Sometimes, a good vibe is all you need :) “Ceelo Champs in the Field” is a really rad 13-minute video via a bunch of dudes out of Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s comforting to know that these types of close-knit friends videos will always exist (and have always existed) for as long as skateboarding does. There’s a decent bit of New York footage, too.
“Third Worst Video” is a fun edit by Lloyd Richards, filmed almost entirely in the city, and is def not the third worst video. Sk8rs ♥ that Tweet song.
“Colombia, huh.” Then come the sly smiles. There’s obvs no shortage of shithead Americans going to Colombia to be shitheads, but in all honesty, we weren’t going for shithead-related endeavors. We were trying to get out of the cold. It was three degrees outside the day we left.
Remember that 2012 S.O.T.Y. award? The one after Pretty Sweet? People thought Guy Mariano should’ve had it as the final victory to a tremendous redemption narrative, and for like, laser heelflipping out of a smith grind — for whatever reason he deemed that necessary to perform. A young Colombian man who was Possessed to Skate™ ended up getting it. He was the first Latin American to get it (right?), and the first non-American winner since Arto in 2001.
Why are we talking about S.O.T.Y? Well, when we went to Colombia for the first time in 2016, we went to Gonzalez’ neighborhood park. That guy is a god out there. He passed his possessed-ness off to thousands of Colombian kids, because this time around, it was obvious that skateboarding and its culture had become even bigger in Medellín. That one somewhat random S.O.T.Y. win had a massive impact in spreading skateboarding globally, even if we didn’t feel it in the States.
The plaza gods also blessed Medellín with an incredible plaza a little over a year ago. Parque Chimineas could best be described as if J-Kwon and Sants (had it not been bashed to shit over the years) had a baby, and already fueled its share of progression. That place alone is worth airfare + a five hour flight, and a bit more ~exotic~ than your run-of-the-mill New York winter escape destinations.
Watermelon Alex has been living down there for months, and Dre is seemingly an honorary Colombian. A second visit was much overdue. Can’t think of any other place I’ve traveled to where $200 lasts over a week. Also, that near-equator sun will have you in bed by 11 P.M., asleep deeper than you could’ve ever imagined. Thanks Alejo, Mateo and Alvarez for showing us around ♥
“A disc jockey, prison guard and a lumberjack walk into a vape lounge. A lounge team member looks up and says: ‘I know you folks. You must be coming from Human Resources Online’s list of the worst professions in 2018, ranked in terms of average salary and advancement opportunities, right?’ Before they can answer, a pro skateboarder wanders in behind them.” — Boil the Ocean explores the dynamics of skateboarding’s shrinking middle class as we approach the 2020s.
Dudes skating Everson between piles of snow: “…Or Get Off The Pot” is a new Syracuse edit from Lukas Reed.
Village Psychic had a couple nice pieces on their site recently. First, they caught up with contributors to Transworld, old and new, to get some recollections on the mag, and they also got Tony Hawk on the horn about where he (as someone who has had the widest range of endorsement deals in existence) draws the line on corporate sponsors.
Even a bunch of dudes from Germany who haven’t grown tired of skating the same downtown spots summer after summer aren’t resistant to T.F. West’s magnetic pull. “Transit Ride” is a half New York / half L.A. mini video by Paul Herrman. (And also confirms that you aren’t really dating yourself by pointing out Gang Starr in the most oft-skated to rap artist conversation.)
Yet another reminder to watch Minding The Gap if you still haven’t summoned the nerve to type in your card # for that free Hulu trial… Free interviewed the film’s director, Bing Liu. They were slow to get to it at first too, but became instant fans once they watched the film.
Ricardo Napoli’s video, Ciao, is premiering at The Woods in Williamsburg (48 S 4th Street) tonight at 7 P.M. You can watch his last video, Making It Happen, here.
Spot Updates — 1) The ledges on 110th and Central Park West had chunks taken out of all of them by the city. 2) Haven’t seen footage of it in a bit, but recently received an email tip that Queens’ Broadway Park is currently fenced off for construction.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Haven’t had Russ on here in a minute.
Quote of the Week: “You know what, his style isn’t fake. He’s just ugly.” — Stafhon
Productivity on a skateboard is known to be partial to a more, ummm, let’s say, “open-ended” schedule. Life obligations and responsibilities do have a well-worn way of interfering with clips. But given too much time on our hands, we start to take it for granted: how many of those slacker days end up spent kicking around Tompkins, L.E.S. or Blue Park? (Obvs the answer is…a lot.)
On the other hand, the guys with actual jobs have a way of making those two free days and two weeks of paid vacation count. Case in point: Josh Velez has been on a half-decadestreakof filminga parta year on his days off for the purposes of, in his words, keeping him sane. Where are the fire parts from the years prior to his foray into gainful employment? Blowing in the wind somewhere…
(Nah jk, we were driving around with Dre looking at bump-to-bars that nobody was going to skate for months on end in those years.) But really, this past year, him and Connor Champion, another full-timer since leaving the Young Money payroll, put together the best one from either of them yet. Maybe there’s more to this “having a job” thing than just a consistent bank account balance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Filmed and edited by T.J. Marshall. Filmed throughout 2018 in San Francisco, Copenhagen/Malmö, and New York. Guest tricks from Troy Stilwell, Tyler Tufty, Bob Reynolds, and Nolan Benfield. Collective electronic “booooo” from the stands to all those who failed to get requested guest tricks, including but not limited to: Andre Page, myself, Genesis, Meatball, and most egregiously, Kevin Tierney (wtf bro.)
The good news is we finally switched over to a circa 2018 design that’s mobile compatible, etc. Hopefully it’s not a Crailtap-getting-rid-of-the-iframes shock to the system, because let’s be honest: it basically looks the same, just moderne. We purged a couple spots that have been gone long enough for people to forget about, cleaned up some shit around the pages, etc. If anything seems to not be working properly, feel free to drop us a line.
The bad news is we are still amidst the same general skate internet content slump we have been experiencing all month. Nearly nothing happened last week…
On the off chance that you didn’t catch it, Jawn Gardner continues his streak of being one of the most contagiously good vibed skaters to watch in 2018, via his DC Streetsweeper raw files. That A/C contraption he made is nuts…
Gunes’ new FTC part is up there with John’s raw files as what got ran back the most at the office last week. Shout out to everyone who looks like they’re having fun while being really good at skateboarding.
Don’t know much about this one, but “Long Shots & Low Odds” is a ~moody~ seven-minute New York video from Canon Hastings featuring all your New York 2018 dietary staples (wallies, .T.F., a pit stop at the Grand Street courts) + a stubborn commitment to skating those red double cellar doors next to Motorino.
“I feel good because I can make money, because I can help my family, but I don’t give a fuck about the Olympics. I don’t care and I don’t want to be there.” Grey has an interview with Olympian and European life enthusiast, Tiago Lemos.
“The big underground music in America is like house and dance stuff, based on what I see in the shop, and that’s what skaters are buying. When I was getting into deep underground hip-hop growing up, the only other kids listening to it were skaters. Like, you guys know Hieroglyphics? Why? ‘Oh, it was on the blah blah blah VHS.'” This link actually has nothing to do with skating, but is an insightful conversation on how people consume music (particularly rap) in 2018, and a reminder that it’s ok to not have an opinion on some stuff!
Quote of the Week: “If you’re having fun, chances are, you’re breaking at least one law.” — Conor
It’s eerie how well this clip has aged. If you sent this to us sans titles as a “hey my friends went to Paris and here’s our clip!” in 2018, it’d probably get a pass…
