Ryan Navazio has uploaded the entire “Left / Right” DVD that came out back in 2007 for your viewing pleasure. This is definitely a legendary video stacked with a HUGE list of awesome riders. I highly, highly advise you cancel any plans and hit play on this. You won’t regret it.

Intro
00:00 – 01:48
Rob Wise
01:48 – 04:55
Larry Alvarado
04:55 – 07:33
East Coast Mix featuring:
Jared Washington, Darryl Tocco, Van Homan, Big James, George Dossantos, Vinnie Sammon, Bob Scerbo,
Jeff Kocsis, Mark Gralla, Edwin Delarosa, Tom White, Paul Horan, Lino Gonzales, and George Kastrinakas
07:33 – 10:12
Joe Mcintire
10:12 – 12:08
Philly Mix featuring:
Tom White, Brian Wizmerski, Mark Gralla, Chris Reyes, Evan Ayala, Sanchez, and Paul Horan
12:08 – 15:07
Dave Belcher
15:07 – 17:04
West Coast Mix featuring:
Raul Ruiz, Floyd, Aaron Bostrom, Sean Burns, Zac Costa, Chester Blacksmith,
Eric Lichtenberger, and Dakota Roche
17:04 – 19:39
Kurt Rasmussen
19:39 – 23:13
Credits
23:13 – 28:04
Left/Right was released in March 2007. It was an interesting time to be releasing a DVD because web videos were just starting to become more common and thecomeup was gaining more momentum. People were just starting to use HD cameras to film BMX, and even at that time I can remember being told that DVD’s were dying and it wasn’t likely that I would sell very many copies. I wasn’t necessarily as interested in selling tons of copies as I was in using the video to promote both the riders and my work. For me the goal was to make back what I spent and essentially make a name for myself so that I could hopefully continue to make BMX videos full time. It was promoted almost entirely by word of mouth, and with a few good reviews in magazines. It actually ended up doing pretty well with help from S&M distributing it on the west coast and Animal on the east coast.
A few people have asked the significance of the name Left/Right. Prior to Left/Right, Standpoint was a video magazine and each issue was numbered up to issue 6. Left/Right initially started out as Standpoint 7 but I wanted to move away from the video magazine side of things because releasing “issues” by number seemed to devalue the videos. Finding a proper name for the video would help ensure that it had a longer shelf life. I wanted a name that was descriptive of the content in the video and spent several months deliberating what the final title would be (I had a list of about 5 or 10 different titles that I wish I could find because I don’t remember what they were anymore). Half of the video was filmed on the west coast representing the “left” and the other half on the east coast representing the “right”. A vague but simple title that worked perfectly.
A good portion of the project was financed through the sale of clips I had filmed over the years to a company in California that made segments for an on demand cable network. At one point, before going on Red Bull’s Mean Streets, I was basically out of money . I didn’t have enough to even cover rent the following month before leaving for that trip. I ended up on a team with Gary Young and Morgan Wade, and as luck would have it, our team won that contest. Those guys split the winnings with me and that helped finance the rest of the project and kept me afloat. I seriously can’t thank Gary and Morgan enough for splitting that cash with me. I shot the intro to the video video on a Bolex using 16mm film purchased with my old student ID at Kodak in Hollywood. By the time I was ready to get the film processed and transferred (the final step before editing) I paid for it by selling an old VX1000 to Larry Alvarado. The same VX1000 was used to film Criminal Mischief, which was given to me in trade for working on the Little Devil DVD. The MK1 fisheye (used throughout the video) was also used in the making of Criminal Mischief.
All of the DVD artwork and animation in the video was created by Sean Curran aka Whiteboy. Whiteboy designed the famous Animal griffin head logo and was Animal’s lead parts designer at the time. He designed all of the packaging and graphics for the previous Standpoint videos and Left/Right was his first venture into animation using After Effects. The cover photo was shot and donated by Ride US photographer Jeff Zielinski. Dean Dickinson was one of the only other videographers to contribute footage. On the east coast, the video premiered at Van Homan’s now defunct two by four store in Pennsville, NJ and out west at 9 star in Mission Viejo, Ca (Kurt Rasmussen’s hometown).
Over the years I’ve had some of the most talented riders (and some of my favorite riders) in the world tell me this is one of their all time favorite videos. Hearing that has motivated me to try and get people to see it, either for the first time or to revisit. Most of this video has remained absent from the internet until now. There was a google video version with out of sync audio up for a few years but google video is no more. I’ve also mastered the compression settings to a point where I’m happy with the quality. So this is the first official release of Left/Right online. Enjoy!

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Kurt

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