Author: Crossfire

Girl/Anti Hero NW Tour DVD

Ever walk down the street and see some uber hot chick with some busted nerd and think “how did he pull her?” Well, when I saw on Crailtap that the Girl team had come up with a joint tour with Anti-Hero that’s exactly what I thought. No diss on the Anti-Hero team, but y’know, Frank Gerwer isn’t about to take the catwalks of Milan by storm, but at the same time, how likely is it that Lakai/Girl head honcho Mike Carroll would be touring the USA staying in an Anti Hero endorsed TentCity?! We love it!

This DVD is basically the two teams in holiday mode, nothing so serious, just show up and have fun, this is pro skaters doing their thing with the pressure of expectation switched off. That doesn’t mean that the skating is by any means slack either! Essentially, this is two videos, the Beauty edit from the Girl camp and Beast edit from Anti Hero – mainly it’s the same sessions, but edited and shot differently.

The Beauty edit is fun and shows how evergreen Rick Howard really is, Carroll still has the most tweaked Japans in skating and Rick McCrank definitely showed he is one of the top all-rounders in skating. Notably, Burnside gets hit up, and it was good to see the park looking less haggard and these guys covered every inch of the hallowed ground. Robbie Russo has to get a mention, this kid is an all-terrain Duracell Bunny, having him under the (protecting?) wing of Julian Stranger at Anti Hero is a frightening future prospect.

The Beast edit is everything you would expect from the Anti Hero camp – it’s raw, gritty and as ever the focus is the skating. The sounds of MC Dirt Nasty kick off the tour via the mandatory boom-box while the teams get to work on Americas North West. The spots are pretty much all cement parks, including a miniature park that played host to a speed/carve time trial. Rick Howard got his game face on only to be pipped by the board control and speed of TNT. Winning shit is cool, but I think the most cheered run on the course went to the one true JC, John Cardiel – this DVD is worth it for that 10 seconds of footage alone.

Beware the third edit in the extras, The Retard Edit – there is no way this bunch of guys can hookup without shit going down. Frank Gerwer drunk in a forest at night with the night vision cam on while convinced he is a wizard (with “wizard staff” aka beer cans taped together) is the stuff nightmares are made of!

This video is a firm reminder why we all stuck with skating so long, a fine balance of enjoyable skating and camaraderie making for great viewing. If you want polished sections to put under the microscope, ask father Christmas for Finally Flared, but if your looking for some fun to make you go out and skate with you friends, get this DVD, check out the Beauty and the Beast decks too……….

PP