Linkchasers 3

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Karl Watson — Switch 360 flip at Burritoville in 1994. Photo via Ryan Gee.

If you’re in Australia, you can buy QS gear with free shipping here.

Ryan Gee joins the ranks of Lucas Puig as one of two Instagram users producing watch-worthy IG videos. He’s been posting long lens B-roll angles of various notable tricks from the early 2000s, e.g. Brian Wenning’s switch back tail big spin, Stevie’s hardflip front nose, and Kalis’ Rockaway line. There are also some motion sequences on there too, e.g. Kalis’ fakie 5-0 over the three at Love or Kerry Getz at City Hall.

Sigh.

Rob Campbell: Renaissance Man.

You might remember an incredible natural-looking quarterpipe spot from the Busenitz “Euro Lines” video. Well, it’s quite obviously a skate plaza, albeit an insane one, based on this Austrian DC video. As Americans, how crazy is it that a city would allot such a prime swath of public space for the sole use of skateboarders?

Zered Bassett has a “Day in the Life”-type video with some cruiser footage and a photo feature over on the Dew Tour site. Who wants to go half on a Code Red?

Vice has an awesome biographical portrait piece on Brian Anderson, which covers a lot of his life since moving to New York. (There’s skating towards the end.)

Hey, you know that thing about skateboarding’s favorite jazz song? Yeah, it retained its title with the new Krooked circle board clip.

The Accidental Playground is a new book about unsanctioned use of the Williamsburg waterfront in the early 2000s, before it was redeveloped. Just ordered it off Amazon, so there’s no telling how much of its 300+ pages are dedicated to skateboarding, but given that there’s a skate photo on the cover, you’d think it’d be a big chunk.

Eighteen classic video parts are being screened alongside a live classical piano rendition of their respective songs.

Though a photograph of a skater holding a book does not verify literacy, the stories about managing skaters in a retail environment are priceless.

In light of the recent demise of Skateboarder, former staff writer, Mackenzie Eisenhour, scanned a 2002 interview with Steve Rocco, which was conducted five years before The Man Who Souled the World was even released.

If you’re good at skateboarding and like bumps to rails, it might affect you in knowing that the handicap rail on Bowery and 5th Street is gone. They cut the flat part out.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Derrick Rose is still faster than everyone.

Quote of the Week: “I learned more from Andre Page than I did from college.” — Will Carpio

What’s better: Dreamchasers 3 or the new Cam’ron tape?

Tompkins Jam with B.A. & Friends on Thursday, 08/22

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Opting against the traditional skatepark route, Nike SB will utilize the greatest non-spot in skateboard history for its Brian Anderson shoe launch event on Thursday. Not since the enterprising days of the early-2000s has an actual skate company chose our beloved T.F. as the site of a major skate event (shout out to Leo Gutman #2003gameofskate.) There will be boxes, rails, a launch or two, and perhaps even a quarterpipe, an obstacle completely unfamiliar to Tompkins Square Park patrons in the modern T.F. era. Please note that this marks the first time more than two non-trash can obstacles will simultaneously occupy space at Tompkins since its heyday, so the significance of this event cannot be overstated.

Anyway, come celebrate the launch of the new Project B.A. shoe with Brian Anderson, Unlocking the Truth, and friends (and probably the Dunions) at Tompkins Square Park this Thursday, August 22nd, from 12 P.M. to 4 P.M. Food and refreshments will be provided for all those who cannot otherwise afford them.

The August Slump

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Photo by Emilio Cuilan

August is always slow. Having three Monday Links posts on the front page isn’t really a good look though, so hopefully stuff starts happening soon :(

Seattle is taking a step in the right direction with regard to more progressive thought than “skaters = skateparks.” Except the thought is a bit better than the execution, because the “skateable sculpture” they built looks absurd and not a good way (it’s designed by a snowboarder…and Torey Pudwill.) Unsurprisingly, even when not making full-fledged skate plazas, the Germans are ahead of the curve with the whole multi-functional skateable sculpture thing.

Skate Spot Porn: Architizer rounds up some works of modernist architecture that happen to be unintentionally perfect for skateboarding.

Get weird with the Juicy Elbows “Summer Trip to New York” montage. Here’s last year’s edition in case you missed it. And if you didn’t know by now, there’s a Venice curb and flat bar at the Fat Kid Spot now.

Watch Raffie Gordon’s part and Karim Callender and Alejandro Batista’s shared part from Belief Skate Shop’s Ever Upward video. Anyone who does a trick at the two-second bust plaza outside of the F train on 42nd Street deserves a pat on the back.

Skaters aren’t the only ones obssessed with the VHS format. Is it safe to say that unlike straight-to-VHS B-movies from the eighties, most skate videos initially released on VHS that are worth saving have already been preserved on new mediums?

Speaking of formats, here is this week’s edition in our search for the new VX1000.

