds easy but check this one out one more time. Then Sean kelso kills the homemade rail at Stalins place in Prague, together with M silhan and Al hooi they do things on this rail that seem wrong when looking from a logical perspective.

Going on tour with Bambrick, Kelso, O`niel and friends, isn't quite bad they have fun skating all sorts of fun spots. Billy o Niel skates hard and a lot in this part, just as much as he talks shit sometimes. Reminds me check out the bonus material: fishes bedtime stories. And Jeromy morris is also still kicking it! With his creative mind of using obstacles. Don bambrick keeping it clean as always. This part isn't just as hardcore as the rest of the film but indeed inspiring.

Sean Kelso is finishing this movie off with style. I mean how can it be that he can stand high in tricks and still make them look stylish and not goofy? Its incredible, and when high in tricks you can switch faster, and do more difficult tricks, which he of course shows everybody. ex. A full cab front torque to fishbrain 180 out, true top acid to inspin top acid. Sean kelso gotta be the limit for tech tricks period. What he can do on skates, a squirrel cant do to nuts (iceage).

A typical outtro with soft music and lots of fun clips, yet even here you see sick tricks which could have been used as hammers in other movies, ex a trick like Stefan horngachers disaster shifty on a big kinkrail. These tricks doesn't have an end in this movie, the amount of big tricks is enormous.

Looking at this movies editing it has a lot of nice finesses and transitions but its not like it goes art style, but i think its the best way you can use tour material. The clips are in high quality and the music feels very appropriate, its very mixed and that might fit good because. This dvd has what not many has, it unites all skaters across this world and thats something which shows the bond between us in our sport even that its so small and i appreciate that. If you have been to Europe in summer 05 this movie is a great reminder of the spots, the events and the people. If not you will see all the great things you missed in one of the best international skatemovies in newer times. Its all under the wraps.

Best be-mag release.

Daniel Nesterowicz

Like the past Clip DVD magazine issues, issue 3 is no other than amazing. The Clip video magazine always seeks to stand out in some way, this time both with a great video, but also with a creative custom-made casing, and a little present.

Fabrice Guyont and his fellow frenchmen are skaters that we seldom hear of around in Europe. It was only because of the promising words of Michael Thyrring who had been visiting him in France that I knew that something good and spectacular was to be expected from him. His profile features a long intro with Fabrice making fun of himself and his popstar mentality. Enjoying to watch the first time, but a fast forward section after the second time.

Last time I saw a Jochen Smuda section was in Be-mag's first video, Visual Symphony. At that time I thought that it was Jochen's section that came the film to rescue. Clip 3 does not need a rescue, but Jochen's section is again unique and inspiring to watch. Jochen Smuda has got what makes a skater great to look at: he can go big, but at the same time he has a great attention to detail. His creativeness combined with speed and hammers makes a great show.

In general, the DVD is very well edited. One thing that bugs me though is that the film wasn't edited by just one person, but several guest editors. This creates a feeling that each section isn't really connected, but just a series of sections put in a random order. This has to be the only minus about the film though – it was hard to find!

The level of graphic design, attention to detail, and the sense of quality you get from using Clip 3 is much larger than any other inline DVD products that has been put out to date. I say "using Clip 3" instead of "watching Clip 3", as it is really an all-around and complete pleasure to both unpack the plastic from the cover to find the microfiber cloth to wipe your lens, to opening the cover to find the cardboard figures popping up, to using the DVD menu, and finally to enjoying the video itself.

This is a must have!

Looking up at the sky, one thought came to my mind that morning: "Perfect!" For the first time in 5 years, we were graced with pure, undisturbed sunlight on the day of the SRSC stop in Oslo. The stage was set and the juicemeters pumped for yet another insane contest.

People from all over Denmark, Sweden and Norway were there to rip apart 3 different skateable locations in the city of Oslo. People were meeting up at one of the latest additions to Oslo's spots. Right next to the parliament there's a number of flowerbeds surrounding a fountain. Yes, you guessed it; curbs all over!

