Somewhere, Somehow, Somebody Is Chilling

Fred & Paul • 📷 by Jersey Dave

The curved median ledge on Canal, just one block east of the Hudson River, has been one of those “why is this waxed?” mysteries for years. Everyone had always assumed BMXers or rollerbladers, and while that may have been the case for past years, Zak Anders (from RESPECTFULLY) lipslid it in his new “COW BOY” part, putting the first known skate footage of it to record. Appropriate that it would be across the street from what is still one of the most fucked New York clips that Brandon Westgate ever logged.

Peak-era Brian Brown was truly a magic talent on a skateboard. Joe Cups dropped an extended footy tape of his from 2004, a lot of which was in Vicious Cycle, but a lot of which wasn’t 😉 (The reigning S.O.T.Y. cited that part as one of his reasons for wanting to move out east…)

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‘A Canvas For the Psyche’ — The Politics of Griptape in Skateboarding

Intro + Interviews by Frozen in Carbonite
Illustrations by Requiem For A Screen

I’ll never forget the wildest grip job I ever saw.

At the local park, this dude had clear grip with a collage of pornographic photos underneath. This raised a few questions. First, where the hell does one still buy physical pornographic magazines?

Next, the why. Did this particular pastiche of photography stoke him out like nothing else? Were these women his muses, like a current-day version of those paintings on WWII bombers and shit?

Maybe he needed to look at naked ladies 24/7.

ANYWAY, you may have noticed a plethora of new griptape brands sprouting up in the past year. Griptape is the one skateboard component we are in contact with (visual and/or tactile) almost 100% of the time. Just like Narcissus stared into his reflection until he died or turned into a flower or whatever, we stare at our griptape until the deck eventually dies — either broken or devoid of pop. It also functions as a canvas onto which one can project one’s psyche: the serenity of plain black, an inside joke, or a call to arms.

Skaters reserve some of their most hardcore gear opinions for this seemingly innocuous piece of sandpaper. With all this in mind, we present the The Politics of Griptape.

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R.I.P. Fall ’19 — We Barley Knew You

Spread via @geometricskateshop on IG

Quartersnacks for Spitfire Wheels arrives in stores today. We will not be carrying this in our webstore, but have a lot of fab regs QS stuff in there if you’re trying to support. Any shop with a Deluxe account near you should be a safe bet though ♥ (And for anyone asking, yes there are both hard wheels and cruiser: hard wheel is Formula Four 53mm 99du, and soft wheel is 54mm 80du.)

“We did crime to fund it basically.” File this one under: Had no idea how much I would love this interview when I first started skimming it. You’re probably familiar with @muckmouth the Instagram page, you might be familiar with Muckmouth the website, but you probably aren’t familiar with Muckmouth the Auckland-based skate magazine. Free has an incredible interview with Muckmouth founder, Alex Dyer, about his journey through three generations of skateboard media that is full of stories to make you laugh and sit at the edge of your seat. “Where the fuck is Callum?”

Skating to one of the ten best songs ever recorded by humans is bold, but whatever, the world is gonna end soon anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Justin Grzechowiak’s part in the Buffalo, New York-based Remedy video is a good time.

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It’s 5 Hours Somewhere

Photo via Zach

Nice! So we made it two weeks without having to rally for a skate spot’s survival on a Monday Links post… This time, the spot is an ocean away, but in this media enterprise’s opinion, it’s the best spot in the world — even better than Tompkins when there are two boxes! Everyday Hybridity has the most current update on Prague’s Stalin Plaza being fenced off / condemned to renovation.

It’s all fun and games until Balenciaga actually does a renegade runway show at Blue Park next September.

A dear friend, “Zach from Crown Heights,” called into The Brian Lehrer Show’s episode about the “cost of climate resilience” to provide a T.F. anecdote to the ongoing battle with the East River Park renovation. The convo in question happens just after the 17-minute mark. Whole episode is worth listening to if you want some context as to how this whole issue came to be in the first place.

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Saved

2014. Photo by Emilio Cuilan.

Truly elated that we can begin a Monday Links round-up as we close out the summer without a link to a petition ♥ There’ll definitely be some formal news coverage of the day — which turned into a T.F. reunion rather than a rally — but caught this slideshow from Eric Cruz on IG earlier if you’re looking for pics. We should do a T.F. reunion the Saturday after every Labor Day every year, no? Like Bastille Day, but for Tompkins.

Tyshawn Jones is on i-D magazine’s cover this month, and they put their feature with him online.

The governor of New Jersey has been making the media rounds as of late. Fred Gall is the guest on honor on The Bunt‘s season finale.

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