Thanks to everyone for their suggestions on the QS one-spot map. Going to try and keep it as up to date as possible. Funny how practically the same day we went live with it, there was a new part filmed entirely at the Dylan monument spot in Berlin, and one at the Herbis plaza in Osaka. (Portland sources seem to say that the new Silas part is filmed at two spots, thus failing to qualify for the metric of being able to pinpoint it to a single location.)
Ben Kadow has a new Hockey part filmed pretty much entirely in the city, on insane spots that seldom register as “spots” to us normies, e.g. the 5050 bench ollie at Central Park, the perpendicular drop in boardslide, et al.
All the Streets Are Silent — the documentary that was supposed to be about Zoo York’s Mixtape video before sprawling into a much bigger project — arrives in theaters this week.
The world isn’t off to the best start in 2020, so you’d be well advised to watch this uplifting video about two Afghan girls who moved to Berlin from a refugee camp, and completely fell in love with skateboarding there. Lovingly put together by our friends at Place.
“Back then it was all a blur.” Yo these Bobshirt interviews are all so special. The latest installment is with Rodney Torres and is loaded with nineties New York nostalgia and stories, e.g it pretty much mentions three decades worth of skate shops in the city, and harks back to a time when New York coverage was limited to a montage here and there every couple years in a bigger video. (Also #lol on this YouTube comment.)
The youth has good tre flips. “Practice” is a very rad homie video by Cesar Fuentes featuring a bunch of up and coming skaters from The Bronx.
Speaking of all new levels of skateboarding, Tiago was in town for Street League and these two clips of him skating Seaport and the L.E.S. Park got brought up in at least four conversations this weekend. #SOTY.
Put a formal Twitter inquiry regarding the inventor of the noseslide earlier this summer (the consensus was Gonz.) Mackenzie Eisenhour discusses it in this TWS piece regarding the origins of the noseblunt: “Even prior to the noseblunt, Mark is also credited with adapting the noseslide to ledges and handrails on the streets, after seeing photos of Neil Blender innovating nose stalls on ramps.”
Given as how they’ve been dominating all forms of culture since Switch Mike started blasting So Far Gone in any and all of his BMWs and Herschel became the new Jansport, it should come as no surprise that the most enjoyable skateboard podcast also comes from Canada. Season two of the Bunt is now running, and starts off with cult hero, Spencer Hamilton. Expedition-1 talk, non-alcoholic beers, etc.
Glad the news about the Berlin benches getting removed ended up being a false alarm. A replica of that should be mandatory for every U.S. city with over six skaters. My second favorite skate spot on this planet.
The Warschauer Benches are on the shortlist of the funnest spots I’ve ever skated, and they’re nothing more than a better version of the Newport blocks from ~15 years ago. Kingpin has a full feature on their creation and history. Amazing how the formula for a perfect skate spot is no more sophisticated than decent ground + wooden benches + metal, and how often that goes ignored.
Isle’s Vase video is premiering on Thursday, November 19 at 8 P.M. and Paul Young’s Bleach video is premiering on Wednesday, November 25 at 8 P.M. Guess what theater? If you guessed the Imax on 68th Street, then you guessed wrong.
Did you know Fully Flared premiered eight years ago to the day? Village Psychic looked back on Anthony Pappalardo’s seminal yet at-the-time misunderstood section, which inspired legions of twenty-somethings to scour Bushwick for unchartered crust, caused a 5% spike in applications to Pratt’s sculpture program, and skyrocketed the demand for brown chino fabric among the world’s textile mills.
Footage of the 5050 + quick set-up barhop in front of Wavy’s is in the Local Express friends section, although no footage could really do justice to how crazy that is.
Dude you’re probably gonna be really bummed — but…the Hooters Rail is gone. What a fun spot! Shout out to Rodney Torres for being the first one to skate it, and to Connor Champion for switch nosesliding it just before the plaza got leveled.
Quote of the Week Kuz: “Just give me the word, I’ll quit my job and break up with my girlfriend.” Inquisitive Gentleman: “You have a girlfriend?” Kuz: “No, but if I did, I’d break up with her.”