This spot is a weekday-bust, but this Saturday seemed to work out just fine. The spot was murdered in 5 different heats. The coolest bit was that so many entered the comp. Everyone was skating here, kids as well as the older skaters. Great vibe, great weather, killer tricks, check the pics!

On we went to the second spot which is a long flat rail. It's high but once you’re up it’s really nice for getting down-dirty on those switch-ups. People were killing it! Too many tricks to name them all, but Stian Christensen seems to own this rail, Jacob Juul, Jonas Bødtker and Henrik Hays were also absolutely destroying it!

Earlier this year we found the sickest spot! It consists of not one, not two, but three sets of kinkraIls. Not only that, but they're all lined up after each other, with a small single set at the bottom. This is pretty much the craziest final spot we’ve ever had! Oh, and you probably guessed that shit went down. It did!

It's the first time lines went down in the finals of any of Oslo's street contests. Tore Sæter was Topsouling the middle set, Frontsiding the next, not caring he was going mach 3 and fucking Mistyflipping the last set to top it off! Jacob was murdering this spot with spins into just about any trick he did. Fullcab True Miszou's, Fullcab True Back Savannah's, lines where he 270 royaled the last kinker (with a full drop) and put the nail in the coffin with a sweet 540 down the bottom set. Felix Myrgren was hurting those rails (and himself) with AO Pornstars to Backroyal, Fish to Front Royale, and True Topsoyale on the middle drop set. Henrik Hays steezed out some of his fakie ao miszous. Stian Christensen was doing all the crazy shit only he does. As the sun was closing in on the horizon, the rollerheads were ready to get their drink on and the winners were announced.

And the winners are: 1. Jacob Juul 2. Felix Myrgren 3. Stian Christensen 4. Jonas Bødtker & Tore Sæter

Thanks a whole lot to Grindhouse for supporting the SRSC tour, we couldn’t have done it without them!

See you in Stockholm the 15th of July!

Oeyvind Heggelund – Savannah – spot 1

Christian Berg – Wet backside – spot 1

Stian Christensen – Soul to true top pornstar – spot 2

Felix Myrgren – True top soyale – spot 3

Henrik Hays – Blind Zerospin mizou – spot 3

Concise and to the point. These are words that describe the new Face the Music Roces team DVD well. The 18 minute video is pure rock'n'roll in its best shape and form: Live fast and die young! The Roces team is as bad-ass and rock'n'roll as the video is.

Face the Music is the rock video to get! Some would argue that the rock trend has brought a whole kind of new skating with it: one that favours small "dumb" things instead of switch-ups, etc. Well- the things are not small anymore, and the few switch-ups actually make sense instead of the usual hip-hop tap dance.

The team members all skate with a speed that is pretty much unmatched in its intensity in other videos. It's full-on energy all the way through the video, which leaves you grasping for air once the video is over. If it wasn't for the video being only 18 minutes long, I would have sufficated.

The video has full-speed gaps and wallrides that are just amazing, and right after a landing, there's a new trick. After grinding a ledge, spinning 360 on the frontwheel in the landing and a roll in, why not throw in another grind and a gap. The video is truly breathtaking. It brings a whole new dimension to the "rock trend".

Even though the length of the video is not to brag about, the video is. Go get it now. I'll end this review now, to give you more time to go find the video at your local shop and keep it in the spirits of the video: Rock'n'roll: Live fast and die young!

Oh yeah – the profiles are of Mike Lilly, Oli Short, Casey Bagozzi and Charles Dunkle.

