Author: Crossfire

London premiere photo’s by Zac and Tom Halliday.

And lo, it came to pass that the video of the new millennium did finally get its release, and verily, the faithful did soil their pants accordingly.

– John, 3:16

What’s five years between friends? The only team in skateboarding for whom holding back can actually increase expectations, Flip reached a crossroads whereby they had to release Extremely Sorry in order to stop skateboarding from imploding through the stress of imagining just what they could have up their sleeves.

Hype is the wrong word, since hype is what companies who are less than convinced of their own greatness allow to percolate out into the atmosphere in the hope that excitement alone can create a sense of awe surrounding their videos- to wit, see Nike’s underwhelming Nothing But The Truth (sans Wieger, that guy is solid gold).

Flip, on the other hand, are only in competition with themselves. The pioneers of the idea that it is better to release nothing than to release a coulda-woulda-shoulda, their videos always carry a single watermark: skating from beyond the pale of decency. Not for them the child stimulating slo-mo outro’s, nor the presentation- heavy opus of the celebrity filmer: just danger, danger-high voltage.

So the worldwide premiere tour of Extremely Sorry enters the annals of skateboarding history as the time where a new sense of possibility has finally entered skateboarding again, energising all of us in its wake. So how good is it?

Well, the Flip squad is a much bigger beast than the last time they apologised- Saari may have departed for Workshop and Salabanzi for Obscurity Central, but in their wake come new bloods Curren Caples, Louie Lopez, Luan de Oliveira and instant megastar David Gonzales (last part, having given his original full part to Globe while he turned it up a gear during filming). Such is the legendary status of their established squad that any new addition is inevitably second guessed a-la ‘can they really be FLIP-good?’

The premiere’s carried two soundtracks: one an original score by the Baron via Volcom, and another one of sceptics eating their words. Whether or not Extremely Sorry is the best skateboarding video ever made depends on the tastes of the punter you’re asking, but it is certainly the gnarliest, no question. Bob Burnquist alone has grafted a new dimension onto skating through his part. Crossfire buttonholed Lance Mountain (interview here) and Ian Deacon for their thoughts on the premiere tour.

Tonight was a great big family gathering vibe, from a good cross section of skaters. They loved the skating and had all different parts as their favourites. To me, that shows the open mindedness of the viewers now, and the broad range that the Flip team carries. The crowd singing along with Geoff’s song was awesome and one of those moments to remember. Bob’s part stunned everybody.

For myself, the older guys’ appreciation was awesome but the amount of 17- 23 year olds that came up to me and their response was emotionally touching. I haven’t felt like part of skating in that way since my prime.– Lance Mountain

The man with the unenviable task of sorting out all the premiere’s was Englands’ own Ian Deacon, Flip guiding hand and a man who can lay claim to have been a part of the genesis of skating’s greatest ever team. While we were haranguing Lance, we got him to give us his angle on the whole circus too:

Ian- you attended most of the worldwide premieres, what was your personal favourite?

Well I missed Vancouver and Toronto as Amsterdam and Cologne were the same nights. From what Mark said the Toronto one was nuts! For me I would say tonight in London for its official OG status and Cologne because the crowd were in a beer- fueled skateboard frenzy.

Did everything go to plan? How did they vary in terms of scale- the Anaheim opener sounded pretty serious?

Anaheim, yeah- the size and scale of the whole deal, everyone involved at Vans did an amazing job there…SF , working with Sally Vitello and Robin Fleming was perfect and also the cinema was great. It’s 101 years old- which is practically like Stonehenge in the US.

In Amsterdam, well, Penny was in effect and seeing lots of old friends. Really good cinema there as well. Cologne had the best atmosphere, as I said- broken glass strewn car park, Gentsch, Nicole, Monika and Miri helped out loads. Gothenburg was the best for location. It is a skatepark in this massive bunker owned by SKF bearings. Really needs to be seen to be believed, that place. Oslo was in a nice little club in a great city. We were looked after wonderfully by the distributor there, saw the Norwegian Prime minister and Lance got reprimanded by one of the King’s guards.

Here in London, Zac and Shiner did an amazing job pulling this off. So many OG heads here plus young guns as well. Paisty! I want to thank everyone who made all these premieres happen and cheers to everyone who showed up.

Watch the video from the London premiere here:

How stoked are the ams on this film? This must be a massive buzz for them?

They are all fired up even more now, because they can finally see an end product to all their efforts.

Whose idea was the London bus for the Anaheim premiere?

Jeremy Fox.

Did you know the Number 6 you hired almost reaches the Crossfire office?

No idea, but the bus we had only went 35mph max so it would take around 170 days to get to your offices from Flip- and that’s flat out all the way!

Extremely Sorry is available from your local skateshop now and the making of the Official Soundtrack produced by Baron is revealed below.