‘If you can’t be the sun be a star; It isn’t by size that you win or fail — Be the best of whatever you are’

king

#interesting: How Stevie Wonder & Gil Scott-Heron campaigned to turn MLK Day into a holiday.

Snacks hid inside the mattress

Um, what?

#TRENDWATCH2016: Prop street skating hehehe ;)

New edition of Lurk NYC’s “NY Times” series, featuring a bunch of Cee-Lo extras.

No thinktank in #modern #skateboarding has changed the way people skate via Instagram as much as the Blobys have. They’re like the French New Wave of skateboard Instagram dude. After a Vince-based IG mix a few weeks back, someone put together a full, fifteen minute mix of all [most?] of their IG videos.

“Whether he knew it or not, a Bowie song in a skate video was more than just another song in the credits ━ you had to fucking earn that song.” Can’t say another artist’s passing has ever resulted in such an outpour of reflection from skate media outlets.

New Pete Eldridge footage! New J.B. Gillet footage! The Cliché team in Paris, unfortunately sans Lucas. Despite having seen that Créteil brick bank spot in videos for two-plus decades, there hasn’t been really much footage of people skating it like a halfpipe (way harder than it looks tbh.) All the footage is super fun :)

Is it even fair to have Antonio in All City Showdown anymore? You probably caught the “Best of” on Thrasher already, but holy hell, that line at the Williamsburg monument. Also here’s some bonus footy why not? Antonio heavy warm up at Gardner via Dre.

The city of Philadelphia is pathetic.

Quick, sorta legible bit of the Jake Johnson interview from the GX1000 article in the new Thrasher. x3 on the whole only switch tricks in 2015 down Hooters rail thing.

Behind the scenes of Jenkem’s Tim O’Connor Show, how New Jersey gives you #perspective, and the increasing ubiquity of the skateboard podcast.

Have a suspicion that Tiago Lemos’ secret is a bit more sophisticated than “rice, beans and lots of acai,” since half the skaters with jobs in New York live off that stuff…

[Fucking Awesome + Hockey] x the early 2000s ON Video Magazine.

Gigliotti is skating in Cali dude. Shout out 235 E. 5th Street.

New Cell Jawn video from the Brooklyn Nike park.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Can’t wait for that Spurs-Warriors WCF.

Quote of the Week: “Damn, did Sierra Fellers fall off?” — E.J.

Better Late Than Never: End of Summer 2015 Montage

end of summer 2015

We made it! Just one day shy of October — when it becomes truly embarrassing to post an “End of Summer” edit. Not that we haven’t been late on the Labor Day deadline or entirely missed an End of Summer clip before (obviously in 2009, the year multiple viewers of the ten-year clip pointed out as the turning point for when the party became a crucial part of QS office culture), but it’d be too sad to enter autumn without bidding da summa farewell.

In our defense, these past four months had multiple extracurricular video projects: “56 Tricks,” “Core” (some of the better iPhone angles from it made their way into this one), the all-too-important TM101 anniversary clip, and obviously the ten-year edit.

Features Matt Perez [finally] graduating high school, Antonio Durao, Johnny Wilson, Andrew Wilson, Hjalte Halberg, Andre Page, Chandy Khon, Cyrus Bennett, Alexander Mosley, Jesse Alba, Daniel Kim, Will Robson-Scott, Jack Sabback, Brendan Carroll, Mike Gigliotti, C.J, Genesis Evans, Troy Stilwell, Tober, and a mini Connor Champion part. Contributing filmers: Andre Page & John Diaz.

Alternate YouTube Link

Previous Editions: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

‘Rack’ — #AnotherOne From the Still-Reigning Most Productive Crew™ in New York Skateboarding

kohlton

Just because video blogs slowed up in frequency and their filmer became a downtown #tastemaker, doesn’t mean that the Most Productive Crew™ relinquished the title they’ve held from Space Heater onward. “Rack” features all of Johnny Wilson’s A-roll footage since Sure dropped two months ago.

