Chicks Rule DVD

I picked up the Chicks Rule DVD that Toes Up or Faceplant finally released last year after a lot of anticipation… they’ve had previews posted on their site forever.  If by chance you haven’t seen the preview, here they are…

http://www.toesuporfaceplant.com/chicks_rule3.wmv

Chicks Rule Trailer

The preview looks very promising… some world class barefooters get a chance to show off their footing skills.  Sadly, the preview shows all of the best stuff from the DVD.  The video contains several short interviews with the various ladies so we get to find out how they got into barefooting and some other interesting facts about them that relate to barefooting.  None of this is ground breaking, but is entertaining.  The actually barefooting parts of the DVD… well, we see most of those in the trailer and there isn’t much else in the video besides what’s shown in the preview.  Yes, the footing video in the DVD is longer than the preview, but there isn’t much else.  Just reviewing these two portions of the video, it would be OK, but nothing really that great.  There are quite a few barefoot videos on the web (from BFC and KSO and on YouTube) that are just as entertaining and show better barefooting.

Sadly though, there is a 3rd portion of the video I’d like to mention that for me, tips the scales to the point where I’ll recomend passing on this video.  They have a guest visit them on the docks.  Let’s just say this part of the video is what makes them put a warning about the content in the video being inappropriate for kids.  In my opinion, if it had been left out, the DVD would have been much better.  The segment was pointless, not funny (at least to those of us who don’t know the people involved) and completely unrelated to barefooting. The segment would have been more appropriate on a Girls Gone Wild video, but sadly, doesn’t even feature girls going wild, it just features a very hairy guy doing very stupid things.

If you’re looking for a good barefooting DVD, check out the DVD Soul (available at Lake Elmo Sports) or just go watch the videos you can see on BFC or visit KSO’s site.  I think you can safely skip Chicks Rule.

Finally though, good luck to Teri “Larson” Jones, one of the ladies featured in the DVD.  She’s competing at the Barefoot World’s next week in New Zealand.  I’ve footed with her several times and wish her the best of luck next week.

Soul

Finally managed to pick up the barefooting movie Soul this past weekend.  Gotta say, I liked it, I liked it a lot.

First off, the camera work is very slick.  They have lots of good views of the tricks and the cameras look like they are right in the face of the footers.  Next, the footing is phenomenal.  They’ve got Scarpa, Small, MacDonald and Stokes.  Finally, they’ve got some good music backing all of the action on the screen.  I recognized pretty much every song they used and they made good choices.

You can tell that for some of the shots, they really put some thought into both the trick and how they were going to capture it on video.  Then there was one trick that made me back the video up to watch it again.  It made me go WOW!  They do a barefoot whip up.  And they nail it.  There are show ski teams that have trouble doing a whip up with jumpers.  Be sure to watch the first extra on the DVD because that shows them planning the trick.

Even with all of the sick tricks they show, they have shots of tumble turns being done that really let you see what you need to do.  Simply slide the handle at your waist from the center, to one side, to the other and back.

Want your own copy?  Make your way over to Lake Elmo Sports, they’ve got it in stock.

Here’s the trailer