Cory Beal recently sounded off his frustration on facebook and twitter saying: “Is pegless street even a style of riding? Sometimes I feel like it’s just less tricks.”
A blogger for thecomeup, I can only imagine how many bmx videos he must go through a day. The repetition is understandably grinding at his nerves as he continues in the FB comments with “[c]an’t even count how many web videos are just barspins, whips, and tuck no handers.”
No one can blame him for this as there’s been rash of videos with desperately imitative riding lately. The limitations to these three tricks is pretty disappointing given that this form of riding has produced a wealth of innovative and important video parts. Here’s a compilation of videos that hopefully inject a breathe of fresh air into the pegless atmosphere.
Search ‘biking’ on youtube and the inspired bikes video of Danny Macaskill is the first thing to pop up. Having already clocked 12 million pairs of eyeballs with the one video alone, Macaskill has captured the imagination of a fresh generation of internets and VW has wisely taken notice. They’ve hired TRY advertising from Norway to create a spot that is less car commercial and more biking video with product placement.
No doubt looking to draw a connection with the spot and the first Macaskill video that made such an impact, TRY and VW have copied elements from the original. Again, strangers rush to look over a railing, and again, Macaskill is paired with an unoffensive indie song. But the shots are car commercially filmed, and the editing is sometimes dicey. The combination is a good-looking spot that doesn’t achieve its goal.
Action sports videos rely on honesty to show a whole trick because tricks are the narration of a video. Macaskill does death-defying things and paints a visual picture that most can understand. These stunts (sorry, I tried to avoid the word) have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they help to communicate the consequences of the riding.
The original video displayed a style of editing that works – 12 million youtube views is no joke. But as far as the VW spot is concerned, cutting out halfway through tailwhips, and switching takes in the middle of a drop degrades Macaskill into a mere visual spectacle, thereby defeating the philosophy of the spot. VW looks less like they are celebrating the rider, and more like they’re only taking advantage of the visual spectacle of his riding. The missed opportunity is especially a shame considering honesty and forthrightness are particularly valuable images for a corporation to project his year.
If time constraints were the reason for the butchering, less clips should’ve been included. Or even a new way of having Macaskill interact with the car dreamt up. It would’ve done a more effective job of connecting the values of Macaskill’s riding and the car. Confident, daring, but (just) sensible enough to not go over the edge.
In the end, what could’ve been another Macaskill hit is merely another car commercial on youtube with just under a hundred thousand hits. It may seem like a small thing to care about, but I get really frustrated when action sports are presented to the mainstream public in a way that misses the mark.
This fantastic video was posted on thecomeup recently, but the excellentness doesn’t end there. Check out what was posted in the comments:
Attention thecomeupbmx.net
This is Sue Miller with the IWF (Internet Watchdog Foundation). The mother of a 12 year old frequenter of your website witnessed her son watching this and immediately reported it to us. Seeing as there is no age warning or verification on your site, we must demand you remove this video and any other age-inappropriate material (we are currently reviewing all content on the website) within 48 hours or face being shutdown.
http://www.thecomeupmx.net
ip adress: 75.119.202.143
flag: inappropriate content without age verification
complaint logged: 9:03 pm pst
It’s bullshit (and she links herself to the Independent Women’s Forum), but the furor it caused in the comments is funny. Well played, anon poster, well played.
Josh Harrington in End Search. Holy damn I forgot how good this part was.
There is one thing that bothers me about his riding style though… He makes everything look too effortless. Like there are certain riders who make things look easy in the most stylish way (Bohan, Hawk, Cleveland), then there are riders who don’t make things look that ‘easy’ and it’s rad. A prime example of this is Van Homan. I mean, you know he’s definitely skilled enough to pull anything off, but it still looks like he’s putting in proper effort, and that makes it so exciting to watch. Like his tailwhips? Nervewrecking. You’re not used to seeing people land them like that because he has such a peculiar way of throwing them – and yet that’s just how he normally does it (and he obvoiusly does it on the biggest shit). Homan throws in his own take that really make you step back and wonder how the hell he did it, and often in an unexpected way. He keeps you guesssing, and you’ll watch Homan’s parts again and again just to try and break it down and figure it out
But Harrington lands tricks exactly how you picture them to be logically landed – like how they would look in a video game. Too inch-perfect, too possible-looking. Also, he’s so tall even the biggest things ‘look’ easy. Then he has this nochalant non-style that’s like, “double peg to over barspin into a huge grass bank? sure. hang-over tooth one mother of a rail? yeayea. cannonball roof drop? why not,” and he goes and does it like he’s riding a skatepark with full safety gear. It’s almost like the consequences of what he’s doing don’t register in the way he rides, so he barspins a 20-stair the same way he would a 2-stair with no extra personality. This would be absolutely incredible to watch in real life, but the style doesn’t translate well to video.
On one hand it’s a testament to how freaking next level this dude is, but on the other hand, it could be why this part only has 12,500 views on youtube. Yes, marketing and a rider’s following play a part, but anyone who watches this part knows that it should be getting way more views than that. Especially since it was uploaded in October last year. Whatever it is, that video section is really really fucking good. Props to Harrington.
Fuck I love Am:Pm BMX videos, they can do no wrong. Even their DVD cover is dope. I gotta get my hands on this DVD but I won’t know my new address until next month. zzzzzzzz
I know I, and most of my entire social circle, have a history of talking shit on fixies, but holy hell this video is good. That line is GNARLY, and the filming is bloody excellent. It actually makes me hate them a little less and almost consider wanting one.
In other news, I’m in London! Should be heading to paris this week for a few days too. If any peeps on this side of the planet wanna meet up, holler: dslang@gmail.com
can’t believe I haven’t seen this earlier, been hearing people talk about it for months. mr. decenzo definitely produces and destroys all in his path. love that nollie shot from the top of the stairs.
Got a reminder to just how brilliant this video is when it popped up on the weloveyouso blog recently.
Here is a masterpiece that Cheryl Dunn shot of Mark when some giant fancy museum in Germany asked him to do an art show there and instead of hanging art he did this. This is the footage cut down into a video for Coconut Records.
This blog is penned by Vancouver-based photographer and undergrad student David Lang who also likes to ffffound and twitter and tumblr. On his website he blogs about stuff he’s made. On here he blogs about everything else that wouldn’t fit there.
