“Good, clean professional wrestling, the way it used to be!” plus Jesus!

This is one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen on the Internet in… I dunno, at least several hours? Just about every spectrum of goofy is covered in this decidedly unironic clip. About 60 seconds in, when the guy is describing his aches and pains—wait for it—it’s genius. If the actual dialogue here was goosed up maybe 5% by a comedy writer, it would have amazing potential as a sitcom.

But this is real. Get these Christian Wrestling Federation guys a reality show! You can’t say this wouldn’t play to an exceptionally large swath of the American public! Imagine the drama (and ratings!) when one of them comes out! Basic cable gold, these guys. If truTV don’t sign these fellows up, they’re leaving money on the table.
 

 

 

 
Via On Knees for Jesus

 
Fully Flared, a 2007 skateboard video directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze and Cory Weincheque, has been remastered in Hi Def and it’s stunning. The video was produced as a promo for Lakai Footwear and features Brandon Biebel, Danny Brady and Mike Mo Capaldi, among other pro skateboarders.

Fully Flared was amazing looking before the re-master, now it’s simply awesome. Shot with Sony DCR-VX1000 and Panasonic HVX200 cameras. Here’s the intro. Jaw will drop.

Music: M83 - “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun.”
 

 
Via Death Stare

 
This is absolutely awesome. Very early this morning surfer Maker Visser rode 30-40 foot giant waves in Maui in complete darkness lit only by LED lights built into his life vest and surfboard while helicopters hovered overhead filming the event.

It wasn’t until I saw the pictures I realized how big it was. This project has been two years in the planning and it was the scariest, but most exciting thing I have ever done,” says Visser. “Riding in complete darkness meant I had to go off feeling. I had to zone out from how you normally ride and just be part of the wave. I am so pumped to achieve something that no one thought possible and that I was told was couldn’t be done.”

Transworld Surf has the scoop. Read it here.
 

 
Via The High Definite

 
Here’s the fourth and final installment of Jim Carroll reading “The Basketball Diaries.” It took me longer than intended to share all four segments with you. Thanks for your patience.

“Time sure flies when you’re young and jerking off.”
 

 
Previously on DM, Jim Carroll reading “The Basketball Diaries” :
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

 
In the 1960s, surfing was exploding on both coasts. I know. When I was 14, I bought my first board for 50 bucks, a humongous 9.5 ft. Jacobs with a battered nose, and rode the wild surf of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Back then, the coolest things a young cat could be was in a garage band or a surfer.

There was a glut of sixties Hollywood surfing films in which stars like Fabian, Elvis, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello never got wet. And then there were the low-budget indie documentaries that featured bona-fide surfers like Ricky Grigg and Greg Noll riding real waves. Blue Surf-Ari was one of those films. Despite threadbare plots, cheesy voice overs and lots of footage of teenyboppers milling around waiting for something to happen, these flicks did deliver when it came to awesome wave action. What the low-budget surf films lacked in narrative, they made up in some dynamite footage of surfers shredding down the walls of bigass waves, shooting the curl and being battered by merciless bodies of water.

This is for the old skool. Dig those longboards.
 

 
The Silver Dragon is the largest tidal river bore in the world. Formed at the mouth of China’s Qiantang River 30 miles past the city of Hangzhou, the tremendous narrowing of the river and the rising of the riverbed constricts the water and creates a mammoth wave running as high as 30 feet and traveling at 25 mph. The Silver Dragon makes its appearance twice a year.

Charles Lanceplaine shot this footage this year of surfers Jamie Sterling, Mikala Jones, Robert Weaver and Mary Osborne riding the Silver Dragon.
 

 
Carts Of Darkness is a fascinating film in and of itself but when you factor in the fact that its director, Murray Sipple, is a quadriplegic the film enters the realm of the astounding.

I have not always relied on a wheelchair for my mobility. As an able-bodied person I was a high school quarterback, dedicated mountain biker, skateboarder, and a snowboarder. I lived in Whistler, B.C and directed five independent action sport videos that were pre-“X-games” and pre-“mainstream extreme”. I set down deep roots in a short period while living in the mountain community; and traveled internationally filming snow and skateboarding. That lifestyle/ dream was destroyed in 1996 when a high-speed motor vehicle accident compounded by an emergency room error rendered me a quadriplegic. Throughout the following eight years, I continued to hope that my life could still somehow include my passion for filmmaking. Eventually, I was able to renovate a home in North Vancouver that became a model of accessibility and independence. But outside the comforting accessibility of this new home, my vantage point was largely limited to flat pathways, accessible public buildings, and shopping centers. I learned to drive a van which extended my freedom, but my limited hand dexterity made it difficult to work a camera like I had before. So in spite of solid gains in the direction of freedom and mobility, I found myself largely retreating from the dream of returning to filmmaking. The next few years were chiefly spent adjusting to my disability and trying to ignore the craving to make films. I discovered the story behind Carts of Darkness when I was grocery shopping one evening. I noticed some loud individuals who were cashing in bottles. I had a romantic vision that both of our lifestyles were stereotypes to the passing customers: the drunken and comically disordered bottle returners, and me, wheelchair-bound and precarious in my adapted vehicle. When I approached the men with the idea to make a film, a world was revealed to me I had never expected to discover in my own neighbourhood. Murray Sipple

Carts Of Darkness documents the lives of ‘bottle-pickers’, the hardships they endure, and their method of letting off steam thru the extreme sport of shopping cart racing. 
 

 
A short and sweet film by The Selby about some urban hipsters and surfers opening a taco stand and juice bar in the aging community of Rockaway Beach, Queens. I used to go surfing at this very spot.

Via theworldsbestever

 
Surfer and filmmaker Mickey Smith made this breathtaking video that summons up the most sublime sense of being alive and in touch with the world we inhabit.

Smith worked with Allan Wilson from the Astray Collective, who acted as Director of Photography on the project. Together they logged hours of footage across the Atlantic coastline, traveling around Ireland, Cornwall and Manchester. Shot in Super 16mm film, as well as groundbreaking work with Canon 5D mk11 Digital SLR, Smith also projected images of the huge walls of water within which he works, on to monster urban landscapes such as sky rises and castles in Manchester, as well as the cliff lines at his home of Ireland.

Dark Side Of The Lens
 

A man, a pole and a whole lot of skill - so simple and yet so dramatic.

The Indian sport of mallakhamb originated in India in the 12th century. The word “malla” means wrestler and “khamb” means pole. This old art had almost been lost throughout the centuries but it’s become increasingly popular in recent years. Mallakhamb is often undertaken by blind or partially blind athletes because the art involves feeling, strength and balance and is not dependent on perfect eyesight. The connection to yoga is obvious - sport as meditation. 

 
More mallakhamb after the jump…