Once synonymous with men flown by Super-8 umbrellas and the occasional gas-masked Swedish penis, Polar has taken a refreshing 2.0 turn in its video output these past twelve months. The cuts are still quick — the Polarian fingerprint remains — but the skating has began to gain in its armwrestling match with the art.
“‘You had all these planners and architects in the 1950s and 60s saying cities need these grand, celebratory spaces — and they really didn’t.’ But apparently skaters did.” Curbed has an awesome feature about how some odious, post-WWII federal legislation ultimately lead to the creation of the sorts of public plazas that would prove to be the breeding ground of modern skateboarding.
“That might be a trick that’s been done, but it’s done differently…and with different pants on.” Vice has a video profile of Breezy and Una about growing up being two of the few girls skating in Vancouver.
The new Bluecouch edit starts in CT and ends in the city. Some rad stuff in there.
The Finnish guys who made the Hard Water video that went live on the Free site last week actually also put together a trip to New York edit that we only now caught onto. Love a vacation edit when the trees are bare + everyone is still in hoodies, though I’m sure it’s warmer than Helsinki. Also impressed by their cobblestone deterrent that keeps your board from rattling down into Sutton Place traffic.
Maybe it goes through a vigorous off-screen sanitizing process — but one’s bed seems like a bad place to sort through street debris. Anyway, here is an eight-minute glimpse into the life of Bobby Puleo.
One of those “got to narrow down 17 whiteboard inclusions to ten” weeks. Apologies if something that really ~touched~ you got excluded.
Other notable developments since we last spoke…
Save Me obviously just came out, but are you aware that two albums worth of Jeff loosies leaked just now? Rip your favorites in case they start scrubbing them from existence little by little.
Does anyone pass Borough Hall on their morning commute? This shot is from yesterday morning, and doesn’t look like the most promising outlook the spot. Anyone care to provide an update before we can check again for ourselves? Hoping for the best.
Photo by Ben Colen
Skateboarding has unavoidable surface-level parts that trace back to their modern counterparts, and there are always some “that makes sense” thoughts when doing the Five Faves interviews. (Gino going heavy with the mini ramp skating is perhaps one of the few genuine off-guard ones.) For example, everyone thinks to mention Huf and Reese when talking about dudes who honed four or five things to absolute perfection, but there’s always room to go a bit deeper, e.g. Donger deserves to be brought up in that conversation just as fast.
We’ve pretty much posted every video Cyrus has been in since his Mama’s Boys part went online in 2013, so these all “made sense” — but will say that none of them were obvious ;)
Request line is always open!
Brian Panebianco at the ever-enduring ABC Ledges. Photo via Mike Heikkila, who actually has an interview over on the Skate Jawn site.
“The only survivor of this whole mess of skateboard media is Thrasher. And why? Because they’re still owned by a skateboard family…If I ever were to start another magazine, that’s how I would do it.” Hanson O’Haver wrote wrote an awesome oral history of Transworld, which closely parallels the greater story of skateboard media in the last thirty years.
“I didn’t want to be that kid asking for stuff. I’d rather just buy it.” Josh Davis wrote a rad profile of T.J. for Hypebeast’s magazine. They just put up online.
Ross Norman — a longtime favorite of the QS office, and the guy who Hjalte said he stole all his tricks from — has a new part over on the Free site. Hasn’t long a single step.
“So how does it feel to be a woman in skating?” “Well, I have a vagina, and if I do a kickflip, it’s still there.”
