Riders: Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla, Jason Enns, Sandy Carson, Brian Terada, Garrett Byrnes, Edwin Delarosa, Josh Stricker, Joe Rich, Nate Wessel, Nate Hanson, Mike Griffin, Sean Emery, Mike Tag, Adam Baker, John Heaton, Ian Morris, Dave Freimuth, Taj Mihelich, Ruben Alcantara.
www.danscomp.com: Etnies presents FORWARD, their first video offering featuring the entire Etnies team. From Austin to Toronto, FORWARD captures the team doing what they do best. Dave Parrick creates a documentation of some of the most progressive riders in BMX.
Kevin McAvoy, Transworld BMX december 2002: We've all been anticipating this one for a while, and Dave Parrick and company have done a good job of making Forward worth the wait. I'd be willing to bet most of you already own this video; if all the rumors surrounding the riding in it didn't drive you to buy it on day one, the reputation of the Etnies program alone probably did. You know who's on the team, and everybody goes off. Dave Freimuth, Taj Mihelich, and Ruben Alcantara hold the honor of having the final sections, and they're my favorites by far. I have a feeling that if Joe Rich had been healthy enough to deliver a full section, however, he'd be pushing toward the top of my list. What else can I say? Parrick has produced another classic.
icepot, www.bmx-test.com, 2002: First off, let me just say that this video, is by Dave Parrick, that alone should make you wanna by it. But anyways here it goes: The most long awaited video of all time, has finally came. And within the first five minutes it shows why its been long awaited. When I started watching the video, I started crying before the riding even started, and once it started it was crazy... From trying to do a full pipe, to fire fufanu's, to grinding a rail down a set of stairs on a snowy mountain. And that's only in the Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla part. And I didn't mention the swing set grind, and the double peg to back flip which were featured in the July issue of Ride. Let me remind you, all of which I just stated was only in the first 10 minutes of the video, and the video is 45 minutes long of riding, 50 if you want to count the credits). Just Rooftop's part would have been good enough for me, but Dave was sent from heaven obviously, so he decided to pack it with the likes of the whole Etnies team.
There is not much that I can't say about this video, I think it's the best video I have ever seen. And I have seen all the high profile videos like Criminal Mischief, and Animal, and Standard, Road Fools 9... and nothing, NOTHING could even come close to this video. It's easily the best one of all time. Pick up a copy of it as soon as you spot it.
jas, www.bmx-test.com, 2002: Not one mention of Taj? Or the editing of Sandy's part? Pshaw! I demand more reviews !
lance, www.bmx-test.com, 2002: FORWARD... perhaps the longest awaited, most release date changes, and best riding in a video ever. The roster for the video is all the Etnies A-team and some B-team and most of us know who they are. In case you don't, does Taj Mihelich, Joe Rich, Ruben Alcantara, Jason Enns, Mike Escamilla, Sandy Carson, and Nate Wessel ring a bell? Personally I thought the editing sucked, (well maybe "sucked" is a bit much) not to say it was the worst I have ever seen, but for waiting for this video for so long I thought it would come with 3-D glasses or something flashy or even cheesy to make up for the delay. The editing was classic Trash Video style - glitchy, plain, and almost grainy to a certain extent, but the riding speaks for itself.
If you like how Nowhere Fast was put together then you will like this, it is exactly the same. I won't ruin it for you but all the stupid crazy/stunt man audition shit Mike Escamilla does in Ride magazine is in there, and every single rider in the video has a great part. The music wasn't bad, it had Fu Manchu in it so it couldn't be too bad from that fact alone. There were short parts in there like Edwin Delarosa, John Heaton, Mike Tag, Joe Rich, and others, but they were in there and good none-the-less. My favorite part was none other than Taj Mmihelich. Sorry there will be no details for you, but trust me on this one the riding is awesome. (And damn Rosco is cute -jas)
I heard a lot of hype over Ruben's part before this, and not to take anything away from it what-so-ever, (it was sick indeed) but I had previously seen it all two or three times before. Don't expect a whole lot out of his part to be new footage, shockingly original, or never before seen, because you will be disappointed. He is for sure a bad ass, but all Ride BMX subscribers have all got his part in this video previously engraved in our heads from old issues. I know it sounds as if I am slamming the video some, but I want to be going the other direction with this review - praising it. FORWARD is in fact the best video I have ever seen, so go buy it and see for yourself... you will not be disappointed.
(Don't mind any of my negativity, I was just not happy with how the video was edited and how certain things turned out after all the hype for it. I expected a lot more from certain areas of the video. It is far more than worthy of your $25 though.)
10/10 riding quality
7/10 editing quality
NEEDS TO BE A PART OF EVERYONE'S VIDEO COLLECTION
jas, www.bmx-test.com,2002: (I agree the video was overhyped and I was also a bit disappointed in the long run. The video was good but could have been better. Needless to say, it was a great video.)
