All-Star Fashion Week Weekend

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Late one today. Weather got things sluggish.

“Skaters in Cars Looking at Spots” cruises around the Financial District with Zered.

“My last name is Baker, so this is called The Baker Video.” Good friend and breaker of four boards in one session, Zach Baker, made a fun skateboard video.

Life is Goodie is dropping on 4/20 fool.

“Rob [Dyrdek] told me, ‘Look, dude, there’s gonna be no pro skaters in the next…I see in the future no pro boards.'” Ride has a great interview with Josh Kalis about China, standalone video parts, GX1000, a declining middle class in skateboarding, and a future with no boards. ICYMI: Hit You Off Management dropped a “Kalis in Mono” remix last week, mentioned in the interview’s first question.

Sorta on that note, Village Psychic got an interview with the dudes who run Mood Skateboards, a company with no team. “In the 80s and 90s, pro skaters were the best at skating, but now everyone is the best. The ‘need’ for professionals isn’t the same.” It’s gonna be a really weird next couple of years, man.

Always a lot of surprises in this dude’s skating: Joel Meinholz time machine mash-up.

Some enviable weather in Gigliotti’s new clip.

The bro Jersey Dave has a photo book up for sale.

Dunno if these are the ten *greatest* spots ever built, but Kingpin has a listicle of ten “what were they thinking when they made this” spots from around the world.

Boil the Ocean compares Big Brother‘s resistance to abiding by the skateboard industry’s self-image to the Slap message board’s similar disposition of today, and uses the word “sanctimoniousness.”

The Helas team’s IG clips combined into one montage, with a mini Ishod and Lucas part at the end :)

“Before the Hubba girls, the Duffs girls, before Erica Yary or Leanne Tweeden, and long before any hot chick would be caught dead in a Thrasher shirt, there was Rosa.” SML Talk reminisces on the nineties most iconic half-naked skateboard hardware company model. Chromeball also had a Rosa tribute years ago, which includes a scan of the “15 Things You Didn’t Know About…” segment from Skateboarder.

Jake Johnson v.s. the D.C. Gold Rail, circa 2010.

Who had the better high fashion backpack ad, Eli or Alex Olson?

Part two of NY Skateboarding’s joint interview with Gino and Dill is now live.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Lebron v.s. Durant won’t be much of a narrative in the NBA soon.

Quote of the Week: “Johnny peaked with Space Heater.” — Max Palmer

If you’re stuck inside and need a good time-killer, I was recently put onto the fact that a lot of episodes of Insomniac with Dave Attell are on YouTube. It hasn’t been the best for productivity, but is really fun to reminisce on the drunken world of the early millennium that most of us had yet to experience (still recognized the venue for the “goddess” party though hehehehe…) The two New York episodes are here and here. Playlist with most of them here.

#TBT on a Wednesday: Traffic in Japan

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Re-discovered this gem after Eli’s all-Tokyo part came out yesterday. Why are all-Japan parts totally chill, while all-China parts are totally “boring?” Do people just pack way sicker fits when traveling to Tokyo? Is it because Ricky said Japan was cool?

Sidebar: Pretty sure the problem with skateboarding in China isn’t China. The third biggest country on earth isn’t somehow devoid of the cutty sort of stuff that you see in the Eli part, Quim’s Overcast Broadcasting part, or Silas’ Adidas thing. It’s just pretty tough to pay any attention to some cutty wallie spot when there are ten flawless plazas a block away. Send Polar, Traffic or probably any Theories-distributed brand to Shenzhen or Shanghai, and every commenter will be lauding the “new way to skate China!”-narrative for a straight month. All it took was the GX dudes to skate the Universitat benches the wrong way for everyone to say all those “blown out” Barcelonian spots look “fresh” again.

Leave China alone, guys. They have enough problems without you telling them their flawless public spaces look “boring” on the internet.

ANYWHO, Japan is having a moment this week, and this Traffic clip from 2010 — described as Ricky’s “last hurrah” in the final episode of his Epicly Later’d — is a fun watch. Happy Thanksgiving.

“I don’t try hard tricks anymore.” — Jack Sabback, 2012

P.S. Ricky hates surfers

Just Did an Ollie ‘Bout a Week Ago

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Eli skating a rock. Photo by Black Dave.

Still a bunch of gear in the webstore. #supportyourlocalskatesite ;)

“Skating through midtown Manhattan that night, I remembered that I used to think skateboarding would never get too big because it hurt too much. Because you can’t take the pain out of skateboarding. Because putting yourself deliberately in harm’s way is a quick, easy, and reliable route to the truth.” This is a solid read.

TWS’ “Skate Nerd” segment with Kalis and Smolik is more entertaining than any link you may find below. “Kelly Slater?”

Worth repeating that Wes Kremer is the best?

Our good friend Alexander Mosley A.K.A. the Watermelon Man is having an art show at 2nd Nature in Bushwick this Saturday, October 4th. 7-11 P.M. Flyer here.