Buy your Face the Music DVD from Ignition skateshop

A video by Vinny Minton and Ivan Narez. Be it a movie about skaters, pillows, giraffes, ice creams or porn, it needs an intro. Usually everything needs to be introduced in order to draw the curtains. In fact – if you choose to spend your money on this DVD, the chances that you will check out this intro are pretty good as well. This introduction actually lifted my mood a bit and especially the acapella R’n’B sends out some good vibes. First off we get some shots of the nightlife – posing gangsters, car jams and bitch fights slide over the screen, followed up by a few nasty bails and finally some smooth tricks from different skaters. It’s hard to underline any especially delightful tricks in this section but Willie Trebach’s FS full torque up the kink, Winston Wardwell’s AO soul 360 AO soul and at last the 450 KG on the acid rail by Trevor Tylovsky were indeed sweet. The intro however is somewhat over-edited in the last part, which kind of confused me to some point, making me think more about all the boxes and color changes, rather than which tricks were actually being laced.

A review by Casper Mejlholm

Trevor Tylovsky sets off the next section which is split up in three parts, also featuring Willie Trebach and Jeph Howard. That little kid lands hurricane on hurricane and shows some damn good potential in becoming a pro in a year or two. Next up is Willie Trebach which is a name I never really came across before. A really smooth style defines his skating though and you have to give him credit for making 20-stair gaps look good with no speed. Finally we get to Mr. Howard and if you’ve seen the b.unique productions you can’t question his skill. Like Willie T, he laces some sweet acid switchups but sometimes I’m just not down with his style, the baby blue sweatpants and the pink XXXL tees – but it’s cool that he has his own style, it just doesn’t appeal to me. All in all this whole part of youngsters is pretty good and has a nice level of skating and just like in the intro, the music in this part is also very laid back with guitar based beats and rap.

Next up we have the NY part, featuring 3 different b.unique skaters. Austin Paz comes out first with a few tricks but especially Billy O’Neill stands out in this section, murdering everything with his sweet style. Franco Cammayo has the most tricks in this part and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone being so close to eating shit as him, when he does the sweaty 540 gap first try. That was so insane. However the song in this section, which consists of a 10 second loop of a beat, gets pretty annoying after a minute or so.

After a small montage section with different skaters and a lot of tricks from Sean Keane, which are also featured in some of the edits of him on the internet, we are set for the triple profile of Gonzo, Ivan Narez and Corey Waikiki. The last mentioned youngster, Corey Waikiki, sets it off with an average mini-view. No doubt about the kids’ skills but he needs to loosen up a bit. Gonzo is probably a name you’ve heard and a skater you’ve seen before in almost every movie you’ve stomped in your DVD. Sadly, it also feels like we’ve seen most of the tricks before – The little cannonball is still ripping everything though, but his skating didn’t surprise me in any way in this section. Last but not least (did I just use that lame quote?) we have Ivan Narez. I like the way he laces a large part of his tricks – especially this 270 bs backslide to sweatstance, listening to the words of wisdom from an old street bum. All in all this is an average section. The instrumental drum’n’bass really did catch me neither but that’s probably just me.

Another triple split section appears, and this time it’s Nick Uhas’ turn to trigger the starting gun. Like many of the other of mentioned skaters in this video, he laces some hard tricks but in spite of this he still has a bit lack of style. Winston Wardwell is indeed the highlight of this section. His inspin fullcab fish, ao fish on the acid rail and the regular + switch hurricane sweatstance were really dope. Quinn Feldman finishes the part off also with another average section. The shaky camera effect in a few tricks really didn’t slam through but the kid laces some all right tricks. The thing I think destroys this part the most is the horrible song. I seriously don’t hope that this rock number was approved by any of the editors but was instead somehow smuggled into the editing device by the bad sound fairy. That really wasn’t a good pick guys.

The next section up is the second montage starting with a stylish fishbrain from oldschooler Ranier Pyramide. Julian Bah laces the smoothest fs torque and I wonder if he sometimes falls asleep during the torques because he looks so damn laid back. Ben Schwab also does probably the most clean ts teakettle I’ve ever seen. Rachard Johnson, Demetrious George, Vinny Minton represents with the usual sweet style in this montage as well, which is very good all in all. The pick of the national ghetto anthem song doesn’t hype you up at all but it doesn’t completely destroy the section either so it’s all good.

