You can’t jam the pole and then be mad people are skating the polejam ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Spitfire Wheels: Bringing People Together. Mark Gonzalez skates around downtown Manhattan with Max Palmer, Gus Gordon (!), Nick Matthews, Karim Callender + more. (Why does it always seem like everybody else’s downtown session if better than yours?) Really hope somebody got a photo of Karim’s crook at Rector Street. Almost made the screengrab the headline photo.
As skate tourism has grown and grown and grown, New York spots have snowballed in brand recognition. Run down the best tricks at the city’s marquee spots, and two of them will be from some random Volcom summer edit. A new bump-to-bar pop ups, and you can almost watch its NBD list get checked off in real-time on Instagram.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument on 89th Street and Riverside Drive is the exact opposite. It is not the type of spot a visiting team stops by on its east coast tour. It is a local staple — it’s as local as the nondescript corner store in your neighborhood that has deceptively great sandwiches and the grill still on late at night. The Monument is mainly skated by people who live in that neighborhood, with the occasional visit from a friend. It’s the type of spot that you could set a low bar for sneaking a session between getting home from work, and the sun setting in 30 minutes, but end up tricking yourself into having more fun than you would at a proper skatepark.
Ben “Actually, I Like Wearing Wack Gear” Blundell receives redemption after barely any clips in Courtesy. Go watch his “OJO” part over on Thrasher. Rest in Peace Dillon ♥
Gotta hand it to Europe’s Most Productive Crew™ for consistently doing something that feels so natural and different than everything else out there, year after year — especially in a country without much of a skate industry. Also ~love~ the recurring role of dogs in their videos. “Nap Mint Nap Volume 4” is the latest from the Rios Crew. We really gotta make it out to Budapest, pretty much everyone says nothing but good things…
In hindsight, it’s pretty crazy that a peak shiny suit era Bad Boy song ever slipped into an Alien Workshop video, even for 45 seconds. And guess what! Twenty years later, we get the full [re]edit: Manolo remixed two decades of Kalis footage to the complete extended version of Black Rob’s “Whoa.” FWIW, that album has some sleepergems.
“Pornography had already been done, and the skate/fetish graphic thing said all that needed to be said on the subject. Take away the black bag and the sticker about censorship, and you just have a dumb idea repeated endlessly. For nearly 3 decades.” Ted Barrow wrote a nice piece on the history of the black bag World Industries board, and everything that followed it over on Skateism.
Solange in a skate clip ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Def worth the watch from Peter Deigaard + Drew, Hugo, Ville, and all the Copenhagen boys, which will make you feel the summer even if you have no Danish travel plans :)
“DOA RMX” is a video featuring some upstate dudes (pretty sure…), and has a random ass remix of Pat Washington footage from the early 2000s at the end, which is timely given Jamal Smith reminded us about his iconic Got Gold? part last week.
Realized the other day that Tao’s “KBH MIXEN” video is the 2018 video that still gets the most revisitation in 2019. Felt Ville’s section deserved it’s own upload :)
The past week has been BRUTAL for rounding up content pertinent to the interests of our office. Everyone kinda needs it to be warm again — I don’t think a single piece of non-Instagram footage from New York emerged in the last seven days besides Dick Rizzo’s switch front shove over the can wearing a Hardbody hoody in the Huf video…
That and Young Jeezy, this website’s longtime spiritual guide, announced that he will be retiring. Though he taught us all we need to know to continue on this journey of life long ago, we can’t deny the melancholy feeling that fell over our staff last week.
As they countdown to whenever their video is supposed to be proven real, Quasi has a photo feature over on Heaps Chat from a filming trip down in Miami.
“You already know about that Dirty Ghetto Kids Skateboards but we talking about that Alltimers Skateboards thing.” Wish this video was 5x as long, but Tyler Warren made a wrap-up video of the most recent Alltimers trip down to — you guessed it — Miami.
“As the ‘#MeToo’ movement claims celebrity scalps and forces industries from media to politics into uncomfortable self-examinations, the increasingly upward-mobile skateboarding biz might ponder its own richly checkerboarded past.” Boil the Ocean examines what happens when people come forward about enigmatic, storied skateboarders get revealed to be jocks in today’s contentious climate.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: While the majority of Americans tuned into 60 Minutes yesterday to watch an interview with a lady of the night about her time spent with an orange man, afterwards, there was a segment that told the story of Giannis Antnteteoektekompo that will melt your heart and make you happy.
Quote of the Week: “Today, I started thinking about how much money I’ve spent on caesar salads in my life” — Pryce Holmes
“Eternal Youth in Tompkins Square” is a New York Times style section feature documenting many of the new(ish) faces around T.F. these past couple years, shot by our friend Danny Weiss, with words from Ted Barrow, the skater who Jason Byoun would show his mom if she asked what skateboarding was.
“This spot is long gone. We called them ‘Chelsea Banks’ because they were on the West Side Highway in Chelsea, directly across the highway from, what is today, the Chelsea Piers Skatepark. Today this spot is a little green triangular park, but back then it was a shit show.” TWS interviewed original Zoo York co-founder, Eli Gesner, and original Shut rider, Jeremy Henderson, about filming Mark Gonzales during the first time he ever came to New York in 1987.
Calzone is Matt Velez’s sequel to Sable, due to premiere in Brooklyn on November 30th. Full parts from Mark Humienik, Nick Ferro, et al. Flyer here. Small teaser here.
Quote of the Week Observant Gentleman: “It’s crazy you ride for Polar but aren’t good at wallies.” Hjalte Halberg: “Yeah, but at least I learned no complys recently.”
