Hailing from Anthony Shetler Country, New Bedford, Massachusetts, this young crew of upstarts brings some raw skills to the table. What this East Crew is lacking in finesse they make up for in balls by jumping down some pretty big stuff. We look at videos like this one of Michael Pimentel, Josh Silva, and Fabian Matias as a jump off point for the future. In this video we see a bunch of basic, fundamental tricks done down decent size rails and gaps; if these guys continue to progress we envision this crew in Chosen contests in years to come doing harder, more technical tricks down those same drops. Definitely a solid first entry for a crew of future stars.

One area that is lacking is the personality of the crew. As much as we want to see hard-hitting skating we also want to know what your crew is about, what makes you guys tick.

Make sure to showcase what you do off the board as well as on the board.

You have friends that ride, you all hang together and you produce some killer videos. It's your crew and that's something to be proud of. But you're not the first to find some like-minded individuals, get your shred on and produce videos. Since the dawn of man, and later on, tubular three-piece cranks and BMX bikes, video producing crews have existed throughout the realm of BMX. What follows are some of the most infamous of crews:

The Plywood Hoods

Originally a breakdance crew from York, Pa., the Plywood Hoods (consisting
of flatland innovators Kevin Jones, Mark Eaton, Mike Daily and more) broke
onto the scene in the mid '80s. Jones, now considered the father of modern
flatland riding, plied his trade, while Eaton picked up his mom's video camera
to document their exploits. Together, the Plywood Hoods released the first DIY
BMX video in 1988, dubbed "Dorkin' In York" launching Jones' career as an
legendary innovator and Eaton's as a legendary video producer. "Dorkin In York" produced ten sequels, a DVD box set, and ultimately led to Eaton producing the BMX history flick "Joe Kid on a Stingray." The videos also cemented Jones' place in the BMX history books, along with Chase Gouin and many other later additions to the Plywood Hoods. All that from riding flatland with some friends in a parking lot in Central Pennsylvania.

The Baco Crew

Just a few years behind the 'Hoods, the Baco crew (Chad Degroot, Chris
Rye, Dave Friemuth, Mark Hilson) started producing videos in the early '90s
documenting the Midwest scene from which they came (Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, greater Standard Country). With videos produced by Chris Rye, the Baco crew's motivations were much the same as the 'Hoods, but the video antics were turned up a notch. Degroot brought flatland into a modern age, sometimes barefoot and sometime in a dress, while Friemuth took technical spine and mini ramp riding to a new degree of difficulty, also sometimes while wearing a dress. The Baco Crew produced ten sequels, and helped raise modern talent in the form of Brian Kachinsky and Kevin Porter. The Baco series is currently out of print, but sections can be found scattered throughout the Web.



Club Homeless

From the depths of Texas came a "crew" video maker Dave Parrick once described as "Club Homeless." Documenting the scene around him, including riding from Kevin Gutierrez, Ruben Castillo, Eben Krackau, James Shepherd and himself, Dave Parrick created the Homeless series of videos in the late '80s to early '90s. Eventually, Homeless spawned a bike company and the Homeless crew became the Homeless team. From there, Parrick released the seminal Homeless video "Trash," which brought the handrail grind to the BMX masses in 1992. Following some differences with the brand owner, the team left Homeless shortly thereafter, and attempted to form a new crew dubbed "Family," but nothing could match the influence of the Homeless crew and "Trash."

Nike's Chosen contest is in full swing, and hundreds of crews have registered. Check the frontrunners and you'll see that, yeah, there's some heavy ripping -- but let's revisit the criteria for getting Noticed: creativity, camaraderie, progression (CCP). It's more about personality than performance, and crews should be going all out to amplify the Cs in CCP, showing what makes them radder than the kids down the street.

With that in mind, here are a few token surf crews we'd like to see in Chosen -- ones that could really make a splash and snatch the spotlight. If one of these describes you and your friends, log off and grab a camera already. Time's a wasting.

House Crews
So much interesting stuff goes down when your crew is together under a single roof -- all you have to do is capture it. If you're roommates, siblings, or just tend to hang at one pad all the time, use that to tell your story. Gaps in the action and downtime between surf sessions are crew video glue. For inspiration, see Football Shmootball (about the Volcom house), Shelter (friends chilling and surfing in a rented farmhouse), or any of the early-'90s Lost videos. Or just watch Animal House.

Lake Crews
Great Lakes surfers are a strange, tweaked community that puts common conceptions of "hardcore" in a tutu. Their surfing experience is unique and completely different from coastal softies. Seems like there'd be a crew somewhere out in Michigan just waiting to get Noticed. And you know they've got the time on their hands.

Rich Crews
Kids born with a silver spoon in their beak and a few fresh Merricks in their Range Rover are a blessed breed. If your crew has trustafarian dough to throw around, surfing fine waves and living it up like MTV reality stars, at least film the fun. Money isn't everything, but it might make some pretty sweet Chosen videos.
Sterling Spencer and Warren Smith -- a tight Gulf Coast crew of two. Really tight.

