At its heart, the Nike Chosen contest is a video platform -- so video edits are a crew's single most important asset. And if anyone knows video production, it's Chris Steblay, the man behind the Neck Rash Crew's high-action Chosen clip as well as a boatload of other work for clients like Surfline.com and the Gudauskas brothers. Chris knows what makes a video sink or swim, and today he offers these five tips on optimizing the filming process. Crews looking to drop a late edit should pay close attention.

"First," says Chris, "help surfers know where you think the wave is most photogenic. I always let the guys know how I'll be shooting and from where, so they can focus their surfing on my zone. I also always watch the footage with the guys I shoot. When we're traveling, we shoot all day and watch all the footage at night, rewinding keepers and playing them back in slow motion. This not only helps the surfer to analyze their surfing, but it helps you get feedback on your raw footage."

Chris's 5 tips on good filming:

• Spot the light. Where's the sun? Is the wave lit well? And how bad is the glare? You can always walk down the beach and change your angle to get good light. That will turn your keeper clips into gold.
• Level that tripod. Most tripods have a level built in so you can keep your horizon straight. If yours doesn't, zoom in and line up the horizon with the top of your frame and level it that way.
• Clean your lens. Nothing says "amateur" like dirt on your lens. Lens tissue is cheap and will keep your image sharper.
• Pan smoothly. The hardest part for most people when they shoot action is keeping the action in-frame and smooth. Having a good tripod head will make this easier. If you find it hard to keep the subject in-frame, zoom out a little bit. This is super important nowadays -- now that guys will just boost a huge air out of frame. If you miss something like that, not only will you miss a keeper but the surfer's going to be pretty bummed on you.
• Think outside the box. Mix up your angles, take risks and have fun. Don't just stand front and center and shoot safely. Not only will that bore you to death, but you wont be pushing yourself as a filmmaker.

Check out more from Chris via his production company, Seeworthy Project. Now go get filming.

This past weekend, the Los Angeles riverbed (and connecting tunnel), famous for its appearances in movies such as "Grease," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Point Break" (among others) was transformed into a unique riding setup for the members of the Nike 6.0 BMX team and the greater Los Angeles BMX community.

With the help of Long Beach-based ramp builder Aaron Bostrom, along with event MC Micah Kranz and the Nike 6.0 pro BMX team (including Garrett Reynolds, Dennis Enarson, Nigel Sylvester and new member Chad Kerley), the Los Angeles riverbed and tunnel went from infamous movie set to BMX jam, with over 1,000 riders from the area in attendance, and riding from both local pros and unknown area shredders.

It very well could have been a demo by the Nike 6.0 pro team, but that's not what this event was about. The focus of the evening was on all of the riders, having fun, riding new setups, and kicking back in the same location where Blue Oyster Cult shot the music video for their hit song "Burnin' For You."

Strange? Yes. But no one was about to complain about riding a new setup with the Nike crew, under the bridge downtown. (Yes, that Red Hot Chili Peppers video was shot there too.)

Crews are posting, clips are playing, humans are Liking, industry's noticing -- but some folks still don't know just how all this creative flow will ultimately get distilled down to pick a single Chosen crew to get prized out of their minds with gear and good life.

It's actually quite simple, according to Nike's official rules page:

9 Semi-Finalists: Around July 30, Nike's expert judges will pick nine semi-finalist crews to advance (one from each region). Semi-finalist crews will be selected based on how well the crew gets noticed through social hustle with their videos, as well as which crews best embody the values of style, creativity, camaraderie and progression.

3 Finalists: From July 30 to August 6, fans and friends worldwide will vote for their favorite crews online and on the beach at the US Open of Surfing. Everybody gets one vote. On August 6, the top three crews based on international voting will be announced and move on to the final round.

1 Winner: On August 7, before the US Open men's final, the winning crew will be announced as picked by Nike's team athletes, based (again) on style, creativity, camaraderie and progression. Winners in each round will be notified within three days of the judges' decisions.

