If there's anything that lets me know that my trick list is falling farther and farther into the past, its watching an up-to-date flatland video. Millennium is just such a video. As can probably tell from the title, this is pretty recent, and it contains some of the best flatland riding (if you haven't guessed yet, this is another flatland-only video) I've seen in a while. A mixture of original and contest footage, there's some absolutely amazing stuff going on in this video — the kinds of things that even slow-mo won't help you understand.

Riders featured are Jason Brown (who made the video), Nathan Penonzek, Dan Rigby, Cory Stratychuk, Martti Kuoppa, Brandon Fenton, and several Japanese riders including York Uno, Hiroya Morisaki and Akira Okamura. The level of flatland is incredibly high these days, with long, virtually-impossible links that combine multiple bar flips, turbines, hitchhikers, and almost anything else you can imagine ... sometimes done brakeless. It's not worth going into a trick-by-trick description here; it has to be seen to be believed. And one cool thing that Millennium does that I haven't seen before: sometimes you'll be shown the best part of a link in slo-mo just before seeing the entire link, almost so you know what to look for.

While all other riders are seen throughout the video, Martti has his own section at the end. It seems like the video was pretty much done, but they got some footage of Martti and tacked it onto the end — and it feels like an anticlimactic end as well. The filming and editing was good, and the music didn't get in the way (though there seemed to be multiple songs by Metallica and Gang Starr — it would've been nice to mix it up a little more). A good video that gets me psyched to go out riding — or depresses me into quitting...I haven't decided yet.

Free Ride Films

Nowhere Fast

I don't buy a whole lot of riding videos these days, partly because they're a lot more expensive than the old days, and partly because they tend to be good but not necessarily great. For a flatlander like myself, a really good video is hard to come by; all-flatland videos tend to be pretty good (though not all of them are), but I like to see good street and ramp, too. But personally, I tend to get kinda bored watching a million handrails or rhythm sections over and over and over in the same video.

So, being my usual cynical self, I was skeptical when I kept hearing how great Nowhere Fast was. I mean, so many reviews said simpy "Get this video!" Not really a whole lot to go on; for all I know, these are the same people that love Ells videos. But some recommendations from trusted sources convinced me to shell out the $25 for this one.

It was definitely worth it. First of all, Nowhere Fast is a professional-quality video: excellent camera work, editing, and music. That's often taken for granted — more than once I've seen great riding ruined by crappy filming. There's no flatland in this video; there's top-level skatepark, dirt, some vert, and the best street riding you've ever seen.

Riders featured in Nowhere Fast include Dave Young, Josh Heino, Mike Escamilla, Brian Castillo, Dave Parrick, and others. The tricks being done are nothing short of amazing/insane. There are tons of handrails, but not just plain old variations: crooked grinds, backwards rails, kickflips, manuals, jump-over-rail to grind, and some pretty high and long ones, too. Heino's now-infamous last handrail of the video will have your jaw hitting the floor.

And the crash sections in this video may do several things:

• cause you to wince in pain;
• make you appreciate how difficult and insane the tricks are;
• inspire you to go ride;
• make you never want to ride street for fear of dying.