Goin’ Up

wenning hoboken ledges pic

“Everything about this spot was good..5 mins from Downtown NYC….a body of water to calm the mind of even the craziest of crazy human beings…Path Train…NJ Transit trains…Jugs of cheap Orange Juice…and one of my favorite ledges ive ever skated..it was our early morning meet up spot…” — Lackawanna ♥ via Wenning’s IG

Damn, who would’ve thought that the third trick to ever go down the Police Plaza sixteen would be on a surfboard, and discovered via Worldstar?

The Shady One™ put together a clip of a new Brooklyn D.I.Y. envisioned by Max “#MCM” Palmer, in conjunction with Nike’s 58 project. Features Cyrus, Conor, Sean Pablo, Logan Lara, etc. etc. and John Choi with the ender.

Ishod is better than the entire Birdhouse team (but you already knew that, as per Pryce Holmes’ suggestion of a new, all-encompassing award in skateboarding), and The Bunt’s latest episode is with Jake Phelps.

Been a heavy John Shanahan week between the D.C. “Arrival” video with all their new AMs, and LurkNYC’s corresponding “Mean Streets Volume J” video.

“Just as the Sabotage dudes unearthed, resurfaced and restored an entire scene that had been municipally buried and professionally abandoned, John Shanahan seems to harbour deeper ambitions.” Although the hyper #curated outfits probably draw the most attention, gonna have to echo some of Boil the Ocean’s sentiments here. The dude puts more effort into skating long-forgotten spots that people otherwise push past every weekend than anyone else out there right now, and has one of the most sophisticated eyes out for loose tiles and grates.

Boil the Ocean also weighs in on the most recent batch of X-Games “Real Street” segments, while contemplating whether or not somebody will ever look as cool as Lavar McBride when he nollie backside flipped the stairs at Hubba Hideout.

Josh Stewart posted a bunch of raw footage from the days when Barcelona was first becoming the eminent skateboard Mecca, featuring unlikely visitors Puleo and Ricky.

It’s become an increasingly antiquated practice outside of those who were grandfathered into being able to get away with it, but Village Psychic revisits the 2000s phenomenon of the Baker landing.

Did you really do a summer trip to New York if someone in your squad didn’t get bodied at Pyramid Ledges?

Harold Hunter Day is now Harold Hunter weekend. Features a couple chill Tyshawn clips at the Fat Kid Park. And of course Slicky Boy got a free pair of shoes.

The good news is that Quan promised to never let us down again. The bad news is that he’s being cryptic about the release of ten songs he has with Future :(

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thunder in 12.

Quote of the Week
Kevin Tierney: “I hate going out drinking with a board because I’m afraid I might lose it.”
Colin Sussingham: “Yeah, there’s no way you could get another one, right?”

Thinking Out Loud

pang

Jeff Pang across from World Trade. Mid-90sish. Shout out to yellow trucks. Photo by @gunarsphoto.

♥ Remaining hats are still $15 in the webstore btw xoxo ♥

Max Palmer, Andrew Wilson, Chris Millic and Nolan Benfield went to skate Cuba this past winter. Sean Dahlberg made the video, and Colin Sussingham took da photos.

Chocolate is better than Girl in yet another enjoyable Bobshirt interview, this time with Scott Johnston. Includes Ty Evans’ full raw footage from S.J. trying the 180 switch crook on the J. Kwon gap-to-ledge from Carroll’s Modus part, A.K.A. The Greatest Trick Ever Done™, in addition to the story behind the sequence and clip.

Max Hull has a sick, new [mostly skatepark] edit featuring heavy doses of Max, Conor and John Choi footage. Who else heard rumors about the top secret John Choi part?

Even watching footage from that Roosevelt Island ledge-to-bank is stressful.

New nine-minute edit from Blue Couch. The ride-on grind of death at Chase is pretty wild. Has anyone transferred between the pillars at Cooper Union like that before?

#TRENDWATCH2017: Skating the top of the Tompkins bench.

Josh Stewart reflects on ten years of Theories of Atlantis, and the once highly-contentious comments of his website, where a seminal cellar doorist ran amuck.

