The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2023 — QS Readers Poll Results

🎨 Illustration by Cosme Studio
📊 Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine

The results are in: a time-capsule of 2023 skateboarding, as voted by QS readers. Some old favorites have returned to the rankings, and some new ones have emerged.

And yes, it should be stated, perhaps louder than in other years, that year-end rankings are an imperfect artform. Miles Silvas’ “City To City” part that would eventually land him Thrasher‘s S.O.T.Y. trophy premiered a few hours before voting for the QS Readers Poll closed (that didn’t stop him from getting some votes in those final moments though.) Yuto dropped his April part three days after voting closed. But we are committed to the belief that nobody wants to talk about 2023 after Christmas. And for a year when it felt like Skateboard Oscars Season™ began in August, we had to make the call. All those parts that missed the cutoff will be eligible for next year’s voting, same as years past.

If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 4th to December 8th. If you’re interested in the methodology, 4PLY broke down how we tally the votes

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Some Dump on Seigel Street

Kevin Rodrigues by Alex Pires • 2016

Another Tompkins Construction Date Change: The park is now being closed off for renovations and re-asphalting on Monday, October 2nd, exactly one week from today. (And the deli across the street isn’t even a deli anymore, as of a few days ago: they got rid of the entire counter for a mini smoke shop. No more sandwiches, grill or smoothies. End of an era.)

“Mainstream skateboarding finally caught on to the fact that when you’re driving to the spot, you’re passing all this other stuff that’s so much more interesting. Stuff people can skate more creatively. And you can make a far more interesting skate video by focusing on that.” New Zealand’s Manual magazine caught up with Josh Stewart to talk about putting himself through another Static video.

“BURNT” is the latest montage by Christian Kerr, featuring the continued evolution of Gabe Tennen’s tech-lord career arc, and the return of the Duane Reade benches.

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Spring in February

Photo via Chuck 📷

“That could have been me.” The Guardian spoke to several Black skateboarders — including our dear friend Aaron Wiggs, along with Harold Hunter Foundation chair + architect of The Black List, Patrick Kigongo — about their experiences in the shadow of Tyre Nichols’ murder at the hands of police.

“Yeah! At Glendale High!” Farran Golding had Nelly Morville talk over her Paymaster part about how the Limosine connection came to be + filming for their inaugural video.

Columbus Circle continues to enjoy its reign as the spot of the winter: Christian Kerr just dropped an edit with a days’ worth of Columbus footage, and yes, you get to see Gabe Tennen shred in it! It’s a foregone conclusion someone is going to drop a one-spot part from there by May, right?

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The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2022 — QS Readers Poll Results

Illustration by Cosme Studio
Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine

It seems that the impossible has happened: we’ve tallied a QS Readers Poll, and there’s no Tom Knox in sight 😲😲😲

All jokes aside, beyond light output from Mr. Knox in 2022, this is perhaps the year that the multiple part approach wielded by S.O.T.Y. hopefuls began to adapt itself to people’s recollections of the past twelve months. Whereas in past years, when multiple releases tended to split the vote in clear favor of one over another, 50% of this year’s Top 20 parts are from the same five people.

Also worth noting that the point spread between slot #14 and slot #10 for single parts was four points. Maybe we introduce a runoff feature next year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The #1 video was a landslide.

If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 5th to December 9th

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Switch Bone Tail

Photo via DREWWWWWW

Destroyed skater jeans. Pre-order now. $1,290. And here we were fretting about having raised the price of QS tees by $2 ☺️

“Forced into the wilderness for years first by cords, then by Dickies, Carharts and assorted chinos, jeans now are the stuff of kingdom-making and eternal glory.” And on that very same note, Boil the Oceans offers some analysis on how jeans have climbed to become the north star of the skateboard industry.

Leo Heinert + crew blitzed Black Hubba and threw a big contest on it a week ago. Flipping into a crook on that thing is nuts.

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