I must say, living in a major city has its advantages. Where else can you walk out the door, jump on your bike on a warm summer night and cruise down the road to catch a premiere for one of the most anticipated videos of the year? Well, if that city is Philadelphia, you can. The Piazza in Northern Liberties, with its big outdoor screen, is not far from most neighborhoods surrounding Center City. The other night I was able to see United’s full-length debut video, “This Is United” under the stars in my own ‘hood. I’ve been looking forward to this release for a while now; here is a brief one-view review of the flick:
Geoff Slattery opened it up, and as you probably know, he’s all ‘go big or go home.’ Wild maneuvers all over the joint. It was a great opening part from a dude who only rides in 5th gear, figuratively and literally. Next time you see Geoff, ask him what gear he usually runs on his bike.
Leo Forte is all about style on the jumps and the cement, and ends his part with a pretty wild gap.
Relatively unknown (at least to me anyway; I could be out of touch on this, though) Jimmy Rushmore’s last minute of clips is all good shit.
Ryan Metro has proven over the years that he might have some of the best rail balance abilities on the planet. Because of that, I love watching his video parts. I don’t remember any really wild long rails being grinded this time around, but it’s still a treat regardless. Louisville, represent.
Alex Valentino started off the multi-song mix section. I saw this dude ride in person once, and he is a bad ass. I was hoping he was going to have a full part, but oh, well. Maybe next video. I think Tom Sanders ended the mix section, but I could be wrong. Regardless, he must be taking notes from Nathan Williams on how to icepick grind stuff; he had some of the most memorable clips in the vid.
Ian Morris owns United. You’d think with running a company like that, he’d have zero time to ride. Wrong. There are some sweet moves from a handrail innovator. After viewing his monster kinked rail final clip, it’s a good bet you will be thinking, “How has Ian really been slaying rails for over 15 years, and somehow still continues to do so? WTF?”
Ashley Charles only made a frame sponsor switch to United within the past year, and yet still managed to fire out a solid part.
Kye and Leo Forte don’t just share parents. Much like his bro, Kye has style. His bank to bank gap at the end is pretty wild.
OK, so here’s where it gets really serious- Nathan and Corey’s parts. If you’ve been keeping tabs on their magazine photos during the past few years, you’ve already got a decent idea of what these parts are going to be like, and are probably eagerly anticipating the final culmination of their (and most everyone else in the vid) three years or so of work on “This Is United.” Well, it’s safe to say people will be talking about their parts for years to come.
Nathan’s part is RIDICULOUS. It’s all that needs to be said. That’s it. Watch it and you’ll understand.
The legend himself, Corey Martinez, outdid himself yet again with what, his 39th wild part? I’m not sure how many parts he’s put together in the past ten years, but the number must be pretty high. Think you’ve seen new Luc-e grind variations? Wait until you see this; there’s all kind of innovation, on real street setups. Luc-e hard 3′s, over Luc-e on kinked rail, up ledge to t-bog and turndown, you name it. And the spot variety is not lacking either. There’s even a Brooklyn banks clip, filmed a few months before they were shut down. Not surprisingly, the last minute of footage is pretty outrageous. T-nez sure knows how to put together a closer part to an awesome video. Well done.
-Rob Dolecki
