DVD Review: We Are Valo

We Are Valo DVD

By Eric Thompson AKA Rolling4Life

When I first saw the release of who was going to be on the Valo pro team, I was instantly thinking “team video”. Erik Bailey, Jeremy Morris, Jon Julio, Mike Marthino, Cossimo Tassone, Michael Braud, Sean Keane, and John Starr are ALL amazing skaters, who maintain a unique, un-paralleled style, and amount of knowledge in life, and the sport of rollerblading. Each skater is unique, just like Valo. When “We Are Valo” came out, I was very happy, and bought it a soon as I got together the (about) $20 it took to pay for the video.

I popped in the DVD, and pressed “Play”, and instantly, I got excited, the screen read “A Patrick Lennen film”. I love his skating style, so I assumed I would not be let down by his filmmaking ability (Plus “Leading the Blind”, and “Them Apples” were both insane). In the introduction, a few nice stunts were pulled, some creative spots (a TREE?) and good editing. I liked how each shot was cut into thirds, divided into “sepia”, “black and white”, and color, which I thought was very unique. The intro turned nicely into Mike Marthino’s section.

Right off the bat, I noticed Mike Marthino was like nothing I had ever seen, he was skating trees in the beginning of his section so I didn’t know what to expect at all, especially considering I had never seen him skate before. I liked how he skated some ledges, and banks, and spots no one ever really skates, so that was a nice breath of fresh air for me; little did I know, this whole video would be a HUGE breath of fresh air. The last thing I liked was he seems to be bringing back the forgotten 360. Most people are so hyped of massive 180’s, clean 540’s, and off the wall 900’s, that no one really thinks to do 360’s anymore, which made me like this section even more. He also nailed switch tricks like you would not believe.

Next is Michael Braud’s section. I liked his skating because he is aggressive, and cut-throat. He starts off with an interview about pain, which was somewhat odd, but it went with his passionate, emotional section, with loads of falls and some insane hammers. When he sets his mind on landing a trick, he keep going until he cant try anymore, during his section, one of the many times he showed us his persistence was trying to tru mizou a small bank top, and I must say, he nailed it perfectly. Because of his determination, he didn’t land a whole lot of tricks, but when he did it was great. A ledge-roll to tree gap was one of my favorites and a sick back torque up a sculpture (do we see a Valo team obsession with odd spots?). On a final note here, I did not really like this section and if you would like to skip over it, be my guest.

This video also has a Euro tour section, including all team members, where Cossimo and Sean wowed me with steezy torque tricks, and Morris hit up some sweet stalls. I also liked that some Roces pros like Blake Dennis and Oli Short had a clip or two also. Erik Bailey also had a few “appetizer” clips, to get you pumped for his momentous section. Quite possibly the greatest clip ever also went down in this section, when Cossimo Tassone hits a stylish back royale down an uncountable number of stairs, all out death ledge. Cossimo is a ruthless skater, and in my opinion has great things in his future.

Erik Bailey had an amazing section in this video. He really has a way of bringing together skating for me. He takes the best of all aspects of inline skating and rolls them up into one. He hits some big gaps, into and out of grinds as well, and has some technical switch ups, all with hot style. His section starts off with some transit trips from the tour. A few really high parts to his section was the back farv to 630 on a curved ledge, a tru mizou down a kinked, curved handrail, and of course the comic relief of him doing a heel-clicker somewhere in the midst of some amazing skating. Erik Bailey has won numerous contests in the past, and is really one of the greatest skaters in our sport, right up there with Haffey, and Farmer.

Here’s where it all goes down, Jon Julio’s section in We Are Valo is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He pulls rocket fishes down EVERYTHING including a huge curved hubba ledge. To start off his section, are a few OG clips of him from back in the day, and the announcement of some sort of Disney show featuring Jon Julio… can you tell I didn’t really get that parrt? Then he hits up a pool run, which was fun to watch, which then transitioned into the heart of the DVD. He hit up some sick wall rides, and disaster tricks, which is way more than okay in my book. He topped his already all killer no filler section with smooth, old-school style which I believe everyone should worship! (Forget organized religion, let’s worship Jon Julio!)

As a final re-cap of everything, Valo is a great company, and Jon Julio puts his own personal twist on yet another company. Jon is also a kick-ass skater. Pat Lennen is great; his editing followed that path too. Mike Marthino is an innovative, stable skater, with a future in our sport. Michael Braud is good, but his section could have been better. The tour with Roces was definite success for Valo, and the skating looked awesome. Erik Bailey and Jon Julio both broke it down with the two best sections I have seen in a while, and this video is really worth getting a copy of. I feel like it was $20 well spent for me, and you will too. Roll for ever, and support what you know and love, rollerblading.