It All Started With a Manual — The Skateable History of Columbus Park

Skate spots are living, breathing things. They shift with the socioeconomic climate of the time, and position themselves to best adapt with people’s needs. Skateboarding has always been reflective of greater society, so it should come as no surprise that our lives were pushed into Columbus Park as we began to get pushed out of the pricier, glossier haunts that we once frequented in lower Manhattan.

Columbus Park sits on ominous ground. It was built on top of what was once America’s first slum: a hotbed of vice, disease, murder and clashes for control that have been documented in many books and films. Though it would take decades for the neighborhood to rid itself of the notoriety it earned throughout the 19th century, the city built Columbus Park in 1897. A hundred years passed, and then a guy from Clifton, New Jersey came along. The park began its second life as one of the few downtown spots you can skate in 2017 without getting kicked out.

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The 2017 Shirtless Kebab Tour

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C. Champion via W. Dada

“Every time you disprove the prejudices of a pedestrian, you win a small victory that reverses the erosion of our collective social capital.” As sarcastic as we may get about the tired “skaters see the world differently” trope, there’s always something reassuring in our ability to — on on some tiny level — leave the world better than it was before, provided we stop sitting around talking shit about pants for long enough. Caught in the Crossfire’s “Four Small Ways Skateboarding Can Change the World” is inspiring, intelligent and heartwarming writing for a tough world right now.

On that note, #respect x999999 to Young Will and everyone in Providence, Rhode Island. “If you have an idea, for pity’s sake run with it, for the good of us all.”

Half a million pounds of Love Park granite is being shipped to Malmö, Sweden. Shout out to all the cities and people doing cool shit to make humans’ time on earth better.

If you guys in the comments are calling Shanahan a “’99 Kalis deadringer,” you better brace yourselves for the ’99 Stevie version because its really really real.

Ugh, Jake ♥ Just wait on it

This might be an illegal link, but here’s Yaje’s Riddles in Mathematics part til it gets taken down. Non-sketchy link to buy the video here. Sorry TWS, it’s Yaje ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“One day’s lifted bar soon becomes the next day’s hurdle to be ollied, and later kickflipped, and eventually kilty mcbagpipped for an after-credits clip set to a whimsical indie-rock tune.” — Boil the Ocean explores ledge skating’s shrinking middle class, via the lens of Tiago’s switch back tail™. And yes, YouTube debaters, Antonio could’ve easily been #1 but Tiago got it for the trick’s status as a “culture-unifying moment.”

The most entertaining raw files clip in a really long time: A full 18 minutes from Na-Kel Smith’s X-Games “Real Street” part. Most elastic slams in the business too :)

ICYMI: Johnny made a clip of Cyrus and some Nike SB boys skating in Texas.

Skater types.” Facepalm emoji ya.

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine is now available to stream on Hulu. (You may need to put in your card info for a free trial blah blah blah.) You can read and disagree with the QS review here.

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*Non-Skate Related Alert* The latest episode of 99% Invisible deals with abandoned buildings, squatters, riots, and everything else surrounding Tompkins Square Park in the 80s and 90s. “You got guns? We got piss buckets.” Shout to Mostly.

Quote of the Week: “The price isn’t the problem. Pryce is the problem.” — Dallas Todd

I learned frontside flips via Pryce’s Seaport line A.K.A. have never fully *flipped* one in my life. They still count in S.K.A.T.E. though ;) Thanks Pryce.

Damn, Remember That Week With Seven Updates?

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Connor Champion at that ledge you’ve seen at least two of your friends die on. Photo by Corn.

QS webstore is now live with new beanies, longsleeve Snackman pocket tees, a reissue of the Tompkins Track Club hoody, and restocks on fall items. All of the new items are webstore only, i.e. won’t be at any shops. Also, we promise sending orders out won’t be a shit show like the last drop :) Thank you everyone for the support ♥

Solo interviewed Cyrus.

Tiago should’ve got S.O.T.Y, but at least Michael Scott is finally happy.

You probably saw it, but it’s perplexing as to how nine minutes of raw Jake Johnson footage can only have ~21K YouTube views? The remixes are bound to be rolling these next couple weeks, so here’s one that imagines if the rumors about Jake getting on Polar a year or two ago actually came true.

Why does it seem like frontside noseslide nollie heel out to fakie has been having a moment lately? Zoo dropped a sick 1/2 Ron Deily, 1/2 Gavin Nolan part last week.

Carlos Mendoza did the stage to rock ollie at 20th and C backwards

Village Psychic eulogizes Cliché. J.B’s Freedom Fries part will always be #top5 for me.

“It is widely agreed that anything that ever happened in skateboarding, past or present, occurred on Osiris’ 2001 ‘Aftermath’ tour.” Boil the Ocean on the decreasing chance of untapped interview subjects in skateboarding. Yo, who was at the Aftermath Tour stop at Chelsea Piers that day? We should all do a reunion.

Jenkem hung out with the one-man team behind @vintagesponsor.

The Kush Cowboy lipslide hubba from “cherry” just got torn down, so this long-winded Diamond commercial is most likely the last bit of footage you’re going to see on it.

Part one of a trip video featuring the two greatest New Jerseyian skateboarders roadtripping up to Maine. Don’t watch it if you’re hungry though.

Nothing to do with skating…just want to point you guys who like words in the direction of this incredible piece of longform journalism ;)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Ish? Ish! (Yeah, this could be Russ every week.)

