Best of BMX 2017

I decided that I wanted to make a really good end of year list for 2017, so this is my way of keeping track of the best BMX videos that come out every day.

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JAN 11: Mike Escamilla - Caveman

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JAN 11: Steven Boysen “It’s actually Jedi”

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JAN 11: Common Crew Sidewalk Sluts

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JAN 10: Us / Them Trailer

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JAN 10: Cosmic Rumble’n our way too A.C.T

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JAN 9: BMXFU - Fridgetape

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2017 BMX VIDEO RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 1

SHORT VIDEOS

1. Kilian Roth - Cult X Eclat - Welcome To Pro (link)

2. Yumi Tsukuda is on Merritt! (link)

3. HOBIE DOAN / DAN NORVELL UFO PROMO! (link)

LONG VIDEOS

1. DUB - Graft 3 (link)

2. DIE TECHNIK - United in Berlin (link)

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JAN 8: Monster BMX Triple Challenge Highlights

Bangers upon bangers upon bangers. As much as I love the woods and trails riding, I’m definitely a sucker for watching big ass tricks get thrown down on big ass jumps. Which is exactly what this video did. There’s far too many to list all the tricks I thought were amazing but these were my top 3.

1. Dawid Godziek - 1080 but with a front flip in there too (somehow)

2. Pat Casey - 360 Superman Indian Seatgrab jump 1, Brakeless Cashroll jump 2

3. Kyle Baldock - Flip Barspin to No Hander jump 1, 720 Double Whip jump 2

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JAN 8: THE WEBBIE SHOW 3.5

No explanation needed tbh

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JAN 7:

The only video to come out on the 7th of January (that I found) was an Austin Augie VLOG 💩💩💩

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JAN 5: Hobie Doan / Dan Norvell UFO Promo

More than anything, I picked this video as the best video for January 5 based on the editing. I’ve always been a fan of Charlie Crumlish’s editing and this was no exception. Even if the filming or riding wasn’t the best, the overdone editing, the kush aliens, and the obsession with purple skies made the video far more interesting than any other videos I saw released on this day. That said, the riding was still top notch and Dan Norvell’s clips had me talking to my computer on more than one occasion.

If I were to pick the video of the day based only on the riding and difficulty of tricks, I would have picked the Kostya Andreev video filmed at DDASC (link). There were some amazing tricks in it (Downside whip to footjam whip rewind, Superman Seatgrab Indian to footjam whip) but the music in it was just awful. Vital BMX needs to sort their shit out when it comes to picking music for videos. 

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JAN 4: Kilian Roth - @cultcrew X Eclat - Welcome to Pro 

@digbmxmag

This was easily the best bmx video to come out on January 4 so I’m not sure why it took me so long to make this post. The only other competition was the Cluuter Tape from Belgium which was rather forgettable (link if you’re still curious) but this was still super rad.

Kilian’s first video for Cult was released 5 years ago and it’s very easy to see the difference between him riding as an Am and him riding as a Pro. The setups have gotten bigger, and the lines have increased in speed and length, while the tech lines have become flowier. 

One thing that really stood out to me was his ability to make his lines go around corners by incorporating a spin in the same direction (Example 1, Example 2). It’s a nice touch that adds a bit of flavour to what could otherwise be somewhat bland street lines. 

I don’t recall seeing any of Kilian’s videos in the past but I really enjoyed his minimalistic tech style in this one. It’s simple street riding at a good pace without too many grinds on any one ledge or rail and he looks comfortable incorporating bigger setups into his lines as well. Overall, this was a really good video and even if there had been other videos to come out on the same day this one still would have had a decent chance of being the best one.

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JAN 3: DUB - Graft 3

DUB BMX’s ‘Graft’ series is seminal UK street riding. There’s a certain art to the way they capture the idea of ‘street’ riding. In comparison to videos coming out of L.A, the riding feels a lot less refined, the sky lacks the vivid blues the sky in California has, the music is dirtier, even the concrete is more rough... The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes street videos, especially those from LA, can feel like they are a little too picturesque, and this video does suffer from that problem.

Aside from doing a good job of capturing the ‘street’ aesthetic (lol), there was some really amazing riding in the video too. I’m not the biggest fan of street riding but I still felt it was interesting enough to watch and when it wasn’t holding my attention completely, the soundtrack helped me get through it until something exciting did happen. 

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JAN 2: Yumi Tsukuda is on Merritt!

I’ve not heard of Yumi Tsukuda before but this was a very nice introduction to his riding. I really enjoyed his use of wallies, peg chinks, and there was one clip with a wallie peg chink which was super rad. The final trick was fucking dank too; Ice chink 180 up and over a ledge to tooth chink a rail. It’s the sort of thing you need to see to really understand. 

Aside from the tricks, I felt like the video was filmed quite well and the song choice suited the style and level of riding in the video

The only other video I looked at today which had a chance of beating this one was the BOYD HILDER MERA SHOE PROMO (link). Boyd is a very talented rider - who I’ve seen likened to Dennis Enarson on multiple occasions - but I find his style of riding to be rather dull. There were a few clips I enjoyed, but for the most part it was the same, generic, cookie cutter bullshit we’ve all seen a million times; which is the reason I chose Yumi’s video instead. 

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JAN 1: DIE TECHNIK - United in Berlin

I didn’t particularly enjoy watching this video but there were no other videos released on this day (that I know of), so it takes the top spot. I felt like anything that might have been a banger was lost to the style of music used. I did only watch it once but I found it so hard to pay attention that I don’t feel the need to watch it again

edit: While I didn’t find it particularly interesting to watch, I did find think it was an interesting concept. Not interesting enough for me to add it to any end of year list (at least for now) but still interesting nonetheless