Edit: With the video being released to the internet for free it was bound to happen before schedule. This is the Levi’s BMX Video in full length right here.

Alright, I have been dragging ass on this one. I don’t know why. I had the opportunity to check it out at NORA Cup and I probably should have done it that night. I slacked, but here it is.. My review on the Levi’s DVD.

Edit: I got an email from Will Stroud so I updated some information in here about where else you can pick it up. I also added in other things I forgot due to doing this at 7:30 in the morning after waking up. I marked my fixes with a bold Edit so you can find them.

To start it out first of all Levi’s did an AMAZING job of letting the world know there would be a BMX video coming out from them. I think people were anticipating it from the second the team, then the flow team was picked. It was always on your mind because every week they would have a new Levi’s edit on Vital BMX with amazing riding. I honestly had to question how they were going to make a full length video if they had so many amazing tricks in the web videos.

With names like Corey Martinez, Jamie Bestwick, Anthony Napolitan, and Morgan Wade you cannot go wrong. That is literally a stacked team right there by itself. Then guys like Ron Thomas, Brett Walker, Dakota Roche, Jeremiah Smith, Nathan Williams, Ronnie Napolitan, Zack Warden, and Johnny Stevens as the flow team, who were personally picked by the pros, it is also stacked.

A little shot of some of the people at Nora Cup and the Levis premiere.

So the premiere was last Wednesday at NORA Cup, a room full of BMX riders, half of which were hammered drunk due to Levi’s picking up the tab for the open bar if I remember right? The video was honestly all the talk during Interbike that day. I personally was freaking out because I was following the video pretty well with the web videos and everything, I couldn’t figure out what to expect and just had to see it.

Obviously the riding was great. Those guys had the chance to travel so much this past year to film at so many good spots. Basically it went in sections divided up by the pro, and their picks for the flow team. It is hard not to want to talk about the tricks that went down because there were so many that I feel like telling you one or two really wouldn’t effect much. all I am going to say is that Martinez and his crew have the ender part, and it had my jaw on the dirty ass floor by the end of it.

Edit: I apparently forgot who rides with who for which sections so I will break it down for you here.

The video goes like this. The intro which was similar to the trailer on Vital. The first part goes to Anthony Napolitan with Jeremiah Smith and Ronnie Napolitan Zack Warden with Ron Thomas. Jamie Bestwick pretty much had his own part. Next up is Morgan Wade with Brett Walker and Johnny Stevens. The final part is Corey Martinez with Nathan Williams and Dakota Roche, which obviously finishes with the credits.

The pro and the flow guys they picked all have sections together, mixed. So the pro with their flow guys in one part. Then the following pro, etc. since that seems to have confused some of the kids online.

The filming and editing… Honestly, if you follow BMX videos, and have knowledge of other videos, you will know that when I say Will Stroud did an amazing job you will understand. The clips were clean, they weren’t rushed into the next clip, proper set up time and ender time. They obviously were using the best of the best equipment too so it was all real clean and smooth. The editing was good too. I personally liked how they broke it down into 4 parts between the pro and his picks. It really showed how the guys are connected in some way. I do editing, I don’t claim to be amazing, but I know how much easier it is to edit when you have some amazing stuff to work with. I don’t know if that is the same for Will, but if it is that way, I think he had it pretty easy haha.

The music was all good, nothing too hardcore, all pretty easy going. To be honest, I can’t think of any songs in particular for the video. I just remember I really liked how it all went together really well with the riding and pace of the video.

The length of the video was right about 45 minutes… In those 45 minutes you see some real good stuff, and will probably want to go ride right after.

You won’t be able to buy this video anywhere, well, in a way you can buy it. The video will be coming in every issue of the new Dig Issue 67. That will be the only place you can get it. You cannot buy it on Albes, Dans or Empire, as far as right now at least. So, get your hands on a copy of that magazine and you got the video. I think you will like having this video in your collection.

Edit: The video will also be available for free download through the Levi’s site – LevisBMX.com sometime in December after the Dig issue comes out, as well as airing on Fuel TV starting Nov 17.

So overall, I think you should check it out. It shows that money talks in a sense, Levis was going to pump money into BMX, and they did it the right way. They picked an awesome guy to film and edit, then picked a team that kills it. Threw down the money for trips and filming time, and then produced a video that had a lot of kids talking. You know you want to check it out. Do it.

I have been talking with Alex from Give D! for quite a while on AIM and e-mail. He even posts on here from time to time. I had a pretty good idea what Give D! was all about, or at least I thought I did until this week.
I spent this week hanging out with those guys during Interbike and I seriously doubt that if I wasn’t with them it wouldn’t have been nearly as amazing. Whatever you had heard about the crew wheather it be good or bad, forget it. They kick ass. That sums it up. That’s all you need to know. They get everyone super excited about everything and it makes for good times. You can be edge, or a crack head and still feel like you fit in when they go party. No, there was no crack involved in this past week I am just saying they probably party harder than those dudes anyways.

Back to my point! The Summer of Rot DVD!

The video premiered at the Odyssey booth on Thursday at 4:20. It was pretty funny they made flyers and somehow they ended up all over Interbike. The crowd got pretty big. Infact, Alex got a threat from some D-Bag security guy saying that if people didn’t start moving out he would be paying for extra security. Whatever, the video was almost over and no extra security had to come. Just a bunch of kids stoked on BMX.

I am not going to lie, this video wasn’t filmed in HD, it wasn’t filmed to be super high quality. It was meant to show the good times had by them, which it did so good. They actually finished up the editing on Tuesday night, drove to Vegas to be there by Wednesday morning with the video in hand, but decided to wait till Thursday to show it. That just saws awesome all over it.

The music was awesome. It had heavy hardcore stuff, all the way to “It’s Raining Men” so I am sure you can find at least one song that best fits you right? I am sure it is raining men all over your pants right now.. I know this.

It hasn’t hit the duplicators yet… Actually, it was only burned to a DVD-R so far. Expect it to start popping up all over for purchase in the next two weeks. Get stoked. I think they are selling it at least? I don’t know. Alex let me know!

420 69 all day.

See more Mike Escamilla videos at Shred or Die

Summer of Rot (Edit Party) from Give D! on Vimeo.

It’s 5:30 a.m here in Las Vegas and I am sitting in the airport just chillin out until my flight. I am going to post up two reviews, one from the Brighton Ain’t Ready premiere and then one from Give D! Summer of Rot to keep me entertained for a bit.

The wildest thing about the Brighton Ain’t Ready premiere was the fact that half the dudes in the video were sitting right there watching it too. That was one of the weirdest things to do because if a clip was awesome, you couldn’t get too excited, or if it was a little sketchy you couldn’t say ..eh.. Well, I am sure you could but I wasn’t going to be the guy to find out what happens if you do.

So the whole story behind the Brighton Ain’t Ready video is the Seventies Distro took all of the companies they distribute’s teams and let them crash in an apartment. Every few weeks a new team would come in and they would all go out riding and filming for the dvd. It was a pretty awesome idea in my opinion. It is awesome because you get all these different personalities and put them in the same spots and they all can produce different things.

I am not saying the whole video is a repeat of spots though. It wasn’t all that repetitive at all really. Brighton must have a shit load of spots because it didn’t seem like they were stressing it too much either.

So for the riders you have Federal, Duo, Fremont/Lotek, Hoffman, Kink, Little Devil (R.I.P), Macneil, Mutiny, Orchid, Integral, Subrosa, Shadow Conspiracy, Terrible One, and Tree. So, take all your favorite pros from those teams and then imagine a video of them riding some really amazing spots. Yeah, there wasn’t a shortage of awesome.
If you recall, I don’t really try and go too into detail on what riding goes down just because so many people get pissed if I say a trick that happens. Acting like I posted the video on Youtube for you cheap asses to watch. Ha! So that is about all I can really say. Amazing riders, amazing riding, amazing spots.

The filming and editing was great. They took a lot of time to get it together and that is very obvious. The filming was real smooth, good colors, with a lot of really good angles. The editing side of things was real good too. Clips weren’t cut out early, they went together well, and they managed to get from one crew to the next, one rider to the next smooth and keep it entertaining.

The video was like 40 minutes long if I remember right (I watched a few other videos this past week so I am getting the length a bit confused) and it honestly didn’t feel like it at all. I was real entertained and actually pretty bummed when it was all over.

The music was also really good. It had a good mix of everything and it wasn’t over the top ever. No heavy rap, no heavy rock, just really chill music that went with the riding really well.

If you are a street rider I advise you to at least check this out once. If you ride BMX in general I think you would enjoy it. They put 6 months of riding into it, with amazing riders, awesome personalities and good spots.

As of right now since it just premiered earlier this month, and then at Interbike so it isn’t at any of the mailorders yet. I am sure in the next two weeks it should be available everywhere so keep your eyes open. You won’t be disappointed.

Brighton Ain’t Ready! DVD Trailer . . . from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.