The Best Skate Video Parts of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio

Back in October, we asked QS visitors to choose their favorite video parts of the 2010s. If civilization and skateboarding were to end today, which five parts would you bury in a weather-and-nuclear-proof time capsule for post-apocalyptic earth dwellers to reference when they rediscover skate culture of these past ten years?

QS prides itself as being a destination for people who think a lot about skateboarding. Rather than poll a few close colleagues for their favorites, we felt we had a wide enough reverberation in the skate nerd universe to try and crowdsource a canon of the 2010s from anyone willing to sit down and think about it. I can emphatically say that in reviewing the mountain of ballots, everyone took their votes seriously — save maybe the guy who voted for five Micky Papa parts.

As we tallied the results, consistent trends in the count were apparent. Any fears about a recency bias went out the window; there’s only one part from 2019, and the average year of the top 25 is 2014. QS obviously has its own breed of skate nerd audience — this poll would look different if taken by Thrasher or Free — but I would bet that their lists wouldn’t be TOO far off from this one.

Presented without comment for the top 25-11, and then via a lot of favors from writer friends on the internet for the top 10: here are the 25 best video parts of the past ten years.

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~Positivity is Sexy~

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Free beer to whoever disses it with a Tas Pappas tag. Photo via The Shady One

“One thing I realized once I started being in the world of Instagram was that people don’t let go of things. If something has emotionally affected somebody in some powerful way sometime in their life, that doesn’t fade. If anything, social media kind of fans the flame of that and almost reestablishes that emotional connection.” With so much discussion of social media and its pros/cons in any skate interview these days, it’s nice to hear that it actually does have a way of bringing about some greater good from one of the happiest people to ever ride a skateboard, Ray Barbee.

“With a skater like Jamal Williams, Ricky Oyola or even Pat Steiner, people aren’t pulling out the yardstick to measure how high they’re ollieing. It’s more the feelings people get by watching that person on a skateboard.” Also with a good bit of social media talk + skaters having an impact on people’s lives, Get Born Mag has a detailed interview with Josh Stewart. ~feelings~

Hotel Blue is the new board company from the LurkNYC camp, and Nick just dropped a nine-minute promo featuring the entire team over the weekend. Back smith backside flip on the Leonard Street ledge was wild.

Bobshirt has a 25-minute interview with Bill Strobeck detailing pretty much every last anecdote about the prime era of Alien Workshop + Habitat. Includes a special guest appearance from a former orange-beanied colleague halfway in ;)

Huf gave Jenkem a tour of some of the places he grew up skating in Manhattan.

Boil the Ocean on Anti-Hero’s persistence in an increasingly tense landscape of board brand longevity, and a potential Daan Van Der Linden S.O.T.Y. run.

Some warm-ups from Yaje Popson and friends at the L.E.S. Park.

Village Psychic has a content monopoly on anything having to do with the little guys keeping the romance in printed skate media alive. An interview with the minds behind Germany’s Solo mag.

Mushrooms to switch flip into a bowl + other debauchery from CPH Open.

Part two of The Bunt’s interview with Spencer Hamilton is now live.

Well, this is the first instance of someone skating in Polo shoes I can remember, which re-opens the hypothetical discussion of what the Ralph skate team would look like…

Quote of the Week: “Positivity is sexy. Creativity is even sexier.” — Andrew Wilson

Thank you for everything Gene Wilder.

R.I.P. 69 Long Live Noodletown

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Thanks for the late night memories, 69 Bayard. Photo by Brian Kelley.

Out in Guatemla with a quarter million dollars…That nollie crook really came out of nowhere, and thumbs up all around on #simple C.I.A. Ledge lines.

Sometimes hats just don’t stay on your head, yaknow?

Jim Hodgson still somehow has yet another round of 90s outtakes. Shants-era Dill footage and some Lackawanna appearances pin at your nostalgic lobes in this one.

Just as many Americans are still recovering from 2008’s financial meltdown, skateboarding is apparently still reeling from the collapse of Alien Workshop 1.0, as evidenced in Yaje Popson’s latest interview with Transworld, and Jake Johnson’s [extended] one with Thrasher. Also note to anyone about to log off and head to D7: “I think I really messed my body up jumping down stuff when I was younger and my body was still growing. If I could give advice I’d say don’t jump down stuff until you’re older.”

Following the first 60-degree Sunday of 2016, noseslide 270 shuv outs have not gained any momentum at a projected resurgence. However, Ron Deily makes a good case for lowbrow frontside 270 out of noseslide tech in the new Zoo in S.F. clip.

Dude did a rad gap-to-lipslide down the L.E.S Park double-set.

Speaking of the L.E.S. Park double-set…Antonio Durao switch tre Love Gap attempts.

Sex Hippies & Sean Pablo in L.A. for a week. “What, is aguy that used to host Jane on Thursdays four years ago skating in L.A. not New York enough?” ;)

Always knew this spot would have a resurrection somehow. Looks dangerous.

The skatepark being built in place of the Fat Kid Spot looks pretty low to the ground :)

Thrasher recently entered the arena of YouTube comps with a five-minute compilation of the greatest handrail tricks, but shouldn’t Gonz’s boardslide down the Banks 9 + his 5050 and front board down the [defunct] 8th & Greene Street rail from the (1986?) Vision video be the first thing? Weren’t those supposedly the first handrail tricks? Is the idea of handrail skating being born in New York akin to pointing out that Christopher Columbus didn’t actually discover America?!