With New York Fashion Week one week away, “Rack” already goes in the direction of what will dominate skateboard runways for the remainder of 2015 and beyond — boardslide shove-its (both ways), and a more widespread adoption of “skate video house” #musicsupervision (see also), as initially popularized in Palace videos.

Also, someone will probably post a link to their boy’s year-old part half-filmed in Columbus, OH to counter this…BUT 95% sure this is the first video where someone successfully does a line at that bump-to-bar / ollie up / handicap rail in front of the deli on Houston and A. That thing has been the most claimed spot in city limits for the past ~three years; if four dudes are stuck at the light on Houston and A, at least one will claim it. Also be on the lookout for the best #good trick ever done at Three Up Three Down, a spot where #good tricks are otherwise irrelevant.

Features Oak, Drew, Genesis, Kohlton, Chief Keith, John Choi, Hjalte, Nick Boserio, Antonio doing switch tres, others. The Q.S.S.O.T.Y’s appearances are minimal, but that’s probably ok considering Sure got unofficially dubbed Max Palmer: The Video.

Upstate Update: Ithaca, Rochester & Buffalo

cyrusollie

Photo by Zach Malfa-Kowalski

The western half of New York state has a handful of cities that are just over an hour drive from one another. This includes Buffalo and Rochester, the second and third largest in the state.

The first stop was Ithaca, home of the westernmost Ivy League school and birthplace of the Tornado Spin — the subject of skateboarding’s first viral video. You really gain an understanding for how seldom-seen these cities are when a three-year-old / minute-and-a-half-long Jake Johnson Brick Harbor part is repeatedly brought up as the only reference point for the locals showing you spots.

After an Orvis catalog shoot and some cliff jumping, the spent the first night at the cement wave with white bulbs that Jake skates in said part. We managed to avoid Cornell cops that night, but didn’t get so lucky the next day, when we went back to skate a building funded by college drop-out, Bill Gates. Happy to say I’m writing this on a Macbook, because our short stint at Bill and Melinda Gates Hall resulted in a one-year ban from Cornell University property.

hjaltebstail

Photo by Zach Malfa-Kowalski

“You’re going to Rochester? There are flatbars everywhere.”

At least six thousand people told me there are flatbars all over Rochester. They weren’t lying. There are flatbars all over Rochester. Can’t figure out why the city planners have such an affinity for round, one-to-two-foot-high flat rails, but they’re literally everywhere you look in the city. Google tries to get you drunk if you ask about it. No wonder everyone upstate is hammered all the time ;)

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Upstate Update: Albany & Syracuse

antollie

Photo by Zach Malfa-Kowalski

Every summer in New York has a “get me out of here”-moment. It usually happens in August — when you realize all your free time has been spent sitting at Tompkins, maybe leaving to watch your friend try a trick somewhere, and then ending up at T.F. West or maybe probably definitely the bar. The past month feels a week long.

The easiest way to slow down time is to spend it in an unfamiliar environment. Having already gone way over budget on the seminal European tour video, 56 Tricks, we had to resort to more modest options. Thanks to a paper bag full of crumpled bills from Nike SB, we were able to load up two vans with #core #skateboarders — guys without agents who would never dare suggest that we “warm up” at a “skatepark” — and got on the road for a five-city #core #tour of Upstate New York.

hjaltebsflip

Photo by Zach Malfa-Kowalski

To get the pressing question out of the way, no, we could not make the Dime Glory Challenge. As we pulled into New York’s capital, we looked northward at the 200 miles to French Canada and wished the boys good luck, but travel towards Dime HQ ended there. In consolation, Albany contains one of the most perfect spots known to man: T.F-esque flatground separated by three levels of mellow banks. There have been rumors of it getting turned into a skatepark, but thankfully that hasn’t happened yet. It’s perfect as is.

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