Brianna Delaney and Lee Madden dropped on a new part that also chronicles her transition and journey from the past few years ❤️ Features plenty of stunning lines and some of the best back tails in the biz.
John Gardner, first ballot entry for the “Skateboarders Who Make The World Smile” Hall of Fame. He filmed a new, five-minute cruiser part for O.J. Wheels from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Thanks John ♥
Can’t tell if it’s an oversight, but if Ride Channel is truly R.I.P., allow us to take a look back at some of the greatest headliners ever written for the skateboard internet.
The Bunt has a [text] interview with our friend Keith Henry, the photographer who is forever on the quest for the right-fitting pair of pants.
The QS Film Desk isn’t the most enthusiastic group of Harmony Korine fans (haven’t watched the Epicly Later’d yet…), but gotta #respect anyone who made the leap from growing up on skate videos to making feature films. He talked about some of his favorite videos over on Vice.
“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.
Enjoyed this interview with the O.G. 2000 / Mariah video dudes about skateboarding in Switzerland, a European destination that tends to escape the global spotlight, despite being the world’s eminent destination for skateboarding on six-figure cars.
Everyone loves a good one-spot part or montage, but there’s something especially admirable about a one-spot montage of a place that instills zero desire of wanting to skate said spot due to how difficult it looks.
“If Marc Johnson hadn’t waited until 2016 to move to Adidas, could his Fully Flared part have been 26 minutes long? Backed by corporate shoe money, could The End have offered more realistic pyrotechnics? If DGK had clung to the Reebok deal, could Parental Advisory have offered a Jay-Z cameo instead of Beanie Siegel?”
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Knicks games are a tough watch these days, but at least Brandon Jennings got waived so you get to see more of the second best player on the team, Ron Baker.
Quote of the Week: “I realized that you could do that job hungover, but it’s just better if you don’t.” — Dallas Todd
It is no secret that we spend an inordinate amount of time in caged in, flat spaces. And it is no secret — as much as we may try to glamorize it — that it gets old after a while. With open road season in the northeast coming to a close, we hit I-95 one last time this fall. Except rather than going to surefire crutches like Eggs or Pulaski, we aimed for something a little different, and a little less…flat. We loaded up the three or five people in the crew adequately versed in skating transition for an atypical QS journey. We went to concrete skateparks, and ended up leaving something permanent behind us in the end (more on that later.)
The concrete skatepark is a relatively new phenomenon in New York. Sure, Owl’s Head has been there for a decade-and-a-half, but the recent surge in parks popping up everywhere is only ~five years old. It also came after we spent much of the 2000s languishing in pre-fab purgatory. Even then, if you heard some of the stories from people tasked with negotiating the skaters’ side in building a park, you’d want to strangle yourself with the red tape. We have one of the three largest city economies in the world; the level of bureaucracy that comes with each one we’re fortunate enough to have is unparalleled. Hopefully, the stadium-lit volleyball courts out on Tribeca piers have an easier time getting built…
New England embraced outdoor and public concrete parks long before we did. That’s mostly due to two people: Sloppy Sam, who founded Breaking Ground Skateparks, and Jeff Paprocki, who now owns Paprocki Concrete & Masonry. Both of them navigated the laws and public works departments that vary between every New England town to create much of the vast network of parks that exists up there today. Once you stop by Frank Pepe’s in New Haven and make it into the eastern half of Connecticut, it’s possible to spend the day hitting three or four unique parks, all thanks to these dudes. They aren’t “D.I.Y.” creations in the grey understanding that we have of that phrase, but it’s obvious they wouldn’t exist without the saintly proactive efforts of a few individuals. “It’s all about knowing the right person to talk to.” And also having the right crew around you.
