Our dear friends up at Orchard in Boston just dropped their most fully realized project of the Ted Purtell era. Word was it was supposed to go live last week (would’ve made it quite a week to be dropping an east coast shop vid with the word “bone” in the title 🙃), but people were insisting on one-upping their premiere night enders. A good problem to have if you’ve ever sat shotgun to a filmer who’s sighed “the video’s done when ___ gets their ender” across multiple months ;)
With the world’s population of skateboarders rapidly approaching one billion, skate videos now, more than ever, are exercises in personnel management. Who gets their shine and for how long before we scroll to a “Pop The Balloon” video?
And skate shops — even moreso than the mega-teams housed under footwear giants — have to toe the line between the kids on team skating eight days a week, the O.G. who’s going for that last big score, the grom who you throw in to be encouraging, and the recovering maniac who’s been skating since the 80s that insists he’s gonna come out and get a clip before deadline. Before you know it, your video is four hours long.
Let’s get it going — a review of the year when it rained every single weekend in the summer.
Without further ado, here is the minutiae, the laughter, the tears, the triumphs and defeats that defined the year 2023 in New York skateboarding.
We went to this iconic chunk of New Jersey crust last summer, and somebody in the car was like, “I heard some Brazilian dude frontside flipped into this.” Didn’t doubt it, because, you know — Brazilian skaters — but wow. The footage dropped in Retta Skateshop’s Atemporal video that went live on Free last week. It’s in Rafael Gomes’ incredible closer part, which includes an ender at another famous nearby Jersey bank. *Prepares for somebody to say “Tony Macaroni from Lodi actually already frontside flipped into that in 1912.”*
Brianna Delaney has a new, all-Barcelona part out for Grand Collection and Converse. In a career full of incredible back tails, that ender still belongs in the hall of fame.
Our guy Rafael Pereira B.K.A. Haffa dropped a new part filmed on his travels throughout Latin America, with some impeccable switch heel form to close things out.
Dutchy by Ben Colen 📷
Pocket did a day in the life with the Rat Ratz crew out in Milan 🇮🇹
Here’s a 17-minute raw Max Palmer fan edit that somebody compiled, dating back to the days when the Delancey Curbs were a popping spot. If you want some additional Max entertainment, you might want to run back Johnny Wilson’s front nose compilation from 2019 :)
“Baked Beans” is an 18-minute New York scene video by Hannah Goodman. Spotted via Skate Jawn.
