Tags: born under punches, erik bill, gage luce, nick w
Idaho is more famously known for it's potatoes rather than it's rollerblading scene. However, over the last few years Idaho's skating scene has grown fairly well, though it may not be the most booming place for rollerblading...
Idaho is more famously known for it's potatoes rather than it's rollerblading scene. However, over the last few years Idaho's skating scene has grown fairly well, though it may not be the most booming place for rollerblading. Aside from Erik Bailey being originally from the potato state, Idaho has yet to really produce anything of extreme greatness in the rollerblading scene. “Born Under Punches” which is Erik Bill's latest video attempt showcases skaters from all over including Utah, Idaho, California, and various other locations.Now let me just say this, the DVD menu pissed me off at first, plus the Cage song that he used as the track for the menu gets horribly annoying when it is repeated. Figuring out that menu is harder than breaking into Fort Knox. The after effects and the over all design of the film is rather interesting, Erik Bill got pretty fancy this time around, but didn't over do it like some video producers make the mistake of doing.
The first profile of the video is Erik Bailey, I was pretty excited for it. The skating was very good, the only thing that really disappointed me was that it looked like all of Baileys clips were stuff that was either old or stuff he didn't use in WAV3. Even though they may have been secondary clips the section flowed very well.
Baileys sections flows directly into the first montage. There was something about this section that I liked, I am not sure if it was the song or what, either way it's pretty good. The first montage has some very good skating in it as well from Jeff Stockwell, Nick W, Jeff “Frodo” Stanger, Zach Egbert, Willie Trebach, as well as few others.
Now the second profile of the video is of Boise local Ty Acuff. This section impressed me to say the least. Ty over the last 3 or 4 years has progressed a lot and at a rapid pace, his style is clean and his skating is solid. This was definitely one of my favorite profiles in the entire video. It will be cool to see how much this kid progresses over the next few years and I look forward to seeing more stuff from him in the future.
Now after Ty's section comes Geoff Phillip from Northern Idaho. This kid is really good and it's a shame that he hasn't gotten the exposure he rightfully deserves. Geoff has a solid arsenal of tricks, he has stunts, tech stuff and everything in between on lock down. His style is clean and natural looking. Geoff, has that natural ability to be good at skating and I really, really hope he gets more exposure in the future.
Next up is Chris Olpin from Salt Lake City. Chris is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. Chris's skating speaks for it's self. He has good style and his skating is clean and just all around fun to watch. I personally would never skate street again, let alone jump on a handrail after what he went through a few years back. If you don't know what I am talking about then just search for his scared story on youtube. Chris claims this is his last section ever. However, if that is true (which I don't believe) I am glad it turned out as good as it did.
The next profile was Eli St. Germaine's. Now I have never heard of this kid before, but he isn't too shabby, he has some cool style and an alright selection of tricks. In a few years this guy has the potential to be really good. Hopefully we can see some more of him in the future.
One of the my biggest problems with the video was the excessive amounts of profiles. I think it took away from the video as a whole, there were some people that just didn't need to have a profile. Such is the case with Joe Taormina, at the start of his section he looks like he was auditioning to be the double for Luke Wilson in “The Royal Tenenbaums” His skating was boring and very basic. I understand that Erik Bill likes to include his friends in his videos and that's awesome, but this guy just didn't need a section and that is all there is to it.
Mikey Petrack (sorry if that's wrong). Anyway, this guy was pretty good as well, but once again I don't think he had the trick vocabulary to get his own profile. His style was pretty sweet. I think it would have been better off if he had a split section with someone else in the video, rather than a whole section to himself.
The second montage of the video starts off with Tim Roudabosh and a disaster top porn that could have ended up really bad if he had screwed up. The skating in this montage was pretty on point. Montre Livingston, Will Gordon, Kyle Kusche, Jim Robertson, Jon Cooley and a few others all come through with some impressive tricks.
Phil Davidson's aka Phetus Phil (haha) profile came after the montage. Now Phil is good, but I wasn't really feeling his style all that much. He has a pretty cool trick vocabulary and his section was pretty fun to watch. Though once again, I think this section should have been made into a shared profile. Either way in a couple years this kid will be able to pull through with a good solid solo profile.
Steve Devine's section wasn't very impressive. He had a couple tricks that were decent, but nothing more than that. I wasn't a big fan of his style and his tricks vocab was mediocre. This is another section that could have been left out all together, and just used the more impressive clips in a montage section.
Profile #9 belonged to Kyler Martz. I would have honestly liked to see more of a trick vocabulary from him, because I know he is capable of it. His profile was decent, I think once again it should have been combined as a split profile though.
Montage 3 was probably my favorite of all the montages. The skating was good and the song was good and it flowed well with the editing. It had some good skating from JT Truitt, Jonathan Roulston, Gavin Fitch, Kawika Jarman, Jake Dotson and a couple others. The whole section just had a cool vibe to it and it was put together very well.
Erik Bill has the last section of the video. Now don't get me wrong he is pretty good at skating and all, but it bugs me when the editor of the video gives the last section to himself. Erik has progressed a lot since I was living in Boise, his style, tricks, and just over all skating has gotten a lot better. I don't agree with the fact that he has a section and especially the last one at that. But over all, I liked it his section. It had good skating and a good song that went with his skating.
The final montage which is the outro was pretty cool, I personally think that there were some tricks that should have been completely left out, but whatever. Dan Dickerson from Salt Lake comes through with a nice assortment of tricks. So does Ty Acuff again and a few others such as Taylor Acuff and Benji Downen, Eli St Germaine. Like I said though, it would have been a lot better if some of the tricks had been left out all together.
Overall “Born Under Punches” was a good video. Erik Bill did a great job with the music selection and the editing for the most part flowed with all the sections very well. Like I said earlier though, I think it's cool to have your friends in a video, but there were some sections that either needed to be cut out completely or should have been made into shared sections. I also think that the sections should have been reversed, cause after the first few sections it really does start to go down hill. The quality of the filming was pretty good too, I think the one thing that I disliked about it is that you could tell which clips were filmed in HD and which ones weren't. If you have $20 to spend and you don't know what to spend it on, I would suggest picking up this video. It's a fun video to watch overall, a little long though it runs about 50 minutes. The Bonus section is good as well, it includes a profile of Gavin Fitch from Seattle, a bonus reel and a pretty cool park edit. I would rate this video a 7 out of 10.
Review by Gage Luce
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