The New World Disorder series has pretty much established itself as the top of the bike film tree. While the likes of Roam are a bit more arty, you can rely on an NWD film to give you a wide variety of gobsmacking bike stuff. And NWD7: Flying High Again is no exception.
There’s a remarkable breadth of content here. The freeride world has diversified to the point where films these days aren’t just a succession of enormous drops. Sure, there are plenty of those, but there’s also slopestyle, North Shore, dirt jumping, DH, street, trials, good old singletrack and various interesting combinations therof. The riders cover the whole spectrum from freeride founders like Richie Schley and Wade Simmons to young guns like Kurt Sorge and the Lacondeguy brothers.
While films like Roam have a definite visual style, there isn’t really an NWD “look and feel” – the cinematography, editing and soundtrack flit about according to what seems to work best for the subject matter. We’re particularly fond of the Wade Simmons segment – a mellow tune accompanying a super-smooth top-to-bottom run of a tasty North Shore trail, filmed with a minimum of cuts on cablecams and with existing pauses in the music perfectly synchromised with Simmons’s wheels being off the ground.
But it’s a measure of the top notchness of NWD7 that there’s plenty more where that came from. Exotic locations (and seemingly chosen because there’s good stuff to ride rather than just because they’re exotic), the best riders on the planet pushing their own limits (360 backflips, anyone?), an array of imaginative (but never gimmicky) angles, dynamic editing, a varied soundtrack – it’s all here. Even at an hour long, Flying High Again never outstays its welcome. There’s really nothing that even faintly resembles filler.
You also get so many extras on the DVD that they come on a second disc. They include coverage of events like the Berrecloth Invitational and Crankworx, plus various fun segments like “Underdogs” (up-and-coming riders who’ll almost certainly be populating the main features soon) and “Slates”, which is just riders holding up the boards with all the key information on before each shot but is strangely entertaining.
Positives: Top riders doing amazing stuff in scenic places, beautifully shot and set to agreeable tunes
Negatives: Can’t think of anything
Verdict
The NWD series’s place at the top of the film heap looks pretty secure – NWD7 is simply top stuff. If you’re even slightly into freeride films, this is a must-have. We’re just off to watch it again…
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