Transworld has a new edit from John Valenti with a bunch of the Politic dudes skating Valencia, Spain’s third city for skateboarding (i.e. you probably assume most of its spots are in Barcelona and not 200 miles away.) Features basically a new Caddo part.

Paul Rodriguez v.s. the Bayside Ten, ten years ago. [#ABP, four years ago ya.]

Something special for all the people whose favorite skaters have names that sound like obscure post-WW2 existentialists: a compilation of J.B. Gillett footage in San Francisco. Threw this song on immediately after watching.

Someone put together an Instagram compilation of Adrian Del Campo, the most well-regarded flatground skater on the social media circuit, and architect of the nollie back heel stomp heard around the world.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Sure, this buzzer-beater broke Twitter, Devin Booker scored 70 (in a loss though…), but this man has the play of the week, maybe the year. (It’s not Russell Westbrook, btw.)

MikeWill’s album is a rap industry friends montage.

More Spots

etienne

Is E.T. still in Spain? Photo by Zach Baker

New spring goods now live on Alltimers.com. Just don’t expect a text back from Pryce.

but is E.T. still in Spain?

Over the weekend, there was a scare that Shorty’s was being demolished. Although it ended up being a miscommunication between the city and a private company, part of the structure was demolished, but much of the spot remains in tact. The Shorty’s crew met with the mayor of Newark today, and you can read an update here.

Jason Byoun wallies off of snow.

Bunches and bunches of interviews this week…

Super refreshing to see an interview with a nineties pro from the east coast that doesn’t tread the bitter waters that cover so many recollections of that time period. Chromeball interview #99 is with civil engineer, Andy Stone. Anndd Twitter’s saying the newly surfaced footage of him belongs in the Smithsonian.

Speedway Mag posted its extended interview with Josh Stewart about the entire Static series on the occasion of Theories’ ten-year anniversary. (The edited version originally appeared on the Keen Distribution site if some bits seem familiar.)

Pontus Alv interviews Johnny Wilson and then Pontus Alv interviews Bobby Puleo.

Cafe Creme blog interviewed R.B. Umali.

A Minnesotan asks a good question: why isn’t Chicago a bigger deal in skateboarding?

“Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Jim Greco boils.” As discussed last week, skateboarding has doubled down on angst while angsty icons of the 2000s have rebranded themselves with a newfound focus on straightforward skateboarding. Boil the Ocean considers our age of the self-concious comeback in skateboarding.

Consult aforelinked Andy Stone interview for context on why people still fawn over 411 videos. Tennyson comes through with another compilation, this time an eleven-minute mash-up Carl Shipman and Tom Penny, maybe the only guy out there who can keep your attention with twenty-year-old contest footage :)

This Rowan Zorilla Instagram comp is a good time.

The Northern Co. goes all-city in their five-minute “Summer Trip to New York” montage. (Ok fine, they don’t go to Staten Island — has there ever been a truly all-city summer montage though?)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week Year[?]: Who is James Harden again?

Quote of the Week
Conor Prunty: “It took me like two years to learn how to ollie.”
Jesse Alba: “My dad is still learning how to ollie, he’s been skating for like 40 years.”

dude

Gotta get back on it, sorry :(

~Positivity is Sexy~

900

Free beer to whoever disses it with a Tas Pappas tag. Photo via The Shady One

“One thing I realized once I started being in the world of Instagram was that people don’t let go of things. If something has emotionally affected somebody in some powerful way sometime in their life, that doesn’t fade. If anything, social media kind of fans the flame of that and almost reestablishes that emotional connection.” With so much discussion of social media and its pros/cons in any skate interview these days, it’s nice to hear that it actually does have a way of bringing about some greater good from one of the happiest people to ever ride a skateboard, Ray Barbee.

“With a skater like Jamal Williams, Ricky Oyola or even Pat Steiner, people aren’t pulling out the yardstick to measure how high they’re ollieing. It’s more the feelings people get by watching that person on a skateboard.” Also with a good bit of social media talk + skaters having an impact on people’s lives, Get Born Mag has a detailed interview with Josh Stewart. ~feelings~

Hotel Blue is the new board company from the LurkNYC camp, and Nick just dropped a nine-minute promo featuring the entire team over the weekend. Back smith backside flip on the Leonard Street ledge was wild.

