Santa Claus does exist — his name is actually Antonio.
Though a long way from the sprawling epic Christmas Clips of the past, today marks the first time since 2015 that we put up an edit for December 25. Though not the mood piece of night skating in hoodys that it once was, here are some of the easier-on-the-eyes clips from the past four or five months of bringing out the #realcamera. Half the footage is in shorts with leaves on the trees, so there was almost a debate about whether to call it a Christmas Clip at all, but who even has the time anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Features Jesse Alba, Daniel Kim, Antonio Durao, Ben Blundell, Kyota Umeki, Myles Gable, Lurker Lou, Connor Champion, Sully Corimer, Dustin Henry, Etienne Gagne, Stephen Ostrowski, Keith Denley, Emilio Cuilan.
And on a day when the wind-chill brings the temperature down to 12 degrees, we bring you some… good news.
Space 198, the new free, INDOOR Vans park is opening on January 2nd at 198 Randolph Street in Brooklyn. Unlike the belated House of Vans, which was more of an event space inside of a skatepark (and brought out people’s inner savages anytime there was a mid-winter open day there), this park is a community-oriented space built for skateboarding.
It’s going to be open Thursday through Sundays — you just need to to sign up on the website beforehand. And it’s off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick, making everyone’s life a bit easier than a 20-minute walk through the snow to Greenpoint that we used to do ;)
As they were putting the finishing touches on it, they gave a handful of crews the chance to check out the park last week, and here’s what we came back with. Be nice to Jersey Dave when you see him, because chances are, his phone has not stopped buzzing for the past two weeks.
Filmed by Will Rosenstock, Paul Young, Max Hull, Cristian Berrios & Kyota Umeki.
Here’s an eight-minute recap of the Hardies event at Blue Park this past Friday, which includes the best angle of Tyshawn’s kickflip over the table longways thus far.
The Man Who Films spent a lot of time in Rockaway this past summer and made a fifteen-minute video entitled “Beach Genius.” Everyone knows that Rockaway isn’t the most abundant part of the city for spots, so shout out to those guys for managing to avoid all the skateparks in all but one clip. Includes a mini Phil Rodriguez section where he somehow turns one of those blue bus shelters into an actual bank. And it’s also perhaps the first time in human history that there’s been a transition from Nicki Minaj to …MF Doom. Good vibe the whole way through, and the right amount of ~different~ ♥
“Day in the Life” videos warrant a cursory skimming through at best, but this one with Jawn Gardner skating around Long Beach and making friends with everyone kicking him out of spots could have gone on for twice as long :)
Philly from Humidity, Tyler Tufty, and Keith (!) Denley (!!) all have cool clips in this Nike SB wear test montage from Minneapolis a few weeks back.
People are still flying down that hill from the Long Island Expressway by Queens Mall, huh? Iconic 2008 spot. OMW is a twenty-minute video by Angel Delgado that Skate Jawn posted up last week. Features a bunch of familiar faces.
“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 ♥
