Hot Chocolate Video - a Chocolate Skateboard Documentary

Hot Chocolate is half skateboarding video and half skateboarding documentary. Hot Chocolate follows the Chocolate pro skater team as they drive across the US in two vans on the Hot Chocolate tour. The video is full of deep friendships, great insights and tons of incredible skateboarding. The DVD has some special features to top it all off - the Hot Chocolate skateboard documentary is one of the best skateboarding videos of the year.

I didn't have high expectations for Hot Chocolate - nothing against the team, I have just been getting tired of tour skate videos lately. With Hot Chocolate I was happily impressed, right from the get-go.

The DVD starts by showing the rough times the Chocolate team has gone through. Daniel Castillo shows news paper clippings of when he got horribly shot in a random drive by while at a graduation party in LA. Next came a segment about Keenan Milton's passing away in 2001, and the loss his teammates and the world of skating felt. Gino, Marc and Scott all talked about what it was like for the Chocolate team, and the evolution it has gone through. Many of the skaters on the Chocolate team were new for the Hot Chocolate tour, and the whole experience and dynamic of the team was going to be new and fresh - a new chapter for Chocolate.

And then the credits roll, Girl Films & Chocolate Cinema present Hot Chocolate over the backdrop of a huge pack of skaters flooding the streets - the entire Chocolate team with an army in tow.

The entire video has a documentary feel, and it works very well. You really get a good understanding of what it was like for these guys to pile into two vans and tour for an entire month. The fun they had, the problems they faced, you get to see and hear about it all. And man, I have never wanted to be a pro more than after seeing Hot Chocolate - I love skateboarding, but to combine that with the crazy exhausting experience of a tour - it looks like they had the best experience of their lives. You get to see them build their friendships, help each other through pain and frustration, and learn and grow as a skateboarder. It's like pure brotherhood - the kind of thing you look for in a dorm or in the military, but never really get. These guys got it - they say over and over that the Chocolate team is more like a family.

Hot Chocolate is also unique in that I think it will appeal to a larger audience than most skateboarding videos and films. The whole thing has the feeling of a journey, of discovery, of good times with great friends. I think non-skaters will enjoy it as well - the commentary and play breaks up the skating, and the whole feel of the film is comfortable and fun.

For drawbacks, I found only one. As a whole this is a fairly clean video with only occasional cussing and no nudity or drugs. There's one segment right after Kenny where they talk about how the longer you don't land a trick, the worse it gets. So true. And then there's a funny song with a girl singing two of the worst "bad words" out there over and over while we watch guys bail and freak out. It's a well made section, but definitely not for everyone.

Sick Skating

The skating footage from the Hot Chocolate tour is tight. Kenny Anderson is so natural and light footed, it's insane. He makes skating look effortless, and he never looks like there's effort, or even impact involved. In one segment he boardslides to tailslides a bench so smoothly that it looks like there was really no other way to do it. Justin Eldridge nose grinds everything on Earth just to warm up, never missing a beat. Marc Johnson skates with crazy flow, like he's surfing, always doing something new like when he switch crooks a bench to a half-cab kickflip out. Near the beginning Mike York tries to crook a cement bench when he tweaks his knee out. He's ticked, but he's still crazy and upbeat, helping out the other guys, having fun.

• Running time of 53 minuets
• Team: Gino Iannucci, Marc Johnson, Kenny Anderson, Scott Johnston, Mike York, Richard Mulder, Chico Brenes, Justin Eldridge, Chris Roberts and Daniel Castillo
• Special Segments:
  • Wierd and yet awesome team skating section where everyone's wearing white t-shirts and riding red boards, skating in cool patterns to the music of Bjork.
  • Flaming board segment where the team takes turns playing with fire and riding a burning crailtap skateboard.
• Extra features:
  • Girl "High Fives up the I-5" tour
  • Hot Chocolate slideshow
  • Hot Chocolate trailer
• Directed by Pike Jonze, Ty Evans and Cory Weincheque

Summary

This is easily one of the best skate videos this year. The skating is fresh and fun, the tour commentary will give you a great idea of what it's like to be a pro rider, and the video as a whole should make you want to become a pro skater. The Chocolate team has been through a lot and come through the fire stronger than ever before. Whether you like skateboarding videos or not, Hot Chocolate is something everyone will get something out of. I loudly recommend it.