Whole Lotta Links

Didn’t do a Q.S.S.O.T.Y. thing last year, but obvs it would’ve been Brandon Turner — hard to think of a more inspirational moment in skateboarding from 2020 than him rolling away from Wallenburg. Jenkem has a 15-minute mini doc about Brandon’s journey back to full health and sobriety. Watching him return to that bridge is nuts.

Here’s a YouTube comp of T.J. footage off the Thrasher Instagram from the summer, which is just him cruising around midtown and Soho. Those middle of Broome Street lines are so sick.

A couple New York clips in Thomas Dritsas’ new part for Thunder. The bench to Big Belly trashcan on Wall and Water Street has fully turned into a full-fledged marquee spot this past year, huh? Shout out to the contractor who installed the mailboxes at the ender. Looks sturdy.

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Ain’t No Sunshine

Scan stolen from Chromeball, obvs.

“In a sense, Jeff Grosso’s contributions to the world aren’t singular but part of an entire point of view — one that could reflect how ridiculous life is while also hugging what he viewed as important tightly in secret. That’s an art. The ability to make things like skateboarding that feel so disposable yet life-changing — tricks that last seconds, yet feel immortal.” — A Loveletter to Jeff Grosso.

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Sanguine Paradise

Please sign the petition to show your support for keeping the asphalt at the Tompkins Square Park courts. This space is as sacred to skateboarding and the East Village as the Rucker or the West 4th Street courts are to basketball. It would be a massive loss to the youth and cultural fabric of the neighborhood if they were covered with synthetic turf. We are a few hundred shy of 25,000 (!!!) signatures, so please please please share the petition with your friends, and on your respective social channels.

After many years of captivity, the Zipper Ledge is finally free and dressed with a fresh, yellow paintjob, as first reported by @mini_spots. (Don’t ask for pin! That’s like asking where the Empire State Building is!) If only the park starts opening the gate at Yellow Rail, then the entire Morningside little kid skate scene circa 2003 will be in full revival.

Jesse Alba is the latest guest on The Bunt, and really happy that he no longer lives at 51 Eldert Street.

…aanndd Max Palmer is half the man he used to be in Jesse’s new #longform iPhone edit.

One of the hardest things about interviewing skateboarders is not asking the same ten things that the last few interviews they did asked. It’s special and rare when you get someone for their first one. Caleb Barnett did his first ever interview with the Slam City Skates blog.

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Summer of Love

Wavey via Francesco

The good news is we finally switched over to a circa 2018 design that’s mobile compatible, etc. Hopefully it’s not a Crailtap-getting-rid-of-the-iframes shock to the system, because let’s be honest: it basically looks the same, just moderne. We purged a couple spots that have been gone long enough for people to forget about, cleaned up some shit around the pages, etc. If anything seems to not be working properly, feel free to drop us a line.

The bad news is we are still amidst the same general skate internet content slump we have been experiencing all month. Nearly nothing happened last week…

R.I.P. Delancey Curbs.

On the off chance that you didn’t catch it, Jawn Gardner continues his streak of being one of the most contagiously good vibed skaters to watch in 2018, via his DC Streetsweeper raw files. That A/C contraption he made is nuts…

Gunes’ new FTC part is up there with John’s raw files as what got ran back the most at the office last week. Shout out to everyone who looks like they’re having fun while being really good at skateboarding.

Don’t know much about this one, but “Long Shots & Low Odds” is a ~moody~ seven-minute New York video from Canon Hastings featuring all your New York 2018 dietary staples (wallies, .T.F., a pit stop at the Grand Street courts) + a stubborn commitment to skating those red double cellar doors next to Motorino.

There’s a New York section at the ~8:45 mark of this Chicago video entitled Postcard.

Supreme took over the front page of the Post today.

Idk why it felt like Brandon Westgate “left,” but he’s “back.”

Thrasher also uploaded the Streetsweeper raw files from snow ramp architect, John Shanahan. The Battery Park Subway roof arrest bit is still left without context, but maybe everyone be careful if you’re going to climb up on top of that thing?

TWS posted the article from the Theories guys’ trip down to Mexico.

There’s a Bust Crew video coming soon.

“I feel good because I can make money, because I can help my family, but I don’t give a fuck about the Olympics. I don’t care and I don’t want to be there.” Grey has an interview with Olympian and European life enthusiast, Tiago Lemos.

“The big underground music in America is like house and dance stuff, based on what I see in the shop, and that’s what skaters are buying. When I was getting into deep underground hip-hop growing up, the only other kids listening to it were skaters. Like, you guys know Hieroglyphics? Why? ‘Oh, it was on the blah blah blah VHS.'” This link actually has nothing to do with skating, but is an insightful conversation on how people consume music (particularly rap) in 2018, and a reminder that it’s ok to not have an opinion on some stuff!

Quote of the Week: “If you’re having fun, chances are, you’re breaking at least one law.” — Conor

It’s eerie how well this clip has aged. If you sent this to us sans titles as a “hey my friends went to Paris and here’s our clip!” in 2018, it’d probably get a pass…

Getting Them Royalties Dodging Them Bumblebees

It’s heartwarming to see world renown design principles from 12th & A make their way to skateable spaces all the way across the Atlantic.

“Their video Grains, filmed across the soybean belt of Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, veers far off interstate arteries and urban sprawls to extract tricks from crumbling loading docks in Joliet, dilapidated stadiums in Gary, polished-stone plaza ledges in downtown Peoria.” As most skate content has drifted towards Instagram and nothing has much staying power, the idea of a “video review” has sadly become a relic of skate publications past. That’s a bit sad, considering a resounding, well-written recommendation of a not-so-obvious video (or something you simply neglected to click on) still means a lot. I bought Grains after reading Boil the Ocean’s new review of it, and can’t say I would’ve been compelled to do the same if I saw a part of it on Thrasher or YouTube with a Big Cartel link under it ♥

“The most dominant example of genre loyalty is DGK’s whopping 92% use of hip hop.” Someone culled Skatevideosite’s entire database of soundtracks and put together an infographic-based portrait of #musicsupervision in skate videos over the past four decades — and somehow, despite the fact it has been a recurring joke on here for ~10 years — Big L isn’t the most oft-used rap artist.

Head over to Live Mixtapes R.B. Umali’s Vimeo page to hear the full version of Zoo York’s Mixtape soundtrack with NoDJ tags no skate noises over the music.

Skate Muzik also did podcast with R.B. about how the iconic soundtrack came to be.

The water sports section from Spirit Quest, where they put a condom on a VX, is now online ;) …as is Ben Gore’s hill-heavy Static IV part.

Theories has an abridged history of any and all spot selection trends to take course over the history of skateboarding, though they left out some dismal low-points of recent spots on this side of the planet.

This feels like a clip that would’ve been on 48 Blocks ten years ago. In a good way.

Real is working on a documentary on Chicago’s Uprise Skateshop, and presumably ignoring a mountain of pitch emails from Paulgar about doing one on Autumn.

Jenkem with a lesson on pant sags and nut grabs in skate videos.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: NBA Champion, Nick Young.

Quote of the Week: “It’s easier to catch an octopus here than it is to get laid.” — Francesco

Chief Keef making Seaside Heights boardwalk music (and him sounding the most energized he’s sounded in years on it) is one 2018’s most unheralded developments.