It's a blast of black and white skate footage from the 60's and on. A walk
through history … correction its a skate through history. One of Skull Skates
motos has been “Skateboarding Leads To Harder Crimes” and this DVD has a slant
in that direction. Skateboarding has had its times underground and still does
for people who skate for a lifestyle not a trend. Skull Skates has that feeling
about it and this DVD shows some of this feeling yet it still recognizes some of
the great skaters on this planet.
You settle down in your seat and the music and visual stimuli makes you smile.
It all starts in the streets of Montreal 1960’s with a slap of classic clay
wheel skateboarding and police harassment!! The music takes you into the 80’s
with some footage of my favorite skate team… The JaKs. The dust settles and we
are back watching the 60’s sidewalk surfing with bare feet. The introduction of
urethane wheels in the seventies develops a whole new world in skateboarding.
Kids are riding faster and can be found on all new terrains. Classic Vancouver
Granville St. bank footage is unearthed and your are left grabbing your ass as a
guy in bellbottom jeans does a good four foot jump of the banks sitting on his
skate. The urethane also brings out the wicked downhill footage. The kind of
footage that I personally experienced as a kid in the 70’s…. Speed wobbles
followed by huge steps off the skateboard, finished up with an endo that leaves
you picking gravel out of the palms of your hands. The banks are left behind to
show some old ditch and empty swimming pool skateboarding and the motion of
pumping the transitions starts to take place. Some historic footage from 1979
Vancouver and the ribbon cutting for the Nelson St. half pipe. Classic footage
of Mt Baldy full pipe and the ever strange turning point full pipe that was
shaped so you could skate right upside down. The movie then takes a break from
all the sik skate history to show you some early snowboarding shots. This
chapter closes with a Hollywood chase scene on skateboards between a hunky
skater and a mob called the Daggers and of coarse it ends with the good guy
getting away…. F#$@+n Hollywood eh!
Then it was time to focus on some of the Skull talent that works the
skateboards… Carlos Longo was undoubtedly one of the top skaters in Canada in
the mid eighties and this is proven with a fully flowing run of lofty airs and
torqued inverts down at the old Seylynn snake run in north Vancouver. We see Wee
Ming Wong, Cory Cambell, as well as Christian Hosoi, some sweeet freestyle by
Kevin Harris, into the future with technical new school wizards like Colin McKay
and Moses Itkonen and then backflippin/barrel rollin Sluggo. It leaves you
breathless and then the DVD coughs up some new footage of the old style masters,
Steve Olson and Dave Hacket and just when that wasn’t enough we get to watch
Tony Alva carve up North Vans Parkgate skatepark. Bill Danforth closes this
section with a goose-bump raising run from bowl to bowl serving trick after
eighties style trick. This type of footage just makes you hungry to skate! These
are some of the finest wood pushers but HEY Mr. PD… “Where the hell was Duane
Peters in all this???”
Hardy har har… I would expect a good kingpin to the noggin if I had asked, Hey
Mr. PD… “Where the hell was that Tony Hawk in all this?”… But Duane should have
been on this flick!
The music is also a great mood maker while you watch this DVD. DJ Kilocee
takes a handful of your favorite classic punk/new wave/rock hits and blends them
with the repetitive hip-hop beats. This package comes with a bonus CD of music
mix by DJ Kilocee. I do have to mention there is also a awesome video of Gang
Green that’s takes me back to all that metal/punk/hardcore crossover skate-rock
I loved so much as a youngster.
HARDCORE IT IS and just when you think it couldn’t get anymore hardcore you see
some guy downhill bombing one of those hills on the Trans-Canada highway and
he’s gaining on a 18 wheeler semi truck… does he pass it? Buy the DVD and find
out! I’m gonna go and watch it again! Thanks Mr. PD.
ricky long
click to view back cover
Skull Skates
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