Just as Warren Buffett off-loaded his shares in airlines given the foreseeable future of travel, skate companies have began doing the same with their stockades of footage from pre-COVID19 trips. Any clips from far-off lands coming out once we hit the dog days of the pandemic are bound to be dated by default — like, anyone who switched their pants game up in quarantine is gonna have a tough time convincing the skateboarding public that their Euro footage wearing last year’s silhouettes is current ;)
Santa Claus does exist — his name is actually Antonio.
Though a long way from the sprawling epic Christmas Clips of the past, today marks the first time since 2015 that we put up an edit for December 25. Though not the mood piece of night skating in hoodys that it once was, here are some of the easier-on-the-eyes clips from the past four or five months of bringing out the #realcamera. Half the footage is in shorts with leaves on the trees, so there was almost a debate about whether to call it a Christmas Clip at all, but who even has the time anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Features Jesse Alba, Daniel Kim, Antonio Durao, Ben Blundell, Kyota Umeki, Myles Gable, Lurker Lou, Connor Champion, Sully Corimer, Dustin Henry, Etienne Gagne, Stephen Ostrowski, Keith Denley, Emilio Cuilan.
And on a day when the wind-chill brings the temperature down to 12 degrees, we bring you some… good news.
Space 198, the new free, INDOOR Vans park is opening on January 2nd at 198 Randolph Street in Brooklyn. Unlike the belated House of Vans, which was more of an event space inside of a skatepark (and brought out people’s inner savages anytime there was a mid-winter open day there), this park is a community-oriented space built for skateboarding.
It’s going to be open Thursday through Sundays — you just need to to sign up on the website beforehand. And it’s off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick, making everyone’s life a bit easier than a 20-minute walk through the snow to Greenpoint that we used to do ;)
As they were putting the finishing touches on it, they gave a handful of crews the chance to check out the park last week, and here’s what we came back with. Be nice to Jersey Dave when you see him, because chances are, his phone has not stopped buzzing for the past two weeks.
Filmed by Will Rosenstock, Paul Young, Max Hull, Cristian Berrios & Kyota Umeki.
The most important news first: the city approved a new trash can design and it is substantially taller than the current ones. Thoughts? Concerns? Commissioned ideas for Tyshawn?
It was a rainy day in May of 2011. The reigning Skater of the Year was Mike McGill or Leo Romero or someone like that. Blue Park didn’t exist. Kader Sylla had not yet been born. Derrick Rose was about to become the youngest MVP in NBA history, as Future and YC’s “Racks on Racks (on Racks)” rung throughout car systems and night clubs in post-Great Recession America.
On E. 6th Street, we were helping Mike Gigliotti pack up his apartment as we scoured through bags of gear, leftover from fashions of yesteryear, and otherwise bound for Goodwill. He was due to set sail home for Los Angeles that next morning.
“I’ll be back!” he told us, ignoring in our tear-strewn faces.
