Some skaters can’t be helped (de cuna).
But guys like this who have talent and an ok style need a fucking agent or publicist.
Same with Aurelian. Releasing video parts on their YouTube channels with mashed together footage and shell suits. Fuuuuuuuck.
Any trick on that silver rail in the centre of Cov is insane, I was not expecting that!
He’s probably as good or better than Smithy but when it’s packaged like a turd who cares.
Turd is a bit strong, I’m not rushing out to buy a Darkstar board either but it’s hardly that bad.
It actually is that bad.
Someone could make that footage look way way way better.
The footage is amazing, it’s just framed* terribly.
*Literally framed terribly and also the music, the editing, all of it.
Wow. He must’ve hit most of the skateable and near skateable rails in the country.
Yeah, I agree on this.
I watched it with speakers and the audio was terrible - some footage only having sound through one channel and some stuff shot without a mic so you get that horrible in camera audio on a DSLR.
The video seemed to cut between 50 frames and 25 frames depending on who he’d filmed with. That pulls you straight out of an edit, I find.
Some stuff needed to be refilmed from decent angles or without horrendous clipping (Clipping happens and sometimes it is forgivable but that subway line in Sheff was really bad). The hero shots were very cheesy and the edit just seemed to want to push how gnarly he is - but the problem there is that even dudes on the same team have put out gnarlier stuff.
I dunno; it just wasn’t very rounded, I felt. The guy can flip into handrail tricks or throw basic rail tricks down massive things and that is rad but what’s his USP? I can get all this in a better form watching the Toy Machine or Baker video, y’know?
I dunno- sounds like I’m straight hating but he’s clearly good. It’s just ability without direction.
I feel like this happens more so than ever these days…and sometimes it reeks of desperation to just get a part out because people have nothing else to do rather than take time and care over putting out something really interesting.
Nail on head Kev.
Thats why Cover Version, Atlantic Drift stuff, Verso etc was amazing. Thought put in, not a load of travelling round the country 4,000 different filmers, and a crap edit.
Yeah I didn’t want to sound like that either.
But what you said about getting a good version of what he does from a Toy or Baker video is true and why this winds me up. With a bit of quality control maybe he has the potential to be one of the guys in a Toy machine video or whatever.
Edit and song were fucking horrible.
The criticisms are all valid, but it was sick to see him charging some rugged British handrails, particularly a whole bunch that are outside London. He’d clearly gone out of his way to find these. No one else in Briton is doing that to this standard apart from Manny Lopez and Harry Lintell, but even they would struggle with a flip nosegrind on Pond’s Forge. Americans and his Darkstar teammates might be able to do it, but not convinced they’d bother on these spots.
But I agree the filming needed to be more consistent. He should film with Get Lesta or someone.
Filming/ editing aside he’s in a weird position where he’s going down the gnarly handrail route but is literally being held back by the UK’s architecture so has to resort to doing those sort of fix ups. Needs to really get out to the US if he wants to go any further in the sponsored skater game.
Being from England we can respect how totally crusty some of those rails are but for vast majority of people who are really into this type of skating as someone said before they don’t care about how rugged the spot is they can watch Dakota Servold do something even more insane on a perfect So Cal rail.
Random interjection - Lintell has thrown a few flip nosegrinds down things. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that he could throw it down at Ponds Forge.
That said, he didn’t and Hinson did so fair play.
@hugo thats exactly it…I’d call it aiming for the bottom of the barrel, but as I said before - I don’t think there is any direction in that aim.
Without sounding too Gok Wan, with a bit of work he could be perfect for Toy Machine or Baker…
He fires out gnarly tricks but doesn’t really have perspective, I think.
@Spanky once said something to me which really fits here, I think.
I’d been trying some trick for half hour, diving into it and failing. He quite calmly asked me why I am doing exactly the same thing over and over yet expecting a different outcome.
Smart fucker, that one.
Also Manny & Lintell have Magee & Kev Parrott who are ON IT spot hunting wise and will be searching themselves and have an whole host of other photographers/ skaters pointing stuff out to them
I don’t imagine this Darkstar guy has this
I dunno…there were some pretty good spots in there. Although I’ve not shot anything at most I knew a good few and there were some unknown gems for sure.
I really hope Joe is finding these himself. I love it when skaters have their own spots.
Yeah not saying all the spots were bad, was more replying to the people calling him out for the crazy wooden run ups.
Yes it is quite wack but as I said he’s got to make do with what he can , I kinda respect that the guy is out doing such gnarly shit in the UK without any major push or backing.
My view is; do anything you can to make a spot skateable…but then why fix something only to show the repair job?
It’s just more of an aesthetic thing.
I mean, how many of you have a banging jacket or laptop or record or similar and have a tiny blemish on the item? Probably a shit analogy but with that stuff, I feel stoked right up to the point where I remember it’s a bit knackered.
(Some of) Those spots are crusty enough. Naturally. why take away from that?
Yeah, but his point was that in repetition, I am teaching my muscles to go from memory rather than switch up what I am doing and learning from previous attempts.
…and that’s my point with dudes putting out part after part after part of which, none ever really hit home.
Because it shows how gnarly it really is.
I’d rather them show the repair job than try to hide it
