Brian Wenning | Quartersnacks

Goin’ Up

Daily News May 30th, 2017 · 5:00 am · 10

wenning hoboken ledges pic

“Everything about this spot was good..5 mins from Downtown NYC….a body of water to calm the mind of even the craziest of crazy human beings…Path Train…NJ Transit trains…Jugs of cheap Orange Juice…and one of my favorite ledges ive ever skated..it was our early morning meet up spot…” — Lackawanna ♥ via Wenning’s IG

Damn, who would’ve thought that the third trick to ever go down the Police Plaza sixteen would be on a surfboard, and discovered via Worldstar?

The Shady One™ put together a clip of a new Brooklyn D.I.Y. envisioned by Max “#MCM” Palmer, in conjunction with Nike’s 58 project. Features Cyrus, Conor, Sean Pablo, Logan Lara, etc. etc. and John Choi with the ender.

Ishod is better than the entire Birdhouse team (but you already knew that, as per Pryce Holmes’ suggestion of a new, all-encompassing award in skateboarding), and The Bunt’s latest episode is with Jake Phelps.

Been a heavy John Shanahan week between the D.C. “Arrival” video with all their new AMs, and LurkNYC’s corresponding “Mean Streets Volume J” video.

“Just as the Sabotage dudes unearthed, resurfaced and restored an entire scene that had been municipally buried and professionally abandoned, John Shanahan seems to harbour deeper ambitions.” Although the hyper #curated outfits probably draw the most attention, gonna have to echo some of Boil the Ocean’s sentiments here. The dude puts more effort into skating long-forgotten spots that people otherwise push past every weekend than anyone else out there right now, and has one of the most sophisticated eyes out for loose tiles and grates.

Boil the Ocean also weighs in on the most recent batch of X-Games “Real Street” segments, while contemplating whether or not somebody will ever look as cool as Lavar McBride when he nollie backside flipped the stairs at Hubba Hideout.

Josh Stewart posted a bunch of raw footage from the days when Barcelona was first becoming the eminent skateboard Mecca, featuring unlikely visitors Puleo and Ricky.

It’s become an increasingly antiquated practice outside of those who were grandfathered into being able to get away with it, but Village Psychic revisits the 2000s phenomenon of the Baker landing.

Did you really do a summer trip to New York if someone in your squad didn’t get bodied at Pyramid Ledges?

Harold Hunter Day is now Harold Hunter weekend. Features a couple chill Tyshawn clips at the Fat Kid Park. And of course Slicky Boy got a free pair of shoes.

The good news is that Quan promised to never let us down again. The bad news is that he’s being cryptic about the release of ten songs he has with Future :(

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thunder in 12.

Quote of the Week
Kevin Tierney: “I hate going out drinking with a board because I’m afraid I might lose it.”
Colin Sussingham: “Yeah, there’s no way you could get another one, right?”

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Thunder in Eight

Daily News April 24th, 2017 · 5:07 am · 10

scrapbook

Via Requiem for A Screen, duh ♥

Phew, The Bunt is back. Season four, episode one with Elijah Berle.

Really heavy new edition of LurkNYC’s “Mean Streets” series went live this past weekend. The 5050 at Chase, Howard Street ollie and Columbia ollie were all insane. Is that Water Street ender an NBD? Wow.

Jason Byoun is like an O.G. nu-age Brooklyn Banks head.

This past weekend, Brian Wenning did his first switch back nosegrind pop-out since Photosynthesis, and it looked fab. Sorry to link two single tricks two links in a row :)

There’s an official trailer out for Pat O’Dell’s feature documentary about Big Brother.

Is a “VX Montage” in an HD video like when they throw a random experimental song in the middle of a rap album? And holy shit, that 360 flip…

A couple more parts from Ricardo Napoli’s Making It Happen video are up over on TWS: A non-VX montage featuring Akira and a bunch of dudes, Taylor Clark + Jarrod Brandreth’s shared part, and Bruno Aguero + Lindolfo Oliveira’s shared part. Also, Transworld, please do something about your video player. Tried to rewind a trick and had to watch a Pennzoil commercial mid-video…

Ripped Laces on the recent resurgence of yellow gear in skateboarding.

