Video “reviews” for videos that everyone is going to watch are weird, and mildly unnecessary. Since Day One is definitely an “event video,” so you’re going to see it no matter what anyone says. By that same token, reviews that take a “this guy is sick, he skates real fast and does gnarly stuff, this other guy is sick, he noseblunted a big rail, this young kid is sick, and he’s going to get even better, etc.” direction are rather useless as well. As the last “event video” review on here failed to do that, and was thus misunderstood by a lot of casual “Stay Gold review” Googlers, we’ll avoid discussing this project in a full constructed paragraph form. Instead, we’ll take a more observation-based, reactionary course of action, as what was done here for Mind Field, except with less sarcasm, and obviously more enthusiasm.

1. Buy this video. Don’t download it off some Lithuanian Blogspot page. Get it off iTunes for ten bucks, or better yet, buy the physical copy. As companies’ desire to huck over considerable resources into full-scale video production has dwindled over the last several years, and revealed one part videos or other formats previously reserved for disposable content to be a more cost-efficient, most companies still abiding by the old physical full-length DVD deserve your $20 and a space on your shelf. Especially the ones with as rich of a history as Real, Emerica, Girl/Chocolate, etc. Do it as a gesture, if nothing else. Sure, nobody watched Mind Field, Fully Flared, or Stay Gold in their entirety after a week of owning them, but videos aren’t an average of thirty-five minutes anymore. There’s something special about waiting years for a video to come out, and then finally being able to hold it in your hands. (Unless you’re young enough for DVDs and VHS tapes to have never been a major factor of your existence, that’s a different story. Just download it off iTunes then.)

2. Said this on Twitter already, but Since Day One is to gnarly spots, to gnarly tricks, and to skating fast what Fully Flared was to tech combos and ledge dancing. You know how after Fully Flared, a kickflip backside tailslide got relegated to a basic trick and twelve-year-olds decided they’d be better off learning how to nollie heelflip into one? It’s going to be the same thing, but in terms of learning how to skate gratuitously steep spots, sketchy hubbas, and with a few extra power pushes.

3. Also, it is incredible that a frontside 180 switch crook (in the middle of a ledge, not one going straight on) is just a standard trick now. It’s like a nollie crook these days; people just casually throw them down rails, hubbas, or in the middle of lines. Five more years and another Chocolate video later, the backside version will probably be common too.

4. Last thing regarding the Fully Flared “event video” category: There is barely any slow motion in this video, which is obviously the downfall of many long-awaited skate video projects that get too caught up in their own epicness, and decide it would be best to slow everything down to an obnoxious pace so you can absorb just how epic they are.

5. While “Ohhhhhhh!!!” and “Whaaaaaaaaatt!!!” are the typical crowd reactions to impressive skateboard tricks, watching this video reminded me of something Steve Nash recently said about Derrick Rose.

You’ll be laughing at certain things instead of doing the rudimentary “Ohhhhhhh!!!” because of how insane several key maneuvers are.

6. Sort of how Derrick Rose is a total lock for MVP, Dennis Busentiz will be Thrasher’s “Skater of the Year” eight months down the line. There is absolutely no question about that. God bless anyone who has a frontside lipslide and a backside 5050 as their last tricks.

7. Commendable nuance of the video: In Peter Ramondetta’s part, he tries to do an impossible over a rough-looking bank gap that a bunch of the dudes skate throughout the video, and it looks fairly horrifying. He doesn’t land it, and falls badly. They threw it in his part, and (I don’t think) there is anywhere else in the video where he lands it. It’s nice of skateboard videos to acknowledge the terrestrial world, where people sometimes try gnarly things, but don’t necessarily land them. These attempts deserve to be commended, and it was nice to see it in there. The make will probably be in his next part.

8. “Last tricks” are becoming of diminished relevance in 2011. Yes, everyone’s “last trick” is inevitably nuts, but short of the inverted 180 switch 5050 down the Clipper Ledge, there are a handful of maneuvers in everyone’s part that could have just as easily been their last. Skaters are now forced to find increased novelty in these final moments, like getting handcuffed immediately after rolling away from from the last trick of their respective part, leaving us with a cliffhanger of “Well, maybe this actually is his *last* trick for a while, as he could be serving time.”

9. The video is over an hour long, but what else could you expect from a video in this day and age? At least it’s not long because they decided to replay every trick three times at three different slowed-down speeds. There is definitely a bit of overlapping in a few people’s styles, but skate teams are always bloated now, so expecting a five-part video is a bit unreasonable for the majority of companies out there. (Hell, is there even a five part “crew” video out there?) There are no parts that you could justifiably say should have been entirely trimmed, and if you feel otherwise, well, that’s why DVDs have scene selections and Quicktime movies have the timeline at the bottom.

10. There’s a Too Short song in the video. (Even though it’s the go-to Too Short song white people love to hear in da club, and asking for someone to skate to “Cuss Words” or “In the Trunk” would be all too amazing for skateboarders to handle, like Dylan Reider skating to “Teenage Dream” or “Firework.”) Much of the music is safe (i.e. Ishod to James Brown), but none of it is really objectionable, nor does it incite feelings of “Wow, there are people that actually listen to this boring shit?” It just kind of sits there, and it’s a bit of a letdown for a company that has had pretty great, non-sitting-there music selection in the past (“Gun” is still one of the best song selections in a video to this day, not to mention Damien Bravo once skated to a Mike Gigliotti beat.) The only considerable music gripe would be Busenitz skating to a song from Baker 2G, as what will likely go down as the best part of 2011 definitely deserved some board meetings to find a perfect song.

11. If Huf and Max Schaff went out of their way to film a full video part for Since Day One, you could go out of your way to the skate shop and buy a $20 copy of the video.