Crailtap's Early Web Videos
The Crailtap camp produced some amazing tour edits in the period between Yeah Right and Fully Flared . You just probably forgot about them, or never saw them at all.
It's hard to remember a time before YouTube, (keep in mind you had to open up QuickTime to watch these) but for those of us who lurked online in the 2003-2006 era, we may remember that Girl & Chocolate made tour edits of a certain style. Edited mainly by Aaron Meza, these clips didn't rely on the special effects or the serious, pay-attention-this-is-important tone that has seemed to creep into some of their more recent productions. Instead, they featured a significant amount of 'dork' and un-landed tricks alongside impressive ones, and had lots of random cameos from spectators – much like many of the popular web clips of today. Most importantly, these clips were fun to watch.
What Tour chronicles a Girl / Chocolate tour of Australia in 2004, and it's a good example of the point we'd like to illustrate. It's a combination of spontaneous and quality skateboarding, set to some boss 70's jams. This is a video that documents what goes on during a skate tour, both the rad and the weird – it really feels like you're a part of the crew when you're watching it. The inclusion of Mike Carroll's 360 shove-it to board break and Koston's 360 rail grab maneuver made it clear that this was a video for which neither its makers nor its stars took themselves too seriously. This being the case, its creators still managed to pack the clip with bangers like Koston's 360 frontside heelflip (see above) and a buttery smooth kickflip backside nosegrind revert from a young Devine Calloway.
Then there's the case of two separate Canadaian tour videos, entitled Canada, Eh.. and Yes We Canada. The first is mostly memorable for Dan Bohardt, a Canadian sales rep rambling drunkenly, extolling both the merits of Lakai shoes ("Pure comfort, pure style.") and back bacon. Also highly memorable in this clip is Mike Carroll's heavy line at a demo that looks like it took place in the middle of a hockey rink (see above). This clip was, and still is, more entertaining to watch than some of this camp's latter day efforts.
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The second Canadian sojurn starts off with some dork moves (^^^) and includes a few questionable landings, which was refreshing to see at a time when the ultra-smooth sheen of the early 2000's was just starting to wear off. Yes We Canada is Crailtap at it's finest – serious bangers accompanied by a less than serious attitude. This clip is especially special because it introduced the world to future powerhouses Mike Mo Capaldi and Sean Malto. Also, if you have any doubts about how good Jereme Rogers was at his peak, watch this clip.
Not too many skate companies were doing web content in the early 00's. Like in many other areas of skateboarding, these guys were innovators. Girl and Chocolate started out as youthful brands, run by skaters who understood the balance of fun and progression that makes for quality skateboarding media. Looking back, it's cool to see that attitude still coming through in these videos, 10+ years after these companies started. These clips remain our favorite post-Yeah Right Crailtap content.