2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 5-1

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Final post of the year. Previously: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 2014 in T.F. Obstacles.

Happy New Year. Be safe tonight if you’re inclined to go outside.

5. The Burning Question of 2014: “Is Chinese Seaport #Legit?”

It is bad enough that our culture has been diminished to an abyss of spots-that-aren’t-really-spots and Houston Street construction scraps. New York-based skateboarders have now found themselves overthinking miracles like the resurrection of Seaport.

“Does it look too much like a skatepark?”
“Will my footage here still look #core between the traffic barriers and late-night wallrides in my ‘Summer Trip to New York’-part?”
“Am I lame for thinking a metal ledge needs wax?”
“Will my friends back home say I sold out for not skating Reggaeton Ledges instead?”
“If there was some #urban graffiti on the ledge, would it be more #legit?”

Do you think the dudes at Para-lel, who attained ungodly manual and ledge abilities over the years, ever stopped to question as to whether or not their spot was *too* good? Americans, man.

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We Be All Night

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Tino Razo — Hurricane at the Bronx bank-to-ledge, via Jonathan Mehring‘s “Making of ‘cherry’” feature that appeared on the Thrasher site, and then got taken down an hour later for mysterious reasons. Mountain Dew lifted a bunch of the photos and reposted them on their site with some shots that don’t even belong there, and no credit back to Mehring. Normally wouldn’t link something like that blatantly slapdashed together, but it’s all Thrasher’s fault in the end.

Gonna stop claiming #surfboard Vines are over. They just keep getting better.

Chris Nieratko interviews Bobby Worrest about his all-Pulaski part. (Contrary to what Nieratko’s intro says, though obviously not speaking from experience on this side or anything…isn’t the story that Pulaski was relatively low-bust back when things like this were getting filmed? Also, what is the DC montage that was edited to Eric B. & Rakim “Relax With Pep?” It’s the DC section from Eastern Exposure 2.)

In honor of the aforementioned all-Pulaski part, Kingpin put together a #listicle of ten great mostly one-spot parts. Lucas Puig’s line in the new Adidas clip makes one wonder when the first all-Republique part is gonna be…(P.S. Adidas, you don’t need to send out four press release e-mails a week. Thx.)

Another quick clip to get you more hyped for Zered’s upcoming Transworld part.

New mini video from the Sex Hippies crew in western Massachusetts and the Albany area. The title is #NSFW but the content is quite #SFW.

“It’s getting harder to come up with new ways to fix something that isn’t broken, but they managed to do it.” Really? Is there even any reason for anything besides Independent, Thunder and Venture to exist?

Lurker Lou x Young Jeezy Faux One One “One Year Later” remix.

The homie Uncle Steve put together a New York Super-8 clip for Krooked with Brad Cromer and Mark Gonzales, a la A Love Supreme but in 2014 though…

A new, moody promo from Grace Skate Co. out in Long Island.

The new Skateboard Mag cover is an instant classic New York photo.

“Can we get a Supreme video review?”
When Dill is talking to Gonz his abs look so sick.”

Remember to vote in the 2nd round of the #Nineties Skater Power Ranking Bracket.

Gunplay runs an escort service.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Another Steph Curry circus shot. Any Warriors match-up in the first round is going to be must-see TV. Actually, pretty much any western conference match-up in the first round is going to be must-see TV, provided you can deal with watching Houston shoot 1,000 free throws. They should cancel the eastern conference playoffs and make Pacers-Heat first to twelve wins.

Quote of the Week: “I’m sick of rich girls. I’m into poor girls.” — Ben Bartle

R.I.P. to the Hat. R.I.P. to any sight of spring. It’s snowing tomorrow. R.I.P. QS.

Who Do You Love

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Still having a tough time coming to terms with YG’s Flameboy tattoo. Apparently he tried to skate at one point in time? Anyway, who else has been catching themselves mumbling “You know I buy you that Chanel, right?”

Reynolds.

The Supreme video, “cherry,” will be available on DVD this Thursday, March 20th. iTunes March 27th. Blue Is the Warmest Color is available on Netflix instant right now.

Yet another “New York Times” raw footage reel from the LurkNYC crew. It’s chill that they skate around with an Oriris G-Bag. Wish we had one :(

Pittsburgh’s Scumco and Sons has a new montage out. Philly Santosuosso has a good bit of New York footage in it. His tricks on the concrete nipple at the park across from Joe’s Pizza are tight. Also features Zach Funk and Lucas Erlebach.

Everyone please welcome Buzzfeed to the list of insitutions writing about New York skateboarding. (Do we make a truer-to-life, R-rated version of their #listicle?)

Charlie Samuels tells the story behind the lil’ Harold Hunter Times Square wallie photo that Supreme utilized for their Comme des Garcons collaboration. However, Buzzfeed is right, this might be the best Harold Hunter photo.

Always nice to see Jeff Pang on a skateboard. No Keith Nut though?

The bowl-to-bank ollie at House of Vans is at the end of this clip. Wow.

Taji put together a “Winter Thaw” clip for Acapulco Gold. More Leo Gutman sightings.

Jordan Hoffart did the most insane kickflip ever (Smolik was probably hyped on it) and Ben Raybourn did a natural loop.

A QS reader made a Soundcloud playlist of songs from our videos. It looks even more like a Friday night Hot 97 mix show playlist than previously expected. He found a nice edit of the Leon Ware song from our only California clip ever.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Yeah, Blazers-Warriors shouldn’t be nationally televised or anything…(*Fingers crossed for Clippers-Warriors first round series*)

Quote of the Week: “You just have to treat being friends with Pryce like dating a hot chick.” — Torey Goodall

R.I.P. Speaker Knockerz. “Rico looked down, had to check his phone, Pedro came out, bang, Rico’s gone…'”

An Interview with Bill Strobeck

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Photo by Jonathan Mehring

There is always the one skate video project that dominates rumors and anticipation above all others. For the past year-and-a-half, that project has been the Supreme video, which we now know will be called “cherry.” We sat down with its creator, Bill Strobeck, to preview what we’re in store for without giving too much away.

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Supreme has been around for twenty years and never had a full-on skate video. How did the idea to finally do one come about and how did you get involved?

My Cinematographer Project part had just come out [in spring 2012]. Kyle [Demers] saw my section and seemed hyped on it. He had recently started working for Supreme, and was wondering what everyone else has always thought: “Why has Supreme never done a video?” Them wanting to do one would always go back and forth a bit, but ended up not working out every time. Kyle asked me if I could do a little something for the shop. First it was supposed to be just a commercial. Dill was in town at the time and they wanted me to skate with him and Tyshawn [Jones]. We ended up making the “buddy” commercial and then Kyle asked if I would be down to make a full-­length. The rest is history.

How did you pick the skaters who ended up being in it?

It was mostly who was already hanging out at the shop, like the guys who set up boards there, and some others who I had been working with at the time. Some of them were working on other videos, and some people got hurt. There were a lot of things that came into play later in terms of who was able to be in it. Also, it’s a shop video where there wasn’t a real team, but a team sort of got created along the way of making it, and I’m hyped on that.

Why has it taken you so long to make a full-­length of your own?

Well, I need security. I live by myself in Manhattan and everything costs a ton of money here. I have to work for other companies to support myself, so there was no time to do a full video on my own.

Another brand once asked me to make one for them. I tried doing that for a minute, but it ended because they canned their whole skate program. I’m glad my first full-length is for Supreme.

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