📷 Photo by Greg Navarro
📝 Interview by Farran Golding
If you have been reading QS for some time, you’ve no doubt heard us echo the sentiment that your friends are your favorite skaters six million times — probably even in an intro to an old Five Favorite Parts. Vitória’s list is emblematic of that principle. All of our superheroes need that layer of humanity, yaknow? ;)
🔑 Intro, Interview & Edit by Farran Golding
📷 Headline Photo by Wig Worland
🐐 Special Introduction by Paul Shier
Until now, the Favorite Spot series has consulted with those whose prolific outputs have positioned them as the de-facto skateboarders for spots. Our second U.K. edition is the first to somewhat stray from that formula.
After moving to London in 2017, Dom Henry began skating Croydon’s Fairfield Halls — carrying a reverence for Paul Shier’s earlier footage that had stuck with him ever since watching Blueprint’s Waiting For The World as a teenager.
Dom insists he has no claim to Fairfield and that the spot belongs to Shier and the Croydon scene who first localized it. However, in traversing a minefield of cracked flags and taking his breakneck tech to those chewed ledges almost two decades later, Dom’s enthusiasm for Fairfield would give the place a fitting send off and innocently position him as a key part of its folklore.
📝 Interview by Farran Golding
📷 Photo by Ben Colen for Thrasher
Five Favorite Parts is back.
If you ever wondered what possesses someone to, say, 5050 the bench on the Houston median depicted above, or boardslide the knobbed rail on Forsyth Street while everyone else is hurling themselves down the stairs — you can rest assured that the answer is a crossroad between Anthony Pappalardo and Jason Byoun ;)
🎨 Illustration by Cosme Studio
📊 Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine
The results are in: a time-capsule of 2023 skateboarding, as voted by QS readers. Some old favorites have returned to the rankings, and some new ones have emerged.
And yes, it should be stated, perhaps louder than in other years, that year-end rankings are an imperfect artform. Miles Silvas’ “City To City” part that would eventually land him Thrasher‘s S.O.T.Y. trophy premiered a few hours before voting for the QS Readers Poll closed (that didn’t stop him from getting some votes in those final moments though.) Yuto dropped his April part three days after voting closed. But we are committed to the belief that nobody wants to talk about 2023 after Christmas. And for a year when it felt like Skateboard Oscars Season™ began in August, we had to make the call. All those parts that missed the cutoff will be eligible for next year’s voting, same as years past.
If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 4th to December 8th. If you’re interested in the methodology, 4PLY broke down how we tally the votes ✨
“Leftover and lost footage, glitched tapes, steady shot on, broken mic, windshield lens, and other angles.” Paul Coots uploaded a twenty-minute, black-and-white raw reel of outtakes from The HIT Video, which dropped this time, two years ago. Heavy on the Max clips, obvs. Rumor has it that Coots is working on a sequel! 🤞
Transworld, which apparently has the rights to the 411VM archive (or something to that effect, idk), revived the video magazine’s “Spot Check” featurette for a modern version. The first installment is shot by Mike Sass and checks out Borough Hall, covering every corner from the micro curved ledge to the tall ‘n short handrails.
Lee Madden and the Orchard crew put together a 2013-2023 retrospective edit of Brian Reid’s footage on account of him joining the pro ranks ❤️
Greg Szudzik and Ben Patrick’s shared part in Dana Ross’ Purpose video is live. You can buy the video in full via Dana’s webstore.
