The part has the level of quality you would expect from a Girl Films production with Ty Evans at the helm, and god damn if the 50-50 on the rainbow rail wasn’t impressive, but I’ve got to say I’m a little disappointed with the concept. And god, it’s dark. Like, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem dark.

Compared with DVS’ entries from years prior, which had a different look and feel from your typical skate film, this is all just a bit too familiar. Considering this is a contest that’s supposed to promote creative skateboarding video projects, I just wish it had been a little more, well, creative. Sure, Lakai’s team has talent leaking out of their vulcanized insoles, and setting shit on fire is always at least pretty cool, but I’ve gotta say, doing something we’ve never seen before would have been a lot cooler.

Am I just a jaded grump? Probably.

However, I don’t know if it’s a just an HD thing, or a Ty Evans editing-style world takeover, but admittedly, it gets a little old when most clips coming out of the big camps these days are all super-slo-mo and seemingly cull their soundtracks exclusively from Pitchfork.com favorites. Granted, Lakai is more entitled to this type of editing than anyone else, seeing as they basically pioneered it with Fully Flared. And it’s not like this isn’t a beautifully put-together little piece… but it’s kind of weird when a short Internet video’s even shorter bonus section is moodier than Guy’s entire epic, two-song-tale-of-redemption part in FF.

I guess the whole treatment just seemed a little misplaced — what’s there to be so melancholy and sentimental about? Are these kids not in the prime of their lives, charging ahead into a dream career, getting paid to do the very thing they love and stay a teenager forever? They’re professional Lost Boys and this is sad because…? Sad because we’re not among them? Shit, actually, that is a pretty huge bummer. Well then

In fact, what better way than to gaze upon the almost-ten-minute visual pleasure that is Lakai’s Am I Am. The fact that it’s shot and edited beautifully should come as no surprise, if you’ve been paying attention to what comes out of the Crail camp for the past, like, decade. On that note, nor should it be any wonder that the skateboarding contained within is beautiful as well — after all, Vincent Alvarez is doing a lot of it.

Some points of note:

1) Riley Hawk is on Lakai. And he’s a gangly string bean of a lad, just like his old man. I guess that’s what happens when you’re raised on a diet based entirely around a lifetime’s supply of Bagel Bites and Mountain Dew. Mostly, his addition to the team intrigues me — was it a power move, or merely the long-delayed result of a blood pact between Tony Hawk, Rick Howard and Mike Carroll to repay McSqueeb for stealing Rick McCrank from Birdhouse years ago and turning him into a much, much better skater?

2) Daniel Espinoza is clearly incapable of closing his mouth. I’d say it’s unfortunate, but it doesn’t appear to be negatively affecting his skateboarding. In which case, I’ll simply make fun of the poor little mouth-breather as a thinly-veiled attempt to disguise my seething jealousy.

3) Vincent Alvarez gets more awesome every time I see him. I can’t wait to see how awesome he is by the time the Chocolate video comes out in 20 years! I know I’ve made similar jokes a few times before, but remember that we haven’t even seen an ad for the fucking thing yet, and you know we’ve got at least another four years of deadline shuffling to sit through after that. Plenty of time for VA to win Skater of the Year twice.

I watched this video on Monday night, stoned, and forgot most of it, so I watched it again on Tuesday night. In that time span it went from 351 views on YouTube to 28,991. I don’t know how many thousands of those people are included in dedleg’s audience. Nonetheless, at the rate this thing’s going, by the time this post finds its way to your browser window, your mom’s probably already called to say, “You know, you’ll always remember exactly where you were when you first saw Lakai’s Am I Am.” So what if we’re not timely… that’s what bloggers who don’t have real jobs are for.

Cory Kennedy might be the next Mike Mo, who was the next um… whoever was skating like hot flame before him, and so forth. But regardless of who’s flashing their sponsor’s shirts the most at The Berrics right now, Vincent Alvarez is easily one of skateboarding’s most exciting up-and-comers. The dude’s got style, skates fast as hell, and is one of those precious all-terrain rippers.

How long do you think this footage will tide us over for? Hopefully at least a decade, or until the Chocolate video is released… which ever comes first.

Anyway, there will be no writing off this commercial either. Even if you’re one of those half-steppin Dedleggers who skips over every last skateboarding related post I make, this is 35 seconds that is probably worth your time. Like, there’s really very little chance that whatever you did in the past 35 seconds was better, considering that was most likely spent reading this paragraph.

Scott Johnston, ollie — photo by Ben Colen

Scott Johnston’s got an interesting little interview up on that stupid website about sports covering his transition from pro skater to pro skate shoe designer.

As evidenced by the photo above, Scott’s always skated with incredible style. It was just so disappointing to see all the short parts from him in the last several years of his career. The few tricks he’d have would always be great, and his skating is really enjoyable to watch because of his smooth style, but there was a very tangible sense that he was falling off. Not necessarily losing interest in skateboarding at all, but certainly losing interest in skateboarding professionally. Jerk.

Can you imagine being lucky enough to not only be a professional skateboarder, but also be in a position where you can lose interest in it and still come out on top? Seriously, only in this fucking all-boys club of an industry (and I literally mean boys, but only because man-children sounded mean) can you quit your dream job and end up with another dream job anyway.

Following skateboarding is as escapist as obsessing over the pages of the latest gossip magazine.