A Tribute To The Endurance of Those Who Skate The Medians

We all know the ancient proverb: “One man’s infrastructural banality is another man’s tailslide.”

But for all the details of cities that skateboarders pay a perverse amount of attention to — the positioning of cracks before stairs, the shapes of curbs, literal fucking trashcans — our ability to isolate a select few traffic medians as desirable places to hang out at is an under-appreciated tidbit of our lunacy.

To the average person, a median divides two opposing directions of traffic. Unless someone is an engineer, there is absolutely no reason to spend any of their precious time on earth thinking about one. To a skateboarder though… it’s not a ledge, it’s not a curb — it’s a ledge on TOP of a curb.

Given our struggles of just being left alone at a decent-enough ledge, some of our more able-bodied colleagues sought refuge in the soothing serenity of New York City traffic. And like many parables of post-Financial Crisis skateboarding, this one begins with Jake Johnson.

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Nor’easter Links

huf reese

Late start today innit. All remaining QS hats in the webstore are $15 btw ♥

When I don’t skate I get stoked when I skate.” Same.

The Parks Department sessions Central Park for All City Showdown. Comedy aside, there’s something admirable about filming an entire montage in a place well known for having next to nothing to skate. There are those three sets of three on a hill at the south entrance of the reservoir that would actually look great on film though…

Muckmouth’s rant on ETN — essentially Pay-Per-View for skating — is one of the funnier pieces of skateboard writing in recent memory, but the most quotable lines are a bit too risqué for the #SFW environment of a Monday QS post :)

The Tennyson Corp just keeps reelin’ in the hits. The latest is a mix of J.B. and Caesar Singh’s 411 footage. Is the fact that J.B. is European the only reason why he’s often forgotten on First Team Prodigious Nineties Street Skaters lists? Yes? Though so.

Kalis is one of the rare pros whose interviews always feel different and new, even though he’s covered the same tried and true subjects before. He’s got two out this week, both on the occasion of his first trip to London…one with Kingpin about a vindictive $117,000 tax bill from the city of Philadelphia, and another with Slam City Skates with some good bits about the homogenization of 360 flips.

Chima was a bit more unhinged than a lot of guests on the season finale of The Bunt. Requests for next season: Kalis (duh), Zered, Forrest, Jake, Smolik, Muska.

Politic put Danny Renaud’s part from Division, their most recent video, up online. You can find Caddo’s part here, in case you missed it ;)

Russian Bob uploaded nine minutes of raw Gavin Nolan footage.

Might be a tough sell to some of our curmudgeonous colleugues, but Ripped Laces is contending that Reebok is skateboarding’s favorite “unofficial” skate shoe.

Even if it’s basically a lookbook, Leo footage is Leo footage.

l train coming from city

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Kristaps’ block in a game that resulted in the first Nets home win in sixteen games. Yeah, I just had this one on in the background last night. No, I didn’t watch it for more than 15 seconds at a time.

Quote of the Week: “Toughen up dude, have a piña colada.” — David Dowd

That Parks Department clip reminded me of the time Ja$onwear noseslid the entire 10-flat-10-flat-10 “hubba” at the 6th Avenue entrance of Central Park, so here’s the 2003 masterpiece as a digitally remastered 2017 Criterion Collection GIF.

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Damn, Remember That Week With Seven Updates?

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Connor Champion at that ledge you’ve seen at least two of your friends die on. Photo by Corn.

QS webstore is now live with new beanies, longsleeve Snackman pocket tees, a reissue of the Tompkins Track Club hoody, and restocks on fall items. All of the new items are webstore only, i.e. won’t be at any shops. Also, we promise sending orders out won’t be a shit show like the last drop :) Thank you everyone for the support ♥

Solo interviewed Cyrus.

Tiago should’ve got S.O.T.Y, but at least Michael Scott is finally happy.

You probably saw it, but it’s perplexing as to how nine minutes of raw Jake Johnson footage can only have ~21K YouTube views? The remixes are bound to be rolling these next couple weeks, so here’s one that imagines if the rumors about Jake getting on Polar a year or two ago actually came true.

Why does it seem like frontside noseslide nollie heel out to fakie has been having a moment lately? Zoo dropped a sick 1/2 Ron Deily, 1/2 Gavin Nolan part last week.

Carlos Mendoza did the stage to rock ollie at 20th and C backwards

Village Psychic eulogizes Cliché. J.B’s Freedom Fries part will always be #top5 for me.

“It is widely agreed that anything that ever happened in skateboarding, past or present, occurred on Osiris’ 2001 ‘Aftermath’ tour.” Boil the Ocean on the decreasing chance of untapped interview subjects in skateboarding. Yo, who was at the Aftermath Tour stop at Chelsea Piers that day? We should all do a reunion.

