One Step Above Garbage

curbz

They painted the curbs here yellow, and now it’s the second or third best spot in the city that you don’t get kicked out of. Paint more stuff yellow.

Can’t remember the last time a montage got me as psyched as “Faces,” the new one from Ben Chadourne, featuring the Blobys, Bobby Worrest, Hjalte, etc. These videos have a remarkable way of making Paris look like the funnest place in the world (which it probably is), even in the winter. The Rod Stewart is also perfect.

“As tennis’ stars age, will aping skateboarding provide an elixir of youthful advertising audiences or will tennis’ wealthy overlords catch onto the notion that a sizable bulk of pro shoes and contract dollars are tied up in veteran pros whose salad grinding days of filming feature length video parts may lie years in the past?” — Boil the Ocean re: skateboarding’s current infatuation with tennis. Frozen in Carbonite also tackled this subject four years ago following Gino’s Mcenroe commercial et al.

Kingpin interviewed Nick Von Werssowetz about his new company, Hotel Blue and the evolution of LurkNYC. Part 3 of Lurk’s “Mean Streets” series is also now live.

The Bunt has a tell-all interview with Darren Harper. Daniel Kim is my fave skater too.

Whoa is this the first wear test video to feature the Le Bain hot tub? Is that even the Le Bain hot tub? Ripped Laces x Canal Wheels give the Brad Cromer Huf pro model a try.

Given that 2016 marks the twenty-year anniversary of everything from Welcome to Hell, to E.E. 3 to Mouse, SMLTalk has a retrospective of all the seminal 1996 videos in two parts. Also kinda hard to disagree that Tincan Folklore was a precursor to a lot of the shit going on in videos today, even moreso than its exalted predecessor.

After the demise of Love, the Sabotage boys took a southern trip hitting a string of the few remaining plazas left in the U.S: Pulaski, Raleigh Courthouse, Legislative (safe to say this is probably the best spot in the country at this point?), Blackbox, etc.

The 917 team dropped a midwest tour video in anticipation of their Nike collab.

“Pure Moods” is a new half New York / half S.F. montage from Waylon Bone.

NY Skateboarding posted part three of their Huf interview, which discusses the rebirth of Metropolitan Wheels, the Marc Johnson v.s. Choc beef, etc.

Um, Ghetto Child Wheels is making a comeback, with almost the same team. And the god Peter Smolik already left the rebooted Menace before the reboot even got to booting in order pursue his own skateboard business venture. Godspeed to the god.

Quote of the Week
Pryce Holmes: “I probably spend $30,000 a year on booze.”
Ben Blundell: “I’ve never made over ten.”

You Should Bounce

met

Salute to any brave souls skating today. Supposed to hit almost 100.

Josh Stewart uploaded Quim Cardona’s Static IV part to YouTube this weekend.

“By the time the 1980s rolled around, neurotic Americans had a myriad of threats from which to choose, including annihilation via thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union, drugs, and lil’ old Satan—vis-à-vis metal. Interestingly, all three of these all-consuming fears produced timeless art, i.e. Red Dawn, Rocky IV, Straight Outta Compton, and the 101 Natas “Devil Worship” board. Frozen in Carbonite examines the relationship between satanic iconography and skateboarding.

“[Ricky Oyola] had no pop. He had some tricks but he was a jock, man. He was good but he wasn’t Fred Gall.” Chromeball interviewed Brooklyn native, Ryan Hickey.

Big week for opinions re: Oyola. Bobshirt interviewed Danny Garcia. And nobody sit here and talk like Chad Fernandez hasn’t altered the course of skateboard history.

The Shady One™ has a website up for his new brand: Iggy.nyc.

The new Sour promo gets our best Euro vid of 2016 [thus far] nod. Friday’s QS Top Ten had bits of it, but that full Gustav Tonneson part is awesome.

A video interview with Philly Santosuosso that breaks down the realities of running a skateshop. [Sidebar: Ok, we got a “Married to the Game” instrumental, but could we please get one of the Esco Terrestrial intro without all the talking over it?]

Midtown, 2010-2014 via Hit You Off Management to Bernard Herrman’s last film score.

Taji / Vice skated a bunch of Trump buildings with Leo, Billy, etc. — but somehow missed the one on 47th and 1st Avenue that Matt Daniels 5050ed the sign at in his Outdated part (fwiw, it probably has the best skate spot out of any Trump building, but those benches on 60th and Broadway were fire when we were like, 13.)

