After a few weeks of uploading raw clips in the form of ‘Coffin Cuts’ (which you can watch via Pixels), Creature Skateboards have uploaded the entirety of The Creature Video to the world wide web for your viewing pleasure.
Featuring Darren Navarrette, David Gravette, Willis Kimbel, Chris Russell, Al Partanen, Taylor Bingaman, Ryan Reyes, Sam Hitz, Peter Raffin, Jimmy Wilkins, Milton Martinez, Cory Juneau, John Gardner, Truman Hooker, Josh Rodriguez, Allysha Le and Kevin Baekkel, as well as weighing in at a hefty one hour and seven minutes, this is one to put the kettle on for and sit back while your eyeballs get peeled back by the excessively gnarly skateboarding on display…
Creature have always done things their own way and it’s heart warming to see a major company still making full length, one hour plus videos to get you stoked to go out and skate. I imagine you know pretty much what you’re going to get with a Creature video and there ‘self titled’ release offers up the usual mix of pools, handrails, stairs and backyard vert ramps backed with a predominantly punk or metal soundtrack. Over the course of an hour there is quite a bit of musical variation, but kicking things off with Chris Russell skating to Darkthrone definitely won’t have you mistaking this one for the latest Primitive release. The crew have covered some serious ground over the making of this video and even just Russell’s part sees him skating in the United States, Australia and various European countries over the course of a couple of minutes.
Former Black Label rider Peter Raffin follows on with some rugged banks and general awkward spot handling, whilst still finding time to chuck himself down a few big handrails – the ride on grind which closes his section is savage, but the kickflip which precedes it is what really sticks in the mind here. Al Partanen shreds plenty of backyard pools and DIY spots, despite skating to some truly godawful ‘metal and keyboards’ hybrid monstrosity, before Truman Hooker skates some serious ditch spots.
Willis Kimbel‘s section kicks off with him dislocating his shoulder at Victoria Park, before an all terrain assault which switches between handrail destruction and switch backside laybacks at DIY spots like it was nothing. Josh Rodriguez, Allysha Le and Cory Juneau share the am section duties, before a John Gardner part. Gardner is one of my current favourites, skating pools like the bastard lovechild of every single person to appear in a Natural Koncepts video and street spots like he genuinely wants to die. This is followed by a Skeleton Key section which kicks off with Mike Frazier, finishes with Matt Dove, features some killer Darren Navarrette/Jimmy Wilkins vert doubles and even has a couple of tricks from our own Sam Beckett and Dave Allen.
Navs has a full part skating to Wire, which I thoroughly approve of, while Ryan Reyes‘ creative approach to the four wheeled plank is backed by what sounds like it may well be the theme from a low budget 80s action movie crossed with a drug induced mental breakdown. Jimmy Wilkins’ style, consistency and ability to float tricks about a mile in the air above massive transitions is a joy to behold – who the fuck else can do a wallie into a vert ramp to start a line?! There’s even some more doubles, this time with Jason Jessee, for good measure. Milton Martinez hits the biggest spots he can, as fast as he can, while a two song dose of ATV gnarliness from David Gravette never goes amiss – there’s even a quick clip of the much missed Dustbowl DIY featured in there!
Kevin Baekkel takes a well deserved end section of absolute savagery, marking him as a name to watch out for in the next few years – check out his Coffin Cuts while you’re at it for an extended view of how hard he went in for this video. This might technically be the end, but a bonus lies in wait in the form of a lengthy Kill Skateboarding/Larb promo from Sam Hitz, just to tie things off nicely! Creature went all in for The Creature Video and it shows – long live the full length video, try and separate your attention span from its Instagram ties and kick back for a proper slice of shredding!
