OK, I saw NWD8 last night and I must say, a fun time was had by all. As an event, it was awesome; The new venue was great and Tim had a lot of cool schwag to hand out from Mavic, CamelBak, Smith, etc. Sorry, I digress; that's not a review of the film. Onward:
It has the usual NWD lame subplot intro theme that gets used as a segue throughout - - this time it was a faux-WWF-type sequence to introduce riders. Oh well; guess they feel the need to have some story line.
Anyway, the riding is, as usual, jaw-dropping. But I think I've finally reached saturation point on backflips and 360s, as impressive as they are. In fact, they are thrown down so much it's almost depressing to mere mortals like myself. You get the feeling that the whole world can do them, plus hit 30' gap doubles in their sleep. It's downright humbling - - especially when I still run up to little 14 footers, eye them two or three times, watch a couple friends hit them, roll up a couple more times before I'll commit to launching one. Ah well . . . .
Now, what did I like most about it? Wouldn't you know, it's the pinners that really got my adrenaline going. I
loved watching Fabian Barel's sequence. I've always like him as a racer but I'm going to have to pay more specific attention to him. There were some little bits of moto style that showed especially when you saw the slow motion parts. I understand he does moto too, so maybe that explains it; anyway, I found it ultra-cool.
Next was, naturally, Cedric. The guy is such a phenomenal bike-handler, I never tire of watching him. His legs put down power like an engine; what can I saw? - - wow.
The other footage that really grabbed me will show my regional prejudice: Cam McCaul at 'the Exit' here in Washington. I still cannot believe they didn't bleep out him saying exactly where they were - - those are supposed to be trails that don't exist
. Anyway, the Exits are legendary and I can see why now (gastro, this is one of the Western Washington riding areas I told you about in a conversation we had). Absolutely flowy but HUGE stunts. And from what my friend Devin tells me (who has been there), it is full of big-commitment stuff there - - no wuss-out lines. I have to go sometime and at least marvel at it in person.
Oh, and I happened to like the soundtrack better than some NWDs past. Mix was a bit more ecclectic I thought.
So there you have it - - for what it's worth. Would I buy it or choose it over another? I don't know. Would I like to get it as a gift from my son (hint-hint)? You bet! Would I like to see it again but somehwere that isn't a loud, jam-packed restaurant where you can't hear half the audio? For sure.