The saturation of Internet skateboard videos is at an all-time high and only accelerating by the minute. What exactly does this mean for the state of wooden four-wheelery? It means hoards upon hoards of lackluster clips, parts, and pretend edits making their god-awful way onto the World Wide Web only to have viewers like myself or Marc Johnson scoff at how terrible they are and why they don’t need to be up for the world to see. It also means that the crappy scraps lump together and sink down like cement, while the cream of the crop rises.
So what does the cream consist of, you ask? Well, the basics—good editing, good music, and probably most importantly, good skateboarding. Solo Skate Mag’s new high-definition “noir” (because it’s stylish and in black and white) video is a great example of this and it’s well very worthy of 10 minutes of your hyper-accelerated 21st Century life. Dubbed “Kids” and produced by Felix Lochel, the visual is a well-pieced and sonically synced montage of German skating at its best.
“Kids” features a friends and family crew of pushers that include Sandro Tovato, Erik Muller, Michael Tan, and Markus Blessing all appropriately getting down on some formidable ledge, stair, gap, and rail action.
Tunes like Maurice’s “This Is Acid” kick things off with adrenaline, while songs like Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s “Some Velvet Morning” whisk you in for a more ethereal and intimate stages of the video’s ride. It works and it works very well.
Do yourself a favor and say “nein” to the crap and a very hearty “ja” to this German gem.