Chill summer iPhone video via Jesse Alba with some Paul Tucci sightings :)

The Seasons boys are premiering a new video on the 23rd.

Wallies on moving Citibikes and people starting to skate the Dumbo bump to hill / 2006 Spot of the Summer again Evan Dittig’s HYD part.

YO, what the hell is the deal with that Fat Kid Skatepark? It seems like it has looked like this for the past half year plus. This would be an ideal time of year for elsewhere to take some of the crowd that makes its way to L.E.S. by noon, or like, nice to have another skatepark with some shade. Who’s got the insider info? They may as well have let the manny pad, rail and benches run for the summer…

Quote of the Week: “People ask what the 25¢ on my shirt means and I tell them that’s what my checking account says.” — Dylgr

The shrimp is coming…

She Think It’s Wavy & Gnarly

book

Thanks for all the love for the ten-year. The book drops December 8. It’s really cool. More info soon.

Late one today, but late-day posts during #nyfw are kinda like a QS tradition ;)

Labor has Sabotage 4 DVDs. (Also ICYMI.)

2015’s version of skateboard literature’s longest running summer wrap-up is here: Dubai or Not Dubai – Frozen in Carbonite’s S.O.T.S. x P.O.T.S. post. “Indeed, using the most powerful communication medium of our time—Instagram—as a yardstick, following the most popular thirst trap accounts down an Instagram wormhole leads to a dark place where every comment is either in a foreign alphabet or ‘Come to Dubai.'” (P.S. Who the HELL is responsible for deleting that Tiago Lemos We Are Blood remix from FB? Someone please re-upload it. P.P.S. “Stick Talk” > “I Serve the Base” for Tiago maybe. P.P.P.S. Can confirm Future cuts the music off and puts his thumb in the air after the “I ain’t got no manners…”-part when performing “Stick Talk.”)

Malfa uploaded a lot of great photos from the “CORE” upstate New York trip.

Tim O’Connor interviewed Bill Strobeck for an hour-and-a-half.

Jim Hodgson uploaded a five-minute 1996 edit of QS cult-favorite, Andy Bautisa, largely filmed at QS cult-favorite skate spot, Lackawanna Ledges. (Relevant.)

Free Skate Mag has an article and some photos from a Palace trip to Paris that ended up producing a lot of the footage from Paramount.

Rob Harris posted a 13-minute throwaway reel with a bunch of footage from the M.P.C.™ guys, and Max Hull uploaded another video of their trip down to Puerto Rico (includes Watermelon Man sightings.)

Ten years prior to Canada’s current #moment, it had a smaller, more skate-centric #moment when videos like North were dropping. Village Psychic revisited the 2004 Anti-Social video from that era. (Anti-Social has a new one dropping next spring, btw.)

Youness is without question one of the top-three most impressive IRL skateboarders I have ever witnessed. Someone made an Instagram remix of his footage, and I’m sure he did it all in under five tries probably joking around.

Most of my friends rocked the Staples way heavier as far as Lakais went, but there was definitely a later cult around the Manchesters. SMLTalk has a requiem for maybe the last Lakai shoe to make an imprint in the skate footwear landscape.

The soap shoes documentary is finished!

The new Bust Crew video is basically a Mother / Quasi bro-cam montage, and that Gilbert back lip on the Kent Ave. step is super cool :)

Gonz kinda sorta tells the story of the original ollie over the eventual “Gonz Gap.”

Quote of the Week: “I don’t fuck with that ‘bros over hoes’ code. That’s some skater bullshit.” — C. Williams

Thought It Was a Drought

forrest

Just take me to a spot that’s famous.

“In March, Kelvin and the other patinetos left San Salvador in the dead of night, and skated three hundred and fifty miles through Guatemala to the border town of Tecún Umán. That was the easy part. It’s fifteen hundred miles across Mexico, much of it past growing ranks of Mexican immigration security agents, kidnappers and extortionists.” How four dudes skated from El Salvador to the U.S. to flee gang violence …and here we are complaining about how some spot in Bushwick is too far.

A three-minute Challex Olson Instagram footage compilation. He’s singlehandedly keeping 12th & A alive to the world outside of the East Village.

Frozen in Carbonite re-casts a City of God reboot with Brazilian skateboarders.

