Was under the impression that Beta Blockers would be A Small Palace Video — maybe because it’s August and the skate media mental calendar often saves the year’s blockbuster releases for the holidays — but no, Beta Blockers is A Big Palace Video spanning the whole team, and at a Palasonic-equivalent runtime. In August! What a world.
Lord Conor Prunty Esq. • 📷 Photo by Jared Sherbert
“Fixed the spot, made it doable, and then did it.” The Warm-Up Zone (the proto-4Ply) still clocks into the office once a year for a Fred Gall recap. It may be March, and well past our cut-off for end-of-the-year wrap-up content, but it is, after all… Fred: the 2022 Freddy Year in Review.
Nico Marti, Trung Ngyen, Alan Bell, Zak Anders + pretty much the whole RESPECTFULLY squad spent some time in L.A. and came back with a 14-minute winter getaway edit.
Sorry, sometimes the headline is too obvious to resist 💋
WOW2G is a new 22-minute video by Eighty Twenty, Hell World, and the Travel Skateshop family. Half-New York, half-Jersey spots. Aron Moloney (first full part) and Derek Thor (second-to-last part) both crush it. The pinches on those switch front crooked grinds!
Also a decent dose of Jersey City footy in Neema Joorabchi’s new B-roll montage.
If you haven’t seen Fred Gall’s “Out There” on Thrasher, it fucking rules. Make yourself a nice sandwich and throw on his Bobshirt interview from 2018 afterwards.
Jahmal Williams is still cooler than your favorite skater.
Jake Johnson and Pontus skate some polejams for Jake’s welcome to Cons segment.
“Here’s some footage of Antoine I poached during my lunch breaks at Quiznos®.”
Sidewalk has a really good interview with Mike Carroll about 20 years of Girl/Choc.
The oral history of EMB is a solid companion piece to your copy of the FTC book.
Lurk NYC’s “New York Times” B-roll series is back on with Volume 9.
Cross legged kickflip landings, no comply 360s when your foot doesn’t touch the ground, and other tricks on Flo Mirtain’s oddball tricks list. He forgot Kenny Andrson’s cab powerslide down the hill in Pretty Sweet.
ICYMI: 1) The Benny Fairfax and Chewy Cannon Palace + Adidas part is perfect. Nosegrind, front crook, nosegrind 180 is the line of the year. Grey also has a quick interview with Benny about the part. 2) Episode two of the Chocolate Epicly Later’d gives the most detailed account of what happened with Keenan Milton to date. Pretty rough episode. 3) What. The. Fuck. The rollaway sounds like a plane taking off.
“I ended that interview by asking if you thought it was a good interview and if you were going to kill yourself when you read it. Your response was ‘I hope not.’ I was worried about you all weekend and Monday, when I got back to the office, I called you to ask about some photo or something, but it was really just a call to make sure you were alive and OK. It was, without a doubt, the heaviest interview I’ve ever done.” Nieratko interviews 2005 Eric Koston Game of S.K.A.T.E winner turned children’s book writer, Jim Bates, about battling his depression in a heavy-but-important read.
An interview with Ian from Jenkem about running a D.I.Y. online publication.
What would rappers be doing right now if Tony Montana got into skateboarding instead of selling cocaine?
Way more interesting that expected: How “blue collar” vert skaters sometimes make a living with Paul Zitzer on the Mostly Skateboarding Podcast. Been a big year for shifting away from the vert button.
Quick iPhone clip from the Heights’ Mira Conyo crew.
We made it! This is cool and all, but please nobody else buy any QS hats for $70 :( We will have them available again in the springtime, including some in new colorways. You’ll be wearing beanies up until that point anyway, which will be available later this month, along with hoodys and longsleeves. Tees still available.
The QS Rap Desk’s favorite artist, four years and running.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Gallo and Faried are back.
Quote of the Week
Dylgr: “We should drive there.”
Observant Gentleman: “It’s like a ten-minute walk and parking will be a nightmare.”
Dylgr: “Yeah, but we can listen to the Rich Gang mixtape.”
It’s just great to have RiRi back on the ‘gram again :)
Perhaps the only point in Alex Olson’s recent interview that did not polarize skateboarding’s sea of opinion, was his belief that nobody cares how hard tricks are anymore. We’ve all said “he’s good, but who cares” or written someone off as “a robot” before, so what do professional skateboarders have left to aspire to?
The line has long been the backbone of street skating. Skateboarder even published a print #listicle in the mid-2000s showcasing the best lines of all time. Appropriately enough, the latest entry belonged to P.J. Ladd, because his debut part was when progression really took off, and the “Everyone is Good” movement began to accelerate our numbness to incredible skateboarding.
“But what about style?” Sure, Ray Barbee looked amazing when only doing slappies and no complys, in a way that legions of art students have failed to replicate. Even Carroll’s library line — quite possibly the best thing ever done on a skateboard — wouldn’t be the same if it was performed by some midwesterner visiting San Francisco. Style plays a role, but remember when people would say things like “He’s so smooth?” None of that matters when everyone in a major skate video is “smooth.” Stylistic hallmarks have become less palpable because everyone skates and everyone is good. Everything was the same #drakevoice :(
A wise man once said “I don’t care how ‘good’ a video part is, all I care about is how cool it makes the skater look.” This list features the most timeless lines that were made so by the skater’s ability to make himself look cool, and not just “good.” They will stand out a decade down the line, even when each trick in a Micky Papa part is a go-to for fifty Stoner Park locals.
In a word, these lines are chill.
