Meet Me At The Mall — The Skateable History of Allen Street

According to The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins, Allen Street gets its name from William Henry Allen, the youngest Navy captain in the War of 1812. (Our then-recent ex, Great Britain, was beefing with Napoleon while America stayed neutral. The U.S. was trying to send a flow box to France, and Britain felt some type of way about it. Like any bitter ex who sees someone else wearing your hoody after a messy break-up, they went to war.)

Legend has it that Allen was in the English Channel on the hunt for opposition, when he stumbled on a Portuguese cargo ship carrying wine. Him and the squad had a wild night with the haul, but unfortunately, got caught slipping by the British on the following day. Allen and his crew’s colossal hangover would be their last: British canons shot off his leg, and he would die on August 18, 1813.

200 years later, L.E.S Skatepark was born.

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T.J. 4 S.O.T.Y.

Pretty much any group of skaters that has passed this spot these past ~20 years has stopped and debated whether it was possible or not. I remember somebody pointing out that if Brandon Westgate hadn’t done it yet (he definitely would’ve known about it), then maybe it was impossible. We even posed the rhetorical “how long until” on Twitter two years ago (that photo does the size of it zero justice, btw.) Really glad T.J. was the one to get it. The fact that an ollie is on the cover should tell you all you need to know about how crazy this is. (Well, that and the fact that it’s broad daylight in midtown Manhattan should color the narrative a bit, too.) Assuming everyone will be onboard the #TJSOTY train when that Supreme video drops, so yeah. Photo by Jared Sherbert.

And on that note, Boil the Ocean makes an assessment of the past eleven months to decide who should be eligible for S.O.T.Y.

The match-up you’ve all been waiting for: Nyjah Houston v.s. Alexis Lacroix.

Here is a #longform, Pineapple Express-based Nick Ferro b-sides remix, and here is a #longform, lo-def Memphis/Texas/(?) rap-based Dick Rizzo b-sides remix.

Office favorite, Jawn Gardner, has a new part over on Thrasher full of hairy spots. Glad you’re ok John! ♥

Remember that Weed Maps clip we admitted to being a bit of a guilty pleasure on here last winter? Well, here’s the less jittery version of the same clip that features Jaws skating New York.

Been a fan of this guy since he skated to People Under the Stairs (yeah…) in 411 — if you need some style inspo for the day, Free managed to unearth a ton of unseen Javier Sarmiento footage from the start of the millennium.

After getting shamed for not putting the new OG.2000 video (the dudes who made the “Mariah” video last year and um, ollied onto a Ferrari) in #QSTOP10 contention a week ago, we finally got around to watching it, and yeah, it got way less shine than it deserved on the skate internet. Tons of incredible Euro skating from names that will likely be unknown to you — though I’m sure some #trend-weary curmudgeons will find issue with something. These two tricks in Paris are fucked.

Brian Anderson is the latest guest on Lee Smith’s podcast. The interview is damn near two hours long. Maybe these could benefit from Soundcloud or Podcast links? Or did we miss that?

Looks like SML Talk is updating their site again. Here’s a listicle of 17 “beautiful” moments in skate video history. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and quite frankly, Jason Byoun’s Astor Place line from Life is Goodie got robbed.

It’s no video blog, but Johnny went to Argentina to film the SB team a year ago, and made his own clip of the trip just now. Can’t wait for Beef Patty 2.

Back when Crailtap was a daily visit and the skateboard internet was a smaller place, they used to post these random digi cam tidbits (pre-iPhone obvs) on their site. Someone compiled all of them, 2003-2005.

The building got tired of replacing the rail in front of the out ledge at FedEx and just… knobbed the ledge instead.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Hell ya Louuuuuuuu.

Quote of the Week: “I could see myself adding a nice siesta to my daily routine.” — E.J.

Shout to Cosme Studio for coming through on a slightly higher quality digital copy of Continuum. These are maybe only 10-15% better quality than the ones that have been on YouTube for ages, but hey, slow motion is better than… Also we’ve certainly pontificated about it in the past, but wow was Jerry Fowler’s skateboarding ahead of its time. Jahmal’s is obvs timeless, but you knew that :)

Across The Street™

NJ cutie Josh Wilson via Mike Heikkila

The new Bronze 56k video, It’s Time is now live.