“Alas, as ledge skating gained supremacy and skateable blocks began trading at a premium due to police pressure and general scarcity, peg damage and huffy attitudes came to divide the camps, such that by the time the handrail age set in, extreme bike riders became punchlines.” Dunno about the “punchline” part, as we’ve linked a BMX video or two on here before and like ummm, ROB CAMPBELL, but Boil the Ocean considers the relationship between bikes and skateboards, circa 2017. We Citibiked up to Lenox from Soho yesterday, and it was pretty beast ;)

An extensive interview with Ian from Jenkem.

Luis Tolentino was actually Spiderman all along.

Spot Updates — 1) Defeated lol on them re-paving every part of this spot except where we needed them to re-pave. At least Avenue A getting re-paved is the biggest thing to happen to New York skateboarding since children discovered Indoor Ten. 2) Spot was a two second bust and for pros, but those rails parallel to the narrow banks on 33rd Street are mad high now. 21. 21. 21.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: So, Thunder in 8, right?! With the Russ adoration running high on here this past season, let’s take a second to remind ourselves of J.R. Smith’s brilliance — sorry, meant NBA Champion™ J.R. Smith’s brilliance. [Also remembered how annoying it is that we now have to wait until the end of June to find out who MVP, 6MOTY, etc. is now.]

Quote of the Week: “Harden is like the guy at the spot who knows how to land all tricks, but he’s wearing fat Globes and skinny pants.” — Francesco Pini

A Godfather of Six-Figure Ledge Skating [#TBT]

Time Capsule March 17th, 2016 · 12:55 pm · 6

So I often ask the subjects of these interviews who they consider to be the most underrated skater of the 1990s and your name has come up more than a few times. Do you think there were aspects of your career that went underappreciated or didn’t get their proper due?

Do I feel like I didn’t get enough shine? No. I don’t feel that way at all. To hear that people think that is awesome but I don’t feel that I’m owed anything or that something should’ve have gotten more praise than it did. At the end of the day, I don’t know what I could’ve done more than what I did. But that’s cool to hear. — The Chrome Ball Incident / November 2, 2012

Nobody was as much of a precursor to today’s brand of highbrow ledge tricks as Jerry Fowler. Look no further than onetime six-figure ledge skater, Brian Wenning, admitting last week that the origin of the backside nosegrind pop-out craze (which very much still resonates in today’s fickle beanplanted times) leads back to a jack-move pulled on Jerry’s west coast-bred, east coast-honed bag of tricks.

Everyone knows that the “this could come out today and still hold up”-hyperbole is wishful thinking 95% of the time. Wenning says it about Photosynthesis in the aforementioned interview, but we have gotten lightyears past the new AM being able to end off his first part with a switch 360 flip down nine. Although his 411 section gets the most burn on the social media circuit, watch Jerry Fowler’s DNA Continuum part. You’ll see the half cab nosegrind revert fishhooks that Puig does, the frontside 180 no comply fakie 5-0s that Aaron Herrington does, and the backside shove-its into backside grinds that Hjalte does — a decade-plus before said tricks would come to occupy the minds of today’s most #trickselection savvy skateboarders.

Six-Figure Ledge Skating: The “Hundred Dollar Autograph” of the Skateboard World ;)

Forgot to Set the Clock Back…

Daily News March 14th, 2016 · 4:53 pm · 3

lotties

Late start today :(

Longtime QS-affiliate and the only person to ever hardflip a double-set in a Quartersnacks video, Michael Gigliotti, opened up a skate shop in West Hollywood called Lottie’s Skateshop. 144 S. Flores Street Los Angeles, CA 90048. Follow them on IG via @lottiesskateshop. Only shop in L.A. that carries Palace innit ;)

The #tfreport heard around the world: The day Tompkins had a Cali table, in summary.

I love how Bobshirt interviews do away with any temptation to prod at controversy or shittalking. The new 20-minute one with Wenning, where he reveals leaving Habitat to be one of the biggest mistakes of his life, is as earnest of an interview as you could ever get with a pro from that era. He also volunteers some um, interesting information about the governor of New Jersey and his vices of choice.

