Skate videos have long been a portal for musical discovery. Except in recent years, it has began to almost feel like …filler. If one editor finds success with an untapped genre or artist, there is always an avalanche of imitators. If you find that “how has nobody skated to this?!”-song, the answer to your question is often “someone has, it was just in some video you missed.” And a popular song? Forget it, it has been in twenty kids’ IG edits since the day it got uploaded to YouTube.
(Don’t even start with the dude editing his “Trip to N.Y.C!” video to Big L right now.)
Choosing a song that makes an impact, and gets people tracking it down is hard when our attention spans are their fickle 2019 selves. We reached out to five people who routinely put out edits (i.e. not the guys dropping one full-length every few years) to get their thoughts on how the process of selecting music in skate videos has evolved.
Rodney by Reda, behind Pyramid Ledges from the June 1998 TWS via Ted Newsome’s “New York Minute” spreads. This spot would be extra contemporary today had it not been knobbed for ~two decades.
“Words are escaping me, you’re talking about people I have a strong emotional connection to.” Torey Goodall’s Bunt interview is reaffirming proof of the fact that if you just go on enough drunken trips to New York, things sometimes just kinda work out in the end ♥ Just don’t ask him how he feels about Charles Rivard…
“Don’t mansplain tricks. Get out of here, you’re taking the fun out of skating. If you just go away, I’ll be so much happier. Half the fun of learning is doing it yourself.” Imagine having the audacity of giving Lacey Baker unsolicited trick tips. Anthony “The Writer” Pappalardo wrote an extended profile of Lacey for Huck magazine.
“Bontó” is the latest from the Rios boys, Europe’s most productive crew, and specialists in skating spots that I have absolutely zero interest in ever skating ;)
Diego and Tyshawn are leading everyone else in 2018 for tricks that leave phone screens and comment sections, and actually enter conversation between IRL humans.
“Midtown to us was really just like 5 blocks though. Like 50th Street to 54th Street on 6th Avenue.” Village Psychic catches up with R.B. Umali for some stories about skating Astor, Pyramid Ledges, Union, Courthouse Drop, Flushing, etc.
Tufty showed up and surprised us in Paris on our first day, then we didn’t see him for the rest of our trip because he was doing grown man shit, like waking up before 1 P.M. to go skate spots before they get too crowded.
TWS also uploaded 411 issue #2, which features a Tom Penny “Wheels of Fortune” section filmed exclusively at the skatepark that Palace’s winter pop-up park, Mwadlands, was based on. Fwiw, 411 creator, Josh Friedberg, said that the Penny section was one of his favorites ever from the video mag’s run.
Staletape is a 28-minute long Philly scene video by Joe Ostrowski.
“Whereas Torey Pudwill’s arm motions often hit the red while balancing on history’s most drawn-out backside smith grinds and backside tailslides, Magnus Bordewick’s flapping generally coincides with rocketing pop and crater-making impacts.” Boil the Ocean re: the state of arm movements in skateboarding and Magnus’ new part.
“Popwave” made me want to go skate not-so-good skate spots with all my friends.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Donovan Mitchell should be fun to watch for like, the next decade-and-a-half? Who does everyone have for Sixers-Celtics?
Quote of the Week 11-Year-Old Scooter Kid at Le Dome: “What’s the best trick you can do?” Adult Skateboarder at Le Dome: “Pop shove it.” 11-Year-Old Scooter Kid at Le Dome: “…you’re kidding me, right?”
This is the first semi-late Monday Links post since we vowed to swear off them in honor of the queen’s 30th birthday. BUT — in our defense, the entire office is a bit lagged from traveling back to New York yesterday. We don’t deserve a Gucci polo, but at least it’s not going up at like 4 P.M. ♥
Tennyson Corporation put together a Mike and Quim Cardona 411 remix video to tug at your heartstrings (that nollie shove, varial flip line…) Our NY Revisited remix of Quim’s clips still gets brought up as many people’s favorite piece of QS #content, and remains one of this website’s proudest moments — probably because there are few skaters as infectiously inspiring in their footage as Quim. Thanks man ♥
A couple new Puleo clips in this commercial for German Nieves’ company, Paterson.
“What if you’d been told, on the occasion of Fully Flared‘s premiere nigh ten years ago, that Anthony Pappalardo’s part would provide a primary guiding light for the shoe supplier’s next full-length video — would you have believed it?” Boil the Ocean reviews Lakai’s latest video.
“Is this like a Seinfeld thing, where there’s no story?” Trick link: Anthony Pappalardo interviews Gino Iannucci. Gino is also now on Instagram. Everyone caves. Except Max Palmer and Stuart Hammond.
Spot Updates — 1) Not sure how recent this is, but the Philly step(s) under the Williamsburg Bridge on the way to Alligator Ledge are no more. The school installed rails running down the middle of them. 2) Herearea couplephotos of the skatepark being built on 114th and 1st Avenue via neighborhood correspondent, Tron Jenkins. It is set to officially open in March of next year.
Quote of the Week: “If Pontus ever has a heart attack, I’m definitely sending my sponsor me tape to Frog.” — Hjalte Halberg
YO, massive shout out to the crew, politicians, shops and community in Providence, Rhode Island, on getting an approval to turn an underused corner of their downtown into a full-on block of a skate plaza. Let this be a precedent for cities across the U.S.
“If they didn’t name me Genesis then my dad would have named me Jubilee, from X-Men, who was a girl. That would’ve been very funny. I’m glad they named me Genesis.” Sex mag (sure) has an interview with Genny re: growing up, DANY, etc.
Zered is on Alltimers, and has a new part out to reassure you of his decade-plus status as the east coast’s most productive pro, and the king of the worst spot in Queens ;)
“It’s still the same if I just don’t let myself become too jaded and reclusive. There are still endless possibilities.” Huck has a feature with Jerry Mraz, who they apparently dubbed “The Batman of Skateboarding.”
“We decided to make the game more fun so that’s why it was never a realistic simulation of skateboarding. That was key to the success of the game.” Ironic that the reason maybe 50% of the people now in their late 20s started skateboarding was something intended to be an unrealistic simulation of skateboarding. Jenkem has the oral history of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
Keeping a real skate shop open in 2017 is God’s work ♥ Thank you to all who do.
Rodrigo TX skates ThreeFour Up ThreeFour Down, T.J. does a bunch of crazy shit, and lol that there’s security standing at the bottom of the bank in every clip ever gotten at the Roosevelt Island Monument in this link to a clip with 54k YouTube views.
