The Ride Channel was nice enough to run Backstreet Atlas, the mini doc about two guys skating from Boston to New York, on their YouTube page. You might remember that we interviewed Adam and Zach about their journey back in April.
Living in New York, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming the entire world revolves around you. (At least until a hurricane comes through and you realize you’re just on an island with expensive coffee in a corner of the Atlantic Ocean…) People barely consider nearby cities outside of Philadelphia, Boston, D.C. and maybe Baltimore, but the northeast is a pretty big place. They were able to condense their two hundred-mile / two-week trip into a twenty-minute video, and while it doesn’t even have a big flip in it (!!!), it’s a fun video that does a great job of getting you hyped to explore a bit further than your own backyard, or just to go skate in general.
Solid work from all those involved. Have a good weekend.
There are obviously more serious things going on with Boston right now, but here is a quick lighthearted distraction from that whole situation. This past August, these two guys skated from Boston to New York City — twenty-five miles at a time on hard wheels — stopping in New England towns that your average skateboarder would only know from exit signs on I-95. The short video of their journey, “Backstreet Atlas,” premieres at the Jane Hotel (113 Jane Street) at 8 P.M. on April 18 (tomorrow.)
+++++++
How did this idea come about?
A: It was initially a joke. We talked about skating from Boston to New York without ever having the intention of doing it for a long time. We were having a conversation about skating distances and one day Zach was like, “I’m gonna skate back home from Boston” one day. It wasn’t an epiphany or anything, the joke just became more of a good idea. We entertained it for so long, that we just decided to go for it.
Z: We first planned to do it two years ago. First it was supposed to be in the fall, then spring, then Adam hurt his knee, so it kept getting pushed back.
What was the process of getting it from being a joke to an actual trip?
A: First, we thought we were gonna wing it and just skate, but the more we thought about it, it made sense for us to plan to hit up cool stuff along the way. We weren’t gonna make a movie. Then figured if we were gonna do it, it’d potentially be worth sharing. We planned on shooting whatever interesting things we see along the way, but nothing specific. We did want to go to all the skate shops though.
Our two friends, Adam Abada and Zach Baker, are taking upon themselves the intensive task of skateboarding from Boston to New York (on non-cruiser wheels) starting later this week. Read more about the project on their website, BackStreetAtlas.com, and follow the trip on Twitter/Instagram via @backstreetatlas.
Here’s a Cincinnati crew’s clip of a trip to New York. Features various Dobbin Block personalities. It seems that someone editing a skate clip to a song off the new Nas album happened quicker than everyone forgetting about it altogether. (“Oh Nas has a new album out? Is it in the ‘Best Nas album since It Was Written‘ category or the ‘Best Nas album since Stillmatic‘ category?”) Though to be fair, the clip is edited to one of Life is Good‘s better moments. The album’s highlight is him actually admitting he makes music for people stuck in the 90s.
Another early entry in the annual cycle of “Summer Trip to New York” clips, which usually lasts from late-July to mid-October. There’s a sick homage to Loki’s signature Astor Place move at 0:51.
Watch Connor Champion’s part from the 2010 North Carolina-based YOUGOTTAGETTHAT video because A) He skates to Petey Pablo and B) He does a flatground kickflip in a line. Flatground kickflips in lines need to make a comeback.
Spot Updates: 1) The city removed the fat flat rails that were across the street from the Citibank building in Long Island City. 2) They knobbed another ledge at the Seaport. 3) Not sure how recent this is, but another mythological food establishment in downtown Manhattan skateboard lore has closed down. R.I.P. Wendy’s on Water Street. It now joins the ranks of the Fulton Street Burger King and the Water Street Burritoville.
Quote of the Week: “She’s hot, but she works at Alexander Wang, which is like working in a female trash compactor.” — Baptiste
Things got slowed down last week since the C.E.O. was getting married, but not much happened on the internet in a skateboard realm, as most of the contents below cite points of interest from Hella Clips. However, Cameron Giles continued to ask the questions that pervade our existence in “What type of ass is that?”
A compilation of Quim Cardona footage from the past two years, edited to Marvin Gaye. Quim remains to be the only person who could make heelflip body varials look good, and somehow successfully do wallrides on the Newark Ferry Street banks without help from plywood or metal signs at the bottom.
(P.S. If you’re visiting from out of town / don’t know what they hell you’re doing, it’s probably not the best idea to go looking for that Crown Heights basketball court spot with the green gap ledges and plastic benches. Don’t be surprised if there’s a news story about some skateboarder from Florida or France getting shot there by the end of the year.)
Theotis reviews the Bronx homie George Milanes’ sponsor me tape. George has been killing it for years, good to see that Theotis and Atiba showed him some love. Dude has definitely been progressing with every bit of footage that he puts out. (Three Up Three Down is misidentified as being in Barcelona…BEST SPOT IN NEW YORK.)
Quote of the Week (Since we’re on the topic of Three Up Three Down) Alexander Mosley: “This thing is like a 2 1/2 up, 2 4/5ths down.” Roctakon: “Don’t ever disrespect this spot.”
The Flipmode affiliates have put together a four-minute throwaway clip to one of Big L’s more famously vulgar outings. “You know, they built you guys a skatepark so you wouldn’t skate here.”
Torey Pudwill would be more exciting if he continued this trend of simple trick based, quick set-up lines on actual skate spots instead of kickflip back lip to back tailslide kickflip outs on ledges behind chain stores. With that being said, Plan B opting for the simpler, more stylish route on the promo makes us hope that the actual part would be more in that vein, and that’s certainly welcome.
Quote of the Week: “That ad [on Spring Street and Broadway] reminds me of the last time I did acid and why I will never do it again.” — Anonymous Degenerate
Quartersnacks is approaching the one year mark since it relaunched as an organized, frequently updated website. Looking towards the future, we are definitely interested in any suggestions or ideas that people who visit the website may have for things they’d like to see, new features, etc., so please feel free to share them in the comments. (Please don’t say “iPhone app.”) In the meantime, help us get to 1,000 followers on Twitter, so we look like we have clout over there. And add us on Facebook so you can see when updates go down.
