Wow, it has been a long time since the last “Now Showing.” Between the holidays and working on the new site, there just hasn’t been enough time. Multiply that delay by the fact the holiday season always seems to motivate people to put out even more DVDs and edits, and we’ve missed that much more. A ton of edits have come out since the last article that are probably all just as deserving of recognition as the following three, but unfortunately we just can’t review them all. So in addition to great skating, great music, great filming and editing, the following choices also reflect my personal preferences of gnarliness. Feel free to cuss me out for being a moron and not highlighting your favorite edit.
WRS Finals
Though it isn’t just one edit, it’s basically mandatory that I talk about the WRS Finals edits; how could anyone not talk about them? I’m not even trying to critique each individual edit, so I’m just going to talk about the competition as a whole and point out some of the highlights.
First of all, the idea is genius. For an industry on a budget, with two existing headliner competitions coming up soon (Winterclash and BCSD), holding an online edit contest for the finals is fiscally responsible and still something everyone can get stoked on. The masterminds behind this must have really done their homework because they knew ahead of time that they would need to award both a fan favorite, and a favorite decided by an official panel of judges. Because just like real life, we want a democratic will of the people to make decisions, but sometimes, well, the people are dumb asses.
Like everything, there was controversy and arguments, just like we are seeing now with the ONE Skater of the Year. Sometimes the most dumbass comments came from people while complaining about other people being a dumbasses. With that being said, I’m about to complain about people being dumbasses. Some complained that young kids were just voting for their favorite skater and then turned around themselves using logic like, Nils is not allowed to beat Haffey because he rides Haffey’s skates. Some people actually complained that the competition shouldn’t be judged by the skating in the competition, but by their skating as a whole. Some tried to claim that because some skaters were in the middle of filming for videos they should for some reason be exempt from having to show better tricks than their competition. But anyways, my point is it was a very wise decision to have both a fan favorite and a favorite chosen by an official panel. Because in a sport that is just as much an art, where quality can’t really be calculated and measured, it isn’t always who is the most talented, it is just whoever inspires us dumbasses the most.
WRS Finals – Brian Aragon
My personal vote for 1st place went to Brian Aragon. Though his first trick was also in the Ground Control video (an area where the masterminds apparently didn’t do their homework or didn’t make clear), his backslide through three drops on a handicap rail completely amazed me and the effortless steeze made it that much more amazing. He brought a lot of what you are already used to seeing but really upped it for this one with some added swagger and non-traditional style on traditional-style spin to win moves. Like top soul up an ankle high ledge, to true spin 540, to (alley oop/reverse/backwards/whatever) soul. And like the way he true makio’d that stair rail and with his Bearagon super powers could have easily switched it up or spun to something else, but instead just hung that bitch out to the end like a true blader gang banger. And like the way he dropped down to backslide off that top soul like it was 1996 and he was rocking some worn in K2 Fatties. The rest of the edit you can watch yourself and see why he was chosen to take first place by the panel of judges.
WRS Finals – Highlights & Fan Favorite Nils Jansons
From there David Lang laced arguably one of the largest hammers ever in skating with his gap to royale to 360 out on the mega ramp. Bailey filled his time with some really stylish and create tricks on unique obstacles. Likewise, Broskow put down some really stylish, unique tricks. Watching the two together you really notice a shared Valo steeze. Stefan Horngatcher’s slingshot mountain skating edit was just crazy. Who thinks of shit like that? Don’t let Haffey get into his zone, cause he will lay some hammers on you. And the fan favorite Nils Jansons really surprised me. I honestly don’t think I had ever heard of him before this beyond maybe some random clips in an edit with his name small in the corner. But he came out so fast and on some of the burliest spots. The way he floated that enormous fakie 180 over and into the bank, I couldn’t help but be blown away and forced to put in some serious thought trying to decide between his edit and Aragon’s. At the end of the day “blading always wins” and getting to watch and actually vote and be a part of this competition, we all definitely won.