Before youtube, google video and all the other video hosting sites stormed the media like a pixellated plague, there were a few good websites any skater sitting in front of his screen could rely on for damn good footage.
Anyone who lived in a very wet place, or had a minimum of knowledge of the right places to look, must have come across Post 22.
This site was a top knotch platform for the North Carolina scene and delivered montage upon montage of unknown rippers bubbling at the brim of industry recognition. Do any of these names mean anything to you? Scotty Moore, Jed and Chad Shooter, Brett Abramsky, Ty Rhode, Tyler Tufty, Dan Murphy, Eric Hunt, Mike Swett, Jeremy Menard or Justin Brock? Give and take 2 or 3 of them, I didn’t think so.
I reckon the boys at Post 22- James Tupper and Travis Knapp Prasek- got pretty fed up of all the praise their little montages were getting via the web and internet forums, so the creation of Carolina Love was obviously overdue. I for one was never aware that North Carolina boasted so many spots; banks, stairs, ledges, rails… A street skater’s dream. However, for a brief geographical hint, North Carolina is situated slap bang in the middle of the East Coast of North America, so endless summers and spot blow-outs do not exist it would seem. In fact, NC gets each and every season, and it’s pretty refreshing to see a bunch of skaters doubled up in the sweater department as the avoid sliding on wet leaves and running into piles of snow.
But essentially, all you want to know is who kills it, right? Well, everyone comes through with above average parts that will keep you watching. Scotty Moore opens the doors with a solid mix of rail and ledge skating; Brett Abramsky threads the needle more than once as he speeds around town; Jed and Chad Shooter seem a little bit redneck for my liking but the pop out is worthy of a rewind; Tyler Tufty and Dan Murphy share a part and pump some serious pop into their game; the 2 friends sections are sweet with an appearance by ex-pat local Luda Crooks representing the smidgen of transition skating- something sorely missed from such a solid video; and then finally there’s Justin Brock a.k.a. the Wizard, and Real’s latest recruit. It comes as no surprise that Real picked this fruit out of the bunch because to describe Justin’s skating would be balls to the wall, solid and the go to guy. No half stepping.
Sadly, Post 22 no longer exists on the web (or at least there site is no longer updated), but you can still catch up with the NC scene by logging onto www.skatenc.com You will not be disappointed. Show some Carolina Love and track this one down.
*The video doesn’t have any music credits, but the soundtrack is good varying from the rhymes of the Sugar Hill Gang to the guitar riffs of the Pixies.
Ralph Lloyd Davis
30.11.06