You can take the Bostonian out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the Bostonian. In the days of Joey Pepper’s Aesthetics section and Jahmal Williams riding for DNA, Boston was the epicenter of bump-to-bleacher skateboarding. Longing for those sweet green metal days and displaced from their homeland, some savvy New Englanders decided “Fuck going to Reggaeton Ledges” this past summer, and began their own propped up empire nearby. The crowd followed suit.
Other notable developments in Grand’s latest are Spencer Hamilton bringing his two signature moves to Columbus Park, and the QS Spot Desk being wrong about people needing Bondo to skate the one surviving bank under the 125th Street 1 train ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Features Spencer Hamilton, Nick Ferro, Dana Ericson, Connor Champion, Kevin Tierney and Brian Delaney. J.P. Blair on da lens.
It is safe to say that this media enterprise’s decade-long tradition of Start of Summer, End of Summer, and Christmas clips has fallen into memories of the prosperous first-half of the 2010s. At a time when Swedish filmmakers deride the quality of skateboarding simply being tossed onto Instagram — between regular posts and tricks for the story — who really has time to carry a #realcamera around unless you’re filming for some big video project that Logan may or may not ever release?
As the iPhone has become our most oft-used video device, the #realcamera has become reserved for traveling i.e. when enthusiasm is high. If you’re lucky enough to blow off work in the middle of the week to go skate with your friends, sometimes it’s better to leave the pressures of “well, I brought the camera out” at home.
Over the past year or so, Kevin’s videos have made me perpetually jealous of all the times I decided to stay in and be responsible rather than ditching a pile of un-responded-to emails to go skateboard. They’re not everyone going their hardest, but they are representative of what it’s like to leave a skatepark, and try skate street at a bunch of decent-enough spots that you’ve skated a thousand times before in 2017.
…but the rest of the clips were really good! Spencer Hamilton with what’s tied for the best 360 flip near the East River in recent memory (see #7), Tierney skating stacks of shaky rubble, and of course, Wade fuckin’ D. skating New York just in general. We tossed that footage together for a Grand Collection remix featuring four faves ;)
“Every time you disprove the prejudices of a pedestrian, you win a small victory that reverses the erosion of our collective social capital.” As sarcastic as we may get about the tired “skaters see the world differently” trope, there’s always something reassuring in our ability to — on on some tiny level — leave the world better than it was before, provided we stop sitting around talking shit about pants for long enough. Caught in the Crossfire’s “Four Small Ways Skateboarding Can Change the World” is inspiring, intelligent and heartwarming writing for a tough world right now.
If you guys in the comments are calling Shanahan a “’99 Kalis deadringer,” you better brace yourselves for the ’99 Stevie version because its really really real.
This might be an illegal link, but here’s Yaje’s Riddles in Mathematics part til it gets taken down. Non-sketchy link to buy the video here. Sorry TWS, it’s Yaje ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“One day’s lifted bar soon becomes the next day’s hurdle to be ollied, and later kickflipped, and eventually kilty mcbagpipped for an after-credits clip set to a whimsical indie-rock tune.” — Boil the Ocean explores ledge skating’s shrinking middle class, via the lens of Tiago’s switch back tail™. And yes, YouTube debaters, Antonio could’ve easily been #1 but Tiago got it for the trick’s status as a “culture-unifying moment.”
Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine is now available to stream on Hulu. (You may need to put in your card info for a free trial blah blah blah.) You can read and disagree with the QS review here.
*Non-Skate Related Alert* The latest episode of 99% Invisible deals with abandoned buildings, squatters, riots, and everything else surrounding Tompkins Square Park in the 80s and 90s. “You got guns? We got piss buckets.” Shout to Mostly.
Quote of the Week: “The price isn’t the problem. Pryce is the problem.” — Dallas Todd
I learned frontside flips via Pryce’s Seaport line A.K.A. have never fully *flipped* one in my life. They still count in S.K.A.T.E. though ;) Thanks Pryce.
Merry Christmas to whoever woke up with the stolen Beamer logo off Dre’s car under their tree.
Hate to pile on to 2016’s seemingly infinite supply of bad news, but this is the first year that we’re not coming through with a full Christmas clip. Although the pasttwo have admittedly lost the steam of say 2007’s tour de force, 2010’s G.O.A.T. or 2012’s shockingly productive fall — 2016 is the year when adult life caught up, and skateboarding in November/December outside of Tompkins or a skatepark just didn’t go down like it used to. Below are a few ~moody~ bits from the summer (!!!) to fill the place of a would-be Christmas clip.
Eleven years in a row of by-far the longest running annual web clip series ain’t so bad. Shout out to the O.G. Bryan Chin from who we ripped the idea off in the first place back in the early 2000s. Hope to make it back for the next one.
Features Daniel Kim, Connor Champion, Josh Velez, Andre Page, John Franco, Akira Mowatt, Matthew Perez, Lurker Lou, Keith Denley, Alexander Mosley, Thom Musso, Pryce Holmes. Filmed by Andre Page and Pad Dowd.
BUT, keep in mind that none of that may matter at all, since Dustin Henry’s Antisocial Video part is still around to warm your heart this holiday season. Congrats again to Dustin for winning our first annual Skater You Would Be Most OK With Your Daughter Dating Award! #perfectboy
Merry Christmas everyone. We’ll be back on Tuesday, December 27th.
