What A Time

Last Monday Links of the year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Top 10 will return on Friday, January 8th. FWIW, this week, all of it would be from Davonte Jolly’s Godspeed video for Illegal Civ (a drive-in theater skate video premiere was a fire idea btw) + the new Yardsale video.

To pine for warmer days, check out the Public Skateboarding video by Tom Albin. 31 minutes, all filmed in New York, and as wholesome of a friends video as you could possibly get. Friend edits to “Never Too Much” always hit.

Boil the Ocean has embarked on its annual journey of picks for the year’s ten best video parts.

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The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2020 — QS Readers Poll Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio
Ballot Tally Assist by 4Ply Magazine

One of the biggest cliches is discussing just *how much* skate content there is. Everything is available at once, and keeping track of it for one viewing — let alone multiple — is hard.

Last year’s decade poll aimed at a snapshot of skateboarding in a ten-year span, as it grew exponentially into the content waterfall it is today. It was very fun to do, but perhaps easier in that with ten years to reflect on, it was apparent what loomed large over tricks, styles and trends. We brought it back for a single year to try and form a canon at a time when so much of the conversation is geared around things moving too fast for a consensus.

Yes, you’ll notice an inherent recency bias here, and year-end content is obviously an imperfect art — the poll closed on December 4, which is before John’s Vid and Third Shift came out online, two projects that definitely would’ve ranked if eligible. (Honestly, John’s Vid might’ve ended up being #1 or #2 given the readership of this website.)

So here it is. No commentary for the full-lengths this round. Full-length skate videos capture a zeitgeist, and sometimes, it takes a while for those effects to truly make themselves known.

Shout out to all the writer friends from the internet who helped with write-ups, and extra major shout out to the team at 4Ply Magazine for the help on tallying the ballots.

And if you’re joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers during the first week of December, with voting ending on the 4th.

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So Icy

November 20th from here on out should be Brandon Turner Day.

There is no chance that you haven’t caught this already, right? Naquan Rollings’ “BUSS” video for Thrasher went live last week. This, “Rerock,” Kill Bill,” and “Pre-Roll” are the de facto box set of 2020 edits that we’ll look back on for a snapshot of New York skateboarding in this year.

Village Psychic was inspired by skier style (yes, skiers are as big fashion of nerds as we are, though they’re a bit more “official” about it) to consider the ideal skate outfit. Illustrations by Abada ♥

Which one of you has a foot fetish and hooked up with a writer from Vogue this past May? S/O for being responsible and getting a COVID test beforehand.

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Anarchist Jurisdiction

Photo by Tobin Yelland

(Saw that comments weren’t working for most of last week. That issue has [*hopefully*] been fixed. If you’re a devout QS commenter and still getting an error, hit us on social or e-mail.)

“Every interview cemented that yeah, he accomplished a lot but it was about skateboarding and that actually meant something that he fostered: growing a community by supporting people you believe in.” Anthony Pappalardo the Writer wrote a bit about Huf’s impact on him as an east coaster with teen eyes on San Francisco in the nineties.

Village Psychic re: “Huf & Friends” from Interface.

TWS rounded up the words and tributes from fellow pro skaters about the influence Keith Hufnagel had on their lives ♥

All remaining QS tees + whatever else we have left is on sale for cheap on our webstore. Mostly smalls and mediums left ♥ Thanks for your support, as always.

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Meditative Progression — An Interview With Karl Watson

Intro, Interview & Photos by Adam Abada

It honestly feels a bit silly introducing Karl. How many times does his EMB pedigree need to be brought up? The style? The smile? Karl has been doing it for more than three decades and his influence is still all around us, but it isn’t like he’s gone and calcified in stone. He’s a living, breathing, creating presence still very much ensconced in the Bay Area scene and the skate world at-large. He has his own company, Maxallure, and is involved in the impending resurgence of Satori Wheels.

I got in touch with him to see what those three-plus decades do to your perspective and even scored a session with him and the Maxallure team in the 105-degree summer heat of the San Fernando Valley. I don’t know if it’s the energy from his young team or if he’s still got it like that, but it was a pleasure to see him and his squad sweating it out in pure skate rat form.

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