Pyramid Country “Setting Up”

Pyramid Country are an utterly bizarre clothing and griptape company – offering trippy visuals and extremely weird designs. They stand out from the crowd, and to be honest I get heavy hints of the “Beez” videos from their output, so I was excited to see a new full video come from them. That video dropped last week, with “Setting Up” dropping on the Thrasher Youtube on May 5th.

This whole video is one big trip, with weird rainbow patterns melting into the visuals, and excessive use of green screen and bizarre characters with pyramids for heads guiding us through what I can only describe as a non-stop onslaught of rad street tricks, quick footed dexterity and ditch assaults.

The trippy opening gives way to Joe Milazzo, who charges at spots with full speed, clearing some massive gaps. My favourite tricks here are an Ollie to Front Pivot to Fakie on a bank to power box, and a bonk over a downed tree planter. There’s also some really sick Wallride Grabs down stairs and gaps in this part, and a huge gap to 5-0 on a handrail.

Next up is Eric Clark, who brings cruisy vibes with some quick footed wizardry. Some eye opening oddities in this part, including a Boardslide on a handrail to Fakie Nosegrind on a curb below, and a Front Board from handrail, to a wall, and a pop to Fakie Nosegrind down the wall to the floor. The winning trick in this part, however, is the BS 180 Switch Suski Shuv out – I had to rewind several times and watch at half speed to even see what was happening here and get a good look at the thing.

Welcome’s Aaron Goure is next in line, and you better bring out the speed shades like he does in his opening run, because this one’s a great part. Early on there is one of the best Frontside Flips I’ve ever seen, some truly daft skating in various costumes and wigs, and a sick Noseslide, Indy rag over, to Boardslide. My favourite trick here is Aaron’s Lipslide Early Grab Cannonball, where he hops over a stopper at the end of the rail – it has to be seen to be believed.

I feel like I’ve butchered most of these names because the trippy titles make it really hard to read them, but I think the next guy is Dave Engerer. He hits every waist high handrail in sight. The highlights include a Front Board round a curved handrail, a Front Board Bigspin out up a handrail, and a super stokey Fast Front Krooked for the kids at a school.

Kevin Braun steps up next, skating to a straight up banger of a tune. Heavy flips to hill bombs and boosting flip tricks over massive street funboxes, this one will get you wanting to get buck. A Nollie BS Flip into a ditch, and a Hardflip over a handrail are the standouts here.

After this, we have Ryan Chlumecky, who continues the trend of straight up banging hip hop tunes. I raised an eyebrow at a Wallie Boardslide Shuv out (plenty of great wallride action in this video), and a Front Noseslide 360 Shuv out. Nothing prepared me for the utterly mad BS 180 Switch Wallride that closes the part though. That thing was super sick.

Pete Grannis rolls up next with an incredible opening trick: FS 5050, Ollie up to Nose Manny, with the most amazing, quick footed Nollie Flip. He’s not just all ledge tech though, he can bring the tech to ditches, with a BS Pivot to Kickflip out. He also does his best Daewon homage with a quick kicker to picnic table Nose Manny Flip out. Plenty of manual fun going down in this part to be fair- WAIT A MINUTE IS THAT AN EARLY GRAB KROOKED GRIND?

At this point I would like to remind you this is not even halfway through. This video is truly awesome, and a little overwhelming with how damn good it is. If you need a breather, Jack Olson has you covered with a quick mini part where he demonstrates some real bread and butter stomped street lines to cleanse your palette. 

Following this, Tyler Franz fills out the rest of this section with some full speed charging, hitting handrails and street gaps – just to get you prepped for the onslaught of sick tricks to come. A Wallride to Blunt fakie in a ditch and ride on 5-0 180 on a handrail stand out here in this section.

Chase McIntyre slows things down a little with some good old fashioned Manny Tech. He gets plenty inventive with it though, especially with a Half Cab Manny, 180 drop to Fakie Manny. He also brings his methodical technique to proper ledges, with a Noseslide on one ledge to Frontside Pivot on a separate ledge (you need to watch this one for it to make sense, but it was a real nice surprise).

Next, we have Derek Moholik, skating to yet another trippy hip hop banger for a tune. He opens with a Nollie over a massive road gap, setting us up for a series of awesome street hammers. A 360 Flip over a kicker to stair gap, and the closing gap to BS Wallride drop got me super stoked.

