As British Skate flicks go, Heel Toe Magic has to be the most eagerly anticipated video to come out this year. Any video with Andy Evans name attached to it turns into skate gold, and following the trailer, it seemed as though this film would not disappoint.

The video starts off promisingly with a typical Andy Evan’s-esque domino train of DVDs, DV tapes and some other unusual stuff. Following this, we join the famous Skate Relic Hunter Marc Churchill on his hunt for the magical Kingpin. This sequence is low-budget production at it’s best and had me laughing out loud.

After meeting sir Bob of Bobbington, we’re treated with a section from the UK’s rising star Ben Raemers. This section is filled with some bowl and ramp based madness and some street bangers on some decent sized handrails. It’s also worth mentioning that the last trick in the section is amazing, a great opening to the DVD. Following this is a montage from a whole bunch of skaters, with cameos from Joe Lynskey, Marc Churchill and Tom Penny to name a few. Slightly larger sections of this montage are set aside for Joe Moore, a Works local with a crazy bag of flip-in flip-out manual craziness, Kris Vile, who gets massive pop, skates fast and does it with style and Ross McGouran who has come a long way, doing difficult tricks over big stairsets; along with one of the most stylish nollie inward heels over a set I’ve seen in a good long time.

After a bizarre look into the history of Skateboarding, we’re taken to have a look inside the freestyle room. In this section, Darran Nolan brings the ruckus with a range of flip-in flip-out ledge and manny tricks along with some downright crazy flatland flip trickery. For most of this section I actually felt as though the slow motion wasn’t slow enough to see what was happening. Accompanying Darran once more is Callum Bowran, bringing his old school freestyle tricks to the party. Next up is a full section from Greg Nowik, whose section seems to have come straight from the early nineties; clearly he’s been messing around with the Time Machine he developed in This n That. As you could expect, this section is filled of later-than-late shoves, benihanas and a whole host of coping tech. There’s even a brief cameo from “Street Nowik”, so there’s something for everyone here!

Jeff the Ffej Hedges is up next, continuing the 80s comeback Claus Grabke had started in a typical comical fashion; also giving us the greatest skater the world has ever known. Following this is a full section from Stevie Thompson section, which is full of some pretty shocking tricks on a range of unusual obstacles. The most enjoyable thing about this section is just how relaxed the skating is; which left me wondering just how his mind works! After this is a montage featuring Rupert Antoine, James Kilpatrick and Matt Ransom who all have some pretty amazing tricks, Matt having an amazing kickflip wallride which was one of my personal favourite tricks of the whole film. The main attraction of this section however was Aaron Revell, who managed to bust out a huge array of late tricks over a hip, still managing to throw in the odd massive stairset trickery.

Up next is another montage featuring Amir Williams’ fast and fluid tricks, Louis Cooper with some nice street skating; including a smooth hardflip 5-0 midline, and Ollie Smith who has some pretty cool tricks and an awesome final trick. As with the Andy Evans’ previous projects, this video features a contests and demos section with all the best tricks from loads of events across the past few years. This section is a great testament to the standard of skating that gets put down at contests from UK based skaters, the Manny Mania footage from Craig Smedley, Avi and Mike Wright (to name a few) being downright outstanding. There’s also some footage from UK legend Andy Scott and some demo footage from a whole bunch of international pros, including Sheckler, Haslam, Lutzka and many others.

In spite of a whole host of impressive demos, the secret is that shoe sales are still down. The solution, it seems, is simple; an intergalactic skate tour led by Mark Munson and a size 5000 D3! Upon his glorious return, he found the time to get a good amount of footage for his section in this video, with some good old-fashioned pool and bowl shredding. Next in the montage is Pete King with some miniramp and ledge tech, followed by Carl Wilson, who begins his part with a massive blunt, which sets the tone for the rest of his footage. Finally, there’s some footage from Adam Howe, who skates some massive rails and gaps, mixed in with a bunch of insane park footage.

Another montage is up next, starting with Tom Knox and James Gardner who throw down some smooth stylish street footage. This is followed by some Chris Oliver footage, which is always a treat. For this section, he seems to focus on specific items at Pioneer and Bay 66 skateparks and just tear them apart. Closing up the montage is UK vert champion Sam Beckett, showing us just how he has managed this, his section including the first 720 performed by a UK rider; very impressive stuff.