Thrasher has raw files for Josh Wilson and Dick Rizzo’s Quasi vid parts.

All of a sudden you’re only three minutes into a seven-minute-long Black Hubba compilation clip, and realize that you’ve already passed the switch 360 flip lipslide. If you live in New York, you waste at least .5% of your life sitting around at Blubba doing nothing. Here’s a video of all the moments that didn’t go to waste.

“Bronze 56K is all about rolling up switch to the Carlsbad gap after just barely falling off pushing on your skateboard and popping the most brolic switch hardflip.” Japan’s VHS Mag interviewed Peter Sidlauskas on the occasion of It’s Time.

Idk if our editorial board is in the market for a Mid 90s review, but here’s one side of the coin and here is another.

Chachi’s Jenkem date is like Mid 90s but late 2010s. #fastminds.

Theories has a quick feature with Jahmal Williams that runs down the background stories behind some of the old Hopps graphics.

Pete Spooner’s new video is [by chance] named after one of Will Marshall’s favorite observations about skateboarding. Skating is Easy trailer here. Always find it charming when a teaser for a new skate vid is longer than 60 seconds in the Instagram era ;)

2018 has been a mega year for upstate New York skate videos nvm, it’s for a central Pennsylvania video, so let’s just say it has been a mega year for upstate New York spots in videos ;) One Mo’ Gin is another feather in upstate New York’s 2018 cap. At least I think it’s an upstate N.Y. vid…

Someone made a 411 “Rookies” mix of some circa 2010 Brandon Westgate footage, though if we were being literal about things, it should’ve been to his Word of Mouth footage.

On that note, Tombo uploaded another “Raw Deals” clip with more classique French guys than you’d expect. More on that later this week hehehe.

R.I.P. St. Dymphnas A.K.A. Yellow Bar A.K.A. Same Difference. You were never anyone’s favorite bar, but you were the best cheap bar by Tompkins when it started raining, and for that reliability, you will be missed.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Knicks fans are in for yet another soul-crushing season of false 8th seed dreams, and we’re avoiding all temptations of having the first regular season Play of the Week be related to Rondo V.S. Chris Paul, so here’s a cool Tim Hardaway J.R. pass to Kanter that you can overreact to.

Quote of the Week: “Those guys make me feel stupid for not having kids when I was like, twenty. They’re all just doing ecstasy with their kids now.” — Torey

Haven’t been in a proper headspace to um, “process” a Juice WRLD and Future mixtape over the past few days, but feel compelled to come clean on here that this is one of the most oft-played songs at the QS office since it came out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Frozen in Carbonite Presents — Song of the Summer x Video Part of the Summer 2018: Global Warming Edition

Words by Frozen in Carbonite

Everyone has their own theory about the point in time when summer ends and winter begins: fantasy football draft night, college kids swarming back into town, the first rainy Sunday when you bust out your favorite sweatpants, when the first beanie appears at the skatepark. (Maybe that’s not the best example, dudes would still skate in beanies* if there was a ledge in, like, Death Valley or some shit.)

ANYWAY, in my neck of the woods, the end of summer was marked by a quaint event at my local bar — perhaps the least “woke” event such an establishment could conceivably host: a bikini contest. Sunday night. Labor Day Weekend.

Unlike that one bikini contest that Ronnie “The Limo Driver” Mund hosted, this particular contest only had five entrants. The emcee set it off with a mandatory disclaimer regarding the importance of respecting women and a stern warning that anyone who failed to follow these guidelines would be removed from the premises. Subsequently, he asked the contestants a series of typical pageant-type questions like “if you were a number, what number would you be,” to which the young lady responded with the most predictable answer in the universe.

Nevertheless, another contestant triumphed that night and took home $500.

Before that, however, these songs and parts fucking powered summer 2018 — notable for a higher than usual number of according-to-Hoyle full-length vids and a lower than usual level of “IS THE FULL-LENGTH VIDEO DEAD?!” prognosticating.

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