Via Pat Stiener
Previously: 25-16
Keeping things moving right along…
15. The Return of the Vlog
He began uploading them as soon as the year began, and ever since, Josh Paynter’s YouTube video blog series (now at five installments) scratched a skate video itch that isn’t exactly covered in a diet of parts, raw files, and Instagram posts. In them, you can tie together the productive aimlessness of days spent wandering around under-explored corners of Brooklyn, fuck-it missions to midtown when there’s still snow on the ground, or forfeited days stuck at Chauncey. They’re edited, curated and soundtracked, but hold a freeform feel that very few videos have carried into the social media age.
14. The Rise of Bondo Carpets
Bondo is skater Botox. Some people restrain themselves — filling a crevice here or there for maintenance. But others become obsessed; a spotch of Bondo is no longer good enough, they need more, more, more!
They begin striving for perfection that was never meant to exist in the first place, until they go too far playing with the natural order of things. The results? Unrecognizable.
13. The Astor Place Step
Once upon a time, it took *years* for a new spot to go through the arc of being ceremoniously back tailed in the bangers section of a part, to becoming switch back tail Instagram fodder for visiting pros. Now, it takes a summer.
(FWIW, both were bangers, but Mr. Reid’s had the energy ❤️)
12. The Big Comedown
This past spring, a spot that had been a barren rectangle of asphalt that nobody gave a shit about — which we still skated, mind you — butterflied into two perfect low ledges on flawless ground.
Afterwards, it became “You don’t live in the neighborhood so you can’t be here” (it’s across from the fucking Seaport), “This park is supposed to be just for kids” (it’s not), and “You don’t pay taxes and you’re ruining the park” (sigh.) It came and went in about the span of a month, knobbed back into proverbial nothingness, and that comedown from having a 10/10 place to learn a ledge trick hit hard.
11. Tre Flip Down MLK
The best part of Liam McCabe’s “Green Sweater Day,” as documented in The HSS Video, is not that he got three insane clips in one day, but that the same day he got two on the most perfect, oft-skated stair spot in recent history, he skated six blocks to the worst set around (not sure it has even been kickflipped?) to truly test the power of the sweater.
10. Frankie’s Back Noseblunt Over the Grate
Hard to think of a trick this specific, at this famous of a spot, that had been pontificated on for this many years. The reasoning went that if someone had back noseblunted the [slightly longer] one in Milan, the Flushing grate had to be a go. It is easy to glaze over at a lot of the wild shit being done over the grate in videos today, but this one was nuts.
9. The Arizona Iced Tea Edits
In a year where the NBA Finals were between Milwaukee and Phoenix, it’s only right that the best skate team isn’t Primitive/Baker/whatever, but the Arizona Iced Tea Hard Seltzer company. We couldn’t even share clips from this without people thinking we were posting sponsored content [Arizona has paid QS a grand total of $0.00 for this endorsement], but by the time Juan Pablo Velez kickflipped crooked the Dag hubba, anyone watching was yelling at the screen.
8. The A.V.E. Bench
Imagine telling someone at Tompkins in 2003 (when The DC Video came out and Victor Timofeev ruled the land) that 18 years from the day, that same bench from A.V.E’s ender would be sitting right inside the court on E. 9th Street — being skated by skaters who at the present moment, were maybe getting around to saying their first words.
The Green Bench saga is a microcosm of skateboarders’ collective insanity, so much that it even attracted the attention of the mainstream press.
7. Keith Made A Part!
Photo by Pep Kim
Look, everyone is happy Keith finally made a part (though it kinda feels like if that scene in Goodfellas where the guys celebrate Henry beating his first case happened two hours into the movie.)
But there is an emptiness.
For years, it was such a lay-up. Nothing to talk about? Mention how somebody so talented, so beloved — with filmers lining up out the door of the employment office ready to film him — had not gotten around to filming a part. It was a zinger; “Hehe, when’s that Keith part coming, amirite?”
But it’s done. Sure, it’s beautiful. But…we all could’ve used another year or ten of keeping the joke going. Now, he’s just like any ol’ legend with a part ❤️
6. Tenzin’s Nollie Big Heel
Heard some prince in Dubai offered to buy this as an NFT for $10 million, but Tenzin turned it down for being too low a price ❤️
Bonus Mini Rapidfire 5
Best Rebrand: “Sketch Sketch” into P. Tricky!!! ❤️
Board of the Year: Brandon Turner’s Carpet Company Guest Board
Living in 3021 Award: This guy’s Courthouse hack
Best Tompkins Obstacle of the Year:
Lifetime Achievement Award: The Paterson x DC A-Frame
Luv dis shit
12 is where the lady karen’d sean powers right?
you mean “previously 25-16”