I’m already losing track of how many parts I’ve seen go by at this point. How long is this thing? Half an hour? It can’t be, there’s so many people in this video. Oh well, on we go. 

Klay Andersen is up next, and he is straight in with a Wallride to Boardslide off a bank to wall. As I said, there’s plenty of Wallride based madness in this video, and Klay continues the trend, especially with a spicy Wallride FS Nosegrind. Two other noteworthy tricks here are the Pole Jam One Foot that pops up fairly early on, and a stylish FS 5-0 Judo rag in on a rather rugged looking ditch DIY quarter setup. Klay closes things with a physics bending Ollie Wallplant (NO GRAB) over a bank to rail gap. 

Mike Krok drops some textbook street hammers with plenty of tech and handrail hits. Lots of Nollie variations into big handrail tricks which have more than a flavour of street league about them. I also really loved the long Feeble Grind to gap he throws in on a gravelly little spot.

When Agush Agushi popped up I assumed we were entering last part territory, and given his amazing street lines (including some surprising additions of the slappy variation) I assumed this might have been the closer. Proving that we have entered the “One Foot” section of the video, Agush drops one of his own, with a big Ollie One Foot over a huge gravel gap. We get plenty of long manuals with cheeky flips out in this part, capped off with a ride on 5050 off of a roof. 

My prediction for the last part was way off, seeing as Blue Headey crops up with the penultimate part. Blue sets us up for the finale well, bringing out a Kickflip Wallride into a hill bomb early on. What follows is a selection of particularly snazzy street moves including a rapid fire Hurricane on a handrail, a gap to Back Lip on a handrail, and a FS 180 over a car! 

A Melon grab over an absolutely gigantic kicker to rail gap had me thinking this was perhaps the closing part, with the following Switch 5050 on a hubba getting me primed for a video ender. The huge gap Ollie to FS Wallride is a great closer for this part, but turns out “Setting Up” has one last surprise in store. 

Jonathan Pierce holds the curtains. After this roller-coaster of a video, Pierce brings a wild selection of street tricks to this part, with some dancing feet and gnarly handling of big gaps. A Fakie Airwalk down a huge set early on sets the tone, and perhaps perfectly complements the slightly oddball “avant garde on steroids” skateboarding seen throughout this video. 

Pierce brings such treats as a quick footed Nosegrind on a handrail, where he has to pop up a curb about a metre away from popping onto the rail. He also has some fantastic lines in this part: a Half Cab Noseslide, followed by a perfect Tre Flip being a favourite, and then a Mayday FS revert out (going out the wrong way) on a bank, followed by a 180 Switch Krooked on a bank to ledge. 

Add a notch onto the Texas Plant counter: Pierce drops a Kickflip Texas Plant at a ditch/hip spot, which made me smile. Actually, there’s plenty of ditch shredding in this part, with a Switch 180 5-0, to 180 out in cropping up as an early “video ender” contender, and a Nosegrind Tailgrab to Fakie on the familiar ditch DIY quarter some of the other skaters hit up earlier on. 

The part ends with banger after banger after banger. A Nollie Varial Heel over a macba style stair set. A vertical Wallride grind on a bank to fence, followed by a huge Switch Ollie clearing a ditch bank to flat. There’s about 6 or 7 tricks edited in such a way that you think you’ve just seen the closer. The actual last trick is somewhat pedestrian compared to some of the technical epicness that came before, but the BS Flip in, then half cab gap that closes the video is true to form for someone who spent the previous 3 minutes destroying any ditch he could find. 

I absolutely loved this video. “Setting Up” is one hell of an achievement – it runs much longer than most other modern videos, and in an era where skate companies are opting for 10 minute Web clips, I’m glad to see some people still committing to 30 minute long videos like this. At no point does the video drag, and I was surprised they managed to cover so many rad people in such a short space of time. I honestly thought the video was much longer than it was simply because of how much they have crammed in here. 

“Setting Up” doubles down on the quantity of parts, but everyone maintains such a high quality of progressive skateboarding that each part is more exciting than the last. The editing is solid, the trippy visuals are used incredibly well to support the brands style, and the music is just straight up awesome. No doubt you’ll find a new skater to add to your list of favourites in this video, and no doubt this video will make you a fan of Pyramid Country.