Vinny Minton sets the off his profile with a huge 180 and his part is also one of the highlights in this video. You are all aware of what he is capable of lacing, and his style is still oh so sweet. We get to see the Emo Vinny as well in a few seconds and it actually doesn’t look as bad as it sounds, so be aware. The second part of the split profile is Jon Morcigilio which most of all reminded me of Julian Bah a couple of years ago. He laces some sweet tricks amongst these the fullcab ts tp pornstar and he might be someone you want to watch out for in the next years. Again I have to disagree with the choice of song. In the beginning the slamming beat was so dope to set off Vinny’s part but like in the NY part, the loop of a 10 second beat, gets really annoying after a couple of minutes.

To close the deal, Ivan and Vinny has chosen the Victor Arias profile. Finally we get some good Sage Francis music and I believe this is probably my favorite part of the video. His huge bs royale to gap and the ts miszou fullcab ts miszou set the profile off with a blast and I really enjoy watching Victor skate. He makes most of his tricks look so easy and his 270 bs backslide to fs backslide 270 bs backslide was amazing as well. Technical switchups dominate the part and he almost spins into every trick. His relaxed and careless style might cause some people not to get hyped watching him skate but that’s different for every person I watch the video with.

Finally we get to the credits, the shoutouts and the regular party footage of puking girls, drunken people and more drunken people messing around with each other. It’s a lot of fun to watch some dude skate a flat rail over a swimming pool, actually launching a true bs savannah and ts top soyale until he finally bails.

That’s about it for the video itself. The bonus part includes some very sweet RFCC footage with especially Brian Aragon tearing the whole thing to shreds as usually. There’s also some very nice footage from the Salomon/Xjado Europe tour and Vinny Mintons profile from 1997, which is also to be found in the bonus section, put a smile on my face as well.

All in all did video didn’t really hype me up to go skate. Most of the music didn’t really appeal to me and there was way too much average footage in the video to keep the viewers attention. I would watch the video again if I was chilling with my friends or just hanging out but I don’t believe it would ever watch it with the intension of getting hyped for a session. Feel free to buy this video if you want to kick back and just watch some skating or if you’re one of those people who get every new skate video just out of curiosity, but don’t expect to be impressed by the video itself. The video has its good moments and sick tricks but they are way too rare and this means that you only remember a few of the sweet moments afterwards. There isn’t a red line which connects the sections and I didn’t really feel an urge to go watch it again to get some questions answered. I do know it’s hard to put together a movie with a clean theme for each part with the footage they had available, and I’m not saying that it’s necessary for a skate video to have some greater message, but themes always give the videos a better setting – and this skate video was mostly trick on trick on trick.

I rate Hyphy 2 about average but it really depends on what you expect from a skate video. Now get out of my face, buy the video and disagree with me. If you don’t, then go skate. See you.

Review by Casper Mejlholm

Buy your DVDs from Ignition skateshop

After Jon Julio kicked Roces in the butt to get their machine rolling again, something is definitely happening in that camp. Jon Julio's very own department of the Roces machine, Valo, just released their first DVD called "WE ARE VALO".

If you liked "Them Apples" and "Leading the Blind" you're going to like this video. The skating is really sick, and is what you can expect from the team rooster that Valo offers: Jon Julio, Erik Bailey, Mike Martinho, Cosimo Tassone, Michael Braud, and a bunch of flow skaters.

Erik Bailey is without doubt the star of this movie. He is an absolute terminator the combines the stunt- and tech skating – kind of like what Alex Broskow did a few years back in the early KFC movies – but different. I would buy this video just for the sake of seeing Erik's section, which is probably about half of the video.

When each skater starts his profile, a series of slams are shown. I think that Michael Braud might actually have more slams than actual stunts – but man – does he put his life into it! This attitude is what characterizes the Valo team: full power, speed, and heart. Huge huge disasters combined with narrow and fast lines.

