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Random Video Reviews

Every year, around this time, a bunch of snowboard companies put out videos. And for some reason, some of them believe that Yobeat is a credible enough source that sending us a review copy and thusly having us publish a review will actually help promote their video. So this year, I’ve compiled the ones that are so random that I can’t get paid to review them into what I’m going to call the most random video reviews ever. Oh yeah, and the skate video, well, I just wanted that one so I asked for it and they were nice enough to give it to me. 

All Day

NP Productions

This video from Bend, Ore. is the most national local video of the year. After all, real pro snowboarders reside in Bend, so some of them are in this video. They also have plenty of snow and big mountains to ride. This makes for some fairly epic boarding. All this adds up to a video that’s almost like the big guys, except not quite so inaccessible to the little people who might aspire to do the things they see in videos. For this reason I enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t particularly original and the music reminded me of the parties I used to go to in 9^th grade (yeah alt rock!) but it was fun to watch and it made me want to snowboard. Mission accomplished.

Nope

Hardwire Productions

You made be scared off from this movie when the first thing that pops across the screen is “A film about Ohio snowboarding.” But if you are its because you don’t know that Ohio is the best place on earth, especially to snowboard. Okay, well maybe that last part is a lie, but Ohio is awesome, and this video is a pretty good showcase of that awesome-ness. I’m going to go ahead and make the claim that Hardwire is like the Neoproto of the Midwest. After all, it's very clear that’s who they look up to in snowboarding, hence all the extreme jibbing and drops of death. Maybe the bigger picture here is the Neoproto crew should make their video in Ohio. Anyway, back to the video. Nope does a good job of working with what it has. The music is good and editing is pretty neat and it made me laugh at least 4 times. Now you know.

Human Doing Vol. 2

Illicit Media

This Michigan video is like, the ultimate showcase of park riding by kids from Michigan. They hit parks from Michigan to Colorado, Mammoth and back again. The amazing part about this video is that it was essentially made by a bunch of random kids in the Midwest, but the film quality and editing are as good as any of the biggest professional videos. The riding in the video looks fun. Sure, it’s hard to get too excited about park riding, but for what they had to work with, I’d say these guys did alright. For a bunch of riders I’ve never heard of, they did ride the parks well. Plus everyone needs a video to watch to get psyched to go ride parks (which is probably more likely than the number of people who watch the video to get psyched for riding backcountry kickers.)

SnowDVD

I was watching this video and thinking, who would want to watch this. I finally came up with the answer: my dad. He likes this stuff. Basically this is a video resort guide that features over 2 hours of random footage from resorts around the world. There’s a bunch of B-roll of restaurants and people walking around ski villages, and a lot of hockey games. And then there’s some mediocre snowboarding and mogul skiing. Admittedly this video did make me want to travel, but of course, watching ads for Travelocity does that too.  What can I say, I love that stupid garden gnome. 

Static II: The Invisibles

A Prospects Production

I have been reviewing snowboard videos for about two weeks straight now. So perhaps the reason I liked this movie so much is that it is not about snowboarding. But I doubt it. I think I liked this movie a lot because it’s really, really good. And I’m not just saying that because the film’s creator told me I made him laugh and offered to send money so his movie would get a good review. No, it’s good because it has rad music, good skating and is just plain fun to watch. The skating in this movie is both technical and all that crap, but better yet, is kind of funny. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean it like, it’s humorous and creative. The best part of this video though is the editing. Instead of having only the beginning of the song play and then fading out to deceive the viewer into thinking the skater had enough footage to fill a full song, the whole song plays, multiple people have parts during said song, and the skating goes with the music. Finally, as someone who likes to point out every single person I know in a video, I really appreciated the name credits every time there’s a new skater. Not that I know any skateboarders, but if I did it would be really helpful to my cause. So watch Static II. They go to Egypt and skateboard.