Bobshirt has a 25-minute interview with Bill Strobeck detailing pretty much every last anecdote about the prime era of Alien Workshop + Habitat. Includes a special guest appearance from a former orange-beanied colleague halfway in ;)

Huf gave Jenkem a tour of some of the places he grew up skating in Manhattan.

Boil the Ocean on Anti-Hero’s persistence in an increasingly tense landscape of board brand longevity, and a potential Daan Van Der Linden S.O.T.Y. run.

Some warm-ups from Yaje Popson and friends at the L.E.S. Park.

Village Psychic has a content monopoly on anything having to do with the little guys keeping the romance in printed skate media alive. An interview with the minds behind Germany’s Solo mag.

Mushrooms to switch flip into a bowl + other debauchery from CPH Open.

Part two of The Bunt’s interview with Spencer Hamilton is now live.

Well, this is the first instance of someone skating in Polo shoes I can remember, which re-opens the hypothetical discussion of what the Ralph skate team would look like…

Quote of the Week: “Positivity is sexy. Creativity is even sexier.” — Andrew Wilson

Thank you for everything Gene Wilder.

February 64th, 2016

dre by dre

Dre by Dre in collaboration with Dre

Everyone go buy Bruns 2 (available both in digital download + hard copy form), and then share in the comments how many times you yelled at your screen during John Gardner’s part. Best part of 2016 thus far. Nik Stain (of Bruns 1 notoriety) has a short-n-sweet part in there too. Quick fifteen-second teaser here.

That time Josh Kalis quit Alien Workshop to ride for Zoo York ;)

Been a minute: HD video blog #20 from Johnny Wilson.

Wish this was three minutes longer… some B-roll of Zered and Bobby De Keyzer skating Barcelona via Richard Quintero. Zered also has this quick new Insta commercial from that knobbed Fort Greene bank thing out now too.

Antonio switch backside noseblunted the trunk of a car.

Yo we out to Amsterdam.

Straight nollie over Black Hubba is a chill move.

Skateboard Story interviewed Josh Stewart about the advent of skate video piracy in the 2000s, how it kinda-sorta subsided, and the always-popular topic of small skate brands reaching critical mass at this moment in time.

iPhone and bro cam featuring Loose Trucks Max and Andrew Wilson via Max Hull.

2 minutes of throwaway and boom-bap from an upcoming video called Counterculture.

“Last week the nation’s ever-deepening identity crisis deepened, again, after a Facebook posting left Americans to contend with the concept of Young Jeezy wearing socks with sandals.” Boil the Ocean on Baker re-tweaking their video format, and Transworld‘s refusal to let magazine videos go the way of video magazines.

Bunch of night lines, and some chill Sade vibes — plus anytime you do a white rapper down Three Up Three Down, your part is guaranteed to get linked up here.

Seldom-available part from one of history’s most underrated skateboarders, Matt Beach. Looks like it came from a mid-2000s Portland video. Song deserves an auto-mute, but then again I’m the one still getting shit on YouTube for editing a minute of footage to work work work work work work

The Welcome to Hell slams section, circa 2016.

Wait, is switch 360 flips not looking good like a known consensus? Switch backside flips, maybe…tough for those to not roll on the ground, but can think of many good-to-great switch tres. For instance: Antonio and Zeb are both incredible switch tre-ers.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Hey man, even if the Lakers’ locker room is an utter shit show right now, you can’t help but admire the team’s subversive creativity.

Quote of the Week: “She was like ‘let’s go to dinner,’ I was like ‘let’s get a beer.’ I didn’t get dinner — and it all went downhill from there.” — Chuck MVP

Ripped Laces did this thing about Pink Floyd songs in skate videos, and it reminded me of this eight-year-old Powers part. Shout out to anyone who walked through the snow to go to the Trife premiere at the N 11th KCDC location: