DVD Review: We Are Valo 3

I first saw this DVD at the We Are Valo 3 premiere after the X-Mass Battle in Winterthur. The vibe was amazing as a lot of Gabriel Hyden’s and Cosimo Tassone’s friends were present. But unfortunately the beamer pretty much killed the video due to its bad distortion and low quality, so I was really happy when I finally got to see it at home and in decent quality.


The intro is a very nice and short presentation of all the team riders. After this the video is kicked off with Swiss powerhouse Cosimo Tassone. This guy is a giant and he skates as if he was on a mission to destroy everything. I have seen this guy rip out handrails by just skating them and I have seen him destroy two sets of brand new frames during one session in a skatepark. The Swiss guys all really care about style and you can certainly tell when you watch Cosi skate. Like all the guys in the Swiss Connection he skates really fast, with supernatural control and steeze. The only thing that sets him apart form the others is how he seems to be seeking for stunts. This section really shows why he is one of the most famous European skaters.

Alex Broskow’s section is amazing. The lack of street spots is more than compensated by the amount of speed and air in his section. His lines and flow are incredible and his section is way more than just decent… but to be honest I would really have liked to see a bit more streetskating.

Victor Arias used to be one of the skaters I didn’t like to watch. His skating was not bad, but it was way too much spin to win for me. Now this is much better, Victor’s style is sweet and he has gotten away from just spinning and has added very nice lines, grinds to gaps, creative tricks and much more to his skating. One of the most unbelievable tricks is an X-grind to Truespin X-grind on a chain and a Sweaty jump over the kink to BS Royal on a Ledge. Very nice Victor!

Gabriel Hyden most definitely is Austria’s most valuable player in the rolling game. I think I don’t need to say too much about his section because all the magazines, websites and forums have been praising his skating lately… enough has already been said. Just check out his interview in Be-mag and you will be able to guess what you will get to see! Who really surprised me was Oli Short. I didn’t expect his section to bee too good, but it turned out to have a lot of nice skating and a lot of personality! This really is one of the best Short sections I have seen besides the one in Clip 4!

Ross Kuhn, Austin Paz and Sean Keane have got a split section. Ross impresses with one of the sickest bank to bank 900’s I have ever seen done outside a skatepark and some almost Sagona-like creative use of architecture. Sean Keane is all about stunts… his FS Torque up a handrail is really nuts. Austin Paz was also fun to watch and I think his skating looks way better on video than on photos!

It’s amazing how sick Jon Julio is still skating at his age. His section is pretty sick but not too unpredictable. It was almost 100% what I expected: tons of Topsouls, Souls, Fishys and Wallrides. Erik Baileys section shows a man at work. I really love that you can actually see how hard the tricks he does are. When trying to show somebody how sick skating is I would use a Erik Bailey section because his skating is rough, pure, totally crazy and he doesn’t make skating look too easy.

Could somebody please tell me how a professional photographer can put together a better section than some pros in several productions? I remember seeing Brandon Smith in old VGs and seeing him skate brings up a lot of good memories. His style of skating it absolutely unique and it looks as if he wouldn’t even care about the trick he just did or he is just going to do. Everything looks so effortless and natural. Brandon on skates is like a fish in the water. Check it out!

The only real disappointment for me was that there is no Kanashima section!

-Lui Summer

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