Much respect to the guys at Blue Tile Skate Shop and Jim T. at Real for their protest against a Klan rally that happened in Columbia, South Carolina this past weekend. (Yes, this country still has fucking Klan rallies.) Here’s a good article from earlier this year about the creation of Jim’s “Hanging Klansman” graphic.

Here’s long iPhone video with the MPC™ / Paych / Sure guys, and here’s a short iPhone video with the MPC™ / Paych / Sure guys.

New part from Chuck MVP, one of the stars of legendary Instagram compilations, Dime Comp Volume 1 and Dime Comp Volume 2. Also features the forever underrated Canadian, Andrew McGraw. #freegucci

This dude nose manualed up Black Hubba.

Skateboard Story interviewed German Nieves, cult hero at the QS office and runner up for best new old part of 2015 (#1 = this), about starting your own brand in 2015.

An interview with the girl behind Girl.

Transworld posted their “AM Spotlight” interview / photos with Antonio Durao. He also switch 360 flipped the double-set at the L.E.S. Park this past weekend. When does the Love Gap get drained again?

ICYMI: Solid new all-HD LurkNYC montage, and an “old” new Jake Johnson part filmed in one day during a stopover in Reading, Pennsylvania.

The marble mini hubbas in midtown are a wrap.

Quote of the Week: “Nobody looks unhappier than people who are really good at skating transition.” — Roctakon

As DS2 blares through portable speakers for the remainder of the summer, let’s take a moment to revisit the classic intro off the ANCIENT original Dirty Sprite mixtape from 2011. Amazing how probably zero other “hot” rappers from back then are #relevant now. The game’s rough man.

Also, shout out to Future for using a Shutterstock image as his album cover.

A Bunch of Dumb Big Pictures & No Numbers

hjalte

After much deliberation, the Nosesliders Guild of America has awarded Hjatle Halberg its “Noseslider of the Year” award based on recent output. This is an unprecedented event, as no foreigner has ever won the coveted title. Photo above by Mike O’Meally.

Studies in Flat — Daniel Lebron.

It seems that Frozen in Carbonite’s hyper-nerdery and far-fetched non sequiturs aren’t translating to Ride Channel commenters, because this was great, at least for fans of the blog: An analysis of the parallels between the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry and current day Boston-New York skateboarding. (Boston is 200+ miles from New York btw.)

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

A lot of familiar faces and hot moves in Debut, a new video featuring the youth.

A boom-bapified remix of peak era Wu-Welsh via Hit You Off Management. That five-trick line at Pier 7 is the absolute best.

Anthony Pappalardo, early Alien days. Shot by Tim Anderson.

Ugggh, I have such a weakness for cute skateboarders.” We have such a weakness for any Ant Banks #musicsupervision in skate videos.

The VX is dead volume seven via Johnny Wilson et al.

Seeing Michael Mackrodt skate in real life is genuinely one of the most impressive things you could ever witness in skateboarding. His consistency and quick footedness is absurd (personal top 3 most impressive IRL pros.) The next best thing is seeing him skate on video, via this new all-lines part filmed out in the Parisian suburbs. (He also had a New York “Fishing Lines” part in 2010, in case you didn’t know.)

Despite all its frustrations, midtown is still the funnest.

Quick montage from the crew at Matériel Supply.

Got a kick out of this: “Fear City,” a mid-seventies pamphlet covertly distributed to tourists by NYPD unions at odds with the mayor (sound familiar?)

In case you only go on skate websites…you’ll be paying $2.75 to ride the train and $116.50 for an unlimited starting March 22nd.

Until Travis Porter fulfills recent promises of bringing the “fun” back to music, Rae Sremmeueurururd is the Rap Desk’s fill-in vote for “funnest” rap group of the moment:

[Late] Spot Updates: 1) Not many people caught onto this spot, but it had a short lifespan. 2) Those round flatbars on 22nd and Fifth near the Flatiron Building are gone. 3) The two-second bust Marriott Banks are also gone.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: What else? Klay Thompson went 13-of-13 from the field (nine of which were contested three-pointers) against the Sacramento Kings earlier this week, in what was an utter video game of a single quarter. He now holds the record for most points in a NBA quarter with 37. The Golden State Warriors will be at Madison Square Garden on Saturday :)

Quote of the Week: “Oh Fifty Shades of Grey, I want to read that when the movie comes out.” — E.J.

Good luck with the snow these next two days. The National Weather Service is predicting we may get up to two feet in the city :( Dust those ‘Lo boots off.