Five Favorite Parts With John Gardner

The best skaters are often the ones whose skateboarding defies the rigid linguistics of trick names.

Like, are you going to say John Gardner backside 5-0’d a Philly step into a rail and then tucked into a keyhole to get out — or did a back smith on the CBS ledge, immediately changed direction so he could ollie up one short ledge, over another, onto a platform and down a surprise police barricade? Or maybe it is easier to point at the spot and say he “did some John Gardner shit.”

(“Some Max Palmer shit,” and of course, “some Daewon shit” are other common ones at the QS office.)

John is one of those skaters doing what cannot easily be explained, and him being a Bob Burnquist fan makes perfect sense.

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Shoutout Pluto

Photo by Greg Navarro

It is impossible to overstate what a joy it is to watch John Gardner’s “Shoutout Earth” raw files. From the close calls, to the spot selection, to his general ability to use his superpowers to do the type of shit that only Jawn Gardner could do — raw files get dropped out of a literal waterfall these days, but this one is a special watch ❤️ (John’s QS interview from 2017 is still a favorite.)

Love a homie video that ends with a …bar fight :) Rock Bottom II by Reilly Schlitt is a very fun watch. Entirely filmed in New York, heavy on the downtown Brooklyn spots, smiles all around.

Andrew Reynolds spoke to Village Psychic about the politics of having a signature trick.

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PTSD

Via Pat Stiener

Wait, so Ben Chadourne was Skater of the Year all along? Knew it! Sorry, Keith (and Mark.)

They began demolition on the East River Park Amphitheater last week :( Alligator Ledge is blocked off, but you know, it’s Alligator Ledge 🐊

Something …not good seems to be afoot at Blue Park.

A wild ender on Pyramid Ledges, Tribeca street crossing lines, and newfound FedEx choreography in Jasper Stieve’s incredible new “Visitors” part for Picture Show. Thought it was gonna be the Dua Lipa version of that song for half a sec 😝

The Broth boys out of New Orleans have a new edit out called “Haunted,” with an ender part from Philly Santosuosso.

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Four Billion Skaters

Photo by Dave Smith 📷

Unsolicited reminder for everybody to get reacquainted with the story of Fred Gall saving the Cambodian monks from a burning building. Shit deserves a 30 For 30.

Tristan Mershon, creator of the Fool’s Gold video from this past May, has a quick new check-in edit called “Almost There.” First time that garage on Crosby and Houston has popped up in an edit for a while ;) Classic spot from simpler times.

“We doin’ shit! We’ve always been doing shit, only now it’s being recognized.” Skateism has a very sick interview with Jaime Reyes.

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Peepin Out The Window

Caleb’s pro! Photo via Genesis Evans. Caleb’s Bunt (from February 2020) is really good, btw.

“Couple manuals, couple flatground.” Imagine skating for 34 years and still being this fucking good. Pocket‘s latest “Followed” episode is with the goat Daniel Lebron. They really got the pacing of life thing figured out in Spain. Big love to the Mexican families in L.A. ♥

The Duplex dudes out of Florida have low-key been putting out some of the best independently-released, no media-outlet-backed videos of 2021. “Five-Six-One,” their latest, is absolutely no exception. That Leap of Faith clip over the lady is so wild, plus Jake Sanso goes off like usual. Peep their earlier releases: “Sk8 Wing” from May + “Duplex 2” from January.

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