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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Oh Baby, You’re Being Dramatic — #TRENDWATCH 2020: Expressing Emotion

Everyone has witnessed A.V.E. beat up a street sign, and watched a stress montage or two. But what about the other 25 human emotions? Traditionally speaking, skate videos have not been a place for expressing them.

Sure, friends in the background are allowed to clap and cheer, but a stoicism has always been expected of the person rolling away. It is part of skateboarding’s great contortion of reality: a year spent on a video part is boiled down to three-and-a-half minutes, oh, and dude wasn’t even that hyped on himself when he landed those tricks.

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Quarantinesnacks

Pic via @rinyahata_ on IG

Threw the remaining bits of our fall 2019 release on sale in the webstore. Truthfully, it’s mostly beanies and smalls, but there are a few loose other sizes left in there. Figured now was a good time to clear this out as everyone adjusts to the slower pace of life while we wait for this shit to calm down — yes, skate shops are affected. We’ll be good though, just gotta ride it out and be smart. It’s not like we have another choice, yaknow? ♥ Everyone be clean, be safe, be nice and be patient. QS content resumes as usual, because you already know that fashion never sleeps :)

Skate videos used to be so cute and innocent.

All the Streets Are Silent: The Convergence of Hip-Hop and Skateboarding (1987-1997) is coming soon. Think about that Slam interview with Eli Gesner from last week, but wider in scope, and in documentary form. (Timely name, too!)

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Five* Favorite Parts With Anthony Van Engelen

Intro + Interview by Adam Abada
Photo by Ben Colen

Sometimes, a person’s favorite parts are an array of influences and terrain. By admission from the man himself, these selections can all sort of be grouped in the same era, with similar sensibilities. They come as no surprise, especially given the type of skateboarding Anthony Van Engelen does.

He enthusiastically continued past five, so consider the extra three a bonus.

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So Much Content

If you can’t make it out on Saturday, don’t forget to help circulate the petition to keep turf off the asphalt at Tompkins Square Park. If you’re sharing any reflections or memories of what this park means to you on social media, please be sure to tag any posts with #savetompkins.

“One thing Jones has that a lot of pro skaters don’t is a bunch of hardheaded friends who are willing to bring city life to a halt for him.” Can’t imagine there’s a single person who reads QS that hasn’t already read Willy Staley’s incredible profile of Tyshawn Jones for The New York Times, but also don’t think anything else could justifiably be the first link this week.

“The further uptown you went, the quieter and more desolate it was. And the more you could get away with.” While on the topic of #MSM #skate #coverage — never knew about this 2005 New York Mag article about Andy Kessler and the original Zoo York crew of the 1970s-80s. (So nice that we have evolved and endured enough to avoid calling things “Dogtown East” now hehe.)

Eli Gesner found this 1995 clip of Peter Bici skating in front of the Met at 6 A.M. Wonder what club they had just left ;)

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