Unforgettable — The Oral History of the Twin Towers in Skate Photos

Intro + Interviews by Adam Abada
Header Collage by Requiem For A Screen

The World Trade Center — with its centerpiece, the Twin Towers — opened just a few months before the Knicks won their second championship in 1973, and symbolized a new, modernized era of New York City. As literal twins, the Towers are excellent symbols for the push and pull of capital versus culture which, by the 70s, was really coming to a head in American society. They were the biggest buildings in the world and just one wasn’t even enough.

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Slam City Jam One Foot Crook Let’s Go

Rodney by Reda, behind Pyramid Ledges from the June 1998 TWS via Ted Newsome’s “New York Minute” spreads. This spot would be extra contemporary today had it not been knobbed for ~two decades.

“Words are escaping me, you’re talking about people I have a strong emotional connection to.” Torey Goodall’s Bunt interview is reaffirming proof of the fact that if you just go on enough drunken trips to New York, things sometimes just kinda work out in the end ♥ Just don’t ask him how he feels about Charles Rivard…

Idk what you’re doing if you haven’t watched Justin Henry’s Quasi video “Rough Cut” yet. Good bit of New York clips obvs, etc.

“Don’t mansplain tricks. Get out of here, you’re taking the fun out of skating. If you just go away, I’ll be so much happier. Half the fun of learning is doing it yourself.” Imagine having the audacity of giving Lacey Baker unsolicited trick tips. Anthony “The Writer” Pappalardo wrote an extended profile of Lacey for Huck magazine.

Shout out to every “Summer Trip to New York” clip with no Blue Park footage :) Here’s a nine-minute one from the Sk8 Hop dudes out of Puerto Rico, featuring some Watermelon Alex cameos!

Always great to see new Juan and Karl footage (that nollie nosegrind revert!) — here they are in the Yoan Taillandier’s latest “Futur Timeline” clip, skating an undecipherable European city ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Would probably leave Milano Centrale off a “hidden plazas” listicle (this one in Turin, on the other hand…), but Theories has a feature about Europe’s best, non-Spanish/Southbank/Republique/obvious plazas. We out to Bulgaria?

Bontó” is the latest from the Rios boys, Europe’s most productive crew, and specialists in skating spots that I have absolutely zero interest in ever skating ;)

Boil the Ocean considers the enduring legacy of Haulin’ Ass To Hall & Oats.

Luis Tolentino and Leo Heinert skate the 181st Street park for an afternoon. That park is actually a street spot btw.

Antosh put together a quick street edit of our friends in Vancouver.

Skate Jawn flew out to Morocco to help build a skatepark. Here’s the video.

Quote of the Week: “Imagine how mean Torey would be if he had boobs.” — Julia Kidder

This album arrived and went with a whimper when it came out, but now it’s a few degrees cooler and this is the only song the office listens to.

Flu-shion Week

Photo by Colin Sussingham

Happy birthday Zach Baker ♥, breaker of 4 boards in 40 minutes.

R.I.P. (?) Le Dome. Based on documentation available on this side of the Atlantic, it’s tough to tell whether the plaza is getting demolished in full, or they’re just resurfacing it with Skatelite. (Yeah, it’s not local news, but recent local skate spot news stops around, um, that wallride / drug-use area outside of Newark Penn Station being skate-blocked / crack-blocked.) In presumed memoriam, here is an old #PFW QS compilation of all Flo Marfaing’s Le Dome hubba tricks, an old post about the greatest line ever done there, an old post about the only 5050 kickflip that ever mattered, and a clip of The Shady One going all-in #respect on a 5050 after a plane claim.

“Kevin Tierney wouldn’t shut up about how he was going to switch laser flip the Le Dome double set even though it had already been done 15 years ago.” Solo has an appropriate article about the Bronze crew’s most recent trip to Paris.

Matt Velez uploaded Calzone is full, and John Valenti uploaded N.Y. Archive in full.

What the fuck: “You have to take a blood and piss test to skate [the indoor park] so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most locals skip that option.” Medium skate mag has a short feature about how people manage to skate in Russia during the winter.

“This is the best time to skate Rick Owens.” There’s a fun new Bluecouch edit up.

The summer 2012 edition of Elkin’s raw files is now live, featuring a bunch of footage that would end up in Leo’s 2013 Q.S.S.O.T.Y-earning Brodies part.

Village Physic interviewed Reda about the rules of being a skate photographer in the social media age. (Unsolicited link to Reda’s Bobshirt interview because it’s the best.)

There have been a few of these over the past couple years, but Vice has a feature about skateboards’ three-decade avoidance of inflation. I have a feeling that if we keep writing these things it’s gonna be some “be careful what you wish for”-shit and we’re going to walk into a shop and boom, $85 for a deck with grip. Thanks everyone!!!

There’s a Brujas x Gang Corp event at the Spin Club on 23rd Street tonight, 8-midnight + there’s a Deckaid show at NJ Skateshop in Hoboken on Saturday, from 7-10 P.M.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Everything fun in the NBA last week mostly happened off the court, so let’s get weird and give play of the week to the most complicated way of preventing a ball from going out of bounds ever.

Quote of the Week
C.J: “How long is fashion week?”
Fashionable Gentleman: “A week.”