Quote of the Week:
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Gonna throw the unsolicited information out there that I’d be perfectly fine with spending American currency on a Tinashe x Metro Boomin album…

Throwaway Laptops NBD

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Hey man, thanks for the glowing review. Quartersnacks for Nike SB available now :) Oh, also regs line of new QS merch should be available very, very soon ♥

Better than a ginger shot!* A quick jolt of Jake Johnson from the GX video to get your day going. (*Disclaimer: probably not better than a ginger shot health-wise, fyi.)

Shout out to The New York Times for using “Fat Kid Spot,” the spot’s proper name, in their article about the park’s reconstruction. Also shout out to the DOT for getting rid of that pesky bridge above the park. Set to open late fall.

Hard to tell exactly where upstate this video is based out of, but spotted a good bit of Rochester spots. “Friction” is a chill eleven-minute video filmed somewhere around that big ol’ state that sits above our small center-of-the-universe city.

It feels like this is the first year in a long time when the frontrunner(s) for SOTY weren’t completely obvious a month out from the award. Boil the Ocean weighs in on the contenders, although gonna have to disagree that the Snoop Dogg song from Away Days ever needed to be skated to. Nor does it alleviate the fact that Busenitz skates in German jk ;) The QS list is Tiago, Max and Daniel Kim duh.

Sometimes you just want to skate in front of Fanelli’s during the lunch rush yaknow? “Mean Streets” volume 4 via the LurkNYC camp is now live.

“You never know: You might say the word f*ggot walking down the street one day and some big old lesbian’s going to hear you, turn around, and punch you right in the face.” Awesome new interview with Brian Anderson that encompasses his entire career, conducted on the occasion of him joining the Anti-Hero roster.

Major pet peeve is websites who don’t post dates with their content, so not entirely sure how old this is, but Boardrap has an interview with the two minds behind The Bunt, both the QS News Desk and the QS Sports Desk’s favorite podcast. (Yo shout out to Grant Patterson for pervading usage of the term “nollie half cab” and F all of U who have a problem with it. Sincerely, everyone who skates at T.F.) The Bunt’s new episode with Kevin Lowry is also now live, btw.

Bobby DeKeyzer x Tumblr remix, or something?

A teaser for Sabotage 5, the last Love Park video ever.

Stuff You’ve Seen: 1) Johnny’s new one, “Sup World,” which signals a bowing out of #skatevideohouse and a sonic foray into the renewed #interest in hardcore shirts? I dunno. 2) “Sage & Sean,” via my neighbor Logan Lara. 3) Lakai AM nearly levels Chelsea jogger. Last week was probably the heaviest “What about so-and-so?”-week for #QSTOP10. Can’t win ’em all and apologies if your faves got left out.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Lol, Javale McGee is going to the Finals this year.

Quote of the Week: “If skateboarding ends today, you still have at least ten years worth of content about the good old days.” — Pryce Holmes

Shout out to ♥ Josh Velez and Torey Goodall ♥, two of my favorite skateboarders on this earth who celebrated birthdays in the past week. Love you guys xoxo.

R.I.P. 69 Long Live Noodletown

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Thanks for the late night memories, 69 Bayard. Photo by Brian Kelley.

Out in Guatemla with a quarter million dollars…That nollie crook really came out of nowhere, and thumbs up all around on #simple C.I.A. Ledge lines.

Sometimes hats just don’t stay on your head, yaknow?

Jim Hodgson still somehow has yet another round of 90s outtakes. Shants-era Dill footage and some Lackawanna appearances pin at your nostalgic lobes in this one.

Just as many Americans are still recovering from 2008’s financial meltdown, skateboarding is apparently still reeling from the collapse of Alien Workshop 1.0, as evidenced in Yaje Popson’s latest interview with Transworld, and Jake Johnson’s [extended] one with Thrasher. Also note to anyone about to log off and head to D7: “I think I really messed my body up jumping down stuff when I was younger and my body was still growing. If I could give advice I’d say don’t jump down stuff until you’re older.”

Following the first 60-degree Sunday of 2016, noseslide 270 shuv outs have not gained any momentum at a projected resurgence. However, Ron Deily makes a good case for lowbrow frontside 270 out of noseslide tech in the new Zoo in S.F. clip.

Dude did a rad gap-to-lipslide down the L.E.S Park double-set.

Speaking of the L.E.S. Park double-set…Antonio Durao switch tre Love Gap attempts.

Sex Hippies & Sean Pablo in L.A. for a week. “What, is aguy that used to host Jane on Thursdays four years ago skating in L.A. not New York enough?” ;)

Always knew this spot would have a resurrection somehow. Looks dangerous.

The skatepark being built in place of the Fat Kid Spot looks pretty low to the ground :)

Thrasher recently entered the arena of YouTube comps with a five-minute compilation of the greatest handrail tricks, but shouldn’t Gonz’s boardslide down the Banks 9 + his 5050 and front board down the [defunct] 8th & Greene Street rail from the (1986?) Vision video be the first thing? Weren’t those supposedly the first handrail tricks? Is the idea of handrail skating being born in New York akin to pointing out that Christopher Columbus didn’t actually discover America?!

Just realized this QS feature from a year-old issue of Acclaim mag is online. Was kinda the blueprint / draft for the intro of the actual Quartersnacks book.

Atiba’s favorite Atiba photos.

Only “Damn Daniel” content that matters. Also “Damn Daniel” = 2k16 “I Didn’t Do It” :)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: What else? Hand him the MVP trophy now.

Quote of the Week:

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Uploaded Josh’s Inkwell promo part as a standalone thing just because: