The Age of Information — A Young Bench’s Strange, Erotic Journey From Williamsburg to Far Rockaway

rockaway

Tuesday, June 21, 3:02 P.M: Despite tweeting plans of an eight-hour binge that would involve bouncing around screens at the 42nd Street AMC theater, the QS office decided that the national holiday would be best spent on the beaches of Rockaway.

Tuesday, June 21, 7:18 P.M: As the sun began to set, we set our sights on the Beach 91st skatepark. Objectively speaking, it might be the worst skatepark in New York, but we’re great at finding charm in awful things. The park has the special distinction of 1) Being a Hurricane Sandy survivor, 2) An appearance in Phil Rodriguez’s Caviar part, 3) Unlike pretty much every skatepark in New York, it contains what a 2013 Quartersnacks comment dubbed “A STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE.”

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:30 P.M: Sadness begins to set as most parties present did not bring ideal footwear for skateboarding or non cruiser boards. Said sadness is largely due to recurring observations about how fun and ideal of a height the aforementioned “STRAIGHT FUCKING LEDGE” is.

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:34 P.M: Quartersnacks art director, Emilio Cuilan (celebrating a birthday today btw), makes an observation that “I feel like I skated that ledge before, but it was at another spot.”

Tuesday, June 21st, 7:58 P.M: An iPhone photograph of Genesis Evans (of “I didn’t know I was beast until I varial flipped a trash can“-notoriety) performing a backside 180 5-0 grind is taken.

Wednesday, June 22nd, 8:42 P.M: Over 24 hours after the fact, that photograph of Genesis Evans is posted on the Quartersnacks Instagram account, with a note that the trick on display did not occur in Calabasas, and was not at 4 P.M.

Wednesday, June 22, 9:35 P.M: Sognar and Trife alumnus, William McFeely confirms Mr. Cuilan’s suspicions from the day before that perhaps the bench on display had lived life elsewhere via his Instagram account, “@billymcfeely”: “Still don’t understand how the bqe bench got to far rock away.”

Wednesday, June 22, 10:00 P.M: A comprehensive individual with the IG handle “@timandvicstagram” clears the air regarding the bench’s shaky past: “@billymcfeely there was talk way back when that all the ‘skate’ objects under the BQE were under imminent threat of being destroyed by the DOT/DOS. In fact, at one point, one of those agencies actually followed through and began to destroy the bank to bank there. The builder of the bench, instead of waiting for said agencies to make quick work of the bench, decided to move the bench to the Far Rock park after the original got wiped out by Sandy. It just so happened that the park was looking for donations, and through a friend of the OG skate community in NYC, arranged for the bench’s new home at B91. And that my friend is how the “BQE bench” got out to Far Rockaway. And f you absolutely must know how it physically arrived at B91, it arrived by a pick up truck.”

Wednesday, June 22, 10:08 P.M: Mr. McFeely thanks “@timandvicstagram” for the comprehensive response.

The more you know, yaknow ? ;)

Reason #46,395 To Stop Trying To Go Pro

daewon ig

…a 40-year-old’s IG clips represent a zenith of what is possible on a skateboard.

We’ve all fawned over Lucas Puig’s Instagram videos quite a bit, so let’s shift to a perhaps less fashion-forward side of a similar spectrum. For twenty-plus years now, Daewon has been the barometer by which we judged the degree of intricacy to which a human person could cause a skateboard to move with his set of [presumably?] human feet. Following dude’s Instagram in the IG video age just furthered my understanding of how candidly psychotic his skateboarding is. He more-or-less looks like he’s messing around the entire time — something that doesn’t translate as much among his tech-heavy descendants, who end up looking like they, uh, actually had to try really hard for those tricks in their footage.

Triple kickflips aren’t often the genre of skating nerded-out over on this website, but what’s more fun than watching all your expectations of what can be done on a skateboard get torn to shreds? Here are all of Daewon’s IG clips (save a few #tbt posts featuring footage from old parts) in one convenient video.

Wish there was a way to fundraise American currency to get him to film an all-New York part. Those cameos in DVS trip clips aren’t nearly enough :(

Stay warm out there :(

Previously: A Routine Reminder That Daewon is the Best

#TBT: Big Brother Mag Is Back…on Instagram

bigbrother

Print lives on! …via Instagram.

