Puerto Rico — like every other skate destination in the world — has its fail safes. Just as you can’t get through a “Summer Trip to New York” clip without someone skating the Rector Street Bench or doing a trick over the wall at Columbus Park, Puerto Rico has its unavoidable trappings that appear in every last bit of getaway coverage. You end up having to roll the dice: either make the half-hour/45 minute drive to the smaller cities outside San Juan and hope you find spots, or go where you know there’s going to be shit to skate, even if Robert Lopez Mont fakie flipped it back in some obscure video from 1974.
These safe spots are places you’ve seen throughout Puerto Rico’s current tenure as skateboarding’s de facto winter getaway — the black marble low-to-high, the ledge plaza in Rio Piedras, or the photogenic-but-apparently-really-tough-to-skate bowl in La Perla, which we avoided due to a #nomoreskateparks rule set in place.
And as tired as you may be of seeing the lil’ black marble low-to-high and bank combo spot that Conor Prunty shut down this time last year, you’d be hard pressed to find a more relaxing spot. Comes with a guy who climbs up in the tree to get coconuts for you, a nearby beach, and the world famous El Hamburger just a block skate away. Last round of extras above, #tbt below, and full clip dropping this February.
P.S. Walgreen’s out here has the fire gift sets for date night with bae.
This is our third January in a row of spending some considerable time in America’s never-ending prospective 51st state, and what Billy Rohan once coined as the sixth borough of New York City. Past journeys — short of a day trip to the eastern island of Vieques — have kept us conveniently in San Juan, where the majority of the #trending Puerto Rican winter phenomenon keeps its home base. The island is big, but not that big: driving from San Juan to the west side is like driving from New York to Philly, except you stare out the window and see rolling hills rather than…the Linden refinery.
Mayaguez is one of the main cities on the west side of the island, and with one night in San Juan, we trekked the hundred miles there. After a pit-stop for the trip’s official sustenance (Medallas and arroz con pollo), a mini concrete racetrack-type spot with a Flushing-width gap in the middle, and a spot check at an abandoned waterpark visible from the highway (we got kicked out by stoned security guars in under ten minutes), we made it to Mayaguez with about an hour of daylight left to skate one of the funnest parks any of us had ever been to.
Filmed by Johnny Wilson
One of Mayaguez’s standouts skate-wise is a gigantic University of Puerto Rico campus. Like most college campuses, you could theoretically skate it for a week and not get bored — provided you never got kicked out. We skated for two hours later than we were expecting to, and then headed towards the well-lit park in Aguadilla.
Next day was a trip to more-or-less the most scenic park imaginable in Quebradillas, where we bumped into the squad from Shorty’s. Off the parks for the rest of the trip, and in these streets talking about shit Robert Lopez Mont did. (“Yeah man, Robert fakie flipped that three story drop when he was 14, man.”)
Good friend of the website, longtime QS music supervisor, coin-er of the term “skate video house,” and writer of the last part in the QS book, recently published his first novel, None of the Bad Ones. It’s about partying, #badrelationships, skating at Tompkins and meeting up with girls you texted off a Blackberry ~five or six years ago. It’s a fun and nostalgic read. Use promo code “snackmancometh” on his website, ESFBooks.com, to get 30% off. QS interview about the book here.
Ahh the old “Zoo York Media Group” logo… New Kevin Tierney Zoo part is now online, with some fashion-forward griptape, white rappers, and chill cut-ins from E.S.T.. Been wondering who those wallride marks on Grand and Crosby were from ;)
To remedy the fact that there hasn’t been a full Brian Anderson part in long time, Village Psychic put together a rad three-minute remix of his past four or five years worth of video appearances. Shout out to Billy McFeely circa 2009.
This isn’t actually a new Conor Prunty part, but a new Conor Prunty part is dropping on QS this April two thousand and sixteen. Buy stock while you can :)
Canadians were unmentioned in the article entirely, which is unfortunate considering their apt handling of such music supervision decisions in the past. Here’s a new one from Antosh and all the dudes from the “Heat” video this past fall.
Everything in this twenty-five minute Byrdgang video — from the spots, to the tricks, to the picture quality, to the fact that it’s named after sub-sect of lower tier peak-era Dipset affiliates — reminded me of early-to-mid-2000s, post-Metrospective skateboard website montages in the best way possible. Smiles the whole way through :)
If you watch only one skate video today… Stereo uploaded a clean, full version of A Visual Sound online. One of the most #influential vids to ever exist, especially with regard to a lot of what’s going on in skating today.
Michael Carroll. Photo by Jonathan Mehring. Should be back to normal programming this week. Sometimes you just gotta lurk around France and not be all stuck inside a computer yaknow.
Screengrab is the latest video from Tom Gorelik a.k.a. Russian Bob. Features a part from Troy Stilwell.
Skateboard Story interviewed Grandpa Jeremy about working at Autumn and subsequently running a shop of his own in Philadelphia.
There’s no reason to even bother pretending like anyone will have the slightest morsel of a chance in skating those Universitat-esque benches they’re supposed to be putting in Times Square. Anyone who’s skated through there even at the dead of night mid-winter knows those rookie cops are just waiting to ticket you. Literally the only precinct in the city I’ve ever heard claim it was illegal to skate on a sidewalk in New York.
“I liked it back in the day when someone like Henry Sanchez threw your board in the water at Pier 7, but he was still your favorite skater even after that. Now you don’t say hi to some kid and you’re ‘the biggest dick ever.'” Monster Children has a quick interview with the guy who ruined skateboarding back in 2012.
J.B. + H.D.V. is the only skater + spot combo as good as Kalis or Stevie + Love. Nice to see anytime he’s back there. Except we all know there’s only one Mr. Perfect…
New part from Lurker Lou for Prizefighter, which features a ton of chill avant-garde noseslide maneuvers. Slappy Flushing is up there for N.S.O.T.Y. honors.
For anyone keeping track of WATTBA #musicsupervision… Free’s Lucien Clarke + “I’m The Plug” compilation part is great, and the new Cell Jawn video features a sslloowweedd rendition of “Plastic Bag” + an emphasized Conor Prunty flick. FYI your “Summer Trip To N.Y.” clip prob isn’t good enough to waste “Scholarships” on ;)
Interviewing young skaters without ~a decade’s worth of coverage is a tough assignment, especially if you’re trying to avoid asking the same shit you asked the last young skater (“Soooo, like Instagram and Street League? So crazy right?”). The source shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but Chromeball pretty much did an under-25 skater interview as best as you could possibly do it with Ishod Wair.
The body varial has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years, and there’s still a raging battle in ballcourts throughout the city for someone to do it over a vertical can (sans bump.) SMLTalk stops to contend that the best has already happened for said trick.
