Five Favorite Parts With Etienne Gagne

When discussing formative influences, a lot of people have a tendency to shy away from complete honesty and curate a bit too much. But if we’re being real, there are far more people whose gateways into skateboarding were Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, EA Skate, Jackass, Life of Ryan and Rob Dyrdek than those who woke up with a Mind Field DVD under their pillow.

[Not that all Five Favorite Parts installments are exclusively about formative influences, but let’s face it, the majority are.]

E.T’s list is true to a generation defined by YouTube, skateboarding on TV, and skate DVDs plastic-wrapped with Tech Decks.

FWIW, when pressed for comment on who some of his favorite contemporaries are, he said Genesis Evans and Emile Laurent ❤️

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Five Favorite Parts With Jacopo Carozzi

📷 Photo by Alessandro Simonetti
📝 Intro + Interview by Farran Golding

It is funny how a year can feel quiet for skate media, and then kick into gear in just a little over a week. Such was the case in mid-August when Nike SB’s QuickStrike, Daniel Wheatley’s Soul Crusher, Pop Trading Company’s POP, and Hardbody’s OD all arrived within the span of two weeks. But cast your mind back a little further to July and Jacopo Carozzi’s eponymous video part by Spezzatura was the first piece of skate media to sent phones ringing across the QS international news desks with high acclaim and musings of what might stake a claim in this years’ Readers Poll. [Voting opens in ~two weeks, btw.]

With that in mind, as the year comes to a close, we asked Jacopo to take the stand for the final “Five Favorite Parts” of 2024.

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Five Favorite Parts With Matt Militano

🔑 Intro & Interview by Farran Golding
📝 Photo by Zach Sayles, originally published in Matt and Neil Herrick’s interview for Vague Skate Mag #25

Journeys through cities are a defining characteristic of east coast and independent skateboarding videos. It’s palpable in Matt Militano’s footage, most recently his opener for Zach Sayles’ ethereal production Veil (voted one of the top ten videos of our 2023 Readers Poll and available as a hardcopy directly from Zach for the enthusiasts.)

While skateboarding that is, frankly, very difficult comes packaged with an inherent sense of sincerity, there has always been a playfulness to Matt’s skating — a byproduct of the more unexpected influences he outlines here.

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