Thinking Out Loud

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Jeff Pang across from World Trade. Mid-90sish. Shout out to yellow trucks. Photo by @gunarsphoto.

♥ Remaining hats are still $15 in the webstore btw xoxo ♥

Max Palmer, Andrew Wilson, Chris Millic and Nolan Benfield went to skate Cuba this past winter. Sean Dahlberg made the video, and Colin Sussingham took da photos.

Chocolate is better than Girl in yet another enjoyable Bobshirt interview, this time with Scott Johnston. Includes Ty Evans’ full raw footage from S.J. trying the 180 switch crook on the J. Kwon gap-to-ledge from Carroll’s Modus part, A.K.A. The Greatest Trick Ever Done™, in addition to the story behind the sequence and clip.

Max Hull has a sick, new [mostly skatepark] edit featuring heavy doses of Max, Conor and John Choi footage. Who else heard rumors about the top secret John Choi part?

Even watching footage from that Roosevelt Island ledge-to-bank is stressful.

New nine-minute edit from Blue Couch. The ride-on grind of death at Chase is pretty wild. Has anyone transferred between the pillars at Cooper Union like that before?

#TRENDWATCH2017: Skating the top of the Tompkins bench.

Josh Stewart reflects on ten years of Theories of Atlantis, and the once highly-contentious comments of his website, where a seminal cellar doorist ran amuck.

Transworld has a new edit from John Valenti with a bunch of the Politic dudes skating Valencia, Spain’s third city for skateboarding (i.e. you probably assume most of its spots are in Barcelona and not 200 miles away.) Features basically a new Caddo part.

Paul Rodriguez v.s. the Bayside Ten, ten years ago. [#ABP, four years ago ya.]

Something special for all the people whose favorite skaters have names that sound like obscure post-WW2 existentialists: a compilation of J.B. Gillett footage in San Francisco. Threw this song on immediately after watching.

Someone put together an Instagram compilation of Adrian Del Campo, the most well-regarded flatground skater on the social media circuit, and architect of the nollie back heel stomp heard around the world.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Sure, this buzzer-beater broke Twitter, Devin Booker scored 70 (in a loss though…), but this man has the play of the week, maybe the year. (It’s not Russell Westbrook, btw.)

MikeWill’s album is a rap industry friends montage.

Deep Freeze

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Happy late birthday Max. Photo by Johnny Wilson.

Late start today, after an unprecedented first week of the year with five updates :)

Probably caught this already, but Bronze dropped a Euro trip video right before the weekend, featuring two weeks spent in Berlin and Paris.

Best Johnny Wilson clip and Max footage in a minute. A road trip with Cyrus Bennett and Loose Trucks Max from the south, thru the midwest.

Even though Sheffey and Gonz tend be the most oft-mentioned parts, in doing those “Five Favorite Part” segments, one name has been mentioned by almost every person 30+ as one of their biggest influences, and it’s Ocean Howell. Chromeball has an extensive new interview with him about his career, hiatus and return.

Disregarding the world’s toughest question, Jordan Trahan knows where to skate AND eat, as he gives a tour of his favorite restaurants, all of which are on Orchard Street.

A bunch of podcasts / audio interviews seem like they made their way online in the past week: 1) The Nine Club interviewed Gino Iannucci. 2) “I had a job working at a skate shop since I was 12 and the only thing it prepares you for in the real world is how to deal with assholes.” — Somehow missed this “Max White Presents” one with Dave Caddo. 3) Max White has another new one with Taylor Nawrocki. 4) Tim O’Connor had Bobby Puleo on for his Jenkem Podcast. 5) The Bunt’s new one is with Chad Dixon.

Colin Sussingham has a quick photo feature over on Skateboard Story.

China footage isn’t boring, it’s just all in *how* you do it.

Cafe Creme came through with a “Best of 2016” list, reminding everyone to rewatch Kyron Davis’ “No Longer a Wasteman” part, and this IG remix of Vince.

How many more years until somebody finally ollies this?

Hotbox Social compiled a 12-track mixtape of Future loosies from 2016 (“How It Feel” is still super important), and Shrimp C put together a comprehensive best of 2016 for the endlessly underrated Strap from Travis Porter.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Duh. Porzingis’ double block on Giannis, proceeded by a three.

Quote of the Week: “You don’t skate, nor is this inspirational to you.” — Lurker Lou

Found a version with no Lil Uzi. Enjoy the extra minute to your life from here on out ;)

An Interview with Dave Caddo

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Words & Interview by Zach Baker / Photos by Trevor Culley

One of the cool things about having the privilege of knowing how to ride one of these things, besides being able to find pot no matter where you are in the world, is that it keeps you exploring. It sends you out to uncover weird parts of familiar places, makes you creep into all sorts of alleys and ditches and post-industrial shit-piles, and on many occasions, you’ll leave feeling a lot happier than when you got there.

Every time I see Caddo, he’s having a pretty good time. Then, every time I see some Caddo footage or photos, he’s having a pretty sweet time. He skates all these spots I’ve never seen before, in cities I’ve never thought to go to. He’s gotten clips at like, the Holy Trinity of New York busts: the Roosevelt Island Monument, Forbidden Banks and the Holy Grail on Nostrand Avenue. Caddo goes out of his way to keep skateboarding interesting for himself, which is why his skating is so much fun to watch.

His part in Politic’s Division, which is his second full part in as many years, is loaded with all kinds of new approaches to familiar spots, fun lines down hills and in all kinds of parking lots. Here’s a chat I had with him about Enid’s, longevity, and kickflips.

+++++++

Tell me about when you kickflipped into the Roosevelt Island monument.

