The past year has brought so many high and low points for skateboarding many of these low points are from across the atlantic where we’ve seen Sheckler continue to destroy his reputation within the skate world with the Clean and Clear adverts, a half baked attempt at a motion picture from Rob Dyrdek called Street Dreams, the rise of corporate skate footwear, Jereme Rogers switch to a rapper and a slap in the face from the Berrics with their extortionate advertising program. All of which collectively may have helped increase the impending death of skateboarding as we know it, at least in America.

The UK on the other hand seems quietly optimistic as in the past year we’ve had the rise of the concrete mega parks, some new UK video gems in the form of Heel Toe Magic, Dimensions and the scene video Bristol’s Finest and of course the rise of skate video uploading – all of which is helping UK skateboarding grow stronger.

The US did have some highs obviously there was a spectacular backyard mega ramp session from Burnquist, flatground madness from Jimmy Carlin with Flippity Flop Pit Stop, Chris Cole never stopped, Malto was everywhere, Mike Mo was far too consistent, we’ve had Debacle, Strange World, Sk8Mafia AM, Diagonal, State of Mind, Right Foot Forward, The Blind Video and so much more insane footage which have helped take skateboarding to a whole new level.

Recommended viewing from the year gone by:

• Bob Burnquist – Extremely Sorry
• Jamie Palmore – Sk8mafia AM Video
• Shane Oneill & Theotis Beasley – Debacle
• Barney Page – Dimensions
• Sean Smith – Dimensions
• Eli Reed – “Zoo York State of Mind”
• Dennis Busenitz – “Diagonal”
• Jimmy Carlin – Flippity Flop Pit Stop

Happy New Year! Looks to be a good one, who knows Plan B may even release their video but then again Pigs could also fly.

Zero’s latest video release Strange World has been somewhat unexpected, there was no massive hype campaign building up to it’s release and they choose to announce the first thing about it only months before its eventual release. This isn’t a full length DVD either, most of Zero’s team only get brief sections and this years SOTY Chris Cole shares his section with a young Tom Asta. Seems Zero have choose to focus on select skaters and release videos more frequently rather than release a mammoth video every four years or so, which is actually a brilliant idea.

The DVD opens up with Garett Hill and for good reason he has such a nice style and chooses a good selection of tricks in his part, the guy could have easily closed the DVD, one of his stand out tricks for me was a Nollie Flip 50-50 which is honestly as sick as it gets.

Keegan Saunders follows and hes another with one of those almost too comfortable looking style to him, he steps it up and his section is a definite improvement from some of his previous parts.

Strange World provides two montages of skaters who didn’t get full parts, the first montage consists of the likes of Rattray, Sheldon, Cervantes and Ben Gilley.  Rattray produces some sick lines and throws himself down some huge sets all at some speed, he may be getting on a bit but he isn’t slowing down yet that’s for sure! Gilley lands a huge 50-50 down a pretty gnarly rail despite destroying himself three times on it before hand.

Marissa Dal Santos breaks up the two montages with her busting out some big hammers, she front boards this huge 14 set at the end of a line which is pretty epic!

The second montage contains the likes of Thomas, Steamer, Piscopo and Sandoval. Thomas puts hit down with his usual steeze and has a decent street part, Elisa is solid although her sections on the short side, Donovan has a solid part and Sandoval is as sick as usual.

Next up is Dane Burman the latest Zero am, the Aussy proves his worth and defiantly kills it, he has some pretty heafty tricks in his section including a hardflip over a huge street gap, one of the better sections in the DVD. Following is James Brockman who has a section full of hammers, its some pretty gnarly stuff and he produces a pretty steezy front blunt!.

Asta and Cole share the next section basically switching between the two after each trick. Both of them are insane,  not heard much about Asta before but rest assured I’m sure I will after this section, he is so sick!  Cole destroys everything like he always does with a mix of some tech grinds and some insane hammers, he closes with a back 360 down a pretty big gap although he does snap his deck!

James Toncowny gets the last part and this kid can skate, he kills it busting out loads of hammers, another unexpected surpise, this kid is sick, defiantly someone to look out for in the future.

Strange World is accompanied by a heavier soundtrack as is expected, the filter effects can be somewhat distracting and the DVD contains a lot less HD shots which is a good thing! Strange World is a good watch and is easily re watchable, defiantly worth the small amount of £10 it’s being sold for. Get down to your local skater owned shop and grab a copy.