REVIEW

New World Disorder 8: Smack Down DVD

Holeeee moly! What more can we say after watching the latest DVD offering from Freeride Entertainment. Their New World Disorder series has evolved over the years, with New World Disorder 8, aptly titled “Smack Down,” taking its place at the pinnacle of their videographic evolution. From the first chapter, Smack Down delivers enough action to very nearly wear you out. If you can make it to the end without reaching complete exhaustion, it only feels natural to go slam a Red Bull (or two) and get on your bike. This video will leave you breathless, and truly inspired!

From the first chapter, it quickly becomes evident that freeriding has grown up a bit from backyard dirt jumps and renegade B.C. trails. It has become the bicycle spectator sport. Sure the Tour de France draws millions of spectators each day, but can you watch tour videos all day on a Sunday afternoon and stay awake? The New World Disorder 8: Smack Down DVD delivers a healthy first punch with Andreu Lacondeguy soaring over 30' dirt jumps executing an all-inclusive list of latest and greatest tricks -- he's so good that half of the segment he didn't even bother with a shirt let alone actual protective gear. We like that the producers included some crash footage of Andreu, because he rides so aggressively that he had some gnarly wipeouts as well.

The folks at Freeride Entertainment used Smack Down to highlight the explosion of freeriding contests with a nice long segment full of highlights from this year's biggest contests. There was footage from the Nissan QashQai events in Europe, Crankworx, and the Bearclaw Invitational. Ben Boyko's 360 off the big drop at Crankworx was awesome. Some of the riders provided their insight into the demands and the thrills of the lifestyle. As we watch the DVD, it seems that the riders must surely suffer from constant injuries as the event organizers keep making jumps and drops bigger and bigger. We get the feeling that the riders know that there is a limit to what they can ride, but they aim to impress their fans and put on a good show.

The New World Disorder 8: Smack Down DVD has some great street riding scenes. Jeff Lenowsky is impressive as usual and his scenes have an artful flair. We found ourselves rewinding over and over to watch his big wall ride over a loading dock. Wayne Goss has some fun in an urban fountain by accident. Fans of the forest will not be left out either. Fabien Barel literally rips his way down some sweet gravity-fed singletrack and makes us want to do the same. There is a scene where he swoops in-and-out of narrow benchcut turns across a scree covered mountainside that illustrates just how fast and capable a world cup downhiller must be.

There are scenes from Israel, Argentina, Whistler, Oregon, Utah, and B.C. We loved the Utah scenes. They provided spectacular scenery, but we also got to see Berrecloth huck some nasty drops and blaze downhill in a cloud of dust, only to be followed by Cam McCaul backflipping his way across a huge road gap. It was truly amazing and worthy of slo-mo review. All these beautiful locations eventually become a blur of airtime and dust as the DVD progresses. Smack Down deserves at least a couple of viewings to fully appreciate. The scenes are captured with a variety of camera angles-point of view shots from the bike, cable cams, in car cameras, handhelds, and whoknowswhatelse. There is even some freaky footage of a big gap transfer jump that appears to be from a camera suspended by an excavator bucket or crane or something. Nevertheless, when the riders come through the field of view, they appear to jump to stratospheric heights before gravity pulls them mercilessly back to earth.

The New World Disorder 8: Smack Down DVD is an awesome video. For us, it provided the same jolt of adrenaline as our first big gap jump. What's even better is that the showcase of crazy tricks might just help us become better riders as well. It's obvious that we are worlds apart from the pro riders on the video. Those guys are totally amazing. We also can't help but wonder if watching Smackdown is like taking vitamins for our riding skills. If that is the case, then we prescribe liberal application and no bed rest. Get out there and ride. In the meantime, we'll practice what we preach!