Freshmen

Freshmen Review

Freshmen is a project from the guys who bring us Bel Ami Online. Bel Ami's producer and videographer, Georges Duroy, shot many of the covers of Freshmen magazine which published between 1982 and 2009. Feeling nostalgic for his time with the magazine, Duroy spent considerable effort securing the rights to the Freshmen name, and in November 2016 he finally launched this new web venture. It's been 16 months since our last visit, and since this site is one of my personal favorites, join me as we see what's new.

The guys are mostly Czech and Hungarian, but there are guys from Slovakia, Colombia, and other locations. Most of the performers range from 18 to their mid-twenties, although some may be a little bit older. Like the Freshman name suggests, Duroy brings us fresh faces using established Bel Ami models to introduce these new guys to porn filming. Freshmen is a live test-run for these new models; some will make it while others won't, and not every guy is going to be the first-class models we're used to seeing on Bel Ami. That's not to say they're unappealing or sub-par, either. Most of them range from cute to gorgeous, and a few are gay porn stars just waiting to happen. The guys are smooth with slender, athletic, or muscular bodies, and since European guys are generally uncut, you can expect lots of foreskin.

By the way, some of the models have also returned to shoot for the site again and again. Smooth, muscled and boyish Kirk Gauguin has appeared in 24 scenes, plus documentaries while fit, super-cute Sven Basquiat and quiet athletic Mario Texeira have each appeared in 20 scenes.

Freshmen is a different kind of website - it's more like an online video magazine. Issues are numbered instead of dated; most contain either three videos or two videos and a picture set, and the site says it adds two "XXX Scenes" and a new model every week. Issue #244 is titled "Budapest Adventure", and it features two sex scenes (a duo and a threesome) as well as a sizzling hot newcomer in a photo shoot. Usually a more experience guy from Bel Ami is paired with the Freshmen newbie under the guise of showing him the ropes on the gay porn set.

Super sexy Jim Durden and boyish, gorgeous Jorik Tautou enjoy a hot blowjob session including sixty-nine before Jim slides his cock into Jorik's hole and takes him for a ride. The threesome features three guys who are definitely not first-timers, but they are handsome and built, and the bottom (Carlos Effort) takes both cocks before his face and ass are covered in cum. And in the photo shoot, newcomer Karl Brunni appears shows off his sexy smile and beautiful body and dick to perfection.

An early episode, Issue #6, features Tommy Poulain and Andre Boleyn. The write-up says that Duroy was undecided about keeping Tommy and asks members to chime in with their opinions. Tommy is average in the looks department, but he sure knows his way around a guy's cock and easily takes Boleyn's big dick up his ass. Although Poulain is let go, he filmed 12 scenes - that's quite the audition! There's a second hardcore video in Issue #6 featuring Hungarian beauties Danny Defoe and Jean-Luc Bisset. And the third video is a double solo with Joel Birkin and Lars Norgaard jacking off together. Other issues have featured solos, some with interviews in Czech (subtitled in English).

There are now 383 Freshmen issues, some with two videos and some with three; a couple of the oldest have four for a total of about 966 exclusive videos in MP4 format. The site continues to add four issues per month with from eight to 10 new videos including sex scenes, solos, and more. The Freshmen videos are available to download in three sizes at 1440x810 (the newest at 1920x1080) 960x540 and 624x352. The visual quality is stunning, bright, and crisp. You can also stream the videos, available in both SD and HD qualities, that both play at 960x540 and fare well at full-screen mode, although the HD versions hold up best. The streaming videos are also mobile compatible and look very good and played well on my phone.

Each scene has a description of the action along with clickable model names, and there's also a gallery of around 11 to 18 good quality screencaps sized at 800x450. You view these in a pop-up viewer with forward and back controls, however there are no slideshows. You can save the pics individually by right-clicking each thumb and saving link as.

Some episodes (189 of them) offer picture sets instead of a third video, and if you love pics, you'll hope for more of them in the future. The pics are shown in a slider and are sized at 400x600 or 600x534 to fit your browser, but download the zip files for each set and you'll find good-sized, high quality photos sized at 1200x1800 - the newest are sized at 1502x2250. And while there's no slideshows, you can easily navigate from pic to pic. Each video I checked also comes with a set of good quality screencaps.

Members are free to comment on each scene, and many do - one of the newest scenes has ten comments, many of the others have eight, nine or more comments, and most members are very enthusiastic. Good news is that members get access to the Bel Ami discussion board, where you can talk to members of both sites about a variety of topics. The links to chat lead to a third-party live cam site, and while there is live chat and some sexy guys, several of whom really do appear on Bel Ami or Freshmen, you'll have to pay by the minute for action or one-on-one sessions.

No site is perfect, so let's talk about drawbacks. First, neither the issues nor individual videos are dated, but they seem to deliver an update every week as promised. You can also check the oldest comment on each episode, which is dated. By joining the site, you automatically agree to receive commercial emails with no way to opt out until afterward. The Archive page, where the content is listed, has no pagination. You just keep scrolling down, and the page keeps generating more rows of issue listings. With over 370 episodes and over 700 videos, it took me over six minutes of constant scrolling to get to the oldest content (I timed it). While the model page works the same way, there are less models so it took a lot less scrolling.

Bel Ami is in a league of its own, so it's no surprise that their newer site, Freshmen, is a first-class act. The site is a live test run for new models and, like the tour says, "Before making it to Bel Ami, they start as Freshmen first." I was equally impressed with the quality of guys, the beautiful design, and the top-notch production quality. The site has 383 issues, each with three videos or two videos and a picture set, and they add a new one every week. So altogether you're getting eight to ten new scenes and documentaries every month. Freshmen continues to offer super hot guys and great quality, and I encourage you to check it out.

Click here to visit Freshmen