It was in Miami earlier this year that we first heard the phrase “coronavirus.” This was a January trip celebrating the impending birth of Pryce’s first child, so skateboarding was limited to “checking out the skatepark,” with priority otherwise placed on sitting around doing nothing all day, and hearing someone play “The Box” every four seconds, all night.
A couple things happened on earth between then and now.
We have a small run of new hoodies, and we found a box of the old “Vacation” tees in the warehouse. Everything is over in the shop.
Someone mashed up five minutes of Tyshawn loosies and b-sides.
Brad Cromer skates New York with the enthusiasm of someone who hasn’t been burned out by seven thousand consecutive weekends of “where do we skate?” / “that spot sucks” conversations. Also, that kickflip back smith at Man Ledges was ~beautiful~.
“There’s so much bullshit in that fuckin’ thing.” Bobshirt interviews Aaron Meza for an hour and twenty minutes to find out what parts of FTC videos are lifted from Scorsese and Godard. (Also kinda crazy how pretty much anybody in the “content business” has been inspired by the Ego Trip Rap Lists book.)
And editing an artsy clip to movie quotes from probably the most quoted New York movie in existence is a bit too, um, on the nose, but footage of Appleyard skating the city was a nice surprise.
Mike Munzenrider explores the trajectory of how skating in shorts became an industry standard practice.
“Born of those spastic curb cauldrons in the early 1990s, the crooked grind to backside lipslide lay low for a certain number of Earth years until Bastien Salabanzi donked one down a semi-legit handrail in Sorry, drawing immediate reprisals in the shallow backwaters of the early message-board days and inspiring several other related atrocities over the years to come. It was a time of war, girth and widespread musical pirating.” Can’t say I was too worried about the crooked grind to back lip feeling it its been neglected these past ~15 years, but Boil the Ocean felt otherwise.
The perpetually making-clips-that-look-like-no-one-else’s collective of Russia’s Absurd Skateboards went to the seaside city of Sochi in the offseason to search for spots.
Skate camps, self celebrations, and reeaallyy long manuals — Chromeball runs down a history of nineties skate video clichés for TWS.
Of course Tompkins is on a list of the the 69 best places in New York, for better or worse.
Posed another hypothetical “how long until” over on the ol’ Twitter now that T.J. got the 33rd Street subway station ollie out of the way: how long until / is it actually possible for someone to ollie the eight-flat-eight at the Met?
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: About due time we got Luca on here.
Quote of the Week
Observant Gentleman: “I think you’re not supposed to order seafood on Sundays or something.”
Jesse Alba: “Yeah, you’re not supposed to skate on private property either, and here we are.”
Stumbled on this two-hour mix of New York jams that appeared on DJ Screw mixtapes, which made me never want to listen to some of these songs at regular speed ever again. The Rakim one is insane, and never would have thought that Tribe screwed would sound so good.
Illustration by Charles Rivard. Stephanie, stop calling Chuck.
The greatest work of skateboarding fantasy sports is now live. Frozen in Carbonite’s “Song of the Summer” x “Video Part of the Summer” post is as great as it always is, despite a nowhere to be found Young Thug nod. Fwiw, QS S.O.T.S. vote is “Black Beatles.” [multiple Flex bombs; dons XXL Avirex jacket and quarter-inch-too-big fitted]
“Peels” is the new montage from QS-fave, Antosh Cimoszko.
We were talking about why The Bunt is the best, and figured it’s probably because it’s made by skateboarders who follow sports. Sports have been doing this shit for ages. Skaters, not so much. There’s a new one with Paul Rodriguez now live.
Jenkem did mini-interviews with Jahmal, Joel Meinholz and Steve Brandi, and has all their Static 4 sections live. Brb, making Jahmal’s part my homepage.
“We’re all beautiful wastemen.” Breaks has an in-depth interview with Hold Tight Henry, discussing every morsel that goes into making a skate video in 2k16.
“unused shit from BG and BG2 BIRDGANG IS THE TRUTH.”
“Smoke Show” is a new 20-minute video out of Westchester from Matt Conner.
Here are a couple bro cam clips from the Adidas demo at Tompkins last week, and a bunch of photos via Transworld. #TFreport overload.
“Aging may be the great skate industry adventure of the ’10s, as grizzled pros test the tolerance of weathered ligaments and brittling bones in an ongoing quest to avoid that unholy wyrm, the Real World, and its most loathsome prison, the Day Job.” Boil the Ocean re: the constant dilemma of whether to quit while you are ahead, as pined from Jason Dill’s recent Playboy interview.
Reviews are generally a lost art in the fickle skateboard universe of today, where opinions have been condensed to “wack, “dope” or “mad wack.” Always nice to read an opinion composed out of full sentences. Speedway Mag reviewed Emerica’s Made 2 video (spoiler: Heath), and The Green Zine reviewed the Jenkem book.
Uh. “The shooter bolted from the scene on a skateboard, heading east on 141st St.”
