It Was the Best of Flat, It Was the …Best of Flat

Something for the mansion-having sauna soakers out there: Naquan Rollings has a new, mostly New York montage out, entitled “$$$four.” Neil Herrick’s double-bar 5050 on the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge bikepath is so sick. Saw marks on it early this summer and wondered if anything besides a bonk had been done.

The Say You Swear podcast chatted with Bronze mastermind, Peter Sidlauskas, for over two hours in their latest episode.

Jahmal Williams is the latest subject of Lookback Library’s cover discussions series, recounting his memories of three different covers, from three different decades.

Stu Kirst rides for Baker.

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These Days & Times

The predictions were true. The quarantine has everyone inside making #content — this was one of the most extensive link lists for a Monday update in a while. How sustainable it is? Who knows. Boil the Ocean is already speculating on what will happen if we enter a COVID-19 induced footage drought, e.g. will Thrasher be forced to only post “Classics” videos like how ESPN plays old games during off-seasons.

Until then…

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The Best Skateboard Videos of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio

This was the decade that the full-length skate video was supposed to die. We began the 2010s with everyone insisting that Stay Gold would be the last full-length skate video. Then, Pretty Sweet was supposed to be the last full-length video. Some people thought that Static IV would be it — the end, no more full-lengths after that. But I feel like I heard someone say Josh was working on something new a couple months back? Idk.

The experience might’ve changed. We’re not huddling around a skate house’s TV covered in stickers to watch a DVD bought from a shop anymore (if this past weekend is any indication, it’s more like AirPlaying a leaked .mp4 file via a link obtained from a guy who knows a guy), but the experience of viewing a fully realized skate video with your friends for the first, second or twentieth time is still sacred.

Just as we asked for your votes for the five best video parts, we did the same for the five best full-lengths: if you could choose the five videos that defined the 2010s, what would they be? The results were a bit more surprising than the parts tally in some ways, given that it felt like independent, regional and newer, small brand videos dominated the decade, yet Big Shoe Brands™ and Girl + Chocolate still made their way into the list. The top-heaviness of some companies or collectives was less of a surprise, in that certain creators loomed large over the 2010s.

Like the installment before it, this list is sans comment for 20-11, and then via favors from writer friends for the top ten: here are the twenty best skate videos of the past ten years.

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‘You’re Ruining The Aesthetic’ — Five Videographers On Skate Video Music Supervision In 2019

Graphic by Requiem For A Screen

Skate videos have long been a portal for musical discovery. Except in recent years, it has began to almost feel like …filler. If one editor finds success with an untapped genre or artist, there is always an avalanche of imitators. If you find that “how has nobody skated to this?!”-song, the answer to your question is often “someone has, it was just in some video you missed.” And a popular song? Forget it, it has been in twenty kids’ IG edits since the day it got uploaded to YouTube.

(Don’t even start with the dude editing his “Trip to N.Y.C!” video to Big L right now.)

Choosing a song that makes an impact, and gets people tracking it down is hard when our attention spans are their fickle 2019 selves. We reached out to five people who routinely put out edits (i.e. not the guys dropping one full-length every few years) to get their thoughts on how the process of selecting music in skate videos has evolved.

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Across The Street™

NJ cutie Josh Wilson via Mike Heikkila

The new Bronze 56k video, It’s Time is now live.

Thrasher has raw files for Josh Wilson and Dick Rizzo’s Quasi vid parts.

All of a sudden you’re only three minutes into a seven-minute-long Black Hubba compilation clip, and realize that you’ve already passed the switch 360 flip lipslide. If you live in New York, you waste at least .5% of your life sitting around at Blubba doing nothing. Here’s a video of all the moments that didn’t go to waste.

“Bronze 56K is all about rolling up switch to the Carlsbad gap after just barely falling off pushing on your skateboard and popping the most brolic switch hardflip.” Japan’s VHS Mag interviewed Peter Sidlauskas on the occasion of It’s Time.

Idk if our editorial board is in the market for a Mid 90s review, but here’s one side of the coin and here is another.

Chachi’s Jenkem date is like Mid 90s but late 2010s. #fastminds.

Theories has a quick feature with Jahmal Williams that runs down the background stories behind some of the old Hopps graphics.

Pete Spooner’s new video is [by chance] named after one of Will Marshall’s favorite observations about skateboarding. Skating is Easy trailer here. Always find it charming when a teaser for a new skate vid is longer than 60 seconds in the Instagram era ;)

2018 has been a mega year for upstate New York skate videos nvm, it’s for a central Pennsylvania video, so let’s just say it has been a mega year for upstate New York spots in videos ;) One Mo’ Gin is another feather in upstate New York’s 2018 cap. At least I think it’s an upstate N.Y. vid…

Someone made a 411 “Rookies” mix of some circa 2010 Brandon Westgate footage, though if we were being literal about things, it should’ve been to his Word of Mouth footage.

On that note, Tombo uploaded another “Raw Deals” clip with more classique French guys than you’d expect. More on that later this week hehehe.

R.I.P. St. Dymphnas A.K.A. Yellow Bar A.K.A. Same Difference. You were never anyone’s favorite bar, but you were the best cheap bar by Tompkins when it started raining, and for that reliability, you will be missed.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Knicks fans are in for yet another soul-crushing season of false 8th seed dreams, and we’re avoiding all temptations of having the first regular season Play of the Week be related to Rondo V.S. Chris Paul, so here’s a cool Tim Hardaway J.R. pass to Kanter that you can overreact to.

Quote of the Week: “Those guys make me feel stupid for not having kids when I was like, twenty. They’re all just doing ecstasy with their kids now.” — Torey

Haven’t been in a proper headspace to um, “process” a Juice WRLD and Future mixtape over the past few days, but feel compelled to come clean on here that this is one of the most oft-played songs at the QS office since it came out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