📝 Intro + Interview by Greg Navarro
📷 Photography by Greg Navarro, Thomas Goldman & Cooper Qua
Cooper Qua is from Albany, New York and is the youngest team rider on Quasi Skateboards. His debut video part for the company is in their latest video, Hard Reset. I sat down with Cooper at Tompkins to chat about the future of Quasi and to hear about his dream of becoming a pro skateboarder as a teenager from Upstate New York.
Have been laughing about this for a week straight. Via Tao.
The winter’s been so fucked that Courthouse is a snowboard spot now.
“It is my last name. It is not a stage name.” Skate Jawn interviewed Elisa Martini.
Max Hull’s Hell Yeahh (Too Nice To Skate) is a masterpiece of unc skateboard cinema. It includes Gabe Tennen[‘s Wonderful Horrible Life], Conor Prunty’s salute to ten years since “422,” a Joe Scordo “My War,” Sadie BGPs, a full Luke Koch part, and so much more. If you are in your unc years or even on the cusp of unc-ness and in the midst of finding excuses to not skate on a weekend or just hit the skatepark for an hour, seeing Gabe shred should be inspo enough to commit to relearning some of your lost tricks this spring.
A reminder that Tricolor Patinetas’ 1999 video out of Mexico is essential viewing. Find your friend with the biggest screen you know, invite some friends over, bring some drinks and watch it together this week.
Way back when, we were reporting on a new skatepark across the Atlantic opening and someone left a now-immortal comment.
“I’ve always wondered what skatepark builders have against STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGES. I live in CO and there’s a skatepark in every town with A 20 foot cradle but not a STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE at any of em. What are the kids gonna do with a 20 FOOT CRADLE?!?! Just build us a STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE and be done with it!”
In the twelve years since, anytime we have reported on a built-for-skateboarding structure, we simply had to commentate on whether or not the park, plaza, et al. included a …Straight Fucking Ledge™.
Today, more New York City skateparks have Straight Fucking Ledges™, though probably not in the abundance that a Straight Fucking Ledge™-enthusiast would want.
📝 Intro + Interview by Greg Navarro
📷 Photography by Greg Navarro
It was a windy day in Maspeth, Queens when I found Alim, 17 years old, fingerboarding at New York’s only D.I.Y. fingerboard park. “Yo, imagine I film a whole fingerboard street part, but it’s on VX1000? Ima’ change the game with that one,” he said to me. I laughed, thinking about all the tape he’d have to waste. “What you laughing at, poser?” he said to me with a grin on his face. Alim is the type of kid who says what he wants.
As we got to know each other, Alim invited me out on a few filming missions with his best friend Elisa Martini, 20 years old, a skater from Jamaica, Queens. Elisa and Alim are the youngest new members of the Bronze 56K crew. For a whole year, as Alim recovered from his ACL surgery, Elisa and him invested in a VX1000 and set out to film a video. On the morning of their video premiere, I sat down with the two friends at the Brooklyn Banks to learn more about the making of “On The Corner.”
