FLIP!!!!!!

The internet was down at the shop for a few days so there hasn't been a post in a while, apologies for that.
The biggest thing that has happened recently has to be the Flip premier, it was only on friday but it feels like ages ago already, here is a little report on what happened, if you don't want to spoil the video then don't read anymore, the DVD will be available around the 15th of October.


The first Flip premier I went to was for the original Sorry at the Prince Charles Theatre in London, its a proper full size cinema and seeing it on a huge screen was rad so I understood when a few people were dubious when they heard extremely sorry was being held in a nightclub no one had heard of, and they weren't playing the video til half ten!
We scooted up to get there for about half nine and after getting past the five doormen and metal detector to get in we were faced with a whose who of british skateboarding all waiting for the video, Nick Death, Steak, Ben Nordberg, Neil Smith, Vaughan Baker and Paul Shier were all milling about but it wasn't til we left we heard Lance Mountain had been there too!
After Darren bought a warm Stella can for £4.50 we waited around for a bit before finally being let in to another room with a projector set up, the room filled up pretty quickly with excited skaters and the doors were closed, then we had a pretty stern speech saying if anyone at all was caught filming any of the screen, even on a phone, the whole video would be stopped! Some moron didn't take this seriously and was wrestled out of the premier by one of the owners of Flip, who had been travelling around to every premier with a single copy of the video in an attempt to stop piracy.
It has cost flip over £1,000,000 to make this video, if you consider all the hotel rooms, paying the pros, paying the filmer and editor, paying Baron to produce an entirely original soundtrack, it all adds up! It is estimated that they will need to sell 100,000 copies in order to recoup their expenses!
It is pretty much guaranteed that one of the Flip riders is up in your favourite skaters list, they have a team of some of the best skaters in the world, so if you want to show them some respect for the inspiration they provide you with videos like this, then you should definitely buy a copy! You really need to see this on a proper screen at a proper resolution, watching a bootleg version is just gonna ruin it for you.
Anyway, the video starts off with a Shane Cross section of bangers including the nose grind down El Toro which was rumored to only be a photo, I thought that was gonna be it but then it breaks into a full section from Shane, they had really been keeping it under wraps and the skating is really good, Shane would definitely be one of the best skaters out there at the moment if he was still with us.
Geoff Rowley has a pretty bangin section with some rad road gap to hangups that you need to see to appreciate, and all the footage of the ridiculous ads he has had for the past few years, one criticism I would have had is that you sort of knew what was coming because a lot of its been ads, but the skateboarding was ridiculous never the less.
Little man Louie Lopez has a pretty rad part and does some man sized stuff for such a small fella and has a good choice in tricks. It seemed like Rodrigo TX surprised a lot of people with a really strong section, he seems a bit underrated in the U.K. and he kills a bunch of Barcelona spots with some seriously huge switch pop.
Ali Boulala has a section with a few bangers in but obviously people weren't expecting too much due to him being in jail, ollieing the Macba four in clogs seemed to be a crowd favourite! Rune has a pretty sick section which seemed a little short compared to his Sorry part, but the quality of what there was was ridiculous, I would say you may have seen a lot of it in Thrasher but it doesn't seem like kids read the mags these days! The oververt tailslide is one the sickest things in his part. Luan, who I have been hyping up for ages, has a really solid part, not many NBD's but everything he does is super stylish and clean, and the switch crook fakie bigspin flip out ender is buttery beyond belief, definitely one of the best sections.
Appleyard seemed to be a crowd favourite as his part started, and he does do some amazing stuff, nollie biggerspins over bins and nollie big heel down Macba, but again a few people seemed to think his part could have been longer and stronger.
Tom Penny is a U.K. legend but i'm not sure if people were expecting much from him, he has been really low key for years while skateboarding has been progressing really really fast and while the current trend of bigger boards and smaller shoes seems to be making everyones tricks look really clean Penny still has huge shoes and smallish boards meaning there are a few tricks that look a bit sloppy as he has a few toe bars, some of the tricks are really clean though and its rad to have a new Penny section. Curran Caples has a pretty rad section but I think a lot of people still see him as a little kid, having said that his section was far from kiddy, massive street gaps which surprised a lot of people, and some really floaty transition stuff.

I have had to start a new paragraph in respect of Bob Burnquist, he comes through with the most progressive mega ramp part ever, I seriously thought Danny Way was ridiculous but Bob take things to a whole new level, the amount of people that skate vert is ridiculously small, but the amount of cheering and respect Bob had was amazing, I would like to point out some highlights but everything he does is ridiculous, switch flip fifty the rainbow rail, tre flip fifty, straight frontside flip (no grab) over the mega ramp gap! Just imagine doing a forty foot plus frontside flip! He frontside full cabs into the mega ramp quarter, which is insane, back 3 to manny over the gap, the list goes on and on, it is literally worth buying the video just for Bobs section, all the stuff at the X Games he was clearly just toying with while he was keeping all this ridiculous stuff under wraps. Did I mention the no grab 540 over the gap? or 15 ft straight switch frontside ollie with no grab out the mega quarter? Bob Burnquist we salute you sir!

David Gonzalez closes out the video and his part is amazing, he clearly has no regard for his personal safety as he flings himself down 25 stair rails, but he has the skill to pull it off too! By the time his part was on I was still buzzing from Bobs part and trying to take in all the ridiculous stuff he was doing, my favourite thing he does involves a line with two huge rails that you really need to see, he literally cemented himself into skateboarding as one of the gnarliest dudes out there with this part and I think any mention of kiddy steez or him being too young will go straight out the window once anyone sees this part.

Overall the video definitely lives up to the hype, after the mega slo mo fest of Fully flared it is rad to have a video which has a really small amount of slo mo and arty stuff and just has straight bangers one after another, no 9 minute three song parts here just straight gnar! Having said that all the filming is really good, the edits are really good and there is a claymation animation to introduce each rider which is pretty sick. Also in Shane Crosses part there is some rad animation that doesn't detract away from the skating and is actually really cool, I want a monket wrapping around my neck in a video part! I was really stoked on the video and it has definitely made me want to go and learn some tricks, which is exactly what a video should do, a whole new step of proggression in skateboarding and if it doesn't cement Flip as one of the greatest skateboard companies out there in kids minds then you all need your heads read!

Check our background props out in this vid: