Skating a Ghost Spot — Dom Henry’s ‘Farewell to Fairfield’ Part

📷 Photo by Reece Leung

We have talked about how a first arrival to a famous, foreign spot is often met with a bit of disappointment regarding the reality of said spot. It’ll be cuttier, more worn down, or gnarlier than you initially expected. Do a bit of skate travel, and you’ll learn to manage expectations for your bucket list spots.

But what about a spot you know is going to be fucked? Like, the footage already conveys how cutty, worn down, and gnarly it’ll be. No way you’ll be shocked, right?

Ok, well, what if it’s worse than you even prepared for?

That was our experience in 2014, on our sole venture out to Croydon — an outer borough of London known for being the birthplace of Kate Moss and having a very large Ikea — to skate the Fairfield Halls spot made famous by Paul Shier, Nick Jensen, et al. It is U.K. spot royalty, recognizable from every Blueprint video, to Jacob Harris’ earlier projects, and right through Palasonic.

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Snack Language

Congratulations to John Gardner on the pro board ♥ There are few skaters as contagiously fun to watch as John, and if getting people hyped to skate is the principal purpose of why we have pro skateboarders to begin with, John should’ve been pro ages ago :) Creature dropped a remix of his footy from the past few years to illustrate that exact point. Photo by Nik Stain.

Can’t think of a recent skate commercial that was this good. Philly Santosuosso and a friend pay homage to Spike and Mike’s “Is it the shoes?” Jordan ad on the occasion of Philly’s new Venture truck. The execution is just so, so good, right down to every little detail. Give everyone involved a raise.

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Jake Church — Yardsale ‘YS 2’ Raw Clips & Offcuts

Around the time of YS 2‘s official release, the QS office was winded from year-end #content, and on a much-needed vacation. This, unfortunately, resulted in the new release desk being unable to give Yardsale’s second video the analytic accolades that it deserved. There are only a select few video series that feel wholly of their own world, and the YS videos syphon your eyes into a dimension away from their contemporaries.

In consolation, the Yardsale boys were kind enough to allow us to share some raw footage from Jake Church’s ender part with everyone.

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‘A Place For The Nerds’ — An Interview With Nick Sharratt of The Palomino

Interview by Farran Golding
Photos by Chris Mann, Rafal Wojnowski & Rich West

As we age, it’s easy to only remember the “big” changes: VX to HD, social media, Thrasher becoming the only magazine. The smaller ones are tougher to catalog, but when you think about it, had a substantial impact. In the not-so-distant past, “raw files” weren’t a “thing.” You couldn’t DM on Instagram. Polar was a small brand selling outline logo tees to the few who could get them. These things changing had huge reverberations, and in many ways, helped make “underground,” independent skateboard brands the dominant brands they are today.

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