International distributions are not often the crystalizing forces behind full-length videos. But Lazer Distribution — the Canadian distributor for Limosine, Bronze, Stunt365, Genesis, 2riserpads, and Frosted Skateboards — took it upon themselves to make one showcasing the current generation coming up in Vancouver, B.C.
Thanks to certain early Girl + Chocolate + [original] Plan B spiritual connections, Vancouver was the first Canadian skate scene many stateside observers had an intimate glimpse into, before the new millennium would yield border-crossing videos out of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and the rest. And given Vancouver’s longstanding status as an epicenter of skateboarding, one of the first things that a modern visitor will notice is that it’s very, um …knobbed. Like, it might definitively be one of the most skatestopped downtowns in all of skateboarding.
Knowing that fact gives the The Lazer Video a special sense of resilience on behalf of the scene’s young skaters. Apart from one trip to New York and another across the border into Seattle, the entire video is filmed in their homebase, which is a far different spot landscape than the one from those old Chocolate videos. And still, they persevere: scavenging for new shit to skate in a different way, and sometimes evolving to skate the skateblocked stuff.
Today’s we’re presenting the abridged version of The Lazer Video featuring parts from Reis Burrows, Cameron Peace-Hall, Ryan Lepore and Hasumi Iida. For the full, full version featuring the massive friends montages covering Lazer’s entire extended network, check their YouTube.
Video by Jonathan C.Lemieux.