“I hate to lean on this clichéd-ass targeted-ad-ass assertion, but skateboarding is a global support system.” Zach Baker wrote a trip article about an Alltimers trip to Medellín for Thrasher. The video + Joel Meinholz’s photography from it are all included 🇨🇴 Somebody bring Tom Knox to that first plaza.
Known goat, Jawn Gardner, empties and shreds an abandoned pool in Bridgewater, NJ that was built during the Eisenhower administration, and skated as far back as the mid-80s — while giving us a nice history lesson in the process 🐐
“Colombia, huh.” Then come the sly smiles. There’s obvs no shortage of shithead Americans going to Colombia to be shitheads, but in all honesty, we weren’t going for shithead-related endeavors. We were trying to get out of the cold. It was three degrees outside the day we left.
Remember that 2012 S.O.T.Y. award? The one after Pretty Sweet? People thought Guy Mariano should’ve had it as the final victory to a tremendous redemption narrative, and for like, laser heelflipping out of a smith grind — for whatever reason he deemed that necessary to perform. A young Colombian man who was Possessed to Skate™ ended up getting it. He was the first Latin American to get it (right?), and the first non-American winner since Arto in 2001.
Why are we talking about S.O.T.Y? Well, when we went to Colombia for the first time in 2016, we went to Gonzalez’ neighborhood park. That guy is a god out there. He passed his possessed-ness off to thousands of Colombian kids, because this time around, it was obvious that skateboarding and its culture had become even bigger in Medellín. That one somewhat random S.O.T.Y. win had a massive impact in spreading skateboarding globally, even if we didn’t feel it in the States.
The plaza gods also blessed Medellín with an incredible plaza a little over a year ago. Parque Chimineas could best be described as if J-Kwon and Sants (had it not been bashed to shit over the years) had a baby, and already fueled its share of progression. That place alone is worth airfare + a five hour flight, and a bit more ~exotic~ than your run-of-the-mill New York winter escape destinations.
Watermelon Alex has been living down there for months, and Dre is seemingly an honorary Colombian. A second visit was much overdue. Can’t think of any other place I’ve traveled to where $200 lasts over a week. Also, that near-equator sun will have you in bed by 11 P.M., asleep deeper than you could’ve ever imagined. Thanks Alejo, Mateo and Alvarez for showing us around ♥
♥ A heartwarming story about a New York skate shop owner, a New York surf shop owner, Paris, and Mike Carroll doing a backside 5050 ♥
We rant about seeing the same spots in Big Skate City™ trip edits like anyone else, but just the right mix of people skating them, and all of a sudden, none of the nitpicky skate criticism matters anymore. Really wish this Insta edit of Max Palmer, Remy Tav and Sylvain Tognelli skating go-to spots in Paris was 4x as long. (Also funny how 2/3 of the people in it don’t even have Instagrams.)
And on that note, Victor Campillo’s ender for his Quota part is the first bit of recent République footage to really stick to the memory. (Starting to notice a trend when New York news is slow…we just post a bunch ofParisstuff. Can’t wait to get this satellite office popping.)
It had a brief run on the TWS site, but “Crop Circles Volume 1” is now online in full, and is one of the best post-Love Park / Philly survivalist videos yet.
“A typical day was waking up at 6:30 A.M., breakfast, heading to the construction site, working till 10-11 P.M., and having a late night crew that stayed up to 3 A.M. on some days.” Monster Children has the story about how a small crew with minimal resources built the first-ever skatepark in Angola in just 28 days.
“Did skateboarder’s hopes for a professional minimum salary level die along with Rob Dyrdek’s dreams for a skaters’ union? Does there exist a ‘rough cut’ of Nike’s commercial in which Kyrie Irving clowns Eric Koston for not having a video game character in the last 10 years’ worth of THPS titles? Is this commercial ripe for parody by the remaining aggressive inline rollerbladers, except where they’re barging Lance Mountain’s backyard pool?”
TWS put up Antonio’s tricks from Duets, which includes maybe the first-ever clip shot from the inside of a trash can? We’d add it to our ever-growing thread of trash-themed skate memes, but it almost becomes low-hanging fruit at that point…
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: We don’t often showcase dramatic dunks on here (or 2019 Warriors highlights, for that matter), but that Demarcus Cousins dunk was straight out of the 1990s NBA. And we’ve honestly been far too exhausted with any and all developments pertaining to the basketball team who plays on 33rd and 7th this past half-decade to have any solid opinion about the Porzingis trade. It’s just all too tiring. We have shit to do.
Quote of the Week: “The vegan girl at the vegan restaurant was having a vegan crisis about her vegan Super Bowl party.” — Alex Mosley
DANY video filming deadline: 03/31/16 11:59 P.M. EST. 2016’s most anticipated video.
We have a light drop of new merch available in the webstore. There’s an online-only reissue of the “Ball is Life” hoodys originally made for Dover Street Market, plus two new caps for the spring. The full spring/summer merch line should be available in shops later in April, then on our webstore a bit later. Stay tuned ♥♥♥
“Heaven’s Gate” is a new video from Tony Choy-Sutton that deserves an outstanding achievement in spot selection award, in that it remarkably avoids almost every single 2016 trap and blown out New York spot for fourteen minutes. Also, nosegrind down that round rail Quim drop-in 5050s on (with Muska’s help!) in Static 5 is insane.
“This skating is so sick but this song is so fucking terrible.” Roctakon began to review classic skate video soundtracks for Jenkem. The first installment is a review of Sight Unseen‘s #musicsupervision. “Tosh is kinda hot, for a blonde.”
The Astor renovation looks uniformly awful but there are these low round rails all around, which have small little knobs on them that prevent grinds but not really slides. Also, how is the cement ground already bad there?
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The tournament is impossible to follow, especially in March when it’s getting warmer outside, but you gotta love a good buzzer beater.
Quote of the Week: “Skateboarders are the only group of adults that hang out together. I’ll hit up all my friends who don’t skate on a 70-degree day and they’re either at work or with their girlfriends.” — Dylgr
Joey Suriel’s Chromeball interview really puts into perspective why Menace is such a nostalgia touchstone for people two decades down the line, particularly in our current era of surging “it was the lifestyle, man”-companies. #respect to Kareem Campbell for reminding skateboarders to pay their taxes also ;)
The barred-off map manual pad at the Veteran’s Memorial [that Pappalardo first popped off in Fully Flared] is having a bit ofa comeback.
“People sometimes ask me about that in relation to skateboarding, about how it should belong to skaters in terms of an aesthetic, and that’s fucked up because it’s the genre that has stolen the most.” An interview with Palace designer, Fergus Purcell.
“If future pros fistfight Russian bouncers but never speak of it publicly out of an abundance of professional caution, do the busted teeth and cracked eye sockets make any sound? Wasn’t Chris Cole straightedge at one point or is this another phantom memory like Henry Sanchez’s Aesthetics pro model?” Boil the Ocean on real-time mythmaking and neatly boxed memories.
QS Sports Desk: The Sports Desk is an anti-Lakers establishment, as are the San Antonio Spurs. With that being said, their tribute to Kobe was very sweet. Godspeed to one of opposing NBA teams’ last true archvillians.
Quote of the Week: “Dre is like the cool uncle who spoils you. He’ll give you a free board and then be like, ‘Here, take this trail mix with you.'” — Alexander Mosley
