FACTION SKATE COMPANY PRESENTS TACTICS 2024

The hype surrounding Faction Skate Company‘s new video “Tactics” made it one of the most highly anticipated team projects in years. Since its creation, Faction has consistently raised the bar in brand presentation & their first official team video, which the skillful Brandon Andersen directed, has delivered all the goods you have patiently awaited! “Tactics” follows the Faction Skate Company’s travels across the globe over the last two years, which includes international competition appearances such as Winterclash, as well as various trips in the U.S which took the Faction team concrete park surfing on the Colorado Road Trip, to several camp visits to Schmidty’s & Woodward, & intense training sessions at the Faction owner Clark Kirkman’s backyard wonderland, the Compound. The film features full profiles on the Faction pro team of Jimmy Cisz, Chynna Weierstall, Eric Michael, Shredpool, Jon Fromm, & Cameron Card, as well as appearances from the extended Faction team of Iain Mcleod, Aniek Kerkhofs, Frai Gomez, Tri Tri-Rudolph, Jesus Rivera, Mario Pacia, Matt Lyon, Tina Vallarta, & Viktoria Soderholm.

To properly review “Tactics,” I had to take several full viewings to fully appreciate it in all its glory. With outtakes & everything included, the video is a solid hour long, but the pace of the video kept me enthraled despite my short attention span which has been ruined by social media. What sets the Faction team & “Tactics” aside from other video projects, is the very noticeable chemistry shared among the Faction team. Their time spent together has seemed to create a real camaraderie which is evident while watching the video. Often times, traveling & sharing similar struggles & accomplishments can bring friends closer together & that definitely seems to be the case when viewing “Tactics”. The video comes across as genuine and does not show a forced sense of toughness, fake posturing or pandering to popular trends. Brandon does an amazing job of accurately capturing the positive energy & enjoyment within our culture & specifically in these individuals. It sounds cliche & generic, but “Tactics” is just a damned fun watch!

The first profile to start “Tactics” off was of long time professional & all-around legend, Cameron Card. Cameron’s skating has always been exceptionally well-rounded & versatile, & it shows in his wide variety of tricks & spot selections.Either on a street course at the skatepark, a gnarly handrail on the streets, or crafting smooth & clean lines on his big-wheel setups, Cameron can pretty much do it all. And EXTREMELY well! On top of being a very talented skater, Cameron is also a mentor to the younger generations with his involvement in GoSportsUSA as he imparts his skating knowledge to the youth regularly as well as spreading mental health awareness. Cameron is a true hero & we all are very lucky to have him involved in our skating community.

One of the sections I was most looking forward to was of one of the best bladies of all time, the Queen, Chynna Weierstall! Her profile opens up with an adorable interaction with close friends Stephanie Bennett & Samy Biesco that leads into her smooth as butter park flow, chalk full of clean switch-ups, & technical prowess. Chynna has been an innovator & leading contributor for female blading’s progression over the years & despite some very serious injuries that have plagued her over the last few years, she still continues to progress & her “Tactics” profile was one of her most enjoyable sections so far.

Blading’s masked madman Shredpool had one of my favorite profiles from “Tactis” as it had the perfect blend of humor mixed with a solid street heavy section. I know it is always a topic of conversation, but the sheer fact that he is able to skate so well under the costume is truly remarkable. But don’t let the costume distract you from the fact that Blade Skillson’s skating is as legit as they come! And he is not skating just a little p-rail in your driveway either; he is laying down some heavy hammers; decked out in full costume & bright pink fanny pack. You don’t get much more badass than that.

I have long been touting Mr. Eric Michael’s blading skills to anyone who would listen the last few years. He has been a monster on blades for decades & is always one with the highlight reel stunt of the day. Which made his “Tactics” profile was one of my most anticipated pieces in the whole video & boy-oh-boy it delivered the goods! If there was one word that would adequately describe Eric’s skating it is POWERFUL! His pace is always balls-to-the-wall fast, his approach always looks extremely confident & the execution is always on point. And the level of amplitude of his tricks will surely leave you rewinding his profile numerous times in disbelief.

Jon Fromm was a recent addition to the Faction Skate Company team & it was exciting to see him whip out a full profile for “Tactics”. Knowing Jon’s professionalism & uncanny ability to crank out content, it was no surprise to me though. He has a bag of tricks incredibly deep & when the pressure is on, he definitely knows how to handle business. And he did just that! Fromm once again busts out his technical wizardry on some of SoCal’s finest skate spots & comes through with another classic profile to add to his extensive bladeography (yeah, that is a word now,damnit!) With Jon’s profile, you get a heavy helping of challenging 360 grinds & fluid switch ups, but he also mixes up things with some standard tricks done with pure style & impeccable execution.

Now, for the final profile in “Tactics” went to none other than the contortionist extraordinaire, Mr. Jimmy Cisz. Jimmy is one of the most underrated yet talented individuals in blading currently. He has been pushing the envelope with his unreal progressions & “never-been-done” tricks for several years now & his “Tactics” profile lived up to the immense hype for a proper Jimmy section that he needed to take his skating to the next level. And with the help of ole Brandersen, he was able to accomplish inarguably his greatest profile to date. We know Jimmy is blessed with some of the most flexible knees & ankles in the game, which allow him to execute maneuvers that us mere mortals can only dream of doing. From citric & topside negatives, open & closed book grinds, & unfathomable cess slides, Jimmy has developed a style & vocabulary that is all his own. His profile concludes with him putting on an absolute clinic on the famous Woodward mini-ramp that would make your question if he put in a mystery cheat-code that enabled him infinite switch-up abilities & perfect balance. Needless to say, his profile was a worthy choice to wrap up such a monumental video.

There were only a few draw-backs that I found in “Tactics”, one in particular was the order of the video sections. I felt that the video started off a little slow & could have benefitted from a strong profile out of the gate, such as Cameron Card’s to start & with the GoSportsUSA advert following his section instead of preceding it. The other was possibly a scheduling issue, but I looked forward to a full Tri Tr-Rudolph section & with the amount of clips of Tri spread throughout the video, it would have been nice to have them all grouped together. Maybe because of Tri and/or Brandon’s busy schedules, it didn’t pan out, but maybe that is something we will see in their follow-up video. One thing I think was unique was Brandon’s choice in using clips that are more visually impressive than they are physically difficult to end some of the team rider’s profiles. To me it made the transitions between the chapters seem more dramatic, although it may not have fit the typical skate video formula of drawing a close to a section with a trick with heavy amounts of risk. All-in-all, “Tactics” was one of my favorite videos from this year. It has a ton of replay value & it leaves you with that warm feeling of satisfaction you get after watching it.

But just after the credits & you are ready to pack it all up, Brandersen hits you with an extra-special gift at the end that we have all been collectively waiting for….a new Clark Kirkman profile! Yes, you read that right! Faction Skate Company owner & overall badass, Clark Kirkman, who was an absolute beast in his prime; still had some gas left in the tank for one more memorable section! But if you hoped to see Clark whip out some of his patented hurricane pornstar switch-ups, well, you are going to be a wee bit disappointed. But you will certainly not be let down with Clark’s belly dancing moves which are on full display! Be sure to subscribe to his OnlyFans & show the man some love! So to conclude this long-winded & far delayed “Tactics” review, kudos to the whole Faction Skate Company team, Brandon Andersen, & Clark Kirkman on a job well done! You have all created something truly memorable for the inline skating community to enjoy for years to come & I for one am eagerly looking forward to your next team project!