In between profiles are tricks from other skaters as well – this keeps the tempo and excitement up. In this way, Cosimo Tassone's section is more of a series of in-between tricks in Erik Bailey's show. And exactly those two skaters supply each-other well. They each represent powerhouses of respectively Europe and the U.S.

The video is somewhat short, but enough and a little more to get you well juiced for a session.

Buy your We are Valo DVD from Ignition skateshop

Adam Johnson keeps producing hot dvd`s and here`s the newest one. This time theres a pretty different theme from what we usually see in skatevideos. First of all the video is called zombie comatose and for a reason. The video shows gravestones and skater-zombies, and its clear that there has been used a lot of time on the makeup of their faces and the video visuals/effects. Its a cool and fun thing to do: It gives the movie a different feel! You will remember it for something more than "just" the clean and developed skating that it also consists of.

Zombie Comatose ( 73min.)

The intro is one of the most creative I have seen. Mixed with evil music, the editing is beautiful and timed exactly to the point. The old horror movie theme mixed with ultra hard slams and tricks by most of the KFC pack – and even some tricks from the old KFC 3 – makes it to your eyes. This all builds up a sick atmosphere, that sort that tells you what this is all about. And yes Yuri Z and Brandon M should R.I.P after those slams.

Michael collins, a relative young & new face makes it with a very nice profile. His skating looks very controlled and he looks confident, with it he brings his own style. He pulls some hard grinds occasionally plus some clean simple tricks. He makes skating look relaxing and easy, not everybody can do that.

Alex Broskow, well everybody knows Broskow and theres a reason why. He also has his own style and is still 100% confident when skating. He is skating giant obstacles which people only imagines in their dreams. From super tech tricks to fast, long, and stylish grinds to gaps just as big as in KFC3 he can skate on anything and proves it here once again.

Jospeh Shull is a natural born part of the KFC crew. He manages to do some sick things, for instance when he ao soul grinds a rail that goes above an entrance into a basement. if he falls down there he will fall far and hit a wall on the way down.I would say its his best profile ever, even if his style may not be as clean as the others in some cases.

Brandon Mateer`s and Yuri Zupancic`s part is sweet cause the movie blends with the band playing the music into the part. Something that is very unique made, a lot of effort must have been put into this. Starts off with very raw and painfull footage which you cant forget. A slam that no one ever wants to try… you see for yourself . The skating seems cold and raw, which matches the somehow hypnotizing music as well. Dont miss this part.

I havent really seen Todd Blubaugh before but some of his tricks are big as sht! He surprises me a lot, he`s definately a skater that knows what its all about huge gaps, spins and a very creative mind. which makes it a perfect blend with the tech tricks too. He can even make a stunt look stylish. The last trick he pulls off could have been a Latimer / Farmer trick – something simple yet so well thought off that it just impresses. Though his part could have been in any other skatemovie, cause it dosent really blend much into the "zombie theme", nonetheless it makes zombie comatose even better.

Kc Roche skates a lot of gaps and lands fakie about 70% I think pretty funny, but besides his exelent balance he manages to lay some hard tricks now and then and again the final gap is really big.

Jeromy Morris is the real oldtimer here, I remember him from espionage (if I recall correctly) where he does a full cab topsoul, to a slayer song. That was the first time I ever saw that trick. Its easy to see that he has been in the scene for a long time, as he can do a lot of sick tricks with style. Even the roll down one stair and jump the rail trick he likes is in the profile. Nice detail. His profile starts at his own funeral (the zombie theme). Some very good relaxing guitar music fade in to the really creative skating with hard tricks, some so inventive that you wonder, long after you see it. And the style, all I can say is that its easy to se he enjoys skating. The way he grabs his skates in airs. And the way he uses everything. I noticed that things are being thrown at him while he skates, well twice but it makes it a bit more special check it out. The music fits his skating very much. Adam made a good choice with that. This is the best profile in the movie if you ask me.