Quote of the Week
Inquisitive Gentleman: “How do you get used to skating with long hair but no hat?”
Daniel Kim: “You don’t, you just learn how to skate blind.”
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Kneepads. Photo via Science Versus Life’s Instagram.
Thank you to everyone who purchased something from the webstore last week. We should be wrapping up with shipping orders next two days. If you haven’t received a shipping notification by Wednesday [to the email you ordered with], feel free to shoot us a message. Still some stuff left on there, and as always, at your local skate shop.
The Cell Jawn #25 hammer heard around the world, in loop form.
“Nobody’s Alley” might be the best LurkNYC video to date. Still with the VHS cam and a majority of footage in midtown and lower Manhattan. Although varial flips have been the “coming back” for half-a-decade now, between the ones in this video and Antoine’s in the Dime Vid, they might have entered a new dimension of 21st century form.
On the opposite end of the spectrum to the Helas camp, but just as crucial to the current #moment for Frenchmen in skateboarding, the new Blobys mini video is also maybe their best yet. Even better than an Instagram comp! :)
Quick review on the Adidas video via Monster Childrens. (Spoilers.)
There it is: the first warm weather clip to “One Dance.”
Todd Taylor’s The Graduate video is a good time, and also has a Philly Santosuosso part at the 7:25 mark.
New part from J.B. Gillett in the second half of this #mallgrabvideo section, and a good batch of new footage of Jesus in this Barcelona montage.
Something heartwarming about seeing Beer Bar footage in a 2016 skateboard video. Zach Moore’s Transplants part is now live, with a second-to-last trick at the place we wasted substantial early teenage years at :'(
Kerry Getz talks first boards, first sponsors, and first kickflip down the Love Gap.
Mini part via Joel Meinholz for Bones Bearings to some Miles Davis.
This might be months old “news,” considering that with a heightened Columbus Circle bust, midtown motivation has been tough without some semblance of a safe bet, but the C-list midtown chain and pillar spot across from the Lipstick Building is no more.
QS Sports of the Week: This billionaire’s facial expression is basically the only visual you need to sum up Steph’s season.
Quote of the Week: “Why did you rent us Bam’s house?” — Pryce Holmes
Our bud Shrimp C up in Montreal recently started up a radio show on n10.as. Second episode below. Good listen if you’re in the mood for some raps.
Late one today. Weather got things sluggish.
“Skaters in Cars Looking at Spots” cruises around the Financial District with Zered.
“My last name is Baker, so this is called The Baker Video.” Good friend and breaker of four boards in one session, Zach Baker, made a fun skateboard video.
Life is Goodie is dropping on 4/20 fool.
“Rob [Dyrdek] told me, ‘Look, dude, there’s gonna be no pro skaters in the next…I see in the future no pro boards.'” Ride has a great interview with Josh Kalis about China, standalone video parts, GX1000, a declining middle class in skateboarding, and a future with no boards. ICYMI: Hit You Off Management dropped a “Kalis in Mono” remix last week, mentioned in the interview’s first question.
Sorta on that note, Village Psychic got an interview with the dudes who run Mood Skateboards, a company with no team. “In the 80s and 90s, pro skaters were the best at skating, but now everyone is the best. The ‘need’ for professionals isn’t the same.” It’s gonna be a really weird next couple of years, man.
Always a lot of surprises in this dude’s skating: Joel Meinholz time machine mash-up.
Some enviable weather in Gigliotti’s new clip.
The bro Jersey Dave has a photo book up for sale.
Dunno if these are the ten *greatest* spots ever built, but Kingpin has a listicle of ten “what were they thinking when they made this” spots from around the world.
Boil the Ocean compares Big Brother‘s resistance to abiding by the skateboard industry’s self-image to the Slap message board’s similar disposition of today, and uses the word “sanctimoniousness.”
The Helas team’s IG clips combined into one montage, with a mini Ishod and Lucas part at the end :)
“Before the Hubba girls, the Duffs girls, before Erica Yary or Leanne Tweeden, and long before any hot chick would be caught dead in a Thrasher shirt, there was Rosa.” SML Talk reminisces on the nineties most iconic half-naked skateboard hardware company model. Chromeball also had a Rosa tribute years ago, which includes a scan of the “15 Things You Didn’t Know About…” segment from Skateboarder.
Jake Johnson v.s. the D.C. Gold Rail, circa 2010.
Who had the better high fashion backpack ad, Eli or Alex Olson?
Part two of NY Skateboarding’s joint interview with Gino and Dill is now live.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Lebron v.s. Durant won’t be much of a narrative in the NBA soon.
Quote of the Week: “Johnny peaked with Space Heater.” — Max Palmer
If you’re stuck inside and need a good time-killer, I was recently put onto the fact that a lot of episodes of Insomniac with Dave Attell are on YouTube. It hasn’t been the best for productivity, but is really fun to reminisce on the drunken world of the early millennium that most of us had yet to experience (still recognized the venue for the “goddess” party though hehehehe…) The two New York episodes are here and here. Playlist with most of them here.