Gulf Crews
Everything about the Gulf -- that it's part of the South, that it's recovering from a disaster, that its pervasive flatness means surfers have to be creative every day of the year to stay sane -- makes it fertile soil for a rad crew to spring from. Cory Lopez proved that surf legends can come out of the Gulf, and Sterling Spencer is proving that they can be interesting to boot. A Gulf Coast crew could kill it.


Nike's all-girl surf crew at the premiere of their film Leave a Message.

All-Girl Crews
Predictably -- surfing still skews heavily male -- Chosen is so far predominately a boys' club. But all that means is that a crew of motivated girls with a camera would stand out like sunflowers in a field of grass. Nike's own surf team just paved the way with its new all-girl surf film Leave a Message, and there's never in history been more talent on the fairer side of the gender gap. A female crew is an obvious opportunity for chicks who rip.

Retro Crews
Check the short trunks, check the fishes and single-fins, check the Ray-Bans and greaser hair: surfing, like the rest of the hipster universe, is revisiting the past in style. Retro, vintage, throwback -- whatever you want to call it, it's all the rage and then some. No doubt the moneyed hills and seaside burgs of Laguna Beach or North County San Diego are home to some fab-chic retro crews, high-lining on keel-fin boards in beavertail wetsuits by day and shooting film cameras at a jazz show by night.


One of the two infamous Volcom houses at Pipeline, home to a crew almost as famous as the wave out front.

North Shore Crews
Throw a rock on The Rock and it'll hit a crew of underground heroes who surf the North Shore better than most of the "pros" paid to fly there every November. It's a quirky little Petri dish of a place year-round, both when the surf world descends in winter and when it's quiet and sleepy after the crowds leave. Part country living, part mega-industry fire pit. Cruising and charging in equal measures. There's more than one crew story waiting to be told from the Seven Mile Miracle.

This list is by no means exhaustive -- in fact, what it's missing is the crew we'd like to see most of all: yours. Connect through Nike's Facebook page to get your crew in the game.

The Greater Dallas, Texas area has been going off ever since the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship. This four-man crew of rippers from that area is as much a force to be reckoned with as their basketball counterparts. Adrian Hodge, Kechaud Johnson, Frankie Heck, Michael Tang have taken a different approach to their submissions.

While working on their crew video they put together some banger skate photos of themselves on their crew page and posted a quick video of well-known contest killer, Kechaud Johnson (who just won the Go Skateboarding Day 5Boro rail contest last week in Queens, NY) to wet people's appetite while they get the full length D.R.E.A.M. Crew video together.

If Kechaud's video is any indication of how good their full video is going to be then this is definitely a crew page to keep your eyes on.

The internet is abuzz over the Familia Chosen video. From Hellaclips to the message boards everybody is tripping off video that Tim Fulton edited together of his Minnesota homies Tabari Cook, Jack Olson, David Jaimes and CJ Tambornino. We reached out to Tim to get some insight into his video and his crew.

Tim Fulton
Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
Occupation: student/Works at 3rd Lair Skatepark
Filmed/Edited Familia Chosen Part on: Sony VX2000/Final Cut Pro

What was the angle you wanted to go in when you were editing the Familia part?
I was trying to make something that was raw skating but had a little production behind it. I've really done anything with time-lapses or anything like that but I knew I wanted to incorporate that.

You've guys have been noticed and people seem the most stoked on your video. How does that make you feel?
It's tight. I think it's cool that we have a lot of people hyped on it.

What would you tell other kids when making their video on how to get noticed?
Just put your all into and then try to hype it up as much as you can and try and spread the word. If you tell a couple of your friends and they tell a couple of their friends the word will get out.

It doesn't hurt to have Steve Nesser on your side, right?
Ha! Steve is definitely a big help. He's definitely plugging it as much ads he can. He throws it on the Familia site all the time. I think he's sent it to his friends and they're helping us out too. Steve has been a huge help.

Describe Familia and your crew.
Familia is a skateshop but I really think it's more than that. The name has a lot of meaning behind it because it is a bunch of dudes that are super tight and they all go way back. They set down a good foundation for everybody. As for the crew, we're all kids from around Minnesota. We're all from different areas but we're all really close friends that have been skating together forever. Tabari is the vegatarian kid who is really motivated. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. CJ too is another nice guy and always the hype man behind everything. Jack Olson is the young gun of the crew but he's super cool too. David is the silent killer.

For all the kids watching your Chosen Familia part around the country, what would you want them to know about your scene in Minneapolis?
I think the reason our scene in Minneapolis is so tight is because our winters are so harsh here that everyone gets together all winter long skating the 3rd Lair Skatepark every day so everyone gets to know everyone really well. That's why everyone clicks so well here.