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Oakley’s “Our Life” Video

One would hardly suspect that a sunglass company could or would produce a decent skateboarding video within our realm of demand these days. And we all know in truth, that skateboarders don’t wear sunglasses regularly, especially when on board. But regardless of what your take is on sporting shades, Oakley’s skate video, “Our Life” reveals a refreshing and action-packed visual document of the lives and skateboarding skills of its diverse and gnarly team of riders. Clocking in at 40 minutes in length with more creative content than just your usual hammers, this video effort delivers on all fronts. Featured parts include pros and ams including, Rune Glifberg, Bob Burnquist, Chris Senn, Fabrizio Santos, Greg Lutska, Ryan Sheckler. Danilo Rosario, Dave Bachinsky, little Will Marshall, Tyler Hendley, Andrew Pott, and Collin Provost. Hired gun, director and editor, Ricky Bedenbaugh had the pleasure of working with a sizeable budget to roll with a generous amount of 16mm film footage and traveled extensively throughout the world to bring his creative visuals and capture the action. Notably, this video strays away from the regular expectations of your average trick-for-trick, “Who did what, where?” flick. It contains just the right amount of dialogue and sound bites from each of the main riders featured where the viewer comes away with some understanding to each skater’s individual beginnings and attractions to skateboarding.

Following the opening montage, Greg Lutska revisits his old stomping grounds and several non-blown out skate spots of Milwaukee and charges ahead to put together a solid barrage of footage all over the global map. To top it off, his part is backed by to the Rolling Stones’ “Under my Thumb.” You know the clearance to license that rock anthem cost Oakley a bundle. So good to see and hear. Next, Dave Bachinsky travels back to his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts only to be shut down by several continuous and unfortunate days of rain. Nonetheless, he breaks it off elsewhere with a heavy dosage of rail and ledge attacks before he closes the curtains to his section with his benchmark kickflip down El Toro’s mighty 20 set. The dude is gnarly and diverse and only getting better.

The flow squad of Danilo Rosario, Will Marshall, Tyler Hendley and Collin Provost follow up with a shared part with assorted footy on school grounds, rails, hubbas, stairs and parks. These young guns kick it down for the new guard with plenty of time and progression in their sights.

Danish ruler Rune Glifberg begins his part from in his roots of Copenhagen and discusses his 20 years of skateboarding and the veritable essence of doing what he does…for the love of it. His accumulated footage depicts a rampage of absolute destruction across several diverse skateparks and transitions around the globe…without pads mind you. A commanding frontside ollie over a massive channel at the mammoth-sized Shanghai skatepark shuts down his section with a big ass bang.

Continuing with his summer vacation for the last 15 years, Chris Senn speaks of regular globetrotting and its worldly culture clash with his relaxed Hawaiian home life. Energized by the sounds of Wolf Mother, Mr. Senn then goes “ATV” with a rather short blast of skate footage, full throttle. Thought he wouldn’t? It’s a bit of a let down that there wasn’t more footage of Chris to fill out the remainder of the song.

Fabrizio Santos is up next and although he’s fed up with the “hit and miss” process of locating, driving to, and skating various West Coast street spots, the Brazilian dark horse comes through with a diverse display of excellence. He hits up the streets, backyard pools, parks, and unusual spots with equal skill and tenacity.

Hyped that skateboarding is in his life, Andrew Pott brings along some street cred from the rough streets of South LA and slays the streets all around him.

Ryan Sheckler checks in with a memorable part with footage from all around the world and proves that he’s emerged as a heavy player and will continue to be in the next decade or so to come. If his knees hold up, Shecks will be around for quite some time.

The ender segment features Bob Burnquist with a huge grip of footage in China, the Cayman Islands, spots elsewhere, and most recently, jaw dropping mega stunts on his new Mega ramp on his property. I won’t go into details about his feats in this flick, but it is clear that Bob is on a whole other level.

All in all, this video is one that keeps you looking for more and incites you to get out there and skate. There is a bonus section of footage that includes a 16mm montage with lots of time lapse imagery including the construction of Bob’s mega ramp. Also, Oakley’s International team is tossed into a montage that includes footage of riders Henning Braaten, Junkosuke Yonesaka, Chris Wood, Otavio Neto, Ben Grove, Frederic Esnault, and Oyvind Nissen.

With solid art direction, a killer soundtrack, eye pleasing motion graphics, a generous production budget and top notch filming, “Our Life” is a skate video not to be missed. Your eyes and ears will be psyched. Pick up a copy through one of the better skateshops near you or borrow by all means necessary.


by bk

02/27

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