It feels like it has been an eerily quiet season for New York scene videos. You can blame the worst winter in a decade, but winter has typically been the perfect time to edit shit from the past year. This week, we’ve ran stuff from Chicago (statistically worse weather than us), Lisbon (where it’s been raining all winter), and today, Maine (look at a map.) I guess we gotta work more to afford to live in this fucking place or something like that.
ANYWHO, we at the QS office love a seasonal skate video franchise: think Jeff Cecere’s 2022-2024 December three-peat or that era when every summer came with a Bronze video. For three winters now, Michael Babbitt and his crew have been reporting on the happenings up in Portland, Maine in skate video form. Three videos in, it feels like Portland thrives on the sort of spots that pop up in that liminal period between construction projects and may not last more than a week, or the sorts of things that can only be skated while negotiating with someone already halfway into calling the cops. Between the trio of projects, it barely feels like they repeat spots. We asked Mr. Babbitt how such a small scene manages to cast such a wide net: “did you guys barely repeat spots through the past three videos?”
“That’s the goal brotha. Every year, we try and only hit new spots for the most part. Portland is flooded with shit to skate and no one’s caught on yet.” 🫡
Longtime #wharfreport viewers will notice that QS-favorite Elijah Ackerley only pops up a couple of times in A Way Out, but should be pointed in the direction of Black Label’s In Nothing We Trust video from last November. Elijah’s opener was one of last year’s best parts, and while it’s tempting to say it should’ve got more burn, anytime a skate video cracks 100k views in this attention economy is a victory. Go give it 100k more ;)
Any time these dudes skate something that resembles a college campus, I wonder if it’s the one Tony and Meadow visited in season one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Features: Elijah Akerley, Matt Martin, Leif Hauge, Ted Purtell, Carlos Kanter, Devinn Goodine, Tim Coolidge, Alex Gourdoros, Sean Randall, Mark Shirley, Kevin Weden, Jake Odle, Curtis Fontenot, Nick Easley, Peter Miller, Preston Haynes, Gunnar Johnson, James Engle, Gunnar Johnson, Brett Nagy, Jacqueline Ryan, Nate Keen, Josh Littlefield, and Alex Oaks.
Previously: Idiot Boy (2025), Sucks To Be You (2024)