Mr. Beall’s Opus — Sam Zentner’s ‘Chrome Zone’ Video

I remember sitting at the bar in a Soho restaurant a few years ago, when a nearby young woman heard something about skateboarding. She used the opportunity to announce to anyone within earshot about how much she hates skateboarders, because she is cursed with living across the street from the [now oft-chained] cellar door on Grand and Centre — and why the hell do they always have to skate in front of her house and make all that noise and don’t they have anything better to do and why can’t the just go to the skatepark and —

…it’s safe to say that Chrome Zone won’t be the video to change her outlook on things, where the cellar door in question plays a sizable supporting role. (Full disclosure: yeah, who wants to live at a famous skate spot? But also …that corner’s a fucking vortex of car horns.)

Chrome Zone is the new video from Sam Zentner, which is heavy on footage of the Richmond boys skating New York and the greater tri-state area. It includes full parts from Cory Bittle, Zach Panebianco (wasn’t able to make the premiere, but heard Zach’s switch heel behind Pyramid Ledges come up at least 3x in real-life conversation in the days after it), Brian Scherer and Ty Beall, who truly goes above and beyond with the spot digging. Yes, there’s an east coast eye for any and every corridor between houses — kinda like the shit L.A’s most third-eye-open skaters specialize in finding — but we’re talking I-beams connecting scaffolds, finishing trowels being flipped upside down to cover the spaces between garbage can holders, and a solid handful of short rollaways padded by a crash into literal garbage. Beautiful.

Thanks J.D. ❤️