Here it is. The DVD arrived, sans trading cards or 'zine but I wasn't too worried about collecting trading cards anyway. Vizion is the name of the first Zride BMX video and features Seth Kimbrough teaching how to grind a rail, Rich Hirsch who is showing his bike from his grips to his pegs, a thing on a band called Pretty Girls Make Graves and a section on Rueben Alcantara. It sure had magazine type ingredients.
I was well satisfied with the quality of the DVD. The filming was good, had super clear close-up shots, the editing was great and it had good music. Instead of giving the bonus sections at the end of the 30 minute DVD, Vizion starts off with Las Extras, a section with lots of riders and lots of spots (a.o. Burnside, concrete parks and Woodward). Local riders Brandon Place and Jamie McPharland get "bio's" but the best part is Ruben's interview. The questions are asked in a different way and at different places. It's not the usual quick interview, you can see they put a lot of effort into this. Nice one. Like in most videos there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the credit section. That guy in the blue pick-up truck should have hit the gas a bit harder when Ice Money was performing his stunt show. That would have been real action. After 30 minutes El Fin came on and I had to say I was not disappointed in the first edition of ZRide.
Réalisé par Zac Folk et Shawn Mills.
Riders: Rob Darden, Josh Harrington, Sergio Layos, Axel Jurgens, Bruce Crisman, Seth Kimbrought, Jamie Bestwick, Martti Kuoppa, Viki Gomez, Nathan Penonzek, etc..
Spots: Etats-Unis, Brésil, Espagne, Australie, etc..
But there is more, and that's a good thing. The DVD gives you roughly 20 scenes that includes a few ads, a few contest reports, a pedal flip trick tip, precision lumberjack action and an acoustic guitar duo (good thing it's easy to >>FF the sections that are not meant to be watched twice).
The DVD actually takes you all over the world which is a good thing. There's more BMX riding going on than just in America. Z-Ride also comes with some original edit features that I liked. It keeps things fresh which is hard to do nowadays with every Joe and their uncle doing a VDO magazine.
The riding is mostly street and park with a little bit of flatland (Kuoppa/Gomez) and some dirt. It's hard work putting out a DVD on a shoestring budget. The idea of bringing out Z-Ride trading cards and a 'zine with every issue of Z-RIDE came to an end soon. That's actually a bummer as it would have given them something to stick out from all the others out there.
The second issue of the zRide video magazine. It's titled "The royal Z-Baums" and the cover is a recreation of the DVD cover of The Royal Tennanbaums, only with Bruce Crisman, Liz Crisman, Seth Kimbrough and a host of others.
Best tricks: Double-whip de Rob Darden, Backward handarils de Bruce Crisman, Superman seat grab spine de Sergio Layos, gros alley oop invert sur hip de Josh Harrington, etc..
Avis de la rédaction: Avant tout, le nom: "The royal z-baums" est tiré d'un film Américain " La famille Tanenbaum " de Wes Anderson avec Ben stiller et Owen Wilson, le film ayant fait un bide chez nous, ça ne vous parlera donc pas beaucoup. Par contre le contenu est parlant lui !! Cette vidéo est très variée à tous les points de vues. Spots, riders, tricks, styles, etc... Elle fait penser de loin à un video-magazine, avec interviews, bike reports, mais rien à voir avec Props ! Je me régale en la regardant. La prod n'est pas énorme, mais bon ! Le style de riding, dans l'ensemble, est assez "tendance" et actuel. Vous trouverez: La story complète d'une jam qui déchire avec que des inconnus (genre une centaine) !!! le bike (tout pourris) de Seth Kimbrought, Trip en Australie avec, entre autre Rob Darden et Josh Harrington que j'adore voir rouler !! Sergio Layos et axel Jurgens au Brésil !! Ect.. Plaisante par sa variété. Une vidéo qui fait du bien.
Flat: Il est aussi plaisant de voir que certaines vidéos américaines n'ont pas oublier que le flat était une discipline du bmx et ça fait tout de même plaisir, surtout quand ce sont les meilleurs riders du monde qui vous en mettent plein la vue, Martti et Viki fidèles à eux-mêmes, c'est-à-dire un niveau d'une autre galaxie et Nathan avec ces links incompréhensibles, indescriptibles et surtout impossibles ! Des images bien fraîches qui nous rappellent que nous ne sommes que des pauvres petits terriens à côtés d'eux.