Jenkem hung out with the one-man team behind @vintagesponsor.

The Kush Cowboy lipslide hubba from “cherry” just got torn down, so this long-winded Diamond commercial is most likely the last bit of footage you’re going to see on it.

Part one of a trip video featuring the two greatest New Jerseyian skateboarders roadtripping up to Maine. Don’t watch it if you’re hungry though.

Nothing to do with skating…just want to point you guys who like words in the direction of this incredible piece of longform journalism ;)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Ish? Ish! (Yeah, this could be Russ every week.)

Quote of the Week:
chuck

Gonna throw the unsolicited information out there that I’d be perfectly fine with spending American currency on a Tinashe x Metro Boomin album…

Better Days

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“Dylan Rieder’s contribution to all this isn’t quantifiable, which is partly the point. He rose up with the technical chops and California-dream profile that opened a potential path to a Ryan Sheckler lifestyle enabled by the deepest-pocketed surf and sport gear sponsors. Instead he sought counsel from addled iconoclasts AVE and Dill, pared back his trick repertoire and designed skateable loafers; his Street League runs read like some lyrical argument for quality over quantity, and he got to see the movement he helped shape flow across borders in ‘cherry,’ setting one of the more vibrant arcs for skating so far this decade.” — Boil the Ocean. Rest in Peace Dylan Rieder ♥

A link to the best video part of the 2010s.

There’s a new old bad obstacle at 12th & A. Also the barrier might be gone from TF?

An eight-minute compilation of Strobeck outtakes via his Instagram clips.

Already getting preemptive anxiety about when The Bunt’s season ends, and a new episode is no longer a regular part of the QS office’s work week for a while. The new one with Rick McCrank is great, as always.

Anthony Correa gets Bob Shirt’d. Hoboken Ledges are my favorite Jersey spot too :(

Always had a soft spot for cheesy nineties KTU dance songs. A bunch of Jersey dudes did a summer trip to Montreal. The nollie inward heel is #lol.

Village Psychic dwells on the difficulty of an effective [regs] inward heelflip.

Skateboard Story interviewed Marty Engren of Flippin’ Goods about running a European skate distro based on #small #brandz (Theories, Bronze, QS, others.)

The Watermelon man is throwing an event at the 2nd Nature Park this Wednesday.

Rick + Chico + Gonz + others mess around at Tompkins and elsewhere.

Gavin Nolan has a new welcome part for Mighty Healthy w/ cameos from Connor et al.

Jenkem’s Tim O’Connor Show sat down with Ian Reid and Mike Carroll to talk about Ian’s interesting forays into bondage photography, traveling to Chernobyl, etc.

The best ledges in Manhattan are now partially blocked off by scaffolding. You could still skate a lot of the spot, but half of it is super uncomfortable because you’re always at least four feet away from some bolt sticking out.

On this 10/17, please allow me to point you in the direction of “paint like Play-Doh the alfredo Lambo, the shrimp scampi Chevy and the guts look like egg yolk.”

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: All QS readers who hate sports are probably going to have to put up with a couple Russell Westbrook highlights getting thrown into #QSTOP10s this next half year. 2017 MVP let’s get it.

Quote of the Week: “I’m not sure I could live with somebody who could nollie backside 180 a bump to bar.” — Conor Prunty

Shout out to the boy Jonky Jack.

A Dying Breed — The One Spot Part

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Photo: Cronan

A one-spot part was once a natural occurrence and a reflection of habit. Just as partying ate into the time we spent dedicated to night clips, a nationwide depletion of friendly plaza space pushed us into the crust. It now takes a concerted effort to film an entire part in [or mostly in] one place. On a week where we are mourning the loss of skateboarding’s most serendipitous crossroad with public space, let us not forget to celebrate the living.

By previous conservative definitions, Eggs wouldn’t have been considered a plaza. It’s in central Boston, but tucked away in central Boston; the nearest store is still a bit of skate away, rendering the “run, skate, chill, go to the store”-litmus test a fail. As center-city spots turned to memories over the last decade-and-a-half and our friends went searching for cellar doors, we had to widen the classification.

In 2016, Flushing’s a plaza, Third and Army is a plaza and Eggs is a plaza. We had to look past how far they were situated from sustenance. They had open space, they had a history and they had a culture.

Today, we celebrate Eggs with Gavin Nolan, via the lens of perhaps the most well-regarded one-spot part in skate video history. The rest is just a bonus reel. After all, how much actual footage of the subject was there in that 4:30 Reason part ;) ?

Filmed by R.B. Umali, Tom Gorelik, Evan Walsh & Elliott Vecchia. Also maybe the most boom-bap QS remix / clip ever, even though it has a guy from the Bay rapping on it :)