Let’s face it, the internet generation may offer us skate videos on a daily basis but how many of them carry that sense of homemade fun that made us all start skateboarding in the first place? The ratio is very unforgiving, while I couldn’t even guess how many videos have dropped this year, I can count on one hand how many were actually fun. But just one look at the packaging of Cardiff Skateboard Club’s ‘Join Us‘, the third ‘film’ to come from the treasure chest of Christian Hart’s editing suite, is an instant reminder of why skateboarding is awesome. Because it’s really just about pissing around.
Each copy comes alongside a randomly selected vinyl. Sweet lady luck smiled and blessed me with a John Williams album complete with the theme to The Deer Hunter (shit was so Oscar winning, but pales in comparison to the blank DVD packaged with it). Inside is a golden ticket that puts you in with a chance to win a very exciting prize! Whether it’s a slap up Italian meal with Dan Gambarini (who rocks a rad section backed by The Italian Job – switch 360 shove its on red banks, you know this!) you’re after or you had some ideas for Grim’s next tattoo, your prayers could be answered. All you have to do is sit through the C.S.C. video, which, whatever way you look at it is incredible. Somehow.
Filmed entirely on VHS, the skate footage of Cardiff locals, other Welsh rippers and some extended Leeds fam is all interspliced between cuts from films and television shows you’ve most likely forgotten about. Pirate Man continues to live up to his name by making mixed video tapes that would have been accused of killing the film industry if this was released in the 90s. It’s certainly packed with feel-good 90s vibes that you won’t find in any other scene video released this year. Whether you’re down with Cardiff or not, ‘Join Us’ is an invitation to all skateboarders who like to piss around and not take skateboarding so seriously.
So while intentionally aiming to take the Cardiff scene out of the gutter and straight into another one, Christian has perfected his bastardized approach to filmmaking in his most watchable video yet. Some heads continue to use his filming excursions as a way to skate exactly how they want to (Hologram honcho Kevin Barry tears down boundaries we didn’t even think existed in his closing section), while others push themselves to fill this with a whole different kind of WTF moments. Gibbsy is still out of this world and his last trick at the notorious Welsh offices will open your eyes wider than the pill heads getting off their pickle in Human Traffic. On top of that, the SOS section is one of the most fantastically thought out things you’ll see in a skate video all year.
A glance at some of his older videos should give you an idea of what to expect. But if you are a fan of Beez or similarly low-life lo-fi editing and want the ultimate insight into the warped mind of a skateboarder in Cardiff then this is a must see. Though videos edited by an ADHD suffering Pirate who apparently has access to more VHS tapes than your nan are an acquired taste, they’re unquestionably the most bloody fun thing that could fill up your television or laptop screens right now.
I mean, just look at the packaging…
To order a copy, head over to the C.S.C. website or speak with your local Pirate. There’s no trailer because that sort of thing is saved for the VHS pre-film gold, but watch the first part of his last video, First Blood, to get an idea of what to expect…
Fresh out of the many 
What do you do when you snap a deck? Maybe you learnt something new on it and wanted to hold on to it as a reminder, subsequently becoming one of ‘those guys’ whose room is covered in colourful, broken, really quite redundant wood.
