Recently, the folks over at eS footwear launched a time-line site at www.skateboardingstartswith.es. It's basically an eS website where you can pick the year and see what the legendary skate brand was up to durin that alignment of the stars. It started with the year, 1995, and have been updating the site ascending order.

They have offcially made it to the year 2000, and in that year eS dropped a legendary and groundbreaking video. Menikmati didn't just feature skateboaring that changed everything, but filming and editing techniques as well by the film maker extrodinaire, French Fred Montagne. To celebrate this revolutionary year, they have given you the ability to watch the entire video in High Quality form by clicking here.

Don't let anything get in your way of an achievement. I know it's a corny old saying, but for the most part it's true. Unless, that is, whatever is in your way will prevent you from ever achieving anything, like say a train. If you decide to not let a train stop you, it will probably be the last thing that's ever in your way, so there are some exceptions.

Although, for the most part the saying is true. People that let things deter them just end up another sheep in the heard, whereas people who overcome end up the shepherd. What does this have to with eS footwear welcoming Mark Frolich to the team?

Well, to make him feel at home, and to give you guys a little introduction to the German Deutsch-troyer, eS Films made a little video featuring one of his handrail clips. That's where the "never let anything get in your way" stuff comes into play. This particular handrail was pretty loose, which could be a disaster when it comes to set that big, but this wasn't going to stop Frolich. He came up with an ingeniously simple plan. He took one of the extra shoe laces from his new pair of eS shoes, tied it around a big rock, and then tied that rock to the handrail. Essentially anchoring the handrail to the ground, and eliminating the wobblyness. Pretty much caveman sh-t, but it worked. Check it out in the video below:

The three biggest skate videos released by shoe companies over the past decade went on to be three of the biggest skate films of their time. A good thing, right? Well yes, that is if you're prepared to deal with the "Curse Of The Shoe-bino." Just like the "Curse of the Bambino," a superstition that the reason the Boston Red Sox did not win the World Series for 86 years is they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. They made the Babe famous, but in the end they couldn't afford him with the likes of the mega bank account of the New York Yankees looming. A similar situation has occured in the world of skate video, especially to the shoe brands. After their videos achieved all their success, and had skateboarders around the world talking of their highlights, it happened, to each of them, and rather quickly too.

One of the best things about making a really good skate cinematic experience is a lot of people are going to see that video. That means a lot of eyes on each member of the team, and some of those eyes are going to be big shots at other shoe brands; guys that can make offers you can't refuse. And that my friends is the "Curse Of The Shoe-bino," after the dust has settled, key members of the team move onto greener pastures, in more ways than one. I'll give you my three examples, probably the three biggest shoe brand videos of all time: eS' Manikmati, DC's The DC Video and Lakai's Fully Flared.

I'll start with the Manikmati, a video that featured one of the best shoe teams at the time, eS, by one of the best skate videographers ever, Fred Montagne, aka French Fred. Here's a little rundown of who left town after the video was released: Erick Koston went to Lakai, Arto Saari went to Etnies (part of the same company) then to Gravis, Paul Rodriguez went to Nike and Bob Burnquist went to IPath. Now, not to sound cliche, or like a big dork, but those are some big shoes to have to fill.

Next, we have the DC Video. It too featured one of the best shoe teams of it's time, and also lost a few key members. DC didn't have it as bad, but they did part ways with following: Stevie Williams went to Reebok, Anthony Van England went Vans and Brian Wenning just left. That's the thing with the DC Video, it didn't get as many guys stolen, because Wenning just kind of gave up. He was skating in Timberlands for a little bit, then talked of going to Axion, and now he's just MIA. Minus that, the loss of Williams and Van England at the time must of been pretty big for DC.

Finally, we have Lakai's Fully Flared, called by many the greatest skate video to date. Here's it's rundown: Alex Olson left to Vans almost immediately after it's release, Anthony Papalardo went to Converse and Eric Koston went to Nike. What's the lesson here? These are American companies, and America is capitalist country, so if you make a big video that gets a lot of eyes on your team. That's just what it does; gets a lot of eyes on your team, and some of those sets of eyes can make things happen. I'll leave you with one last thought. Emerica is the next big shoe brand about to drop a big video which is going to be called, Stay Gold, so stay tuned for how that goes for them.

Photo: Eric Koston breaking free from one of the Lakai bosses, Mike Carroll.

Luan Olveira is a technical magician on a skateboard. The Brazilian sensation has set the amateur contest circuit a blaze the past few years, he just won the Tampa Am for the second year in a row, and I personally witnessed him clean up at this past Volcom Damn Am Championships. Not to mention, he had a killer part in the most anticipated video release of last year, Flip's Extremely Sorry.

Now, to pay him back General Rowley and the rest of the brass at Flip have decided to turn him pro. And in typical skate fashion they had a little celebration at the Hooters in Long Beach, CA. Just in case you didn't see here's a little video of Luan at the Damn Am: