I know February is a little tardy for an end-of-year wrap up but I had a good year on skates and had the clips to show for it so figured I’d follow up my 2021 Showreel with this cell-animated nod to a cult classic.

I was 5 years old in 1986 when The Transformers: The Movie was released and my generation endured the shock of watching Optimus Prime die on the silver screen. The film was a major part of my childhood and the soundtrack and score is absolutely banging and I’ve long wanted to pair Lion’s hair-metal rendition of the cartoon theme with skating.

My thanks as always to the many who patiently pointed a camera at the action, and those who went to the effort of transferring me files and whatnot. It was funny to have so many angles of the ender at the 2022 Victorian Rolling Open. That trick kept me awake in the nights leading up the the event - cheers to all that stood around at the end of the evening to let me handle it. A huge shoutout goes to Bayside for sponsoring me for over a decade and supporting the scene in now it’s 20th year, and to a new sponsor of mine, Illusive Brand, who’s killer wheels I spent the last twelve months testing and are now available in the best packaging since the Senate Brand in the 1990’s.

I hope you get some thrills watching this, as it was a thrilling year for me and I’m grateful to all that helped make it so. - Chris Pullar.

I’ve been a very active skater this year and rightly so, given the warm weather and the fact that I had some catching up to do after being forced to take it easy for a little while when I broke my elbow in November, just before my 40th birthday.

After releasing a compilation of 68 clips shot during 2021 crammed into 5 minutes, I found myself with a reasonable amount of decent 2022 footage pretty quickly so here is precisely 3 months worth, shot between January 3rd and April 3rd and beat-matched for 4 minutes. I’ve always wanted to pair the band Tool with skating but so far this remix of A Perfect Circle’s “The Outsider” is the closest I’ve come, though fans of the album Lateralus may recognize the opening sound effect. We’ll see who will be the first to pick up on the music used over the closing logo.

Featuring footage of inline and quad tricks in the streets and skateparks, including quite a bit at my local in Prahran, it wasn’t until I was writing this caption that I went through and counted the clips and, through sheer coincidence, this video has exactly 40. - Chris Pullar.

Thanks to the filmers; Josh, Callum, SK, Garry, Andy, Zac, Casey, Martin, Brad, Keeks and Khrys, and to Bayside Blades skate shop for supporting the Australian scene for the last 19 years and hooking me up for over a decade. Photo.

Previously: Chris Pullar (40, Australia) - 2021 Showreel.

I’m 40 years old, been skating for over 30 and rolled more last year than I have any other year for the last 20 and am a more capable skater now than I have ever been. My longstanding self-imposed rule is to land at least one trick at each place I go that I haven’t done there before and I’ve been skating so often lately that since the beginning of July every time I had wheels on, even if I didn’t film a trick, I made a habit of getting a clip of my feet everywhere I went to keep track of my adventures.

A lot of my maneuvers were posted my social media story and a bunch ended up in the two videos I submitted for the inline and quad skatepark edit contests I took part in, after my elbow injury derailed my plans, but I finished the year with so much material that I decided to do something I’ve never done: make a big compilation of my footage. I’ve never had a legitimate “section” or profile more than a minute or so long, so this is somewhat of a milestone for me.

My girlfriend Casey has had a massive influence on my skating as far as where, when, how and what I skate in, which is everywhere, frequently, clean and sometimes in quad skates. She holds me accountable for sloppy landings and I am lucky to have her around, and she filmed a bunch of this along with Joe Stuart, Darcy Raine, Callum Cochrane, Paul Kreutzer, Matt Caratelli, Nick Petropoulos, Garry Manfroid, Phil Campbell, Zac Hutchings, Keeks Vaughan, Corey Neil, Hannah Valante, Danni Ducci, Simon Kelly, Josh Clarke, Varun Jani, Khrys Nadstazik, Leeroy Jenkins, Cam Vilnis Lawrence, Trent Phillips, Liv McNamara, George Sarantoulias, Ben Child, Glen Beardmore and Johan at Junction Skatepark YMCA. Many thanks to all of these people.