Finally: Frozen in Carbonite’s annual “Song of the Summer” x “Video Part of the Summer” mash-up segment. It tackles Static 4‘s equivalence to a prog-rock epic, Chris Brown and Bronze’s penchant for controversy, the truth that VX just looks blurry now, Bobby Shmura videos having a similar gender breakdown to skate videos, and Sinner’s post-modern, post-genre take on a video part. Incredible.

Monster has a new interview with Jake Johnson. Some heavy reading on the current situation at Alien Workshop, relationships in skateboarding, life after skating, etc.

GX1000 also posted this incredible IG clip of Jake bails. Last one is nuts.

Quick clip of Danny Supa cruising around Washington Heights.

Antwuan Dixon back on it.

For such a high-profile world city, Paris has been rather underrated for skating ever since the Lordz video era. Last week’s nine-minute “Scene” edit from Kingpin really puts how great it is into perspective. Spent a good two weeks there this past summer, and never saw at least 75% of the spots they skate. Features some solid Rich Homie Juan tricks. Also, if you slept on Vincent Touzery’s part in the Cafe Clope video (14:40 mark) earlier this year, you’re dumb.

Yeah, uh, about that unreleased Lakai Koston 1… (Part was sick though.)

Wow @ ollie over the Gino manual pad (not Roslyn) and probably the first trick down that kinked 57th Street rail in this Frankie Spears “Video Check Out.”

New northeast-encompassing video from the Mood NYC crew.

#weird skaters v.s. the 181st Street park.

“Don’t try to impress the old people. Be yourself. I think it’s the duty of all young artists — no disrespect — to say ‘Man, fuck y’all’ to the people before them. That keeps the music going.” — Andre 3000. Why couldn’t this interview be an hour longer? (“Nah nah nah yo real hip-hop yo NYC yo.”)

Quote of the Week:
slicky

New Thug and Quan in a few hours, btw.

Links Going Up On a Monday

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#confused :(

Berrics, but Reynolds. Plus they compiled every frontside flip he has done in a video.

Migos + Curbs = Sold. Video of the year.

Politic Skateboards welcomes renown crust aficionado, Eric “Derm” Dermond, to the team with a cool new part, which includes a team montage at the start.

A little over a year ago, Young Scooter and Gunplay inspired American skate teams to begin venturing to Colombia. Is Bolivia the next frontier?

In 100% agreement that the greatest non-S.J. in Modus trick ever done was both 1) in the rain and 2) never actually landed. Matt Schlager belongs on the Dime Ballers shirt.

Six years after it flew under the radar as 2008’s S.O.T.S. sleeper hit (“A Milli” and “Whatever You Like” won in a landslide), these guys made an iPhone edit to “Let the Beat Build.” Still one of the best summer songs in recent memory. Also, did those slabs of metal on Hester take Seaport 5.0’s slot for 2014’s “Spot of the Summer?”

The Washington Heights park has lights now!

Alex Olson likes backside lipsliding down Black Hubba.

Some desaturated Dutch skateboarding.

Can’t tell if the “Death Video” is actually a video in the making, or just a confusingly titled series of B-roll clips, but volume nine is now live. The pad-to-pad ollie at Manhattan and Scholes is awesome.

Live Skateboard Media has a new interview with Eli Reed.

“Only That Real,” except the Easy Mo Bee version. Sort of. It’s cool.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Damien Lillard’s almost full court buzzer beater. And if you post that Paul George injury on Vine or Instagram, you’re an asshole. Get well soon PG. The ECF winner is pretty easy to call now, huh?

Quote of the Week: “My favorite skater is Louie Lopez and my second favorite skater is Louie Lopez when he gets older.” — Guy Riza

P.S. Once you go to this spot, you’ll never complain about skating in New York again.

Out of Office Reply / Holiday Season

paris

Photo via Pryce Holmes for National Geographic

Faced with the brutal difficulty of skateboarding in the United States and all its sue-happy rules, we wound up back in Europe for the second time in one month. Between the ~four weeks spent here this summer, we’ve still only been kicked out of one spot, and that was via a knife-weilding hash dealer in Copenhagen. It’s become a recurring theme on the site, but America sucks for skateboarding.

August will inevitably be a stacked month around here for a variety reasons, so we’re taking summer “holiday” now. If you ordered anything that remains in the webstore over the past week-and-a-half, it should ship early next week at the absolute latest. Maybe expect to see a content update squeezed in before the week is out?

On the slim chance that you missed it (came out a few hours after Monday Links went live), Eli has an awesome new welcome part out for Organika, with a Quim cameo at the start (as promised!) His lavish fashion sense from his first part is a lot to live up to though :) Labor also has a quick new video with its three shop riders, one of whom is reigning QSSOTY, Leo Gutman.

Back on Monday for good. Or Friday for temp.

Also, anyone asking for a Sinner re-edit (there are a lot of you) — think for a second — how would the weed-bandana guy who does switch drop-ins into double-kinked ditches NOT skate to three dubstep songs? The part is absolutely perfect as it is.