The clock has been counting down to zero on this DVD for the last three years – finally it hit 0:00 and SK8UK is sat at the Prince Charles Theatre in a very wet and cold London night. After several team changes, new guys and teaser clips and the notable let downs of Nike and Element’s attempts at “living up to the hype” Fully Flared is ready for consumption.

The video is a step-up in many ways, filming in parts is in High Definition and directed by one time Transworld lenseman, Ty Evans - the crisp format is only matched by the skating on display. As you would expect from a Crailtap release, a few special effects courtesy of Spike Jonze and his production team start the video off in super slow motion with Eric Koston’s opener…..a kickflip down 5 steps. ‘So?’ you might think, but before you can get online and hate on the video, he barged head on through a concrete wall emerging triumphant in the scattering debris on the other side like he was the Hulk. The explosive opening montage has the team hitting a wasteland spot with steps and blocks exploding all over the skaters mid trick, Cairo Foster gets majorly taken out and is consumed in the dust storm – a great opening!

First section goes to 17 year old Girl Am, Mike ‘Mo’ Capaldi, who seems to be cherry picking tricks from all his team-mates to form an accomplished well rounded, innovative style with long powering lines – comfy with either long drift on nollie heelflips or backtail-bigflips, all at more than required amounts of speed, trick landed on bolts as standard. Standouts for me were, fakie ollie switch front crook treflip out and the ender killed it with a tailslide on a block-180 out dropping to frontbluntside on a lower block, insanity, this guy is here to stay. Anthony Pappalado is next up to bat, he starts his section by locking up a grind and dropping 6 feet and shattering in to thousands of pieces, (gotta love a big budget!). Good strong East Coast vibe with possibly the most rugged section on the video, lots of rough spots and some amazingly smooth backside tailslides round corner benches and speed lines.

The middle section is from the Euro representatives – with a nice montage from around the continent and sections from Cliché’s finest JB Gillet and Lucas Puig and former cliché pro, JJRousseau – also in the mix is Chocolate’s insane Jesus Fernandez. The pace and vibe is so different to the American guys section with tricks from JB like backsmith to noseslide on a block and JJ’s backlip 360 out, while Jesus goes all out speeding around with tight bigspin fakie 5-0s and some block to block trickery, the French Connection are definitely representing Europe strong on this DVD.

The Royal Family, amazing to see some UK talent on this DVD, really interesting section which will get mixed reactions – Nick Jenson and Danny Brady have a combined part with an overly long ”London” montage of tourist shots, they cram in plenty of tricks, but I feel it’s a fraction of their ability on show here, the filming felt as rushed and hyperactive as the skating, which is out of step with the rest of the polished performances on this DVD, the Charlatans tune they used did little to keep the flare of the video alive. Some very fast skating and amazing front board 360 out on a handrail. I suspect there will be more to come on the next Blueprint release in 2008.

The next full section is a guy who is often slept on, Cairo Foster. And, like Pappalardo, starts with a slam. Well, he sticks a grind and plummets to the depths of the earth down a black hole (no, really!). Cairo has been travelling more miles than most skaters, and his section is filmed all over. His clean style filmed in fresh spots isn’t compromised a bit by his “attack” style of skating and he throws down some handrail action with drifting ollies to back lip and hit patented front nose-slides on huge hubbas. Cairo actually does the most perfect krook grinds, on anything!

Some established names make a solid appearance in the form of Jeff Lenoce, Scott Johnson and Rob Welsh – all still plugging away at unknown street spots. Johnson still has the smooth flow, while Welsh has a similar feel to skaters like Muska and eases tricks like nose slide to back lipslide. Lenoce just hits up anything with his Baker style of hammer-hammer-hammer. No set of steps goes unflipped! Alex Olson had a solid “Cardiel” like section, skating in a lumberjack shirt, spinning fast 360 ollies and leaving dust trails in his wake.

The heavyweights weighed in towards the end of the video, long serving Rick Howard had a full length section, and felt brand new with it – lots of blunt slides, sweet nosegrind 360shuvs and even some nice bowl action too. Mike “Malakai” Carroll section is almost like “this is your life” with tricks from many eras of skating. From manual roll impossibles to his trademark feeble grinds – and even adds some combo’s with tricks like flip hurricanes and smithgrind 360shuvs out. No shortage of street lines and step/rail action either, this section really has something for everyone.

There was much anticipation over Brandon Biebel’s section, and lived up to anyones expectations. The chunkiest guy on the team possibly has the most control, longest fakie 5-0 I have ever seen, and even flips out and easing tricks like nollieflip crooks on handrails is just part of Biebel’s game, he is like a white Stevie Williams with his close control, block steez and XXXL shirts! The standout for me was a nosemanual to nollie flip down 8 steps, his skating doesn’t respect any boundaries! The names on this DVD just get bigger and bigger, Eric Koston is undoubtedly the hottest property in street skating and has been for best part of 15 years, this section is cobbled together with footage from the “éS” days – the section has lines and hammers all through notables were a fakie treflip down Macba in Barca, huge switch frontside 360’s down steps and plenty of picnic bench tech action, also look out for the superman eye laser stress scene!

A major standout was Guy Mariano, possibly upstaging Koston with speed lines, and a very fresh feel for a veteran of so many years. Lots of nice drifts on his flips and ollies, especially over large fence gaps – scary amounts of tech too with smithgrind to switch crooks on a block and 270 tailslides on handtrails, a very urgent style and no trick is done with anything less than 100% conviction, even his flatland filler tricks are super popped, add switch treflip to lipslide on a handrail and Guy is definitely working to carry on leading the way with new ideas and good style, just like when he emerged on the Blind video all those years ago as a kid – the grown up version of Guy never fails to bring a smile, rarely does it show a pro is enjoying his skating so much.

The last section is undoubtedly the longest, possibly too long for some, but Marc Johnson has a trick bag that would rival any other skater, and it’s easy to see why he is Thrasher’s Skater of the Year. He has two sections essentially, and needs them to get all these tricks out of his head! Although it’s usually the technical tricks that stand out, Johnson opts for more flow and less tech to start with. Lots of blunt combos and a fantastic late shuvit too, the bigger tricks have certainly taken their toll on the veteran, MJ dies harder than Bruce Willis! Tricks like cab-flips on double sets and lipslide to nosebluntslides (in the rain!) are so worth the pain! The second part of his section is more tech with manny-tre-manny action and topped off for me with a frontblunslide bigflip out.

In conclusion, this video timecodes “now” perfectly, with the eclectic music, diverse styles of skating and cutting edge technology. A great blend of American/Euro skating will assure this release is a success world wide and firmly established. Lakai is the #1 shoe team out there with a roster of the biggest names, and the most promising emerging am’s. I felt the first and last sections were the standouts, with a strong showing from all, especially Mariano. I can’t see this DVD being topped for sometime, perhaps Plan B might have something to say about that – so, bring it on!

Words: Philip Procter

Pics: Lakai