J Kwon / Radio Korea is singlehandedly bringing a nineties plaza vibe back to L.A. skating, a la the USC, Santa Monica Courthouse, or L.A. County days.

This Carlos Iqui guy is keeping the switch push alive.

Brian Anderson skates the B.Q.E. spot and talks about his new shoe, which has been getting some heavy praise from the older, “I only skate in one shoe”-stickler crowd.

A new old NJ Scum clip.

Someone (not Ian Reid) uploaded Ian Reid’s Video to YouTube.

R.I.P. to the Instagram sensation Bushwick Bump.

*BONUS* QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The NBA season is two-and-a-half months away, so here’s White Chocolate with a bounce pass to alley oop in a Taiwanese exhibition game from this summer. FYI: Derrick Rose returns in a season opener against the Heat, and the Knicks’ second game is in Chicago. Also, the Knicks play the Thunder at MSG on Christmas (their last meeting was a good time.)

Quote of the Week: “I hate hearing people drive by blasting that ‘Ain’t Worried About Nothing’ song when I’m worrying about landing a trick.” — Lurker Lou

Our statistics reveal that the past six months have coincided with a 30% rise in traffic from Brooklyn visitors. Does this mean we need to reformat, relocate and cut back on the Lovely Day jokes?

The 360 Flip’s Less Attractive Sister: A Study of the 10 Greatest Varial Flips in Skate Video History

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The varial flip occupies a strange space in skateboarding. It’s pigeonholed as a little kid trick — a midway point between the kickflip and 360 flip, and sometimes even the first flip trick learned by a kid who found the shove-it motion easier to land on than a straight up kickflip. Beyond that, it has a far better looking, more shapely and marketable sister trick: The varial flip is the Khloe to the 360 flip’s Kim and Kourtney.

Even when you run an image search for “varial flip” (every result is hideous), Google is right there with “360 flip” as the sole related search. Except when you Google “360 flip,” the term “varial flip” ceases to be relatable. No need to backtrack.

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As observers of professional skateboarding, an eternal question burns in our minds every time a pro does a varial flip: “Why wouldn’t he just do a 360 flip?” Whether you agree or not, 360 flips infallibly share the “you can never have enough of them” category with ollies, kickflips, backside tailslides, or anything else you’ve seen Keith Hufnagel do several times in each his Real parts, while the varial flip remains a lumpy oddity that sets alarms off for critics of trick selection. No company would dare introduce a new rider with a varial flip ad, and Skechers certainly had no intention of calling Khloe for their Super Bowl commercial if Kim was unavailable.

Surely the most standard of 360 flips is superior to the greatest varial flip — if such a thing were to exist. Is there even such thing as a “great” varial flip? We set out to find an answer to this question. Here are the ten instances in which the Khloe Kardashian of flip tricks looked jussst right, by ten of skateboarding’s Lamar Odoms.

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An Interview With Brian Anderson

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All photos by Ben Colen

B.A. already had an Epicly Later’d series, so we set aside history and spoke with him about more recent happenings — namely moving to New York, filming for Pretty Sweet, bonelesses into grinds, and his next full part.

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When did you move to New York and what brought you here?

I moved to New York in October 2011. I was in San Francisco on and off for 11 or 12 years. I love it with Thrasher, Deluxe and all my friends there. But I grew up three hours from New York in Groton, Connecticut and a lot of my family still lives there. My sisters’ kids are growing up, so I wanted to be around. It’s also cool being back and having some seasons. San Francisco is beautiful, but it’s a hoody every day, all year around. In New York, you get the nice hot summer and the cold winter, and I love that.

You mentioned in an older interview that you were trying to get more into design work. Was that part of the move back east at all? Is that something you’re trying to pursue more or are you still fully focused on skating?

It’s a bit of both. I’ve been fortunate to have a few projects since I’ve been here. One, for example, is Four Star contacted Moleskine and I went over to their offices in Manhattan, brought some art and we figured out a way to lay some stuff out. For the past year, I’ve been flying to Portland quite a bit and Nike has been showing me the ins and outs of footwear design. I’ve been focussing on making a sneaker which is going to be released in the fall, so I’ve been trying to plan for all of that.

I’m still trying to skateboard. I got to skateboard a lot in the fall with William Strobeck. I skate for CCS, but I’d like to have some stuff in the Supreme video he’s putting together. I’ve been doing a little of everything: sketches, trying to keep my legs warm with skateboarding, and designing the sneaker.

Are you focusing on any video projects aside from the Supreme video?

I might give a few more things to Bill for the Supreme video. I really want to have some stuff in the Trunk Boyz video, but the next big thing is the Nike SB Chronicles 3 video, which is about two-and-a-half years from now. They’re working on the second one now. I’m getting older — not old — I’m just stoked to have a project to work on. I want to stay pro for another four or five years, so I’m psyched to be in it.

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