Thanks to everyone who grabbed something from the webstore over the weekend. Holiday QS goods should have made their way to most U.S. shops by now. Arriving in Canada + Japan this week. Europe + everywhere else next week. Thank you for the support during these shaky times ♥
“It is like Tom Knox is doing missionary work, faithfully showing that London is skateable. He ardently skates his home surroundings, teaching us, like a prophet finding a spring of water in the desert.” — Everyday Hybridity re: the spots in Tom Knox’s “Atlantic Drift” part.
TWS interviewed a handful of pros and industry people about the effects of corona virus on the skate industry, as did Parade — except with a focus on small, independent skate brands (like QS!) The common theme between all of them is the resilience of skaters. Yes, shit is crazy right now, but skateboarding isn’t going anywhere once this is all over. The fact that Seattle is experiencing a slowdown in new cases (it was the first part of the country to get hit) is a tiny pinch of an indicator that social restrictions are working. Be safe, be patient, be supportive ♥ And while we know people go on QS to forget the noise of the outside world, if you want to read something COVID-19 related that’s responsibly reported and level-headed, this is the one.
And on a day when the wind-chill brings the temperature down to 12 degrees, we bring you some… good news.
Space 198, the new free, INDOOR Vans park is opening on January 2nd at 198 Randolph Street in Brooklyn. Unlike the belated House of Vans, which was more of an event space inside of a skatepark (and brought out people’s inner savages anytime there was a mid-winter open day there), this park is a community-oriented space built for skateboarding.
It’s going to be open Thursday through Sundays — you just need to to sign up on the website beforehand. And it’s off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick, making everyone’s life a bit easier than a 20-minute walk through the snow to Greenpoint that we used to do ;)
As they were putting the finishing touches on it, they gave a handful of crews the chance to check out the park last week, and here’s what we came back with. Be nice to Jersey Dave when you see him, because chances are, his phone has not stopped buzzing for the past two weeks.
Filmed by Will Rosenstock, Paul Young, Max Hull, Cristian Berrios & Kyota Umeki.
Jersey Dave’s part from Stop Fakin’ 3 + cameos from Freddy, Quim etc. is online.
“I guess it’s kind of like, for example, a guy builds his dream house and then he goes off and has a cabin in the woods elsewhere. You know, a lake house. When you can have that, obviously that’s a privilege. You don’t always want to be at the one place, and it’s overrun with children and remote control cars and rules.” Village Psychic with a piece on the rules of contributing to and skating D.I.Y. spots.
We’d mark this as non-skate-related reading, but everyone knows it is just as skate as anything else on the list ;) NY Maghas the complete history on the rise of halal carts in New York. “Halal carts cross barriers. Cheap food triumphs over bad politics.”
“If 2016’s tale of political and social upset is one of old against young and the educated against the left-behind, actually sharing space and interacting with different kinds of people is more important than it’s ever been.” Caught in the Crossfire has an incredible piece on Malmö, Sweden’s status as the world’s most forward-thinking small city with regard to skateable public space.
Can’t remember the last time the word “beautiful” came to mind watching a skate video, but this remix of all Jesus Fernandez’s footage since Pretty Sweet to “Hang On To Your Love” is perfect. Perhaps more than any other skater, Jesus has a remarkable ability to make tricks that have no business looking good look incredible.
Skateboarding x Black History Month via Mehrathon. Stay tuned for something special with the guy who opens up that montage later this week. (Not Paul Mooney.)
Someone remixed a bunch of arbitrary Johnny Wilson footage for a clip called “Fountain.” We’d like a give a special shout out to the one video blog clip a week era.
Pretty sure we were in Spain when this happened (maybe its even older news than that), but official final R.I.P. to 12th & A. They repaved the entire court with shitty, soft blacktop. And there’s a “No Skateboarding” sign for the first time ever…at a school that once included skateboard classes in its phys ed curriculum. Cool.
