Brandon Westgate | Quartersnacks

Still Gold — Brandon Westgate’s 2023 B-Sides

Daily News February 21st, 2023 · 2:52 pm · 7

In acknowledging Pretty Sweet‘s tenth birthday last fall, it was tough not to consider how it was one of the final videos before social media took over …everything. (Yeah, MySpace, Facebook, IG, et al. had all been around, but it had yet to feel like skateboarding revolved around them.)

Perhaps one of the final innovations of the old-world skate video ecosystem — before every innovation was steered towards increasing followers — was Emerica opting to release the raw files of their marquee project, part by part, for free six months after the video dropped. Emerica’s Stay Gold “B-Sides” are practically as well-remembered as the video itself (voted by QS readers as last decade’s second best), giving way to a 2010s phenomenon of fan-made remix videos and a recipe for getting twice as much mileage out of a video that a company could spend years working on — a formula still with us today.

Anyway, Element dropped Westgate’s raw clips from their E.S.P. Volume 2 video.

Seven Steps To Tompkins

Daily News July 25th, 2022 · 12:00 am · 5

Jenkem has an interview with Trung Nguyen, the architect behind last year’s most talked-about trick, and Big Parody.

“We are sad. People can say we are overreacting and that this spot will likely be liberated, but there is a gross feeling seeing the city prioritize something like this.” Village Psychic made a tribute to their local curb on the occasion of… the city knobbing a curb — appropriately titled, “Sadman Plaza.”

The QS office favorite Rios Crew out of Budapest just dropped a new video, entitled Uccsó. They’re as atmospheric and third-eye-open with the spots as ever, but it’s the filming that truly took on a new dimension in this one.

Westgate & The Youths — Tim Savage’s ‘Brian, Brandon & Will’ Video

Daily News July 7th, 2022 · 5:46 pm

Being a fan of skateboarding is not without its emotional volatility. Skaters show promise and disappear. People get injured and are never the same again. Some coast on good-will from a bygone era while fans plead for anything, even a quick crumb on the ‘Gram.

With all this uncertainty, it’s nice never having to worry about Brandon Westgate. Even after 15+ years of him doing Brandon Westgate shit — he still finds the time to log parts full of new and improved Brandon Westgate shit. This time around, the difference is that he is allowing his longstanding superpowers to supercharge on a younger generation of New Englanders. Just wait for the ender.

Tim Savage — whose Boston scene video, Grace, stands as one of last summer’s best — has a new one out that is effectively a big shared part between Brian Reid, Will Mazzari, and yes, Brandon Westgate. Rather than sticking to the Boston staples like Eggs and Financial District, the video casts a wide net throughout New England that is sure to inspire a few road trips this summer.

A Small History of New York’s Biggest Ollies

Features & Interviews March 11th, 2020 · 12:06 am · 11

Photo by Mike Heikkila. See how glorious non-Instagram resolution is? Didn’t even notice the guy peeking out of the bottom corner until seeing the full res on the Chocolate site.

Every day, we pull up to spots and begin rattling off their A.B.D. lists. The 2020 footage economy will even have you forgetting that Tiago switch back smithed the Columbus Park rail, and people in your Insta comments will yell at you about not including Sean’s back lip down Tekashi 10. (Didn’t have a digital copy of “BLESSED” on-hand, sheesh!)

Something that has only been ollied, however, is an entirely different topic. It is a conversation of how rather than what.

The Best Skate Video Parts of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Features & Interviews November 20th, 2019 · 12:00 am · 38

Illustration by Cosme Studio

Back in October, we asked QS visitors to choose their favorite video parts of the 2010s. If civilization and skateboarding were to end today, which five parts would you bury in a weather-and-nuclear-proof time capsule for post-apocalyptic earth dwellers to reference when they rediscover skate culture of these past ten years?

QS prides itself as being a destination for people who think a lot about skateboarding. Rather than poll a few close colleagues for their favorites, we felt we had a wide enough reverberation in the skate nerd universe to try and crowdsource a canon of the 2010s from anyone willing to sit down and think about it. I can emphatically say that in reviewing the mountain of ballots, everyone took their votes seriously — save maybe the guy who voted for five Micky Papa parts.

As we tallied the results, consistent trends in the count were apparent. Any fears about a recency bias went out the window; there’s only one part from 2019, and the average year of the top 25 is 2014. QS obviously has its own breed of skate nerd audience — this poll would look different if taken by Thrasher or Free — but I would bet that their lists wouldn’t be TOO far off from this one.

Presented without comment for the top 25-11, and then via a lot of favors from writer friends on the internet for the top 10: here are the 25 best video parts of the past ten years.