What's Good? Tiny X 'Skavenger Video 2011'

Welcome to round ten of the latest LUXBMX journal segment, 'What's Good?'. To reiterate, we reach out to one of the homies and get a hot tip on the latest biking madness. It's called 'What's Good?' and for this instalment, I've managed to forcefully extract some words out of Brisbane based hoodlum Carraig 'Tiny' Troy. 

Here you go, this is what Tiny looks like

Tiny rules. Kid has a decent knowledge of his generation past and is a product of the sub-genre best described as grimy ass street. He's also got an interesting take on life and one which only sounds (from my point of view anyway) in a face-to-face situation. So, getting the dude to take part in this series was a motivation of mine, it's refreshing to hear from someone who generally keeps their views to themselves and who is likely to offer insightful comments. 

With an indecisiveness creeping in based around 3 options (Fit Life, Garrett Reeves in OSS 'Football' and the chosen video), Tiny pushed through, the pressure of a LUXBMX Journal guest spot too much to bear. 

"This video is probably the one that had me the most stoked and got the most watches over the years. I was 15 when this came out and after seeing it, all I wanted to do was ride street. All the random hijinx clips are incredible and the riding really is something special, the way some of those dudes ride is so nice. 

There are too many amazing moments to name them all, but some of my favourites are Dave McDermotts double peg on the steel pipe and grind on the stairs, Tom White getting hit by a car, Vinnie Sammons curve wall to over tooth and Ralph getting stoked on Edwin landing the fakie crook. 

Cheers for the question Mike, was fun watching the video again, it really is street riding at its best."

As always, what makes this segment so special is getting to share the mind-frame of a fellow biker. These thoughts might not always be spoken or shared, so extracting it in a way that feels comfortable and willing is the goal, giving both the audience and the biker (Tiny, in this instance) a chance to take part in something authentic and meaningful. Let's also not forget that ultimately, we're just talking about a bike video - it's kind of just a way to share in something bigger than you. 

Tiny - switch feeble in the city

Sentimentality aside, after sussing out the clips Tiny mentioned above - as part of my due diligence for this post (i.e. watching the video in full), I wanted to point out a few notes of my own. Firstly, the Animal/Skavenger aesthetic is second to none, a supremely effective way of creating a 'brand' with the less is more approach. You know what level you're on when you peep a video from these dudes. On this, I also love how there is little to no emphasis on certain clips (i.e. slo-mo, ramping, re-plays, run-ups/roll-outs), it's just quick cut, raw ass footage set to classic drum breaks. Simplicity reigns. 

From an individual rider/clip point of view, the Pat Wang clips at the start comprise a couple tweaked out crank-slides - which were a dime a dozen in 2011, so it was awesome to see this fella rip 'em sideways (1.20 is a good example). I wrote down I'd never heard of Brandon Olivero which is cool considering I feel like I'd watched almost all web videos of note at this point in time, dude killed it. Backing in Tiny, not sure if he means the clip at 8.14 by Dave McDermott (as there is another straight grind on stairs), but downsiding a small set of insignificant stairs is absurd. Lastly, Tom White's high speed smith gap at 20.00 rules (the lead in clip to getting hit by a car) and then the Edwin 360 gap up the flat concrete blocks at 22.13, also absurd. 

 And there you have it, the commentary now ends. Go watch the video.