I ROLL NY: Vibralux "On Top" Online Premiere Review

Update: Adam Johnson has been, "randomly putting up the real version, the screwed up version, etc. for 10 minutes to 5 hours at a time, just to keep kids looking for it" (be-mag messageboard). so if you're lucky you can catch it.

The one hour exclusive peak at the new Vibralux "On Top" video brought many surprises to say the least. Due to the concern of online viewers downloading the new video, Adam Johnson disabled the video from being downloaded from the host site, vimeo, and also added a bunch of filters, texts, and effects to make the viewing experience...well, unique. It's totally understandable that the effects were done to make downloading the video unworthy, but it also distracted from the video and slightly turned me off from the viewing. If you were able to look past the distractions though, you know that On Top looks like a great video. Haffey, Farmer, Broskow, and Bambrick each had sections that stood out amongst the rest of the team in my opinion. The online premiere started with a long list of titles that seemed to stay on the screen forever but there were some funny lines that made the wait worth it. The intro also includes clips from each rider including Fabiola DeSilva which took me by surprise. Farmer then starts the series of sections from each rider and it's a definite must see. Though, as mentioned above there were distractions that took away from his section. Farmer's clips were re-created on a practice rail and would go back and forth between p-rail footage and street footage. As well footage was zoomed in so not everything was visible. None the less some clips that stood out were his negative top acid to top acid on a down rail and zero spin negative top acid on a similar rail. Michael Garlinghouse follows next and his section was constantly cut off or paused by text. A lot of clean and smooth tricks were done along with funny lines such as "he's running while the song is talking about running. how cool" and "fuckin miszou bitch." Michael Collins is featured next and his section is mixed with older clips from KFC's Members Only to hint at the current tricks that we'll see in the new video. Brenton Wheeler's section was overlayed over text reading "Wrong Crowd" making it almost impossible to see his clips. The Falls section brings the video back to a normal pace where the clips are clearly visible and Haffey takes a bad fall on his chin on a rail. The fall section then segways into Don Bambrick's section, which at first I mistakend for Rob Thompson...because I'm an idiot. His section was displayed as a negative image and a phone conversation was dubbed over it. Though looking past the given distractions I could see all the huge gaps he was doing with ease, along with an innovative torque cess slide to drop and a huge bs backslide on a chest high ledge. Haffey then follows and the section is displayed fast forwarded and looped over a couple of times. From what I can tell Haffey was definitly doing some of the craziest lines, landing huge stair gaps and then doing a down rail with ease. As well as being played backwards, Haffey's "ender" of the section was replaced with a google maps display of what was done. Alex Broskow ends the rider sections with, from what i can tell, was a great display of skating. Lights were overlayed his section which actually seemed to add to the music synched to the editing. The outro and credits had a couple of clips from each time rider like the intro did as well as some funny B Roll. The online premiere was worth the viewing and was a huge tease to make the viewer itch to buy On Top. Screen Caps from the online premiere below.