The audio bites at the start were lifted from hugely influential Videogroove blade films from my teenage years; The Bottom Line (the late street skating legend Bryan Bell saying “Groove one!”), VG6 (long bit about world peace) and VG4 (“Sit back, turn up the volume…”), the disclaimer screen was used in VG6 and VG7 and the trumpets from a Gorilla Biscuits record and the Karma To Burn song that I used were both borrowed from the beginning of VG3 as well as the use of the spilt-screen technique. I’ve been wanting to use this track for something for a long time and I was sad to hear that the guitarist Will Mecum died last year; RIP. Big thanks to my filmmaking hero and friend Dave Paine for the videos that inspired and influenced a generation, and thanks to my shop sponsor for over a decade, Bayside Blades, for supporting me and my whole community. I truly hope you get a kick out of this, my 2021 showreel.

Josh Clarke had a mini profile in VG6 (full video: PLAY), he shared a split section with Dustin Latimer in Future Of Rollerblading 1 (PLAY), travelled America on the famous T-Bone Films bud in Hoax 5, featured heavily in many a Spencer Franks film and he starred in and helped create the iconic Australian Roces.

The Coping Box Podcast, hosted by Chris Pullar & Paul Kreutzer.

GcVIII (GRIND CHALLENGE VII) - 17 teams battle for survival. Proudly organised by Syeahskate (Rules). Calling out to all survivors around the world. This is THE AFTERMATH. Make a blading edit in 33 days. 3-8 crew members. No skateparks. Check all the entries in this playlist.

Entry: The Lab Leak (Melbourne, Australia) featuring Sam Nichols, Zac Hutchings, Lucy, Andy Plumridge, George Sarantoulias, Daniel Garcia, Chris Pullar, Matt Caratelli, Tim Bradley & Martin Gade.

Filmed and Edited by Andy Plumridge. Additionally Filmed by Glenn Beardmore, James Godbehear and Leo Brickhill. Filmed during 2017 in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia.

Featuring: Leo Brickhill, Matthias Ogger, Chris Pullar, Martin Gade, Andy Plumridge and James Godbehear.

Velvet Couch, Best Trick at the Australian Rolling Open 2017. This year the trophy went to Chris Pullar with the top acid down the stair set NBD.

Shout out to everyone that skates was such a fun comp! Music: Fundamental Elements - How It Sounds. Camera: Hayden Golder, Gerard Ahrens, Brett Hogan & Thomas Dalbis. Titles: Peter Dunham. Visit VCclothing.com.

The Sponsored competition at the 2017 ARO at Ramp Attak in Brisbane (Australia).

Results

1. Cj Wellsmore
2. Martin Gade
3. Chris Pullar

Track by Insideus. Camera: Hayden Golder, Gerard Ahrens & Brett Hogan. Titles: Peter Dunham. Visit VCclothing.com.

More coverage of the Australian Rollerblading Opens 2017 on the Velvet Couch Youtube Channel.

Victorian Inline Titles 2017, The Park (Geelong, Australia). Edit by Brad Watson (Photo).

OG Street Results

1. Hayden Golder
2. Chris Pullar
3. Johnny Jensen

Mini Mega Best Trick

1. Johnny Jensen
2. Hayden Golder
3. Nick Petropoulos

Ladies Street

1. Heather Armstrong
2. Shine Au-Yeung
3. Scarlett Roberts

Under 18 Street

1. Jackson Werry
2. Scarlett Roberts
3. Cooper Dennehy

Open Street

1. Martin Gade
2. Gav Drumm
3. Tom Scofield

Highest ranked unsponsored skater in open street: Thomas Dalbis

Open Vert

1. Brad Watson
2. Scott Sanders
3. Hayden Golder

Australian edit of the Melbourne crew going to Perth for a skate trip over a weekend. Featuring Martin Gade, Hayden Golder, Chris Pullar, Mike Anderson, Thomas Dalbis, Shine Bull and more.

Filmed by Thomas Dalbis and Mike Anderson. Edited by Mike Anderson.