Skateboard videos are fairytales: a solitary skater or chosen crew plus filmer, showcasing the fruits of their labor within a rotation of backdrops. If a pedestrian, security guard or lurker is particularly memorable, they’re sometimes allowed inside of the tale for an interlude. But otherwise, every skate video is its own bubble, cordoned off from any factors that might impede the illusion that skateboarding is the only thing that exists.
Just make the next one Tyshawn Jones Pro Skater. Photo via Atiba.
“I just saw myself as a homie who was helping another homie. That was not something that ever crossed my mind like, ‘Am I good at this?’ Both of us are happy in that moment.” Jenkem has an amazing interview with Briana King about her meet-ups for girls and LGBTQ youth learning to skateboard.
“I think you really got to listen to your feeling. Don’t go for the show. Go for your heart.” Lucas Puig on relationships, wood, plants, oceans and not having his johnson fall out when he’s skating in shorts — also for Jenkem, also inspiring. Maybe it’s time we start working on a sequel to the “Poolside” remix…
Photo by Marcel Veldman
It has been really rad seeing so many skaters from different crews and generations out at the protests, so Jenkem put together a helpful guide on how to safely attend one. And a lot of people have been asking about where to go for info on meeting points: follow @justiceforgeorgenyc on Instagram, as they have a round-up of all protests and related events available the night before. Special shout to all the skate family out there distributing supply packs, you know who you are ♥
The Black List is a continually updated list of active black-owned skateboard companies, and links on how to support each one, curated by Patrick Kigongo (ColonelKSpeaks for all the Twitter people.) The Mostly Skateboarding dudes got Kigongo on their podcast this week, and Anthony Pappalardo the Writer also got some words from him on the origins of the project.
The skateparks are closed, there are barely any people on the streets, Black Business just celebrated its first birthday, and today, Naquan Rollings uploaded a new edit, “Pre-Roll.”
Between its beginning in L.A. at the time of Kobe’s death, and a second half in New York as quarantine was beginning to take hold — there’s something particular in the way this video manages to discreetly capture the this surreal clusterfuck of a year (or third-of-a-year, fuck.) Videos with these dudes always have this special feel because you see a crew in the background doing crowd control on the rollaways, but now the sidewalks here are just …empty.
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.
