After shelving the plan indefinitely after Tompkins was repaved, the Parks Department announced that it intends to paint the surface as an effort to preserve the asphalt longer. Work is slated to begin this week, but you know how that goes… #tfreport
“As one nerd pointed out, an Olympic-level skater like Yuto films a banger and people clap, because that trick is hard and Yuto did it perfectly. Antonio films a trick and people laugh, because it is so fucking insane that he did that that it may as well be a joke.” Monster Children celebrated Antonio Durao week month by interviewing the man himself.
The Blue Couch crew is back with a four-minute refresher edit featuring a solid batch of clips from Noe Horiwaki, Mecca Mshaka-Morris, Caleb Yuan, Zac Negron and Carlos Canter. Ender at the 125th Street banks is 🔥
Probably the heaviest Duplex edit to date: “Low Rent — Episode 2” is now live on Thrasher, with a hall of fame nollie backside flip from Jace that they don’t even save for the ender 😲
We have a capsule with Nike SB releasing this Saturday, April 14. It’s definitely our best one! More info soon ♥
Gonna throw in an early left field link, but the Pass~Port in Greece edit is the best (i.e. watched it more than once) trip edit that’s dropped during 2018’s Winter Getaway Footage Dump Season (yes, I know Australia is in the southern hemisphere.) It’s always nice to learn of some nice new songs in a skate edit too :)
“That’s what I keep telling myself, ‘maybe in ten more years.’ Those ten years go by and I’m still not ready. Actually, I’ve come to terms with it, this is it.” Skate Jawn interviews productivity legend, Dave Caddo.
“In a Warhol-esque version of a future skate industry where 1% of pros earn lavish salaries and the rest ball for position, will everyone have their own brand, with price-points scaling higher in accordance with gnarliness and footage releases?” Boil the Ocean on pros’ t-shirt ventures, and the cult of Jerry Hsu’s Sci-Fi Fantasy brand.
Even if it is in the Times + includes the phrases “daredevils” and “neoliberal training grounds,” Jeff Ihaza’s feature on how skateparks came to be understood, accepted, and built passes the litmus test of linkable traditional news outlet skate coverage.
While the Times may think we “won,” we also lost one of the best ledges in lower Manhattan this past week. The deknobbed ledge at Seaport that was more-or-less a go over the past year-plus is now knobbed not only for grinds, but for manuals too!
Normally don’t care about “oh, so-and-so already skated to that song”-isms — especially in this fickle footage economy — but “Blowing Up Fast” holds a special place in many hearts. This guy does a line at Three Up Three Down, hypes up P-Rod, and has never seen Baker Has a Deathwish, which is totally fine because it’s almost ten-years-old now goddamn.
“Eternal Youth in Tompkins Square” is a New York Times style section feature documenting many of the new(ish) faces around T.F. these past couple years, shot by our friend Danny Weiss, with words from Ted Barrow, the skater who Jason Byoun would show his mom if she asked what skateboarding was.
“This spot is long gone. We called them ‘Chelsea Banks’ because they were on the West Side Highway in Chelsea, directly across the highway from, what is today, the Chelsea Piers Skatepark. Today this spot is a little green triangular park, but back then it was a shit show.” TWS interviewed original Zoo York co-founder, Eli Gesner, and original Shut rider, Jeremy Henderson, about filming Mark Gonzales during the first time he ever came to New York in 1987.
Calzone is Matt Velez’s sequel to Sable, due to premiere in Brooklyn on November 30th. Full parts from Mark Humienik, Nick Ferro, et al. Flyer here. Small teaser here.
Quote of the Week Observant Gentleman: “It’s crazy you ride for Polar but aren’t good at wallies.” Hjalte Halberg: “Yeah, but at least I learned no complys recently.”
Ryan Garshell is committed to the craft of filming in as literal of a sense as imaginable — the only way he bails on a hill bomb is if a car literally forces him off his board. While some put their energy into production value, weird archival footage and editing, GX’s preoccupation is portraying skating’s rawness and lasting criminality. Garshell is skating’s largest proponent of the camera that Bill Strobeck threw in the trash a few years ago, and his filming is often as fucked as whatever is going on in front of the lens. As the skater, there must be some added incentive to land tricks when you know that your filmer will see the clip through no matter how steep the hill, how bummed the homeowner or how many cops are present.
GX1000 managed to create a style of video that is completely unique — an aesthetic that is so hard to imitate because it would require being as crazy as Garshell himself, whose five favorite video parts are listed immediately below this sentence.
