Past generations of skateboarders outside the U.S. felt like they kept one eye on America, the unavoidable center of skateboarding’s media and industry, and another inward on their native scenes. British skateboarding, on the other hand, felt like it had to look three ways: towards America, around its European neighbors, and at itself, as a place that produced distinctly English skate videos that looked unlike anything else.
It is tempting to call Jacob Harris’ “Atlantic Drift” series on Thrasher the most beloved video franchise coming out of the U.K. today. Except the videos are less an insular sum of their influences, and more a global portrait of a particular brand of skateboarding, as seen through an English lens. It was no surprise that Jacob’s influences came from all over the place ;)
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.
Loved this addition to the recent trend of one-spot montages: “Mecca: A Everson Museum of Art Video” by Lukas Reed, which documents the life of the still-standing Syracuse, NY spot A.K.A. “Love Park if you squint.” Everything from the nostalgic landings in the shoveled out snow piles, to the circa-2002 internet titles/music supervision, to the unexpected Austyn Gillette cameo — the entire video is a fun watch. “Goodwine” is a sick last name.
Watching Paris footage and not being in Paris is kinda how I imagine people going through relationship shit feel when they listen to Drake. Here’s montage #35 from the POP Trading boys, filmed during the last #PFW.
We’re going to start issuing an annual “Non-Skate Journalism” award on QS each December, and this is the frontrunner: Toronto spent $31 million dollars effectively skate-stopping trash cans, but for raccoons looking to eat garbage — only for the raccoons to conquer the trashcan lock mechanism that was said to be “impossible” for them to open (poor guys don’t have thumbs!) If you — as a skateboarder — can’t relate to this tale of raccoon prosperity in the face of drudging humans trying to keep them from having fun, then you are a heartless coward.
Quote of the Week: “I wouldn’t wish a week in North Hollywood on anyone.” — Jesse Alba
It was a great year for skateboarding — especially in New York, but also beyond — despite being especially rough on humans otherwise. Let’s get this one rolling :)
“Chewy threw an ironing board at Lucien over this shit. The skate house, the skate house, the skate house—we’ve all been there.” TWSput their Palace in New York article online, which includes an interview with Jamal Smith, who doesn’t have any photos in it, but is the star of a pretty sick faux 411 “Wheels of Fortune” section.
“I think the reason nobody wanted to show us around was he fact we might have been a bit of an embarassment. Actually, that’s certainly the reason.” And even though it’s from last year, The Skateboarder’s Journal posted their Passport in New York article, with words from Callum Paul.
It’s amazing that people need to point out that they dislike front feeble laser flip outs in 2017 like it’s a kickflip backside tailslide or some shit. The Bunt’s new season kicked off last week, with what’s probably the most Canadian episode they’ve ever had.
F.A. uploaded a 46-minute compilation of B-sides and raw footage — some of which is unseen, some of which you’ll definitely recognize from past edits. Someone also turned all the episodes of “Atlantic Drift” into one single-stream 34-minute reel.
“We’re utilitarian people. That’s what the fuck we do.” Village Psychic has an interview with Jake Phelps about the cost of living in the only place with higher rent than New York: San Francisco. (Free idea: You guys should do a story about skateboarders living with random Chinese families in New York.)
Boil the Ocean with an early weigh-in on 2017’s S.O.T.Y. race, but is there 1) a single person who follows skating that doesn’t think it should unequivocally be Tiago, and 2) if not, what possible reason could you have?
