Skateboard movies are the main marketing tool for shoe/board companies these days – they have meetings, think-tanks – and go about it with a clear vision of how the end product should be, and that’s before a tape is even put in the camera. But, what happens when there isn’t a product to sell? Who funds it? Who pays for the film? The petrol? The answer is simple, passion. Long time lenseman Josh Stewart has worked for the likes of 411, Adio and Transworld to name a few, the calibre of client speaks for itself. So when Mr Stewart start collecting his own footage and getting nagged to step to the editing suite, in 1999 Static was born. Starting with his native Tampa scene, blowing up the likes of Forrest Kirby – and moving on to Part II with a wider field of skaters attracting hardcore street urchins like Bobby Puleo, Paul Shier and Ricky Oyola. Static III still keeps the bona fide underground edge and lines up with the likes of Danny Renaud and UKs own Olly Todd……..

The start of the video is slick, almost like an intro to the latest million dollar skate video game, uber tight titling is on display here - first up is the free flowing skating of Pat Steiner, weighing in with long east-coast lines and dropping some harsh tricks like boardsliding a kinked rail to fakie landing to fakie nose manual, at speed too! The video has a “oh yes, I can use an editing suite too” feel with elaborate, but relevant intro’s to sections, showing us around the respective skaters hood a little and rolling in and out of montages of skaters just cruising.

Tony Manfre kicks his section off with a heavy frontside flip over some steps (rather than merely down them!) and continues the drifting flip over a rail to boot – no fear, and the LL Cool J “rock da bells” track suits the punchy style and tops off with a frontside flip revert over the gap at Meanwhile. The section is spiced up with cameos from Tino Razo and the ever green Todd Jordan throwing in some rail action. Jahmal Williams represents Brooklyn and throws down too heavy pop too, and switching over to the Boston Division of Kevin Coakley and Lee Berman for some gritty nasty spots that you would expect to find in deepest Lancashire!

Soy Panday, half French, half Indian – but in skating terms half Cairo Foster, Half the Gonz – his 3minutes of fame isn’t littered with hammers, kinda reminiscent of the “royal family” section in the Lakai DVD, but less urgent, his main trick style is, “random”, and “let the spot pick the trick” – longest lines out front the Eiffel Tower and plenty of awkward flip manuals and quick feet, a joy to watch just cruise.

Insert a quickfire of skaters to a James Brown-esque beat and sit back and enjoy 2minutes from the likes of Quim Cardona, who possibly has the biggest ollie, the now heavily bearded Bobby Puleo shows up for a couple of tricks and drags street soldiers like Akira, Steve Durante and Bobby Worrest in to the mix, these guys all share a section, but their tricks all needed to see the light of day.

Danny Renaud is a name that’s going around a bit, and his section wont do his hype any harm – no fear of the dark in this boy – backside flips 6 steps…a 5foot gap with a chest high rail at the end of it in to the darkness – and has the confidence to pull backside 180s out of 50/50s on handrails too, I get the impression he lands more than he doesn’t, cant wait to see more – his “catching on the way up” style of flipping is rock solid, The Sunday sessions around downtown Miami have definitely paid off – expect more from Danny as soon as he recovers from his severe accident breaking both his legs in a 9 storey fall rupturing his kidney and lung on the way, word on the streets is he will make a full recovery and also expect to see more Miami footage, it’s the new Barca f’sure.

The UK is represented in a very true sense by Olly Todd – If anyone has had the pleasure of seeing him skate they will know this section is just the tip of the iceberg of what he is capable of, speed lines through London’s bad spots are all hit up with a mixed bag of over crooks, tailslides and gaps, mixed in with some of fellow team mate (Stereo) Clint Peterson throwing down a lovely high ollie late shuvit and super styler Danny Supa dropping a lofty backside flip – makes it well worth a watch, but Olly, whats that cardigan all about? Maybe it was flowed by Dekline when he jumped ship from Vans this year.

More chaos – starting in Miami with Forrest Kirby cab flipping on the seafront and dragging some of the MIA locals along for the ride and some tricks from the likes of Kalis, Ben Gore and ending up in the UK again with some Joey Crack, Paul shier and Nick Jenson popping (switch?) over the block at SouthBank in to the bank – word is, Static IV is going to have a very London flavour to it, I hope the mockneys stepped up in MIA and came through with footage this winter.

New Jersey Minute – is Mark Wetzel and Steve Durante having a little morning session, again, more awkward tricks and more dirty street spots! I think Durante does a trick Ive never seen – switch frontside bigspin to noseslide on 18” block – not bad! At this point I’m craving some sunshine footage.

Last section is Nate Broussard. A small section, but with tricks you don’t see everyday – ollie over a small volcano to newdeal (its like a no handed nose pick!) and long speedy gaps to nose manual, no blue sky, but with tricks like those, you don’t look away from the skater for a single frame.

The video ends with a city montage of footage any videographer would be proud of, with a few extras on the DVD too – but in conclusion, this video is a strange mix of the cleanest editing of the dirtiest footage and after 40 minutes, I can see how it wouldn’t work for everyone – but it’s a rock solid reminder that no matter how drab your town is, you have spots – and tricks can be laid down by using a little creativity rather than sitting at home moaning online that your local spots are whack! So I hope this inspires the street kids to go look at some written off spots again and the video/media types also take something from this DVD and see that you don’t need Nike’s bank account to achieve a high end production feel. Definitely worth checking out.

Philip Procter