If you need a new follow on the Gram, someone not affiliated with the magazine started a Big Brother fan account: @bigbrotherskateboardmagazine.

Though this is the sort of thing that is probably better-suited for Tumblr, as Instagram sizing issues will render most type unreadable, it’s a nice 612 x 612 reminder of that magazine’s brilliance. There was talk of the entire archive being made available on the Jackass site some years back, but that never happened. (What’s up with troves of nineties skateboarding nostalgia having so many false starts in the digital era? Skateboarder even went under before their plans of making the whole 411 collection available on their site gained any momentum.) The Jackass site became Dickhouse.tv, and while there isn’t anything remotely close to a full archive on there, you can find plenty of good bits relating back to the mag under the “Big Brother” tag on their blog.

People will compare stuff to Big Brother today, but should probably stop. It’s a product specific to another time, and that’s why it’s special. That mag or anything like it could never exist today — even on the internet — without alienating pretty much all potential advertisers and skateboarders they could cover i.e. we got shit for the blatantly tongue-in-cheek Mind Field remix…could you imagine the backlash at some of the insanity that those dudes pulled if it took place in today’s #skateboard #industry?

Stuff We’ve Scanned Before: The Black Issue, The Yellow Issue, Billy Rohan interview from the “Hated & Misunderstood” issue, Danny Supa interview

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2012: 5-1

seaport

2012 is just about a wrap. Have a happy and safe New Year’s. Previously: #s 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6 + 2012 Predictions, The Year in T.F. Obstacles.

5. New York Knobs a Skatepark

With the knobbing of a plaza made up of ledges better than any ledge in a New York skatepark, we reached a new level of absurdity. Previously, tearing out a strip of ground in front of the Small Banks, installing chessboards to entice average citizens and failing miserably was the lowpoint. This spot’s demise more-or-less ended the days of skating Water Street for an entire afternoon, as there’s no longer a “great” spot on the east side of downtown. People now skate skateparks, former C-list spots like Gay Ledges, or went back to what they were doing before Seaport got built, which is skating flat at T.F. If there’s one consolation prize from this situation, it’s that all those overzealous security guards, who would angrily warn everyone of the day when the spot would be knobbed, got fired because there was nothing left for them to do.

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Why keep it 100, when you can keep it 103?

Kevin Tierney – “I Live In a TV” – Photo by Brian Kelley – Click Image To Enlarge

We finally made it onto Instagram. Follow @ Quartersnacks. It’s late because somebody registered “quartersnacks” before we had the chance to, and we decided to avoid it altogether out of stubbornness. Turns out that dude is a total bro, and was down to give up the username. Thanks to the homie Aidan for being a good sport about it. Never knew how many people were actually on Instacraze either, it’s wild. (Funny how everyone has the same cell phone now.)

Green Diamond 2011 leftovers video. Features Nick Boserio killing it, Malfa utilizing the newly-reinvogorated slappy crook, and Brian Anderson footage.

Frozen in Carbonite on parallels between Oscar Wilde and the new Sk8Mafia video. “I think Oscar Wilde might possibly have skated, but not extensively. He would have morphed into the kid who sits at the spot, getting up occasionally to try a few soft-footed nollie b/s bigspins, commenting on everyone’s style ‘n shit.”

There’s a nice feature with Steven Lora (“Lil’ Steven”) on Slap right now. A lot of people linked the video for it, but neglected to mention it was a full-on article. Good to see the young kids who rip at 12th Street every day getting some coverage. The catch frame on the back lip flip-out sequence is solid.

Billy McFeely is a sick actor.

In all honesty, the Skavenger BMX video is better than most of the skate videos to come out this year. If you make skate videos, you could learn a thing or ten from these dudes.

If you didn’t get a new du-rag in your stocking this Christmas, at least you can watch the latest “Krispy Du-Rag” clip with your dusty one on. Switch front 5050s up hubbas, Rob Gonyon skating to Future, etc.

Josh Stewart’s site has Poisonous Products DVDs for sale. $10, and you don’t need to wait for it to arrive from Canada.

Quote of the Week Year:


…and if you haven’t downloaded Black Dave’s Black Santa mixtape yet, you’re blowing it.