DVD Review: Thrill - 08/03/03

Franky Morales has been rollerblading sooo long and is still better than most. Not only his crazy stunts are impressive, but also the level of his technical abilities. Can you True Fishy both ways... so controlled that you can’t tell which one is switch!? Some of the falls in his section show that nothing comes easy. If you want to skate at such a high level you have to take some serious beating! The introduction to Jeremy Spira’s section is not as long as the introduction to the Franky’s section. This is good because the Franky introduction took away some of the speed of the intro. But it is quite funny. Jeremy has been touring and collecting footage for a lot of DVD’s recently Thrill, Icons, Know Rollerblading and other projects. I wonder how this guy manages to put out so many perfect sections during the last few months. It seems as if he has got the one or the other clip in every American DVD that came out lately. One of his coolest tricks is a Soyale 360 out up a handrail.


Matty Schrock’s section is sooo sick! He took some serious beating while filming for his section. Matty reminds me of Charles Dunkle. Both of them have got this raw ‘I don’t give a fuck attitude’ to their skating! If you like Charles Dunkle’s style you will for sure dig Matty’s section. His section is fast, without any compromises and I’m sure Matty doesn’t mind a little bloodletting! Up next is the often underrated Jeph Howard. His section shows that he can skate anything from little tech stuff to the burliest drop-rails! One of the tricks which impressed me most is a 360 Sweatstance on a chain. Jeph has busting out sick tricks for years now. But what really made this section outstanding is that his sketchy landings - which you could often see in earlier releases – have disappeared completely! Hard tricks with solid landings… what more could you ask for?!? The next profiled skater is Mike Lilly. He is one of the icons of all the ‘rocker skaters’ out there. So it was quite a surprise for me that a hip-hop song was chosen for his section. Mike can make anything look good! But the best thing about his section is that you can really see how he enjoys every second he skates.


To finish a DVD you need something special that will stick in people’s minds. Joey Chase for sure is something special. He does tricks most people wouldn’t even attempt to do in lines and he skates better than most ‘professionals’ out there. I don’t know if Joey is just insane or if he also thinks about what he is doing. Either way I hope that there is more to come and that Remz will give him a pro skate… If you don’t think he should get a pro skate check out his section, it will for sure change your mind!

Review by Lui Summer