Just realized this QS feature from a year-old issue of Acclaim mag is online. Was kinda the blueprint / draft for the intro of the actual Quartersnacks book.

Atiba’s favorite Atiba photos.

Only “Damn Daniel” content that matters. Also “Damn Daniel” = 2k16 “I Didn’t Do It” :)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: What else? Hand him the MVP trophy now.

Quote of the Week:

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Uploaded Josh’s Inkwell promo part as a standalone thing just because:

Skate the Ledges

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Brian Panebianco’s Instagram has been the go-to for all end of Love coverage. Respect to anyone who made it down there to skate in single-degree temperatures.

Damn.

You likely caught it already, but Yaje went on a tear for his welcome part to the resuscitated AWS. (Yes, he’s still alive.) Malfa also posted all the photos from Yaje’s interview in this month’s TWS, although you’ll have to grab the issue for the text.

Pretty much all Morningside Heights + Harlem spots in this Mikey Perdomo remix part by Bluecouch NY, which is refreshing to see. Surprised more people don’t try barging a lot of the stuff on the Columbia campus beyond the bank-to-ledge. Ollie over the wall at Morningside School was a pretty wild and unexpected one too ;)

Flo is skating the Le Dome Hubba again. [Previously]

Said it before, but Tom Knox’s Vase section is probably the most re-watched video part around here since Reider’s Gravis comeback. For those just getting up to speed, Sidewalk gave a complete rundown of his video part history. (A notable early-30s nosegrind technician recently told me he preferred the 11th Hour part, so…) Thrasher also just went live with all his Vase extras and raw files. We’d remix it, but nothing on the new Boosie goes well with British skateboarding.

Bobshirt has a fifteen-minute video interview with Long Island legend and owner-of-a-famous-nose, Frank Gerwer. They talk about board graphics, Wallenburg, first trips to the Banks, etc. FYI: The Number Nine part he mentions can be found here. It has a good bit of cool early-90s midtown footage.

Raw footage reel via Matt Velez, Diamond Days #86 via Rob Harris (where’s the party for #100?), and another extended All City Showdown edit via Tony Choy-Sutton.

Village Psychic with a timely article on maintaining private skateparks on the east coast during the winter. I still never forgave whoever stole the plastic benches from the Fairway on 125th Street to put in that Red Bull park on N. 11th circa 2004.

Boil the Ocean re: skating’s willingness to re-embrace its wandering prodigals.

Oh no, is jump cut editing a la The Reason coming back? :/

Another preview of the Big Brother book. Labor had copies as of a few days ago. Not sure if they still do.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Russell Westbrook’s All-Star Game entrance. Also, to anyone talking about Carmelo trade rumors — stop. Just stop.

Quote of the Week: “Bernie Sanders is gonna win off memes.” — Martin Davis

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday.

Ever Since I Left the City You Started Skating Less and Going Out More

palace five

Fall QS gear available at Supreme (New York + Los Angeles), Labor, 35th North, 510, Alumni, Atlas, Black Sheep, Civil, Commissary, Exit, Homebase, Homegrown, Humidity, In4mation, NJ (Hoboken + New Brunswick), Orchard, Palace 5ive, Pitcrew, Seasons, Select Skates and Uprise. Hitting Japan this week, Europe next well. QS webstore launches [next] Monday, November 2nd at midnight.

Ok, maybe this whole skating on cars shit is getting out of hand…

“Dare I say that the Dime Crew is possibly even better than Rick Howard?” Chris Nieratko spent Canadian Thanksgiving with the Dime squad. (Full Disclosure: They don’t celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in French Canada.) Skateboard Story also interviewed Phil Lavoie about the inner-workings of Canada’s greatest fashion house.

Krooked in NYC video was a fun watch. You probably caught it already, but Brad Cromer v.s. trash cans is one of my favorite sub-generes of skateboarding.

Here’s a *new* interview with Ricky Oyola + and two video interviews from underrated faves: Chico Brenes for Route One and Brad Johnson for Bobshirt.

Purple keep coming in… 1) Volume 13 of LurkNYC’s “New York Times” outtakes series. 2) Materiél promo #008. 3) Cell Jawn #16.

Greg Hunt made an #uplifting mini doc about building a skatepark on one of the largest Native American reservations in the U.S, where youth suicides are rampant. Jenkem has some behind-the-scenes photos from the opening.

Even though it’s for more nostalgia-based reasons rather than actually wanting to skate there-based ones, there’s something chill about the fact that organized skate jams still go down at Riverside Park.

Weiger had my favorite part in either SB Chronicles video. The raw files are great.

Did you know there was an Alien Workshop video about to drop? Boil the Ocean did.

An interview with the guy who dreamt up the glow in the dark skatepark.

It’s insane that a trick that gets filmed and posted online on Saturday will wind up in an Instagram compilation video by Sunday. The internet, man.

Ok, no more #content about varial flips after this ;)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Sooooo, Pelicans-Warriors tomorrow night? :)

Quote of the Week: “All my ideas suck.” — Nick Nunez