Unturndown, www.bmx-test.com, february 2003: The reason it didn't live up to the hype is because they put most of video in the magazines way before the video came out. It didnt have that much "whoa" factor beacuse you had already seen like 70% of the crazy riding before the video even came out. But really even though i had already seen the most the video in pictures, it still is a great video and a classic for our generation.
Edwin Delarosa, www.ridebmx.com, 2003: I wasn't supposed to have a part in the video in the first place. I had just gotten on the "A" team and I just happened to be in Cali at the time. I met up with {Dave} Parrick and I filmed the part that was in the VHS in like two days because the deadline for the video was already up. After the video came out, I went back to Cali for a week, and Parrick came to New York for like five days and I filmed the part for the DVD.
Taj Mihelich, taj.transworld.net, january 2009: This was probably the most focused video part I’ve ever had. Dave Parrick behind the lens again and the quality shows (when you aren’t watching it on crappy ole’ youtube).
MUSIC.
Intro: Mogwai - Sine Wave
Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla: The Adolescents - Kids Of The Black Hole
Jason Enns: The Fucking Champs - Lee Tom
Sandy Carson: Redneck Manifesto - I Dont Speak The Monkey Language
Brian Terada/Garrett Byrnes/Edwin Delarosa: Polvo - Fractured (Like Chandeliers)
Josh Stricker: Naked Raygun - Suspect Device
Joe Rich: The Album Leaf - Vermillion
Nate Wessel: Obituary - Dying
Nate Hanson/Mike Griffin/Sean Emery/Mike Tag/Adam Baker/John Heaton: Killing Joke - Money Is Not Our God
Ian Morris: Guilt - Untitled #1
Dave Freimuth: Fu Manchu - Eatin Dust
Taj Mihelich: Shellac - Doris
Ruben Alcantara: Built To Spill - Stab
Crashes: Trans Am - City In Flames
Credits: The Album Leaf - The MP
Mike Escamilla doing a stunt for "Forward" on the cover of Ride BMX US august 2002.
Ruben Alcantara part.
Taj Mihelich's section from Etnies Forward video.
Mike Escamilla's section.
Mike Hines, www.clickedbmx.com, august 2010: This is still one of my favorite BMX parts of all time. Swing-set grind, loop, fire retardant suit, double peg flip into a ditch, you could really see the transition from professional bike rider to Hollywood stuntman.
www.thecomeupbmx.net, july 2007: Honestly I haven't paid for a BMX DVD in close to a year. I watch so many videos every day that I don't really have much desire to watch many more, and get most of the videos that I am interested in seeing sent to me for review, so there's really no need. But since my E-mail requesting an advanced copy for review went unheard ( although they do thank The Come Up in the credits ), I manned up and spent my 20 bucks to buy probably the most anticipated video of the year. I wrote a review of each part immediately after watching it, so here ya go:
Aaron Ross: A lot of people have been marveling at the fact that Aaaron has been able to come through with this part and his part in the Empire video in such a short period of time. It's pretty obvious to me how he was able to do it after seeing this. While awesome, a lot of the stuff in his Empire part was childs play compared to the stuff he does in here. Pretty much everything he did in there he does bigger and better here. I'm stoked someone finally did a fakie rail to fakie. I can't imagine that he'll ever make a video part better than this one, but if he ever does, holy shit. This is classic material right here.
Joe Rich/Garrett Byrnes: Joe only has a couple of street clips, the rest of his part is mostly him blasting really big airs and flying over hips. Normally that kind of stuff bores me but he can pull it off better than anyone. Garrett has less footage than Joe but it's really good regardless. It's awesome to see he's still not afraid to do ridiculously big stuff.
Rooftop/John Heaton/Hannu Cools: Rooftop definitely outshines John and Hannu in this mix. Most of Mike's video parts in recent memory have been largely filler with some wild bangers towards the end to finish it off. Here he opts to leave out the stuntman stuff and just sticks to creative, fast street manuevers. He does a few rail moves you wouldn't expect too. John Heaton's clips aren't really anything worth mentioning, and there aren't many of them anyway. Hannu's stuff is pretty technically impressive and although a couple of his clips are tainted by slow, brake-heavy manuals, I enjoyed it.
Adam Baker: I've never enjoyed watching trails so I'm not going to lie and say I enjoyed this. Someone who rides dirt would probably like it though since it's pretty well put together. His last trick is definitely not on a dirt jump and is amazing though, I can at least appreciate that.
Sergio Layos: This is a good part. Lots of nice park stuff, some dope street shit and it's put together really well with a nice soundtrack. I hate to have to say it, but one very hard to ignore indian giver leaves a black spot on an otherwise pretty perfect section.
