The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2021 — QS Readers Poll Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio
Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine

The votes are in, the ballots are tallied, the blurbs by writer friends from the internet are written, and our annual exercise of trying to combat content fatigue and fried attention spans is live.

For anybody uninitiated: back in 2019, we asked QS visitors for the five parts and videos from the 2010s that they would bury in a capsule under the earth for future inhabitants to reference once all other evidence of skateboarding had been erased. In 2020, we adapted this concept to encapsulate one year. And here we are in 2021, with the results of the same excerise.

No commentary for the full-lengths or 20-11 ranked parts. Special thank you to all the writers that took the time to share some words about their favorites. (Lol that the order for the 4-1 writers is the same this year as last. Total coincidence.) Major shout out to Pete at 4Ply Magazine for compiling all the data.

If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from November 29th to December 3rd.

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Happy Rihanna’s Birthday Eve!

Today is Washington’s birthday, but the queen’s 30th is tomorrow! We are going to stick to a Rihanna’s 30th resolution of no more late Monday Links posts! Ain’t none of us perfect, I hope it was worth it.

Zered Bassett’s seafood tower cruiser will be available on Alltimers.com tomorrow. They shot a quick Insta commercial for it, which you can watch here.

Jesse Alba has a chill new iPhone edit up with footage from the past couple months.

30 seconds new Gino footage from the Astoria Park and Roslyn Banks.

QS-office fave, Dave Caddo, has been been posting some outer borough gems on IG.

Somehow missed this one when it went live just over a week ago: Nick Michel, the dude who boardslid the double-rail across from the mini double-sets at Battery Park (#QSTOP10, a few weeks back) has an amazing new part up on Thrasher, which features the VX angle of trick in question plus a trick at the ride-on rail spot that’s not on the ride-on rail! Battery Park MVP 2k18.

Didn’t even know this was in the works — TWS made a documentary about Skateboarder magazine, which was the first ever skate mag. The “trailer” basically plays like the first seven minutes of the doc itself.

Muska tells the story of when him at Stevie Williams hung out with Michael Jackson at Neverland. (“C’mon man, this kid is ten years old — he don’t remember Thriller. ‘the fuck you wanna meet Michael Jackson for?”)

Mark Gonzales skates Owl’s Head Park with R.B. Umali for a Pro-Tec commercial.

Ten Person Crew Unanimously Disagrees on Meet-Up Spot.” Forever #mood.

Two more Stop Fakin’ 3 parts: D.C. Streets montage + Kevin Augustine’s part.

Old clip, new upload…Orchard’s day trip around New York for 2014’s All City Showdown to a Steely Dan classic.

Boil the Ocean has a weird one about skaters investing in things and animal enslavement. 2018 is odd.

The Bunt is back with a new Chima episode.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: J.R. Smith with a beautiful full-court…pass?

Quote of the Week: “Do you think we’d be more into Takeshi 69 if we still skated the back of Union Square?” — Pryce Holmes

Nor’easter Links

huf reese

Late start today innit. All remaining QS hats in the webstore are $15 btw ♥

When I don’t skate I get stoked when I skate.” Same.

The Parks Department sessions Central Park for All City Showdown. Comedy aside, there’s something admirable about filming an entire montage in a place well known for having next to nothing to skate. There are those three sets of three on a hill at the south entrance of the reservoir that would actually look great on film though…

Muckmouth’s rant on ETN — essentially Pay-Per-View for skating — is one of the funnier pieces of skateboard writing in recent memory, but the most quotable lines are a bit too risqué for the #SFW environment of a Monday QS post :)

The Tennyson Corp just keeps reelin’ in the hits. The latest is a mix of J.B. and Caesar Singh’s 411 footage. Is the fact that J.B. is European the only reason why he’s often forgotten on First Team Prodigious Nineties Street Skaters lists? Yes? Though so.

Kalis is one of the rare pros whose interviews always feel different and new, even though he’s covered the same tried and true subjects before. He’s got two out this week, both on the occasion of his first trip to London…one with Kingpin about a vindictive $117,000 tax bill from the city of Philadelphia, and another with Slam City Skates with some good bits about the homogenization of 360 flips.

Chima was a bit more unhinged than a lot of guests on the season finale of The Bunt. Requests for next season: Kalis (duh), Zered, Forrest, Jake, Smolik, Muska.

Politic put Danny Renaud’s part from Division, their most recent video, up online. You can find Caddo’s part here, in case you missed it ;)

Russian Bob uploaded nine minutes of raw Gavin Nolan footage.

Might be a tough sell to some of our curmudgeonous colleugues, but Ripped Laces is contending that Reebok is skateboarding’s favorite “unofficial” skate shoe.

Even if it’s basically a lookbook, Leo footage is Leo footage.

l train coming from city

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Kristaps’ block in a game that resulted in the first Nets home win in sixteen games. Yeah, I just had this one on in the background last night. No, I didn’t watch it for more than 15 seconds at a time.

Quote of the Week: “Toughen up dude, have a piña colada.” — David Dowd

That Parks Department clip reminded me of the time Ja$onwear noseslid the entire 10-flat-10-flat-10 “hubba” at the 6th Avenue entrance of Central Park, so here’s the 2003 masterpiece as a digitally remastered 2017 Criterion Collection GIF.

jason-noseslide

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2012: 20-16

stuytownrail

Big news of the day: Google Maps is back for iPhones. Did anyone ever try going on a road trip with that Apple Maps app? It was horrible. Anyway, here is the second installment of our “Year in Review” series. Previously: #s 25-21.

20. Stuy Town Rail Becomes a Normal Spot

New York’s main contribution to the “skateboarding is beginning to look like rollerblading” theory (see: recent advancements in ledge dancing, 16-flat-16 handrails) was this rail’s transition into something people actually skated the whole way down. Before, it was only utilized for quick grind-to-pop-in tricks on the handicap ramp (Alex Olson does a feeble pop over on it in the Pretty Sweet bonus section) and near-death experiences for those attempting to slide the entire thing (Kerel Roach in the 2004 ABC video / maybe Remedy.) In the past year plus, Kevin Tierney boardslid it, Jonathan Ettman 5050ed it and some Australian will lipslide it next summer. (Sorry for all the parenthetical asides…)

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