Author: Zac

‘Strap yourself down, staple your eyelids to your forehead and keep telling yourself “it’s only a skate video, it’s only a skate video”’ – so reads part of the blurb on the back of Heroin Skateboards’ new DVD. But y’all know by now that any Heroin video is going to be much more because after watching this, I pretty much defy you not to immediately go out and have a shred.

The write-up on the back of the video stays true to the ‘Video Nasty’ angle, as do the variety of wince-inducing slams dotted throughout the start of this DVD. Maybe that’s why so many skaters have such an affinity with those 80s gore drenched B-movies, Cannibal Holocaust has nothing on watching some poor bastard smack their head off the flat bottom of a 12ft bowl or a ballsack-to-handrail.

First section goes to recently recruited Tom Day who’s schooling on Manchester’s rugged street spots shines through in his varied trick bag and choice of haggard, unforgiving architecture. In a country with nothing but crusty spots Manchester must rank near the top on the ‘how the fuck do you skate that?!’ scale, which goes a way to explaining why there seems to be a constant stream of raw skaters appearing out of the scene.

Next up comes Stephen Malet (not a name I’d heard of before) who throws down a variety of stair and handrail hammers interspersed with some street lines which take the lesser chosen path; frontside wallie anyone? Check the feet/truck placement on the last trick as well, pure all-out danger! What follows is an all-too-brief chunk of Howard Cooke taking some London concrete to task. Howard footage is basically gold dust and even a short section like this is enough to get anyone amped to go out and skate as fast as humanly possible. This section closes with a lesson by Chet Childress in how to skate pools – another skater whose footage I can’t get enough of makes this part alone worth the video’s price!

Gou Miyagi is undoubtedly one to file under the video’s ‘opinion divider’ section. First coming to light a year or two back in some strange but interesting web footage, here he seems to have gone all out in developing what seems to be the bastard lovechild of street and freestyle skating spliced with free running and a healthy dose of rolling around on the floor. Like I said, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I suppose it’s interesting to see somebody who approaches skateboarding in such an unusual manner. Overall Miyagi’s unique contribution to Heroin’s team brings some futuristic shit to this flick and most will find it hard not to hit the rewind button after watching it. His synchronised skating reminded me a bit of The Big Lebowski which is always sweet and never forgotten.

A flow section then brings proceedings happily back into my ‘raw street skating to garage punk’ comfort zone. This isn’t to damn anyone in the section with faint praise, rather these guys all kill it hard and it’s going to be interesting to see more footage in the future! Fos’ own section kicks in, replete with his usual keen eye for a weird and aesthetically pleasing spot/trick (just with more American blue skies and ditches amongst the dank, drizzle-soaked UK car park spots) and all set to Hard Skin’s ‘Whose That Boy?’ for extra radness.

Of course a Heroin video wouldn’t be complete without the Osaka Daggers upping the weirdness levels and they come through with a spinning, powersliding, no complying blast of a part. Adrian Adrid (who you may of seen lately in the Yardsale promo) and Daniel Shimizu follow this with a section of full steezing, in which Shimizu’s slappy frontside nosegrind on a bank to curb is a particular highlight. Craig Questions is another opinion divider, personally I’m always stoked on some 80s worshipping radness, fun and raw skating on transitions, walls, jersey barriers and electric boxes. Music from Discharge adds to the hype as does a full Rogie section. His three minutes of fast footed shredding reminds us why he’s now ‘Progie’ with an outright assault of all terrain lanky hammers. Massive props to him for stitching this DVD together; it’s pacey, in your face and shrieks fun at every angle.

Deer Man of Dark Woods section closes things by showing us the outer limits of what can be done on a jersey barrier, and while my tolerance for bad metal music and cheesy Satanic imagery is fairly low, the skating is still undeniably full bore and by the looks of things mostly impossible.

Once again Heroin have come up with the goods, putting together the perfect antidote to the impending winter blues in that after watching this you’ll probably want to go out and skate whatever the elements have to throw at you. Make sure you get this in your collection now, it’s one of the best flicks of 2013.

Available to download on i-Tunes or on DVD at a reputable skater owned shop near you now.

Jono Coote