That's it: from many to nine to three to one. Easy, right? But this means crews have many masters to please: first, the judges at Nike, who are looking for a major social presence and tons of buzz. Next, the fans, who have their own criteria and can't be easily fooled. And finally, the Nike pros themselves, who have to dig a crew's style enough to want to go on a trip with 'em. Sure, easy. Better get hustling, crews. Creativity and originality are where it's at. Be yourselves, be interesting, be Chosen. You've got less than a month.

Since its relatively late entry into Nike's Chosen contest, the Wild Lyfe crew -- an East Coast hodgepodge of four surfers -- has galloped past its competition, at least in Facebook units. They've got more Likes and comments on the Chosen's platform than any other crew in North America -- surf, skate or BMX. Who? Why? How?

Today we get to know the Wild Lyfe, straight from the mouth of crew member Raven Lundy:

RAVEN LUNDY:

My name's Raven Lundy, I'm 27 years old from Virginia Beach, Virginia. I like to go surfboarding. I like to ride the waves and shred the gnar. Wild Lyfe style.

Then we got a grom in [the crew] -- he's from Virginia Beach, his name's Bryce Humphrey. Little underground kid, nobody's ever heard of him. Look him up on the iTunes. He's a hurricane with his words, and a freak on the surfboard, but he don't care about being the next Dane Reynolds or Kelly Slater or any of that. He just likes chicks and having a good time, and I don't think he's stressing about making it as a pro surfer. If he makes it -- woo hoo! But he knows how it is; we're from the East Coast. We just love surfing, and we love to party.

We picked Noah Snyder 'cause he's kind of a name over here on the East Coast, and he knows how to get shit done. He's not a full party guy, but you know, he's a great surfer and a great personality. Great barrel rider.

Then the other guy in the crew is Colin Herlihy. He lives in Delaware. Noah lives in North Carolina on the Outer Banks, and I grew up surfing down there. That's pretty much where all the Virginia Beach guys go to surf -- kind of the Mecca. But over the last few years I started going north and catching a little more long-period up there, and started working with Colin. He was a pro bodyboarder, man. He's a park ranger at the moment. He's got a little flow deal with Hurley -- he gets, like, free shirts and shit, you know? But he's another underground guy, you probably never heard of the guy.

And he's got the wild side to him -- and when I say "wild," it's not the party-type wild, it's nature. He's a park ranger. You go up there, his backyard's got a bass pond in it, and he's just a redneck, dude. That's why our crew is so different from a lot of what you see. None of us are the full pro athlete guy; none of us are making it as pro surfers. We subsidize it with something else.

That's what we do, we just love surfing whether it's f--king 30 degrees out and freezing water or 80 degrees out. We don't have the same opportunities that a lot of guys have, coming from the East Coast.

Pick a Pa. based pro, anyone from Joe Rich or Kris Bennett all the way up to Brian Yeagle or Chris Doyle. What binds them? Versatility. Pennsylvania-based riders, for as long as anyone has been counting, have always been notoriously good at riding street, trails, park and anything that might get in their way.

The Sun City Riders Crew (S.C.R.), based in Sunbury, Pa., is no different. Consisting of Sunbury locals, Brandon Reid, Ruben Medina, and Todd Kiger, the S.C.R. crew have been taking notes from fellow Pennsylvania-based BMX pros, and place no limits on the various elements of riding they're out to pursue.

Or their wardrobes. Well, at least in S.C.R. crew Todd Kiger's case, who rides most of the above video in a tie-dye t-shirt.

But we're not here to pick America's Next Top Model. The riding is what matters, and the S.C.R. crew delivers. From concrete parks to street to burly 9-foot quarters, the S.C.R. crew knows how to get it done.

Filmed and edited by Sunbury, Pa. local Troy Zeigler, the above video is a continuing work in progress. "I have been friends with these guys for many years now and it's good timing to show their talents to the world."

Well put Troy. And thanks for keeping the spirit of Pennsylvania BMX alive S.C.R. crew!