“I went from being a kid skating on my block to hanging out with all the best skaters in New York City because I learned how to do a frontside 360 boneless.” A friend once had a story about how their book club took a razor to The Powerbroker and sliced it up into three books to make it more reasonable of a read. This isn’t that dramatic, but a blog interview that takes over two hours to read is a lot for most people in the era of byte-sized #content — but we’re *SO* happy that people are putting detailed, rich content on the internet that requires a commitment! Isn’t that what it’s for?! The Slam City Skates blog’s interview with Eli Gesner about skateboarding + graffiti in New York in the 80s, night clubs in the early 90s, the beginnings of Shut + Zoo York, etc. is like a little history book :)
If you can’t make it out on Saturday, don’t forget to help circulate the petition to keep turf off the asphalt at Tompkins Square Park. If you’re sharing any reflections or memories of what this park means to you on social media, please be sure to tag any posts with #savetompkins.
“One thing Jones has that a lot of pro skaters don’t is a bunch of hardheaded friends who are willing to bring city life to a halt for him.” Can’t imagine there’s a single person who reads QS that hasn’t already read Willy Staley’s incredible profile of Tyshawn Jones for The New York Times, but also don’t think anything else could justifiably be the first link this week.
“The further uptown you went, the quieter and more desolate it was. And the more you could get away with.” While on the topic of #MSM #skate #coverage — never knew about this 2005 New York Mag article about Andy Kessler and the original Zoo York crew of the 1970s-80s. (So nice that we have evolved and endured enough to avoid calling things “Dogtown East” now hehe.)
“Eternal Youth in Tompkins Square” is a New York Times style section feature documenting many of the new(ish) faces around T.F. these past couple years, shot by our friend Danny Weiss, with words from Ted Barrow, the skater who Jason Byoun would show his mom if she asked what skateboarding was.
“This spot is long gone. We called them ‘Chelsea Banks’ because they were on the West Side Highway in Chelsea, directly across the highway from, what is today, the Chelsea Piers Skatepark. Today this spot is a little green triangular park, but back then it was a shit show.” TWS interviewed original Zoo York co-founder, Eli Gesner, and original Shut rider, Jeremy Henderson, about filming Mark Gonzales during the first time he ever came to New York in 1987.
Calzone is Matt Velez’s sequel to Sable, due to premiere in Brooklyn on November 30th. Full parts from Mark Humienik, Nick Ferro, et al. Flyer here. Small teaser here.
Quote of the Week Observant Gentleman: “It’s crazy you ride for Polar but aren’t good at wallies.” Hjalte Halberg: “Yeah, but at least I learned no complys recently.”
Please donate what you can to the Harold Hunter Foundation, which is doing a rout of fundraising right now. “A donation big or small will help enable them to provide mentoring, life skills workshops and college/career readiness activities for young people who would otherwise have no access to these vital services.” The best skater from New York is a H.H.F. alumnus so they’re doing real good work over there ♥
Quote of the Week: Pryce’s 30-Year-Old Friend: “Oh yeah, I’ve read about Finstas and Rinstas.” Pryce’s 16-Year-Old Brother: “Where’d you read that, Parent Magazine?”
Spot Updates: 1) The final remodeled version of Bubble Banks = Two two-up-two-down manual pads, and some wooden benches that are going to get knobbed, but that you could still ollie over. 2) One of the few spots in lower Manhattan that you had a chance of not getting kicked out of is, in the best case scenario, not going to be skateable for a long time.
Quote of the Week Inquisitive Gentleman: “How are you doing?” Torey Goodall: “Good. Pretty bad.”
