Element Rise Up Euro Team Video

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t hear anything about the Element European team video entitle “Rise Up”. I didn’t hear any promotion about it, I didn’t read anything about it (despite having subscriptions to five magazines)…nothing. I’m still not clear on when it was released.

That’s why I was surprised to find out that it’s a much better video than Element’s video Elementality, which promotes their “main” US-based team.

I’m not going to give you a run-down on what each skater did, because you haven’t heard of any of them. The video is heavily street oriented, with only a tiny bit of park/pool skating thrown in. What is thrown in is pretty good. Frontside overcrooks in the deep end of a pool on pool coping? You could call them frontside nosegrinds, but this kid does them like no one else I’ve seen, and they’re kind of overcrooked so that’s what I’m calling them.

There’s a girl skater who is actually pretty good, as in she’s better than I am. Although whenever I see a young girl riding around with a bunch of teenage boys on the streets, I have to wonder where her parents are. Trust me, I’m not letting my daughters get near any of you punks.

Left out of this video are all the goofy sayings, the montages, the scenery, Tosh playing in the water, etc. Actually, there is one guy playing in the water, but it’s short and they keep it to a minimum. It’s just pure skating, which is what you bought the video for in the first place. The music selection is decent.

Overall, it’s an impressive video, and not just because it’s people you haven’t heard of. This would be a good video that would meet or exceed your expectations even if it were the Habitat team or something. You might expect more from the Chocolate or Girl team, and a Zero or Baker video it is not, but man, it’s pretty good.

My recommendation? Send the US team to Europe, bring the Euro team to the US. Except for Nyjah, keep him here. That kid kills it.