And on a day when the wind-chill brings the temperature down to 12 degrees, we bring you some… good news.
Space 198, the new free, INDOOR Vans park is opening on January 2nd at 198 Randolph Street in Brooklyn. Unlike the belated House of Vans, which was more of an event space inside of a skatepark (and brought out people’s inner savages anytime there was a mid-winter open day there), this park is a community-oriented space built for skateboarding.
It’s going to be open Thursday through Sundays — you just need to to sign up on the website beforehand. And it’s off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick, making everyone’s life a bit easier than a 20-minute walk through the snow to Greenpoint that we used to do ;)
As they were putting the finishing touches on it, they gave a handful of crews the chance to check out the park last week, and here’s what we came back with. Be nice to Jersey Dave when you see him, because chances are, his phone has not stopped buzzing for the past two weeks.
Filmed by Will Rosenstock, Paul Young, Max Hull, Cristian Berrios & Kyota Umeki.
According to The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins, Allen Street gets its name from William Henry Allen, the youngest Navy captain in the War of 1812. (Our then-recent ex, Great Britain, was beefing with Napoleon while America stayed neutral. The U.S. was trying to send a flow box to France, and Britain felt some type of way about it. Like any bitter ex who sees someone else wearing your hoody after a messy break-up, they went to war.)
Legend has it that Allen was in the English Channel on the hunt for opposition, when he stumbled on a Portuguese cargo ship carrying wine. Him and the squad had a wild night with the haul, but unfortunately, got caught slipping by the British on the following day. Allen and his crew’s colossal hangover would be their last: British canons shot off his leg, and he would die on August 18, 1813.
R.I.P. Shorty’s, a place that showed the world the positive power of skateboarders adopting a forgotten corner of the world, and being left the hell alone in it. QS is hardly a transition skating-based enterprise, but there was something magical about each and every visit we took out there, even if it barely involved skateboarding on some days. Grateful to have been a partof it insome tiny way. Thanks to Andrew and all of the boys, and best of luck on the next chapter.
“You wanted a skate shoe that you and Sheffey could go to the club in.” “That’s the goal, yeah.” A lot of guys who started brands give interviews about starting brands, but Sal Barbier is a guy who you should listen to if you want to hear a guy give insight on starting brands. Thanks for the shout out man ♥
I’ve heard friends who don’t skate anymore and barely follow skateboarding say Jamie Foy is their favorite skater. Can’t knock that one. He’s got a couple New York clips in this Jenkem video of a recent Diamond trip.
“Does US sports apparel manufacturer New Balance and its ‘Tricolor’ executive production team deserve credit and reciprocal shoe-purchasing decisions for coaxing forth the most complete PJ Ladd video section since the Iraq war’s onset?” — Boil the Ocean re: the rumored-to-be PJ Ladd part in the upcoming New Balance video.
We let Crazy T take over the QS IG story last Thursday, and couldn’t let the fun fade into oblivion after 24 hours. Still watch the Eminem video five times a day.
Thanks to everyone who supported the QS For Street Machine project. Some stuff still left on the webstore. Anyone who ordered over the weekend should be getting a shipping confirmation in the next 24-48 hours :)
Quote of the Week: “Lil’ Uzi is rap Blink 182.” — Pryce Holmes
The video includes many developments sure to reverberate around sports talk radio for weeks to come, such as Sean Pablo confirming rumors that he did indeed sign the dotted line with Monster Energy, the revival of 1999’s “Song of the Summer” to echo the #musicsupervision of the eternally underrated 411 Roc-a-Fella issue, and the continued pillage of the Madison Square Garden double-set gap-to-rail that has otherwise sat dormant for over a decade.
Features Tyshawn Jones, Who Kid, Na-Kel Smith, Blake Johnson, Brian Briggs, Sage Elsesser, Sean Pablo, Ben Kadow, Troy Stillwell, Kevin Bradley, Jake Donnelly, Louie Lopez, Donovan Piscopo, Kevin White & Tyquan.
Also, this one flew a bit under the radar, but Marshall put together this sick video of pretty much the same dudes late last year, and in my mind, it acted as the proverbial placeholder for a Hardies team video until now. Skating starts around the 2:30 mark.
Here’s an annotated map of Pulaski by Jimmy Pelletier, one of the spot’s longest tenured filmers. “If you called 202-638-9511 on the other side of the pole, a homeless person would usually answer and you could ask if there were any skaters across the street. If they said ‘yes,’ you asked them to yell one of them over to the phone.”
“The general consensus with the politicians in Copenhagen is that this is a capital, it’s noisy, people come here to party, have a good time and we need to make the most of that. If it gets too noisy, then move to the country: this is a capital city. I’m not even going to take credit for that, it comes from the politicians.” Basically, Copenhagen is the fucking greatest, and we can’t have nice things in the U.S. #FDT