One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Nowadays top-tier sponsored amateurs are as much a part of our skate media landscape as pros are. Think about it. Is Ishod Wair or Davis Torgerson or Jake Johnson any less well known than most of their pro teammates? And they get paid, too! Up until the late 1990s, it was virtually unheard of for a sponsored amateur rider to get paid by a company. Now it's par for the course. There are a few ams on big time companies today making a greater salary than pros that ride for smaller brands! With the level of am-dom raised so high, there's a new tier of sponsorship that's garnering more and more attention: the flow teams. Flow, for all practical purposes, is basically what being sponsored am for a company used to be. The flow team, gets free product, the opportunity to skate in demos and the occasional chance to hop in the van for team trips and tours. If the flow team rider proves their mettle in adverse experiences, gets along with the rest of the team and shows their talent and potential in demos, they stand a decent shot at getting an upgrade into one of the coveted spots on the official amateur team.

Enter the Midwest video, "Flow Trash." With the exception of Real am, Davis Torgerson, everyone in this video is a virtual unknown to most of us who live outside of the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. Also, with the noted exception of Torgerson, most of the skaters in this vid aren't full on any major shoe or board companies just yet. I'll stress the word, "yet."

"Flow Trash" offers a distinctive glimpse into the talent and scene around the Twin Cities where the abundance of unique spots plays just as much of a role as the skaters that rip them. The video starts out a little rough around the edges with an opening part from Dom Randazzo. Randazzo has a loose style, that's a little sloppy. Between his abundance of 360 shove-it tricks and clips of him spray painting on road kill or defecating outdoors, it's clear that Randazzo takes a page from the punk roots of Minneapolis, the same city that gave music Dillinger 4 and Husker Du. He does pull a frontside shove-it to wallride on a flat wall going down five stairs, a highlight in his part.

Next up, Torgerson unleashes a stylish, high-level part. I supposed, since he's no longer on flow, it didn't make sense to have Torgerson open or close the video, given it's title. All the same, his part is a standout and, if this is below the grade of what he's been saving for the Real video, "Since Day One," which hits shops in April, he's sure to have an amazing par in that as well.

Leave it to a guy with a name like Dan Narloch (Is this seriously dude's name? Awesome!). to have the fist full of weird skate spots and to end his part by falling in a mud puddle repeatedly.

A kid named Casey Copenhaver has a pretty unique part somewhere in the middle of this video with some creative tech flippery that borders on freestyle but it works. A montage of Minneapolis rippers includes the old guard of established guys who came out of Minneapolis in the last wave in the era when Fobia was the skateshop of the day (now it's Familia) with Steve Nesser, Seth McCallum, Chad Benson and Emeric Pratt all making appearances.

The video wraps up with three standout parts from Tabari Cook, CJ Tamborino and Ian Sherman respectively. Cook has a dope style, cool dreadlocks and a front crook nollie bigspin out that got my stoked. Sherman takes the closer with a handrail assault, a style that both physically and stylistically reminds me of the one-time Zero pro, Alex "Trainwreck" Gall. Sherman's second song of his part also includes the lyric, "Hell is for children." Maybe he had to go to a dark place to pull the stuff that he does.

I have to admit though, despite Sherman's fire and brimstone, for me the part that deserved the curtains comes from Tamborino. Apart from all the ridiculous clean tech moves that Tamborino does (we're talking on par with Paul Rodriguez and Shane O'Neill here, no lie), he mixes things up with some big surprises like a straight no-comply up a five-stair and a switch pop shove-it up the same. Gnarly.

If a mixture of solid skating and a good-natured vibe from some of skating's lesser known, but no less talented, Midwesterners appeals to you, pick up a copy of "Flow Trash" for sure. Also, if you're planning on taking a trip to the Twin Cities any time soon, this isn't a bad way to do some recognizance for spots to hit while you're in town. If amateur is the new pro, then flow is the new am. Look out lazy pros, these kids are gunning for your paychecks.

If your local shop doesn't have the "Flow Trash" vid, you can buy it directly off their website. Support independent skate videos and local skate scenes!