Who Is the Manu Ginobli of Skateboarding?

vega fakie flip

Vega by Heikkila

Should be caught up with shipping web orders from last week by the end of today. Thanks to everyone for their support. If you don’t receive a tracking number to the e-mail you ordered with by tomorrow, feel free to hit us up. In the meantime, there’s still a bit of stuff left in the webstore, and we have updated our stockists page.

Stuff you’ve already seen: Bronze and Zoo York’s “Amber Alert” Barcelona video, featuring the fakie flip above (from the spot everyone got kicked out of on that trip.) Thrasher also posted the article and photos from the trip online.

Village Psychic made an infographic to commemorate ten years of B.A.T.B.

Any video featuring youths skating midtown gets a post: Bot Video from Ewan Creed.

Volume 22 of LurkNYC’s “New York Times” outtakes series features a long lens angle of that psychotic 5050 across the scaffolding at Chase from their last video.

Have a hard time telling Roman and Marek apart sometimes, but the Primitive trip to D.C. and New York clip is pretty bomb, and a nice palette cleanser when you need a break from the “relatable” skating we post on here :)

The Bunt’s latest episode is with Aaron Herrington (shout out to all of our scooter rider QS readers and to Aaron Szott), and Jenkem’s latest episode of their “Hanging Out” series is with…Aaron Herrington.

Everyone’s always surprised to remember that Keith Denley still rides for Hopps, but nobody is surprised that Mark Del Negro now rides for Hopps. Jahmal cameo ♥

Ever since the Bobshirt thing (fave one yet), I’ll watch/read any Reda interview. This new(ish) one with a CUNY college show is nice to throw on in the background.

Some Jersey skating B-sides from Tommy Koehne.

Place has a light interview with Lucas.

“When you feel overwhelmed, walk alone through the woods and forget your name, your title, your education and view yourself for what you really are — another mammal wondering why it is here but appreciating the fact that your civilization has not as yet been evaporated by a supernova.” — Got sidetracked reading a 2012 MIT commencement speech while doing this post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You can pretty much skip the first half because you didn’t go to MIT, but the rest is a nice #mondaymotivation #riseandgrind #letsgetit #workflow moment.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: John Wall’s game winner was sick, and tonight is the most excited the Sports Desk has been for a game all post-season, but 87-year-old Manu Ginobli’s block on Harden takes it. He also dunked in the game yesterday and he’s 93 years old. It’d be nice if the Kawai thing isn’t serious :(

Quote of the Week:

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Love how half the skateboard internet re-posted this part like it was new, but yeah, it deserved a lot more burn when it first dropped. Watch Bleach in full here, and should someone upload a single of Mark’s Sable part?

Mondays Are For The Links

jav

Jav. Westside. Reda.

Bobshirt interviews have kinda replaced Epicly Later’d as the eminent series for telling stories about the good old days. Every edition is great, but the new one with Giovanni Reda is a truly special. He’s an encyclopedia of New York skateboarding. Also #respect on the comments re: having no shame in fanning out in adult years :)

It’s incredible how the crowd consensus on a new skatepark in New York can go from “It’s so fun, flows well, actually has straight [fucking] ledges” to “it’s too dusty, everything is uphill and awkward” in 72 hours. Are we the worst? Probably. NY Skateboarding has photos of the completed Fat Kid Skatepark in downtown Brooklyn.

Some people just aren’t that bright yaknow?

With so many skate videos out every day, it’s rare to see something that truly reminds you of no other skate clip that you’ve ever seen before. A trip to a string of ancient cities outside of Moscow known as the “Golden Ring” by Russia’s Absurd Skateboards. It’s trippy man.

A link to a video clip that features Javier Sarmiento, Jesus Fernandez, Daniel Lebron, Luy-Pa Sin and Tom Penny. #EuroTech™ #EuroTech™ #EuroTech™

TWS put its feature on Colin Read and Spirit Quest online.

“Skate the streets while you still can.” Thrasher has an interview with Bobby and Hjalte about the making of “Looks OK To Me.”

Straight on backside 180 over the Columbus Park rail and other points of interest in the sixth installment LurkNYC’s “Mean Streets” series.

“The beauty of the skate industry is you make lifelong friendships. Once you’re in there, if you’re working hard and doing a good job you’re basically in for life.” Skateboard Story interviewed Mike Gilbert, the director of Thrasher‘s website, about running a skateboard media company in 2016.

Jenkem followed up with Billy Rohan after that Politico story about him meeting with Tr*mp came out last week. Didn’t actually happen, but honestly, I’m not putting anything past a dude who got permits to skate in front of the White House and rights to print federal emblems on skateboards back in 2009…

Boil the Ocean tackles the election, reports of Cliché’s demise (“confirmed” on this?), and Canada excelling at everything this past Drake-dominated half-decade. #morelife

Nine-minute B-roll of some ATL (?) dudes skating New York this past summer.

“As I float away, it must be a dream…” 90-minute best of Mr. 3-2 mix. S/O Martorialist.

QS Sports Russell Westbrook Desk: Come on now. Dagger in Houston. Hey, Russ is at the Garden this time next week btw ;)

Quote of the Week: “I don’t like drinking in my skate clothes.” — Will Robson-Scott

Two favorite songs right now ♥ If you see Thando, buy him a drink.