To everyone still @ing us on social media to let us know that The Triangle™ is back: no the fuck it’s not. The cement is shit, the pink bumps are shit, and nobody on the Frog team has responded to a “are you skating?”-text in a month :(
But we’re no less still hooked on triangles, desperate to restore the joy of E. 9th Street’s onetime premier destination for a 50% chance of getting hit by a car. Philly skaters forced Love Park into resurrection once City Hall was destroyed, and Muni became a natural alternative once Love met the same fate. However riddled with champagne problems New York skateboarding may be — we never had the luxury of being able to replace something as special as Love by walking across the street to a nearly-as-good spot.
Like an opioid epidemic, once the good designer shit runs scarce, the demand for shittier alternatives rises. And lately, people have been skating some shitty triangles.
You can take the Bostonian out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the Bostonian. In the days of Joey Pepper’s Aesthetics section and Jahmal Williams riding for DNA, Boston was the epicenter of bump-to-bleacher skateboarding. Longing for those sweet green metal days and displaced from their homeland, some savvy New Englanders decided “Fuck going to Reggaeton Ledges” this past summer, and began their own propped up empire nearby. The crowd followed suit.
Other notable developments in Grand’s latest are Spencer Hamilton bringing his two signature moves to Columbus Park, and the QS Spot Desk being wrong about people needing Bondo to skate the one surviving bank under the 125th Street 1 train ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Features Spencer Hamilton, Nick Ferro, Dana Ericson, Connor Champion, Kevin Tierney and Brian Delaney. J.P. Blair on da lens.
It is safe to say that this media enterprise’s decade-long tradition of Start of Summer, End of Summer, and Christmas clips has fallen into memories of the prosperous first-half of the 2010s. At a time when Swedish filmmakers deride the quality of skateboarding simply being tossed onto Instagram — between regular posts and tricks for the story — who really has time to carry a #realcamera around unless you’re filming for some big video project that Logan may or may not ever release?
As the iPhone has become our most oft-used video device, the #realcamera has become reserved for traveling i.e. when enthusiasm is high. If you’re lucky enough to blow off work in the middle of the week to go skate with your friends, sometimes it’s better to leave the pressures of “well, I brought the camera out” at home.
Over the past year or so, Kevin’s videos have made me perpetually jealous of all the times I decided to stay in and be responsible rather than ditching a pile of un-responded-to emails to go skateboard. They’re not everyone going their hardest, but they are representative of what it’s like to leave a skatepark, and try skate street at a bunch of decent-enough spots that you’ve skated a thousand times before in 2017.
…but the rest of the clips were really good! Spencer Hamilton with what’s tied for the best 360 flip near the East River in recent memory (see #7), Tierney skating stacks of shaky rubble, and of course, Wade fuckin’ D. skating New York just in general. We tossed that footage together for a Grand Collection remix featuring four faves ;)
“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
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.
“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.
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?”
