Skateboarding has a great quality to it which is innovation and change. Why it doesn’t compare to most sports is because it doesn’t have any rules or governing bodies that dictate winners and losers and classify everybody into leader boards and leagues. Well, actually there is some of that in skateboarding but it’s best left ignored. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that skaters will naturally progress and this progression moves in tangents. At one end you’ll have the simple but gnarly skaters, whilst at another you’ll have the technical wizards and in between everything you have style. Older generations have always been aware that times were a-changing but I think we can safely say that times have changed but only for the better.
Element have been supporting European skateboarding for quite a while now and even if the riders from the old continent don’t necessarily have their names screened onto the decks they ride, their actions speak louder than the words the much sought after vinyl transfers could provide. Nassim Guammaz, Karsten Kleppan, Ross McGouran, Madars Apse, Phil Zwijsen, Michael Mackrodt, Jarne Verbruggen, Ruben Rodrigues and Guillaume Mocquin are all great skaters. You won’t be disappointed by what you see in their new feature length web video ‘Hold it Down‘.
Here are a few reasons why the guys in this video are worth 24 minutes of your attention deficit disordered lives:
Karsten Klappens manages to take every single spot that could have had real potential and makes it a reality. Example: that curved ledge would be great to skate but there are two great walls stick out at either end. No problem for Karsten, he’ll just pop over and pop right out.
Ross McGouran (above) is a very gnarly pint size bastard who’s not afraid to fling himself far and wide in the pursuit of happiness.
Madars Apse and Phil Zwijsen share a part that combines Madars’ laid back approach to Phil’s. Jarne Verbruggen is a perfect example of today’s generation that can annihilate anything that sits in their path. Big transfers, a bit of ledge flippery and applying old tricks to new heights makes Jarne really fun to watch.
Nassim Guammaz (above) definitely chomps more than a fair share of rails in his part but when you see how easy he makes it look, you’ll be wondering why you don’t have a go yourself.
Check the credits for a straight and simple thanks to Mark Gonzales, John Cardiel and Pontus Alv. That list might sound way too easy command street cred among viewers, but when you see the talent and approach a lot of the skaters have you can see that those three legends are the real inspiration and thankfully so.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
With the amount of independent skate videos being released in abundance, it keeps the internet stocked with clips from all over, but also adds pressure to the established companies producing vids. Following the amount of pre-hype attached to ‘Pretty Sweet’, they almost set the standard too high, and dare I say focused more on the equipment used, creating a pretty um-relateable, practically unreal video in my opinion.
Sean Conover holds down one of the few full on street sections in the video, slaying handrails and throwing down full speed flip tricks down some beastly looking stairs. This juxtaposes nicely with new team acquisition Adam ‘Scissors’ Effertz. His section bought to mind the early 90s vert side of the H-Street team; and let’s face it, things don’t get much better than that. Next up is a flow team montage which is dominated by Milton Martinez’s gap crushing and hefty kickflips, and young ripper Cory Juneau’s seemingly effortless ability to skate bowls more than twice his size. Truman Hooker then takes things to the crustier end of the spectrum, skating spots and bowls that can best be described as haggard as fuck and still absolutely having it, the last trick is unreal!
For those of you unaware, ‘
What is there to be said that hasn’t been said already about this milestone of British – or more importantly London skate heritage? City of Rats is the first full length video from Slam City Skates in 25 years of business and the man hired to carry the camera bag and shoot the team of heavy hitters was none other than 