Finishing up the video is a full-length section from Mike Wright who has recently started riding for Almost Skateboards. After his hilarious first meeting with the “Messiah”, a legendary skateboarder who keeps everything right in the world of skateboarding, Mike sets about destroying Hebdon Park and the Works with some lateflip madness and massive airs. This is easily the high point of the video, his section featuring 270 ollie underflips over hips, flatland tech and a line with both a later varial flip AND a flip bs smith on bench midway through! I personally had to watch this section through several times to get to grips with it, simply outstanding! As the video winds down, we’re also treated to a closing montage of slams, silliness and various other bits and bobs that didn’t fit in anywhere else.

Overall, this video is downright fantastic. On top of the main feature, which is over an hour in length, there are a bunch of extras including a whole second section from Mike Wright and an extended Manny Mania video; all of which for just £5. This film is great value for money and a great watch start to finish. While some of the footage is recorded a little strangely, it’s easy to overlook this, as the quality of the skating is so high. It’s a mostly park based affair, but there’s also a load of incredible street skating too, so it should be worth a watch for anyone into skateboarding. It’s also worth mentioning that this DVD is fantastically funny for all it’s silliness and will undoubtedly have you laughing out loud. Andy Evans has managed to put together what will no doubt be a timeless classic that you’ll be able to watch over and over again.

Review by Fozzz

The skateboarding world these days is putting out epic, high-budget…well, i guess you could still call them videos. They definitely look like skate videos, and they still generally behave like them, but there’s definitely a different feel to recent outputs from the big companies lately. Everything about them, not just the actual skateboarding, has to be bigger and better, with more money and more time being spent than ever before on producing something that sets a new standard in making a video. The differences between the small-time, shoestring budget, camcorder-from-argos skate videos of old and the massive, cinematic productions of today (Nothing But The Truth, Fully Flared et al) are far from subtle. Don’t get me wrong, i enjoy videos like Fully Flared. I love watching skateboarding being pushed to its limits before my eyes and i do like what a big budget and 3 years in production can achieve in the right hands, but i can also relate to those of us that prefer the smaller videos that make do without the money and the equipment and the know-how, and instead just put something out that simply shows the joy of skateboarding. It’s lucky for people of this opinion then, that Baghead Flats is one of these videos. Come to think of it, it’s lucky for just about everyone that for £5 you can get your mitts on one of the most enjoyable videos i’ve seen for some time.

Why so enjoyable? For starters, there’s a definite “session” feel to it. There are certain spots that appear in several skater’s parts, and you can pick out most of the featured skaters in the background of each other’s sections, making you feel like a participant or at least an awed spectator, cheering along with those out of shot at one of Josh Young’s blunt full-cabs, Mike Wright’s ledge tech or Joe Lynskey’s various flips to manual down banks.

Secondly, if you live in the north, chances are some of your local spots and parks will be featured in this video, and if like me, your spots aren’t what you’d call popular, it’ll stoke you out to see that these guys aren’t bothered about skating anywhere, not matter how ghetto it might be. There are actually bits in it where the noise of a rough surface is almost louder than the backing tracks. I was particularly stoked on seeing some Rampcity footage, mostly from Andy Scott. Watch for his blunt fakie at the end of his part. That vert ramp isn’t exactly small as it is.

Baghead Flats Teaser

Thirdly, every type of skating is to be found here. Ben Grove and Doug McLauglin’s parts will satisfy those who are into their hammers (though there’s some more tech stuff from Grove in there too), Josh Young stands out with his relaxed style and effortless mini ramp tech, Jason Brown would fit in well with the Preston scene, as his part is packed with wallies and flip tech, and Mike Wright shows why he’s one of the UK’s biggest talents, blending star and rail hammers with manny pad and ledge tech. There really is something for everyone in this video, and it is well paced as a whole, never sticking for too long on one style and not having any overly long sections.

Overall, i think Baghead Flats is a great example, not only of how far skateboarding in this country is progressing, but that as the big companies are pushing the cinematic boundaries of videos as far as they can, there will always be videos like this, that simply show some amazing skating by a group of mates that are obviously loving what they do. It’s also handy that they’re some of the best skateboarders this country has to offer.

Baghead Flats is available for £5 from Story. Put your hands in your pockets and buy it, you can’t go wrong.

Paul Rice