Girl Skateboards: Yeah Right

Uh yeah. We’re not above reviewing old videos on VHS apparently. We’re also not above lifting the pictures of the VHS box off of Outlook Skates web site. There is a special edition DVD of Yeah Right! available, which I imagine is like the VHS, only special. So if you like the VHS copy, it’s even more special-er. Derrr…. – k.ed

All right here’s my pawn shop review of a 3 year old skate video on VHS. I found this video for the very reasonable price of $1 at a pawn shop on the Oregon coast and I would say that it is worth every penny. Although mostly a street centered video there are a few clips of some tranny skating but not enough to warrant you to buy it if that’s what you’re looking for. “Yeah Right!” was directed in part by Spike Jonze so you can expect some kind of professional editing and some scripted sequences that are fun to watch. For this vid they have used some green screen technology to make certain tricks appear amazing. They painted a jump ramp green and filmed skaters launching up onto higher obstacles, grinding up 5 stair handrails and other things giving the video a little flair. The placement of these green screen shots is kind of cool because they are mixed in with the normal footage making you think twice about some things you may see. Some of the work reminds me of the old Powell videos that had some goofy scripted sequences although in Yeah Right they don’t look as cheesy. One notable sequence is the skateboard relay where each skater does a trick with a board that magically appears and then throws it off-screen to someone in a different location who pulls a trick then passes it on again. This sequence was cool and included several well known skaters that aren’t on the Girl team (Lance Mountain, Tony Trujillo).

The skating is absolutely sick in this video, there are some of the typical boring street video parts, you know the ones, they go like this: kickflip, tre flip, handrail trick, kickflip to krook, kickflip, frontside flip, etc. Probably 30% of the video is this boringness but skaters like Rick McCrank, Brian Anderson, Eric Koston, Marc Johnson, and Rick Howard make this video worth watching as they are not just trick monkeys but they have unique style and creativity in their riding. Marc Johnson’s board control is amazing and McCrank’s opening line is unbelievable. And what about Rick Howard he’s gotta be like 30 something now and he still rips the streetstyle, so take that you teenage flippy trick skaters that think us older guys can only do bonelesses and wear every pad available, just remember that kickflips were being done in the 80’s when many of you skaters were in diapers, its not really a “new school” trick.

Overall I give this video a 7 out of 10 only because of some of the typical street sequences look the same as in every video nowadays. The scripted sequences were fun to watch and there is a tribute to Keenan Milton (a Girl team member who died before the video came out) in the start of the video that was good. If you find this one somewhere for a good price and you like to watch street skating then it’s worth picking up.