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Tag: Jimmy Lannon

The Spot is the Star: The Week in Spot-Based Videos

Daily News March 18th, 2016 · 1:20 pm · 15

new barcelona skate spot

Dude, we love themed video parts. Grate themed video parts, garbage themed video parts, dumpster themed video parts! And there is no more beloved theme to build a video part around than to learn every nuance and cranny of a skate spot by skating it for the full duration of said part. Given the rate at which spots worth learning have been diminishing, we’ve been given reason to celebrate such one-spot achievements more than ever. You think it’s a coincidence that both 18-year-olds and 38-year-olds love Gonz’s “just cruising in the street”-thing from Video Days? Cruising is everyone’s M.O. now, whereas maintaining fidelity to one spot takes extra effort.

With that, a genre has skyrocketed in popularity within the skateboard media marketplace: spot-based content. Whereas since the demise of 411 “spot checks,” the story has 97% of the time been about the skater, the team or the event, spot-based videos are the new way to make us remember that we better learn how to skate walls if we ever want to skate an street object outside of a caged-in skatepark ever again ;)

Atlanta’s checkerboard spot benefits from more lenient “plaza” definitions that we allow in 2016. There aren’t many longstanding street spots with multiple ledges left, so it becomes one by default — though it may be the only Great American Skate Spot™ 2.0 that I have no desire to skate. (Shit looks mad high.) The spot doesn’t have a storied mythology or celebrated culture, and its background is not densely layered with regal civic buildings or skyscrapers. It’s just a spot that has been long enough for us to be forced to respect its status in the era of depleting spots. An all-Columbus Circle part was in order for last year to commemorate its ten-year run for the same reason, until a cop decided to pepperspray a teenager…

Jimmy Lannon, noted “regular” Magenta outlier and 2014 “Best Line at Three Up Three Down” titleholder, paid tribute to the spot’s longer-than-usual tenure in Thread / Headcleaner, with a literal #musicsupervision choice that’s one step removed from Mark Suciu skating to Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” or like, Soy Panday skating to “Panda.”

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Finally Famous: Three Up Three Down

Daily News July 18th, 2014 · 5:54 am · 4

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There’s a difference between pioneering something and popularizing it. You could be the first one to do it, but not necessarily the one that gets everyone else to do it.

Skateboarders are rolling out to Berlin in desaturated droves — just *hoping* that their fashion senses get rejuvenated by the second week of September. (Who knows, maybe some sick nips step into the frame on a lifestyle shot if they’re lucky?) Except German excursions aren’t the first act of destination popularization that Dylan Reider is responsible for in 2014. His “cherry” part got good skateboarders to begin skating Three Up Three Down, a longtime favorite spot of the Quartersnacks office.

Nevermind that his line which legitimized Three Up in professional skateboarding’s collective consciousness began with an Andre Page ABD from 2011, or that Dre was the first person to ever prop up the grate to the bike rack, or even that Roctakon filmed a line there while wearing, like, $500 Dior jeans. It’s pioneerization (no, that’s not a word) v.s. popularization all over again. Dylan Reider is capable of influencing skateboarding’s zeitgeist in a way that we are not.

HOWEVER, as longtime fans of Three Up Three Down (and the beautiful people who jog past it ♥♥♥♥♥), we ARE qualified to speak on HOW it is skated. Three Up Three Down in not about fashion runway renditions of kickflip nose manuals, or being quick enough to stuff a trick between the two sets. It is the premier “If you can’t ollie up it, don’t ollie down it”-spot. It is not about showing off.

We give people from Florida a hard time*, but credit must be given when it is due. Jimmy Lannon now officially holds the title for the best line done at Three Up Three Down by a professional skateboarder. Switch manual. Switch varial flip on flat. End.

Perfect.

(Labor has Static IV DVDs by the way.)

*It’s been a tough week to maintain Florida-related biases, especially after also being forced to admit that a Floridian had the best footage in Enron. Shouldn’t take long for Florida to fall back down again though: look no further.