The always incredible Krooked Skateboards have just uploaded their new full length ‘LSD’ (Let’s Skate Dude) to the web, which is just as good as you’d hope for.
Following on from Krooked Chronicles, Gnar Gnar and Krooked 3D, LSD sees Mark Gonzales, Mike Anderson, Brad Cromer, Bobby Worrest, Dan Drehobl, Sebo Walker, Ronnie Sandoval and Matt Gottwig making up the eclectic team and absolutely going in. Press play immediately if you know what’s good for you and scroll down for a short review of the video if you want your imagination primed before you treat your eyeballs to half an hour of skateboarding goodness!
Brad Cromer kicks things off with a gnarly two song section featuring giant banks and polejams, lengthy ride on rails and a line at MACBA we definitely don’t think you’ll be seeing taken too often. A brief Catalan interlude follows, sandwiched between Cromer and the stylish, flowing tech of Bobby Worrest. There aren’t many people fucking with a front blunt on a ledge to wallride fakie – Worrest brings plenty of ‘what the fuck did I just see’ moments to his part, as well as plenty of plaza skating including some ‘last days at LOVE Park’ footage!
After another interlude, this one Devo-themed, relatively recent team addition Matt Gottwig hits the streets hard. With a similar style to Cromer, he also takes the same MACBA line which makes one of my opening statements to this review a lie…it’s Monday afternoon though, I’ve no plans on rewriting this and, to be honest, I still don’t think many will be stepping to it. My point stands, deal with it! The ollie over the bench into mosaic bank in Barca is similarly gnarly, that spot is pretty much crying out for human sacrifice.
Ronnie Sandoval’s part, unsurprisingly, sees things take a heavy turn for the transition based – mixing power and style as he crushes the gnarliest terrain that gets put in front of him. Eggplant over the love seat in a backyard pool? No fronting on that…Ronnie’s section also features a Dan Drehobl in his backyard bowl, which is expectedly banging but did leave me wanting more. Should older pros be forced into filming full sections, as much as their bodies protest against it, in order to satisfy the nostalgic enjoyment of jaded 30-something skateboard journalists? Yes, emphatically. This part is followed by the precision tech of Sebo Walker, summing up just what a wide range of skaters Krooked have in the wings – and it’s all edited so well that the differences never seem jarring. Special mention goes out to Sebo’s switch heelflip indy grab, one of the most enjoyable examples of street grabbing we’ve seen in some time!
Mike Anderson closes proceedings with a truly gnarly display of street destruction. The definition of powerhouse, with a creative bent and an ability to go switch where most wouldn’t go regular, if this section isn’t remembered as one of the best of 2017 then there’s no hope. Having the Butthole Surfers on the soundtrack doesn’t hurt in my decision to make this bold claim either…
But what of Krooked’s creative hub,The Gonz himself? Don’t worry, his presence throughout the video is undeniable popping up between longer parts taking his longboard to the vert ramp, skating NYC bowls in the snow, trying to get cyclists to jump him and more of the situationist weirdness we’ve come to expect from him. Krooked, with little fanfare, have come through with a stone cold classic once again with ‘LSD’. Fingers crossed we get a DVD release – until then, let’s skate dude!
