The Best Skateboard Videos of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio

This was the decade that the full-length skate video was supposed to die. We began the 2010s with everyone insisting that Stay Gold would be the last full-length skate video. Then, Pretty Sweet was supposed to be the last full-length video. Some people thought that Static IV would be it — the end, no more full-lengths after that. But I feel like I heard someone say Josh was working on something new a couple months back? Idk.

The experience might’ve changed. We’re not huddling around a skate house’s TV covered in stickers to watch a DVD bought from a shop anymore (if this past weekend is any indication, it’s more like AirPlaying a leaked .mp4 file via a link obtained from a guy who knows a guy), but the experience of viewing a fully realized skate video with your friends for the first, second or twentieth time is still sacred.

Just as we asked for your votes for the five best video parts, we did the same for the five best full-lengths: if you could choose the five videos that defined the 2010s, what would they be? The results were a bit more surprising than the parts tally in some ways, given that it felt like independent, regional and newer, small brand videos dominated the decade, yet Big Shoe Brands™ and Girl + Chocolate still made their way into the list. The top-heaviness of some companies or collectives was less of a surprise, in that certain creators loomed large over the 2010s.

Like the installment before it, this list is sans comment for 20-11, and then via favors from writer friends for the top ten: here are the twenty best skate videos of the past ten years.

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Kicked Out the Tiki Bar

moe

Webstore orders from last week were caught up on by Friday afternoon. If you’re in the U.S. and don’t receive your goods by the end of this week, feel free to get in touch for tracking info. Hats are sold out, hoodys are still available :) Thank you everyone for the support.

Shout out to all the free thinkers who are thinking outside the box.

“The stories I wrote were shit, it turned out. I hate to spoil the ending, but it’s true: skateboarding really is super fucking difficult to write about. How am I supposed to fix that?” — “Skateboarding in Fiction: A Brief History in Failure,” a smile-inducing article on the daunting task of writing fiction about the act of skateboarding.

“‘People always call me an asshole,’ he said over the dull roar of our wheels as I caught up to him. ‘That’s because I don’t stop.’ As if to punctuate his point, he ran the next red light. I watched from the limit line as a truck driver slammed on the brakes.”

There are a handful of Bloby Instagram compilations out there, but this new one of Vincent Touzery is the best Bloby IG comp out there #skatevideohouse.

An interview with Brian Panebianco about the final days of Love. They’re still skating.

Andrew Wilson, Loose Trucks Max, Nik Stain, and Mitch from Philly all went out to Los Angeles and came back with an extended edition of Cell Jawn.

Volume 15 of LurkNYC “New York Times” B-sides. VHS cam + some midtown spots that are seldom skated in our modern era give this one some extra nostalgic vibes.

Here’s an artsy New York edit from Antosh and the Club Gear dudes who came through with one of the better “Summer Trip To…” clips in recent memory last fall.

A new mostly Rhode Island / some New York video from the Mood NYC crew: booM.

An interview / podcast with Roxanne Oldham, the music supervisor on “cherry.”

Before Slap was the behemoth of skate gossip that it is today, it was…a magazine?

Three straight ledges in a row from the nineties, and not only talking about them but also remaking them fifteen years later. Meanwhile, there aren’t two consecutive ledges within a two-mile radius of the QS office…

Aaannnddd here’s a five-year-old skating Chelsea Park.

QS Sports Desk: During some very bleak years — actually, they’re all pretty bleak — David Lee provided Knick fans with a flicker of hope. He’ll always hold a special place in our hearts, just like Kristaps will once Dolan decides to trade him in hopes of signing Paul George in three years or some shit. Glad to see the bro finally get his ring.

Quote of the Week: “I didn’t know I was beast until I varial flipped a trash can.” — Genesis Evans

I listen through this a dozen times once it starts getting warm every spring.

2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 5-1

5-chineseseaport

Final post of the year. Previously: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 2014 in T.F. Obstacles.

Happy New Year. Be safe tonight if you’re inclined to go outside.