“This is true no matter how much the skateplaza resembles a real plaza – it’s the community that makes a park important, not the design” — Christian Kerr has a rad essay on the present and future of skateboarding in public spaces over on Jenkem, which includes some good quotes from Ocean Howell. ANYWAY, who has a trip planned to Denmark this summer?

Europe’s Most Productive Crew™ — “Whimsical Seasons” from Hungary’s Rios Crew.

SMLTalk with an abbreviated history of camera beams.

In the spirit of this shitshow of an election year, Boil the Ocean offers both liberal and conservative readings of the knife-wielding intro from Strobeck’s latest.

Quick B-roll (“B” for based) montage with the Bronze dudes from Connor Peterson.

An interview with Lucas Puig about his D.I.Y. spot, Dalavas.

Hjalte & bros with a pre Polar premiere session at the Nike Garage.

Stresscase, a VHS-tinged LurkNYC San Francisco video.

Best mob flip, 2k16.

A California-heavy Diamond Days #87.

Updated the spots page for the first time in maybe half-a-decade. Not much by way of new locations (e.g. if you wanted to know where that curb from all the iPhone videos is, now you know…), and nothing will be a surprise to anyone who lives here. Mostly cleaned up some dead locations, updated photos (some pics were over ten years old), and added a Google Maps guide along with the text links that includes parks and shops. If you’re from Europe and planning a trip here this summer, you’re welcome — you now owe anyone you see in a QS shirt a beer. If you run some shitty spotfinder app, don’t steal everything like you bums usually do.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: This is what Knicks fans have left to cling to ;)

Quote of the Week:

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Summer in December

Daily News December 14th, 2015 · 7:30 am · 1

new beanies

Unless you’re Ronnie Creager, you probably have had zero use for a beanie this past week, but that winter wind could be arriving at any moment…We have some new beanies and a very *light* re-stock of some fall goods live in the webstore right now (once they’re gone, they’re gone…or you can check your local shop.) In honor of that 68-degree mid-December weekend, type in promo code summerindecember when you’re checking out for 25% off your order. Good until midnight ;)

“When you got slappies but you can’t get a text back.” [lol]

“One of the best kept secrets about [skateboarding] is that most falls don’t hurt.” Short one in The New York Times about the virtues of falling.

These dudes really were the coolest ever. An always welcome Tennyson Corporation remix of the extras from Las Nueve Vidas de Paco. “I’d rather watch Carroll…”

Good to see things percolating at the Trinity spot in Providence :)

Can you believe it has been three-and-a-half years since Pluto came out? Mark Humienik cruiser night lines + a pre break-up Nayvadius Wilburn.

Quick clip filmed exclusively at one of the ten worst ledges in New York City.

On that same note, “the only skatepark so bad that it’s basically a street spot” — Max Hull found John Choi (!) and cult hero, Paul Tucci at the McCarren Skatepark.

12th & A still pops off.

Teen angst: three minutes of unseen Aidan Mackey footage. Stop discriminating y’all.

Some low res scans of Mehring’s “Summer in New York” feature in the new Monster Children. Features Cyrus, Sage, Ben K, etc.

30 seconds of new Wade D. footage > no seconds of new Wade D. footage.

Some interviews with #makers: 1) Skateboard Story interviewed Tombo about the road to 5BNY (Jordan’s part omg is omg #omg fyi) and he made a 2001-2011 retrospective clip to go along with it. 2) Village Psychic intevriewed Zach Moore about his new video, Transplants. 3) SMLTalk interviewed…Village Psychic. 4) Keen Distribution interviewed Josh Stewart about post-partum, post-Static life.

Free has a remix vid of top three most influential New Jerseyian of the 2000s.

Well, this is certainly a serene place to ride a skateboard…

QS Sports Desk: Did you hear that every time the Milwaukee Bucks snap a twelve-or-more game win streak, that team goes on to win the title? #lol

Quote of the Week: “I dress like a more refined version of myself as a seventeen-year-old pot dealer.” — Dylgr

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Grab a copy of TF @ 1: Ten Years of Quartersnacks for the lurker in your life this holiday season :) ♥♥♥