Euro-heavy week on the countdown. Looks like we have 50-degree-plus from this point forward. Fingers crossed. Two weeks until 7 P.M. sunsets. Hang in there :)
The Upper West Side Curb Club
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.
Five Favorite Parts With Mason Silva
Interview by Farran Golding
Collage by Requiem For A Screen
Original Photography by Gabe Morford & Mason Silva
Some people’s influences are tucked in their jacket pockets (thinking of Gino’s mini ramp-heavy “Five Favorite Parts” outing), while others wear their influences on their sleeves. The lineage of 2020’s S.O.T.Y. is traceable through the generations that came before him, but it is especially endearing to hear him talk through it so direct — right down to the longstanding spot aspirations spouting from this series’ most-oft-discussed part ;)
3 Martini Lunch
Boil the Ocean contends that the snowblower is the new bolt cutter, but perhaps only for as long as the northeast doesn’t have a dedicated chapter of the Knob Buster.
And on that note, given that it’s cold, our streets are covered in ice + shit, and travel remains hobbled, let’s venture out to Europe for the first couple of links…
Usually the assumption on these posts is that you’ve already seen anything that Thrasher posted last week, but Jaakko Ojanen and Eetu Toropainen’s shared part is absolutely nuts. You’ll be hard pressed to find another recent part with this much mind-bending shit that still actually looks good. Nobody skates like Jaakko.
#QSTOP10 — February 19, 2021
Much like the vibe outside, it has been a slog over here at QS International HQ this past week or so. No, actually, it feels like the year in general is off to quite a slow start — hate hate hate when the only front-page updates are Monday Links + Top 10, but c’est la vie.
Content is coming! And if there’s one thing the internet doesn’t have enough of, it’s content ;)
The greater general skateboard media ecosystem continues to operate in hyperdrive. We might have our first “Trick Heard Around the World” of the year, which was preceded by the hipper heard around the world. Much like the Jarne flowerpot ender, sometimes the slam before can really propel a trick into another dimension. Audibly gasped the second time seeing that (first goes without saying.)
Pretty much every individual video linked in the original clips is worth watching in full. Have a good one ♥