Brian Kachinsky: Wow. It's hard to believe this dude even exists, some of the falls he takes are soooooo bad. He does a really legit nollie to rail, tons of huge gaps to rails and the most precise rail manuals. What an animal. The song used was perfect for his riding too.
Interlude: Someone is really good at ghostriding their bike. Sort of cool the first time, definitely getting fast forwarded every time after that. Actually it wasn't even really that cool the first time.
Danny Hickerson: You know a part is going to be good when you invent a rail maneuver for your first clip. He rules, you know it and I know it. Some of his clips are his usual shit and some of them are things that nobody saw coming. Awesome part either way.
Josh Stricker: Whenever I hear about Stricker these days it is usually about his rampant alcohol abuse and not his riding. He can still apparently pull it together though since this part is really good. It ends with a crash and a shot of an x-ray of a broken bone, but it's not like the part was insufficient or anything. His parts are always really good, this one is no different, although maybe slightly less intense than other ones in recent memory.
Sandy Carson: Criticizing Sandy is such a sin in BMX that he could put out a video part of him taking a nap and I don't think anyone would say anything. Instead he put probably his best video part ever full of huge gaps and other gnarly shit. You can definitely teach an old dog new tricks, as evidenced by his pretty big wallride to 180 down some stairs.
Taj: It's always hard for me not to notice the similarities between Taj and Ian Mackaye when I watch Taj's video parts and read his interviews. They have both grown and matured throughout their respective careers and while the style in which they express themselves is constantly changing and maturing you can't help but respect both regardless of if you enjoy what they are currently doing. Long story short they have both grown old within their artforms with a lot of integrity and without compromising themselves. There is still a difference however, since I could never really fuck with Fugazi and you are pretty much a certified dickhead if you don't enjoy this part.
Brett Walker/Kurtis Elwell: I've never heard of Brett Walker before but he definitely deserves his spot on the Etnies team. His clips here are great. Kurtis Elwell is a favorite of mine and his clips here are also similarly impressive.
Jamie Bestwick: Apparently aware of how insanely boring vert video parts are to watch, the brains behind this video decided to build a massive vert ramp in the middle of a very large open field, to create a more aesthetically pleasing backdrop for Jamie's amazing skills on a bike. It worked as far as I'm concerned, the music, riding and backdrop all came together very well. Then at one point they switch to a bunch of contest footage, ripping you back to reality. The contest footage is only to show him doing his most dangerous of tricks ( double whip flair and what not ), and maybe this makes me selfish, but it would have been really cool to see him do all those contest bangers over again on the ramp in the middle of the field. Still probably the only vert part to ever make me not want to go back to bed.
Morgan Wade: Morgan is sick but a lot of this footage seems sort of dated and none of it really made my jaw drop like you expect from a Morgan Wade part. Plus a lot of the really good stuff was used in various magazines already. It's not a terrible part but compared to some of the parts before it and the large expectations most of us have for this guy's riding in a video of this magnitude, it was a letdown.
Ruben: Not even worth trying to describe how amazing this guy is. Truly epic, thank god this guy decided to ride a BMX bike.
Overall: This video, despite a few of it's flaws, definitely shows just how good BMX videos can be.
Complaints: A lot of names are flashed towards the beginning of the video ( Joey Cobbs, Nina Buitrago, Tony Hamlin, Dave Friemuth etc ) who don't appear in the video at all. I guess that's alright since the flow of the video is good and might have been bogged down by forced inclusion of a lot of unnecessary clips. The music strays far from the standard catchy indie rock/hip hop that most videos use these days ( in fact the majority of the songs used have no words at all ), but I think it works well. There are times you wish the music would be a little bit more upbeat, but they went for a different feel and I think it worked in it's own way. A couple of the sections were sort of dated and not as impressive as others, but it's not terribly glaring.
Other: The packaging is really cool and comes with a book/magazine type thing which looks pretty interesting that I haven't really looked at yet. Also there's a lot of stuff in the bonus, none of which I've watched yet.
www.danscomp.com: Long awaited. Much anticipated. Etnies' 2nd video is guaranteed to leave jaws on the floor with some of the most progressive riding ever seen. Clips from every team rider: Alcantara, Baker, Behnke, Bestwick, Buitrago, Byrnes, Carson, Cobbs, Cools,Elwell, Escamilla, Freimuth, Guenther, Hamlin, Heaton, Hickerson, Kachinsky, Layos, Mihelich, Morteson, Mulligan, Rich, Ross, Stricker, Tagliavento, Wade, Walker and Wild. Lots of bonus footage, plus a free 48 pg. book that takes a more personal look at the team and their lives in and out of BMX.
