Stereo Skateboards emerged in the early 90s as a jazzy, loose-trucked alternative to what had come before. Its first video, A Visual Sound, is a classic, but by the end of the decade the brand was showing its age. “All anybody wanted was stairs and cartoons,” says Stereo co-founder Chris “Dune” Pastras, speaking on the phone. His partner at Stereo, Jason Lee, had already departed to pursue an acting career, and the brand’s distributor, Deluxe Distribution, Pastras says, had other companies that were blowing up. “Maybe it was a sign of the times.”
As a follow-up to Friday’s William Phan post, here are two randomGoPro clips found floating around on Vimeo. Nothing too exciting, but some display of the aforementioned flip trick abilities. Re-edit eventually?
Spot Updates: 1) Thanks to some awful asphalt work on behalf of the Parks Department, the entire T.F. is now covered in small pebbles due to one crack they filled in. It does however, now have a metal-less wallie box. 2) The city approved the construction of an AIDS memorial on the triangle at 7th Avenue and 12th Street / where the St. Vincent’s Bank is. Get your tricks in while you can. At least they’re not turning the triangle into a Duane Reade or another all-glass high-rise…
Thunder, lighting and snow, that’s a first for this lifetime. There’s even snow inside the train stations right now. If you happen to be blessed enough to not have work today, don’t go outside. Sit home and listen to the Can’t Ban the Snowman tape or something. Here are some links to pass the time for this Monday morning.
With boardgraphics getting all of the retrospectives, and printed-word love these days, wheel graphics are pretty much universally neglected. Here’s a quick guide as to when skate wheel art began, and ceased to, matter.
Someone asked Ian Reid if he could name “25 skateboarders who are actually from New York” on his Tumblr some time back. He returned with a very comprehensive answer.
Anthony Claravall offers some anecdotal nostalgia about the Cardona brothers, and what it was like filming their 411 “Wheels of Fortune” segment sixteen years ago.
You know things are slow down in Yahoo News International Headquarters when they can write five hundred words about the city installing fences and “No Skateboarding” signs at the Chinatown Banks. They quote Two Hawks Young though, which is sick. For those who don’t know, he was a crucial part to the greatest conceptual skateboard video of all time.
Anthony Beckner threw together the first batch of footage from the Below the Bridge Skatepark with the Classic Skate Shop crew. Conveniently enough, the park opens today, but even driving to Bayonne might be a bit too ambitious of an endeavor right now. The park looks slightly smaller than expected, and unfortunately doesn’t have the two different sections of street courses like Drop-In does (real estate, I know), but it would still be a good call for an off-hours winter session. Just maybe wait for the kids to get back to school.
While you complain on the internet, Roctakon is a humanitarian who supports Dominican skateboarders.
Rob Harris’ “Aussie Pressure” clip. The ending is brilliant.
