“I went from being a kid skating on my block to hanging out with all the best skaters in New York City because I learned how to do a frontside 360 boneless.” A friend once had a story about how their book club took a razor to The Powerbroker and sliced it up into three books to make it more reasonable of a read. This isn’t that dramatic, but a blog interview that takes over two hours to read is a lot for most people in the era of byte-sized #content — but we’re *SO* happy that people are putting detailed, rich content on the internet that requires a commitment! Isn’t that what it’s for?! The Slam City Skates blog’s interview with Eli Gesner about skateboarding + graffiti in New York in the 80s, night clubs in the early 90s, the beginnings of Shut + Zoo York, etc. is like a little history book :)
Jamal Smith turning pro is the perfect feel-good Christmas movie to close out the 2010s. Congrats to a Q.S.S.O.T.Y. alumn, and thank you Jamal for being an inspiration to us all for so long ♥
As the amount of skateboard content has grown to uncontainable levels, it has been interesting to watch the reassessment of what people value in a skater, part or video. Everyone has sat stone-faced through a part with incredible skating before, and left without being able to remember a single trick twenty minutes later. Jamal’s Palasonic part was the exact opposite of that. It was impossible to watch without smiling, and carried that “he’s having so much fun that I want to go have fun!”-feeling from childhood in a way that few things do once you clock your 10,000 hours of watching skate videos.
We did an end of the year inventory over at the warehouse, and turned up some loosies of things we had marked as sold out. Check the webstore in case you missed out on something from the last release. It’s not a restock, e.g. maybe we found quite literally two larges of a tee and threw them back online. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Thank you everyone for all the support throughout the year.
“I think me doing all these other things outside of skating makes me like skating more.” Thrasher posted up Tyshawn’s interview from the last issue, and the full “BLESSED” article online. Still processing how Kadow’s Chinatown Banks lipslide ever worked out.
Need a playlist with a sizable chunk of the Young Thug leaks from 2018? Yeah, you do. It’s insane some of these are sitting in purgatory compared to what gets released by the label. This playlist > the sum of his “official” 2018 output, and his “Let It All Work Out” is better than his dad’s ♥
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Theotis Beasley WITH THE BLOCK!!!
Throughout most of our lifetimes, the four-peat has been elusive in professional sports. (The last one was the New York Islanders’ dynastic run of Stanley Cup wins from 1980 until 1983.) This weekend, however, we approach the real possibility of the first four-peat of the new millennium: Wade Desarmo could become the World Champion of Skateboarding for the fourth time in a row.
Only one obstacle stands in his way: winner of Thrasher’s 2013 “Skater of the Year” Award and recurring recipient of Quartersnacks’ more encompassing “Best Skater” award, Ishod Wair.
Your local shop, bar, and T.F. bench has no doubt been abuzz with predictions about this weekend’s game, but predictions seem split down the middle. Sure, Ishod is the Best Skater™ — except who really wants to play devil’s advocate by doubting a three-time repeating champion? Since none of us have ever played a World Champion in S.K.A.T.E. before, our opinions are reduced to amateur guesswork. To get some real insight, we contacted Wade’s past three Glory Challenge opponents and Dennis Busenitz, who once famously swept him in an obscure exhibition series called “Battle at the Berrics,” for their predictions.