THT, www.agoride.com, août 2007: Quand Etnies a sorti sa première vidéo appelée Forward, ils avaient frappé très fort et cette vidéo est devenu la vidéo mythique que tout le monde se doit d'avoir vu. Et donc tout le monde attendait beaucoup de Grounded. Cette vidéo commence donc par le rider du moment, Monsieur Aaron Ross. Et là, ça commence fort, les amateurs de whip en street vont être servi, ça tourne dans tout les sens. Puis l'écran noirci, transition sur une bûche terrible de Joe Rich qui vous calme direct. Après c'est du Joe Rich, ce qui tient en 2 mots, style et Hauteur. Garret Byrnes a une séquence bien courte, mais il n'y a que du gros et du gros. Puis on enchaîne les riders, Escamilla, John Eaton et Hannu Cools. La vidéo est très street, un peu de bowl, mais on voit peu de courbes. On quitte alors la ville, pour se retrouver en forêt, avec Adam Baker, la terre à l'air vraiment très bonne et les bosses bien taillées. Le rider S&M a vraiment beaucoup de style et n'hésite pas sur les gros tricks, comme Sergio Layos qui a sa séquence juste derrière lui. Ce qui est bien sur cette vidéo, c'est qu'ils ont joué énormément sur les jeux de lumière et les angles de caméra, permettant un montage très artistique qui colle bien à la musique relativement zen. Mais ce calme n'est qu'apparent et Bryan Kachintsky, nous en sort bien violemment avec ses rails énormes et les chutes qui vont avec. Brutal. Encore un Texan, et oui il y a un nid vers Austin, Danny Hickerson nous pose son street tech new school. Puis le roi du transfert hyper speed, Josh Stricker, et on passe à l'écossais Sandy Carson qui lui aussi paye ses transferts de la mort. La première vraie séquence park, nous est offerte par Taj et ce monsieur se permet toujours pleins de tricks originaux. Les deux riders qui viennent ensuite sont très peu connu voir inconnu. Brett Walker et Kurtis Elwell envoient vraiment du gros, comme par exemple le ice pick grind sur un rail to tranfert to ice grind sur un autre rail de Kurtis. Vient la grosse séquence de la vidéo qui est dédiée à Jaimie Bestwick. Le making of de cette partie est en bonus. On peut ainsi juger de la difficulté de mettre une big rampe dans le désert. Mais cela donne des images magnifiques avec des tricks dignes des X-games. Les deux derniers riders de la vidéo sont bien sûr des pointures: Morgan Wade et ses transferts en flair qui ne nous surprennent pas trop, car tout le monde les a déjà vu sur le net, mais ça reste gros quand même. Et Ruben Alcantara, qu'on voit peu en vidéo et qui nous scotch avec ses transferts to wall. Imaginer-vous prendre un muret incliné comme tremplin et aller chercher un wall 3 ou 4 mètres plus loin. Si vous êtes dégoûté, regardez cette vidéo et ce sera pire. Donc une bonne vidéo bien cool, malgré le fait que les séquences pour chaque rider sont bien courtes.
Music:
quis.cc/bmxmusic: Intro: Sayvinyl
Aaron Ross: Sayvinyl - Standing In The Way Of Control
Joe Rich/Garrett Byrnes: Tia Carrera - A Really Cool Jam
Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla/John Heaton/Hannu Cools: 22 Pistepirkko - Just A Little Bit More
Adam Baker: Jape - Floating
Sergio Layos: Mogwai - Friend Of The Night
Brian Kachinsky: Sayvinyl
Interlude: Sayvinyl
Danny Hickerson: American Analog Set - Fool Around
Josh Stricker: The Electric Prunes - Sold To The Highest Bidder
Sandy Carson: Yummy Fur - Department
Taj Mihelich: The Evens - Blessed Not Lucky
Brett Walker/Kurtis Elwell: The Black Keys - Thick Freakness
Jamie Bestwick: Lebanon - In The Ether
Morgan Wade: Sayvinyl
Ruben Alcantara: (Intro) Sayvinyl; Comets On Fire - Sour Smoke
Credits: Iglomat - Dial Wookie
Crash Credits: Sayvinyl
Bonus Justin Inman/John Heaton/Dave Fiemuth Hannu Cools: Sayvinyl - Damn Well
Aaron Behnke/Dustin Guenther/Tony Mortenson: 4 Sores & 7 Bears Ago Pt 2
Tony Hamlin/Dane Wild/Joey Cobbs/Mike Tag: Sayvinyl - Settling
Hey Ladies: Custom Floor - Slow Wide
Poolside In Maliibu: Sayvinyl - Thats Entertainment
Bestwick Beating The Odds: REBS - New Beat Yeah
Rubens Nightmare: REBS - Mad
Bangers & Mash: Iglomat - Dial Wookie
Trailer.
Ruben Alcantara goes where no man has gone before with one hell of an amazing wallride on the cover of Ride BMX US july 2007. Photo by Jeff Zielinski.