It has been a little over a month since a city-approved granite ledge was dropped off at Tompkins. This is, by all objective measures, the most perfect Tompkins obstacle in the history of skateboarding at Tompkins. The marble delivery guy said it weighed 8,000 pounds. It was rumored to cost roughly what a used 2018 Honda Civic would run you today. Nike SB paid for it; it wasn’t heisted from a quarry by a granite Robin Hood. It is the sort of obstacle we travel and play mind games with security just to land ten to fifteen minutes of bliss with. And it was at Tompkins! It was never leaving! We don’t get kicked out of it!
Once upon a time, we went years without breaking the annual tradition of End of Summer clips posted right before each Labor Day Weekend.
Then, we were lead astray. To give you some context, the last time we posted one, it was to a Rich Homie Quan song in 2015, and not long after, he devastatingly walked out of our lives never to be heard from again.
Some might say we were too busy indulging in the finer things life has to offer at the expense of time spent on a skateboard. Others blame Instagram for cannibalizing the footage economy, i.e. how often do you see a run of the mill city montage getting uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo these days that isn’t a longform project promoting something or a trip clip? Like, who makes clips over sixty seconds just for the sake of it anymore?
…we do! At least we’re trying to again! Because montages are fun! You get to use more than sixty seconds of a song you like! You don’t have to hoard footage for twelve months waiting for everyone to get their parts together! It’s way more fun than uploading shit to an IG story and getting a bunch of praying hands emojis in your DMs! Montages have vibes! Montages are memories! Montages are beautiful!
Following the start of this year’s summer solstice — amidst the build-out of this snazzy new redesign — we made a resolution to start bringing the #RealCamera™ out all the time. Also, we were still reeling for the devastating loss of Final Cut 7; we had to get with the times and figure out how the hell to use Premiere. August was hindered by a bit of a nagging health issue, but as a bonus, we mixed in the footage from the two-and-a-half days we spent in Prague because there were never any concrete plans for it. (So, it’s basically a July 2018 montage.)
We’d like to extend a special individual thank you to Antonio Durao for keeping everyone hyped this summer, because without him, there’s no way this clip would exist. (You’ll see.) Contributing filmers: Jesse Alba & Emilio Cuilan.
Features Antonio Durao, Daniel Kim, John Francomacaro, Conor Prunty, Connor Kammerer, Chris Milic, Brian Brown, Myles Gable, Hjalte Halberg, Ruben Spelta, Anton Juul.
Who knows, maybe we get real wild and drop a Christmas clip this year too ♥
“A few years ago, Daniel started showing up to Pulaski without his board, just to stare into the sun for hours on end. After a few months of this, he announced Stingwater.” — Smalls
After the release of Belly of the Beast, Allan Danze retired from skateboard filmmaking (because he was beginning to GRoE: Getting Ready tO Evolve.)
After the release of Spirit Quest, Colin Read retired from skateboard filmmaking (because, you probably suspected, he was beginning to GRoE.)
He is about to GRoE into a new chapter of life. Daniel was merely a brief spiritual guide on this vast journey.
GRoE-th is not for everybody. Daniel will be the first to tell you that people will misconstrue you GRoEing into convenient categories that their brains can easily process. Here is his four-limbed part from Stop Fakin’ 3, for all of those ready to evolve. You can purchase the Stop Fakin’ trilogy here.
“In between getting busted on KTV’s (R.I.P.) rooftop, punching a taxi cab driver right in the face for disrespecting his woman, and auditioning for lead roles in action-thriller films, Franco found a way to put together a very speshal™ video part in John Valenti’s new offering, N.Y. Archive. Almost three years in the making, the groewth within this timeline is apparent. All of Franco’s outfits are sick. The looks range from a troubled and misguided low-ranking Italian mobster, to a successful businessman and father who works on Wall Street — his statements become more powerful with each clip.” — Vert God A.K.A. Daniel Kim
N.Y. Archive is a new video from John Valenti, whose last full length was 2015’s Local Express. The video should be available soon, but until then, here’s Franco’s section, and Transworld has you covered for the ender part.
We should be caught up with shipping all orders from last week by the end of today. If you ordered before the weekend and didn’t receive a shipping confirmation to the email address you ordered with, feel free to check in with us. Otherwise there are some loose sizes and hats left. Available at European accounts now. Arriving in Canada and Australia this week ♥ Thanks everyone for the support.
“Is the speed of Jamie Foy’s ascent, from amateur to pro and SOTY the same year, a reflection of or reason behind the breakneck pace driving skate media these days?…Could the nod to Jamie Foy also serve as a quiet acknowledgement that it shoulda been Fred Gall one of those years?”
Iron Claw is [not] having a premiere for their new video this Wednesday, December 13, at 122 Meserole Street. Two showings: one at 8 P.M. and another at 9. Teaser here.
Though Ride doesn’t do much these days apart from continue to ask us why Chicago isn’t a bigger deal in skateboarding, Slap brought back the article predictions thread for 2018. “Shake Junt hires Ty Evans for next video: Chicken Drone Nowison.”
Theories is posting raw files from Elkin’s videos. First episode is fall 2010, and features Aaron Herrington, Leo Gutman, Quim, and Vert God before he started to GRoE.
“Like the flow of posts through social media, skateboard graphics are inherently ephemeral. They are destined to be worn and scuffed and distorted until all that remains is smeared paint and exposed wood. But some images are designed to linger, if only in the imagination.” On the ascent of Polar Skateboards…as a menswear brand.
Jamal Smith tweeted this one yesterday. Probably, haven’t watched it this decade, but remember that finally tracking down that Diamond D song was a pivotal prepubescent moment. Also, shout out to all the 2017 Kasperholics.
