Video Review- In Bloom

The little-kid explosion in skateboarding has produced a pack of new riders who seem to have come out of nowhere. These kids are insanely good and are scaring off the less-talented pros in droves.

TWS In Bloom gives a few of the hottest youngstas their very own full-fledged video parts. In typical Transworld style, this vid is slick, well-filmed, creatively scored, and certainly on the top-of-the-heap in production quality.

Each rider gets their own part, with guest skaters and commentary from their bosses: Dustin Dollin, Andrew Reynolds, Kareem Campbell, and John Cardiel. There’s also a nice interlude featuring the homemade Turkey Banks, and a little montage section which is very well done, with some great footy from Bob’s ramp in Fallbrook. Also watch out for a nasty slam section, where Mikey Taylor slashes a 6-incher in his shin. I fast-forwarded past that.

* Evan Hernandez
Evan gets the opener, and it’s non-stop hammers for this kid. He’s really small, but skates grown-man shit. Evan takes out 12 stair rails for breakfast, and has a mean flick. He caps it with a 20+ stair FS board. The only problem here is that with so many hammers, you kinda lose perspective of what he’s doing. Evan’s spots are also pretty much stricty So Cal schoolyard, so the terrain isn’t too interesting either. As for style, Evan’s so little, he doesn’t have much power of flair, so he looks a little stiff.

* Chris Cole
Chris’ part is nutso, bonkers, banannas! This kid has it all, rails, ledges, massive gaps, tranny, parks, hubbas, blah blah. He’s a street natural on the level of a Koston. Definite tech-gnar guns: switch flip Rincon, FS and BS flips down Love Fountain.

* Tony Trujillo
You watch Tony skate, it’s as if he was just made to ride a skateboard. This kid is an absolute natural. He’s just smiling, flowing, and getting maxed out off every hit in the place. It’s really good to see full park sections, as the terrain in these new parks is really amazing, but TNT also kills plenty of real street spots with legit flips and grinders. L’il Duece is gonna be huge! Oh yeah, he skates to Motley Crue (of course).

* Mikey Taylor
Again proving that there’s no room for mediocre street pros, l’il MT blasts through mile-long rail crookies, switch buttas, nollie everythings, all with good style and a money flick. MT goes huge and gets tech, he has mastered crookies and flick-crookies.Yeah, he’s a wigga, but we’ll just have to overlook that.

* Paul Rodriguez
P-Rod (son of the comedian with the same name) got himself on Girl by being better than 75% of the established pros. That’s it, basically. Watch Koston in Mouse, then watch Paul. Effortless, natural precision. Smiling, humble, no ego bullshit. We like P-Rod.

* Alex “Trainwreck” Gall
Trainwreck has tattoos, that’s apparently important to note. He skates to Slayer (Agressive Perfector). His whole thing is basically that he’s clinging right to the ragged edge of everything, which makes for some burly hammers at top speeds. Trainwreck is a ‘stuntman’. If that’s your thing, you’ll love it. Personally, I’ll take Heath Kirchart any day.

Overall, this video is tops. After my disappointment with Label Kills, it’s good to see that street skating doesn’t have to be monotonous, filmed-from-the-pop rail grinds with sketch landings. These kids are gonna be huge. B-level pros, think about college, your days are numbered.