5. The Burning Question of 2014: “Is Chinese Seaport #Legit?”

It is bad enough that our culture has been diminished to an abyss of spots-that-aren’t-really-spots and Houston Street construction scraps. New York-based skateboarders have now found themselves overthinking miracles like the resurrection of Seaport.

“Does it look too much like a skatepark?”
“Will my footage here still look #core between the traffic barriers and late-night wallrides in my ‘Summer Trip to New York’-part?”
“Am I lame for thinking a metal ledge needs wax?”
“Will my friends back home say I sold out for not skating Reggaeton Ledges instead?”
“If there was some #urban graffiti on the ledge, would it be more #legit?”

Do you think the dudes at Para-lel, who attained ungodly manual and ledge abilities over the years, ever stopped to question as to whether or not their spot was *too* good? Americans, man.

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2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 10-6

supreme dollar slice

Line around the corner.

Moving on… 25-21 here, 20-16 here, and 15-11 here.

10. The Dollar Slice Hints at an Eventual Extinction, Mass Starvation to Follow

Any New York-based news outlet spends at least eighty-percent of its content discussing how expensive it is to live here. We are no better, even if we have checking accounts to brave through higher prices for shitty pizza.

Since the dollar slice boom of 2010, this bare-bones food option has become an emblem for #poor skateboarders. It has been steadfast in its immunity to inflation, unlike every other pizza place that has raised its per-slice cost by 25 cents every year or two. That is, until 2014, when we began to see the unthinkable: dollar slice outlets charging TAX on a once tax-inclusive product, and promotions like a “Supreme Dollar Slice,” for $1.50. This hints at a future not unlike Interstellar, where [underemployed] skateboarders run out of available food and have to pack up and move to…Philly? :(

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100 Euros on Dumplings & Champagne

ipod white

“Once upon a time I used to grind all night, with that residue that was iPod white.” Happy belated Thug Motivation 101 Day to everyone. Let’s get it.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved with this: Skateboarding at the Santa Monica Courthouse is now legal. A colossal step forward with how skateboarding is treated in America altogether. Small Banks restoration next? :)

Despite having literally no interest in the Life Extension video whatsoever, the running commentary at SMLTalk piqued the Quartersnacks Office’s interest. (Susan Sarandon is still sorta hot for 60+ btw.) And good thing it did. Pat Pasquale AKA Sinner’s part is INCREDIBLE. We’re talking Josh Kasper in The Storm meets Guy in Mouse meets 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Total Recall. It’s amazing.

Well that was quick: new Supreme mini video with all the “cherry” kids on the way. Sean Pablo also discusses it briefly in his new Vice interview.

The Skate Jawn four-year anniversary clip is a good time.

Speaking of good times, we have a frontrunner for 2014’s “feel good” part of the year. Cult favorite of apparently Kenny Anderson and anyone who grew up on Baker videos, Scott Kane stepped away from handrails and filmed a really fun comeback part.

Four-minute slideshow of the Palace crew in L.A. over on the TWS site.

Bill Strobeck posted up some Jake Johnson alternate angles / regular motion versions of tricks from the Mind Field days on his Instagram.

Now that the Beef Patty dudes are attending venues with bottle service, Video Blogs have occasionally morphed into HD “Instagram Direct” videos. Here’s the latest.

Boil the Ocean sorta talks about remaining pockets of shock value in skating.

Frontside 5050 back 180 out the ledge over ten at Grant’s Tomb and other good stuff in this dude John Shanahan’s part. That cellar door bank between the Citibike racks by EJ’s house is also way sketchier than footage could ever do it justice.

New clip from the Juicy Elbows crew. (#Trendwatch: “Sexual Healing” covers.)

Grinding curbs is not that extreme compared to rails.”

Quote of the Week: “If you fuck up on building a skatepark, you suck for life. I don’t care if you win a Golden Globe afterwards.” — Francesco, C.E.O. of Quartersnacks’ Scandinavian Branch

From the trunk of the rental to the Greyhound bus