That was when it first opened up. I don’t know why, but the Parks Department would close it one day a week. You get maybe ten minutes before the old security guard comes out and starts yelling at you. But the guy is like sixty-years-old, it takes him a while to mosey over. The guy got there and his technique was to stand right in the way. He’s just mellow about it, kept repeating over and over again “no, no, no.” He was just saying that for ten minutes. [John] Valenti was walking backwards with the camera as I’m trying the last one and luckily I made it. I almost rolled into the guy.

More »

Hit An Island Like Gilligan

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Hey, what else is there to do? Shorty’s Fulfill the Dream on Vimeo.

The two guys who skated from Boston to New York skated from New York to Philly this past summer. The Backstreet Atlas Guide to New Jersey premieres on Thursday, January 29 at 7 P.M. Kinfolk Studios, 94 Wythe Ave in Brooklyn. Flyer here.

Green Zine interviewed Connor about the QS + DGK project.

This guy snorted a line of cocaine and then crooked grinded a 12 stair railThis will blow your mind.” Every now and then, Slap comes through with unparalleled levels of brilliance: 2016 Ride Channel Title Predictions.

Someone went and took all the raw Max Palmer outtake footage from Johnny’s video blogs, and turned it into a fun part edited to one of the aughts’ flirtiest love songs :)

“Whereas Lennie Kirk fused spirituality with a certain on- and off-board brutality, Jereme Rogers proffers an elixir of wealth-seeking Christianity and shameless excess that seems suited to Las Vegas’ neon-heated Gamblor lairs, all-u-can-consume buffets and drive-thru wedding chapels.” Boil the Ocean on 5BNY, Vase, geographic anchors, and re-re-re-starting Jereme Rogers’ career.

Speaking of 5BNY, here’s thirty seconds of new Silvester Eduardo footage for Venture.

Said this almost exactly one year ago, but is worth repeating: Michael Mackrodt is on the shortlist of most impressive pros to see skate in real life. Watching him do lines in the unskated land of West Africa for five minutes is the next best thing ;)

Our friends at Shorty’s put together a video of the spot throughout 2015 in the stylings of Cash Money Records’ greatest exercise in cinéma vérité:

Hundred band, hundred bandFifteen seconds of new [indoor] Wade D. footage!

Fifteen seconds of new [indoor] Gino footage!

More than a few seconds of new Caddo footage!

The perfection of imperfection with Mike Maldonado.

Mambo Bar — The 270 Out Capital of New York City.

Frog Skateboards is real dude.

QS Sports Desk:Never have two teams with as high a combined winning percentage as San San Antonio (38-6) and Golden State (40-4) met this far into the season.”

Quote of the Week: “I’m a skater, I’m not a squirrel suit guy.” — Cyrus Bennett

For us, Ziegfeld died in 2011, but double R.I.P. to Ziegfeld.

Filet Mignon With a Flip Phone

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Good friend of the website, longtime QS music supervisor, coin-er of the term “skate video house,” and writer of the last part in the QS book, recently published his first novel, None of the Bad Ones. It’s about partying, #badrelationships, skating at Tompkins and meeting up with girls you texted off a Blackberry ~five or six years ago. It’s a fun and nostalgic read. Use promo code “snackmancometh” on his website, ESFBooks.com, to get 30% off. QS interview about the book here.

Ahh the old “Zoo York Media Group” logo… New Kevin Tierney Zoo part is now online, with some fashion-forward griptape, white rappers, and chill cut-ins from E.S.T.. Been wondering who those wallride marks on Grand and Crosby were from ;)

To remedy the fact that there hasn’t been a full Brian Anderson part in long time, Village Psychic put together a rad three-minute remix of his past four or five years worth of video appearances. Shout out to Billy McFeely circa 2009.

This isn’t actually a new Conor Prunty part, but a new Conor Prunty part is dropping on QS this April two thousand and sixteen. Buy stock while you can :)

QS’ New Output-based #skatevideohouse Desk: Vice’s electronic music site took to task skating’s recent infatuation with house music. Dudes just wanna dance bro.

Canadians were unmentioned in the article entirely, which is unfortunate considering their apt handling of such music supervision decisions in the past. Here’s a new one from Antosh and all the dudes from the “Heat” video this past fall.

Drones in Westchester. New one featuring Caddo, Watermelons et al via Armand.

Everything in this twenty-five minute Byrdgang video — from the spots, to the tricks, to the picture quality, to the fact that it’s named after sub-sect of lower tier peak-era Dipset affiliates — reminded me of early-to-mid-2000s, post-Metrospective skateboard website montages in the best way possible. Smiles the whole way through :)

A minute of Ishod footage at the new indoor Nike park in Brooklyn.

Related: The [far different] state of skateparks on the east coast, circa 1998-2000.

As if filming a video exclusively in London wasn’t hard enough, they decided to do it with a ten-pound camera from three decades ago. Mike O’Meally with some photos and words on the upcoming Palace video.

Relevant Today: Skateboarding’s Beloved Soundtracks — David Bowie.

New Cell Jawn clip featuring purportedly some of Love Park’s last days.

Thanks to NY Skateboarding for the full flip-through of the QS book in 15 seconds.

If you watch only one skate video today… Stereo uploaded a clean, full version of A Visual Sound online. One of the most #influential vids to ever exist, especially with regard to a lot of what’s going on in skating today.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Damian Lillard got on the same juice cleanse as Steph I guess. Seventeen points in three minutes.

Quote of the Week: “Whoa. Somebody made our beds.” — Max Palmer re: hotels

Londoners: Slam is throwing a party for the DGK + QS stuff on Thursday :)