As for Brenton wheeler for me it looks like his best profile also big trick big gaps, he is really going for it and he brings all elemtes of skating together in this part. I guess he kills barcelona. The end trick is a slick back fastslide, perfect.

The family section takes you around everything everywhere the KFC crew has been, and even around the cementary with a toombstone with "jeff blezezki" written on it, yes he has a trick or 2 in the movie. a lot of kids from KFC get to show some tricks in this section, and a lot of cool stuff is to be found. Even B.Aragon does some tricks with his surgury like skating. Again relaxing music to this sort of outtro part.

Then comes Alex Broskow disguised as Michael Jackson. Yes, the old thriller music video appers in true format (or not) yes Broskow is jackson and here his second part starts. Bigger, better crazy`r and so on he kills giant spots in barcelona as in kansas. He amases as always. After the thriller a chillout photosession runs automaticly, great idea. Then two commercials for some skateboard movies, I guess thats a surprise to a lot of us but hey let them live (nah). And in the B-roll Adam J. gets to make some fun on his skates.

Throughout the movie you are never in doubt that this is a KFC production as always, it might piss some people of.

Parts of the movie is recorded in barcelona thats why you will see a lot of unkown "new" spots, the black market movie was recorded approximately same time and some of the spots are even in both movies.

Though not as rough and breathtaking as KFC 3 was at its time. The level and style of skating is high and there has been put time into the editing to entertain the viewer also. You get great value in this movie for sure! Its a movie you dont forget.

Buy your KFC: Members Only DVD from Ignition skateshop

Chapters

Intro Michael Collins Alex Broskow Joseph Shull Brandon M & Yuri Z Todd Blubaugh Kc Roche Jeromy Morris Brenton Wheeler Family Thriller (Broskow) ——-Bonus Photo montage Skateboard 1 Skateboard 2 B-role

By Daniel K Nesterowicz

Earlier this year at the real street finals in Oslo, Anders Bergén approached me an talked enthusiasticly about his video project. At that time of drunkeness, I didn't really think much of it, and pretty much forgot about it until I saw their trailer on midland-mag.com. Suddenly my interest heightened. Anders was kind enough to send over a copy, so here's what you missed if you haven't bought the video for yourself yet.

The video starts out with a profile of Hannes Andersson. I have never heard of him before, but certainly should have. Hannes is a stylish punk of a skater – one of the highlights of the video. He skates fast, is not too tech – but on the other hand sweet to look at. He truly sets the mood for the video: Rock'n'roll baby!

What I liked about the video, is that it's well filmed. Good camera angles are used for fish-eye shots, and they're appropriately combined with long-distance shots. The editing is nice and simple and follows the slow/medium paced rock well. The video isn't parted into sections like normal videos are. The songs are played in full length, which means that sometimes both a montage and a profile can be in the same song.

Confused is a video by Anders Bergén and Sebastian Denny.

With only one montage section, the video focuses on the profiled skaters: Victor Karlsson, Niklas Andersson, Sam Cabezas, Sebastian Denny, and not to forget Hannes Andersson. The profiles aren't introduced with any fancy graphics or long intros, but just with a 2-second long white text on black screen. The skating is in focus.

Out of the 5 profiles, Sam Cabezas and Hannes Andersson impressed me the most. Sam showed some mojo in Oslo, but his profile showed me that he is much more than that. Hannes just surprised me, as I've never heard of him before. That he's a talented and stylish skater doesn't hurt him either.

Having both the RSC finals in Oslo, the RSC Göteborg as well as the street challenge in Helsingborg, the video is somewhat of a status report for Sweden in 2005. The skating in these sections are at a little higher level than the rest of the movie. So if you missed out on some of the competitions this year, these sections will make you come next year.

"Confused" is a pleasant surprise from Sweden. I hope to see more videos from Anders Bergén and Sebastian Denny in the future.

Check out the trailer: be-mag.com/enlightenment/videotrailers/051121_confused.htm Contact Anders Bergén if you want a copy: mailto:usd4life@hotmail.com