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?”

30 Skaters No Wax

banks rot

Photo via Graver

Anyone too stubborn to accept the cyclical nature of human history should be aware of the fact that the Banks is maybe the most popular spot in the city again, and twenty of us drove out to Staten Island to skate the ABC Ledges last week.

Time warp innit ~ June 22, 2010 QS post from the day the Banks first got fenced off.

See also: Children skating the three block set-up at Columbia University, and placing trash cans after it in the latest installment of LurkNYC’s “New York Times” series. Shout out to Ja$onwear, Yellow Rail, Dan’s Skate Page and the Metrospective forum.

There’s not enough John Choi footage in it, but Cyrus threw together a twelve minute iPhone edit full of B-sides from New York and L.A.

Jahmal Williams footage and probably the last clips you’ll ever see of the CBS keyhole ledge in “Initiation,” a two-minute clip from Theories to kick off the spring.

Village Psychic follows up on the Stefan Janoski episode of The Bunt to consider the “Hovercraft” / a over tailslide (?) / booger tailslide (?), a trick that would be best left to the spirit of Darrell Stanton.

A bunch of classic NJ spots in Rob Snyder and Jeff Starch’s new part for Municipal.

Cafe Creme rounded up a handful of Keith Hufnagel cameos and mini parts from montages and 411s in the nineties, and put them into one convenient clip.

“Freed of past eras’ smallmindedness that shackled hive-minded bros to goofy-boy kits in the early 1990s or carcass hucking in the early 2000s, a supposed ‘anything goes’ renaissance over the past decade has freed pros and bros alike to pursue moves from retroactivated no-complies to multisyllabic ledge combos and horse pools, wearing fits that run from short shorts to graphical sweatpant products to Tuscan leather. Just as long as you did it on a board that was at least eight inches wide.”

Damn, T.F. North is the dubstep capital of New York skateboarding. Respect.

Drake wearing a TWS tee was an inside job (of the Adobe variety.)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Jamal Crawford will probably be in the NBA in 2109 when the earth is completely submerged in water. P.S. Mask on, fuck it, mask off.

Quote of the Week: “This place is like the south.” — Kevin Tierney re: Staten Island

Connor C & Wade D

connor grand

We waited nearly two decades to find out who paged Kareem Campbell (“it was just a homie“) in what was apparently the only *two* pager checks in skateboard video history. However, videos were sparse then. There was a finite amount of skateboard material released in a given month that obsessing over minutiae like who was paging Kareem seemed like an adequate use of brainpower.

Who are we kidding man. Nothing changed. We’re still over here thinking about the saammee duummbb shhiitt — the only difference now is that you can text Connor Champion to find out he was playing to the Future and Young Thug song off Esco Terrestrial rather than waiting twenty years for an Australian skateboard website to ask him about what was coming from the speaker he was holding mid nollie nose manual nollie flip.

Wade D New York footage is always ♥♥♥

Check out Grand Collection via GrandCollectionCo.com.

Features Connor Champion, Wade Desarmo, Kevin Tierney and Adam Zhu.

‘Plug’ — The New Bronze Promo

plug

Three hours late may not have been much in 2010, but on the 2016 internet, we might as well be posting the new Bronze promo in the 2010 archives. We blew it.

“Plug” is a departure from the past few rounds of Bronze projects not because it is in HD — not their first video to ditch the VX — but because it’s far more conservative with the nostalgic non sequiturs that made it one of the western world’s most ripped-off skate video franchises. At the same time, it’s a return to the late-2010s, post-Flipmode / pre-merch availability era that made us fall in love with the Bronze age. There’s a revived Phil Rodriguez not seen since the 2011 Q.S.S.O.T.Y Caviar days, an ender part from the venerable Trife alumnus William McFeely, and a loving tribute to the God K.T. in which he appears for one clip like Danny Way in Photosynthesis credits except way tighter — making “Plug” a two-sided love letter to new and old Bronze fans alike. Also shout out to Nick Ferro for consistently making all of us underweight skateboarders proud, part after part :)

Previously: Trust, Enron, Solo Jazz, 56k, Caviar, Sognar

Filet Mignon With a Flip Phone

dre forrest

Good friend of the website, longtime QS music supervisor, coin-er of the term “skate video house,” and writer of the last part in the QS book, recently published his first novel, None of the Bad Ones. It’s about partying, #badrelationships, skating at Tompkins and meeting up with girls you texted off a Blackberry ~five or six years ago. It’s a fun and nostalgic read. Use promo code “snackmancometh” on his website, ESFBooks.com, to get 30% off. QS interview about the book here.

Ahh the old “Zoo York Media Group” logo… New Kevin Tierney Zoo part is now online, with some fashion-forward griptape, white rappers, and chill cut-ins from E.S.T.. Been wondering who those wallride marks on Grand and Crosby were from ;)

To remedy the fact that there hasn’t been a full Brian Anderson part in long time, Village Psychic put together a rad three-minute remix of his past four or five years worth of video appearances. Shout out to Billy McFeely circa 2009.

This isn’t actually a new Conor Prunty part, but a new Conor Prunty part is dropping on QS this April two thousand and sixteen. Buy stock while you can :)

QS’ New Output-based #skatevideohouse Desk: Vice’s electronic music site took to task skating’s recent infatuation with house music. Dudes just wanna dance bro.

Canadians were unmentioned in the article entirely, which is unfortunate considering their apt handling of such music supervision decisions in the past. Here’s a new one from Antosh and all the dudes from the “Heat” video this past fall.

Drones in Westchester. New one featuring Caddo, Watermelons et al via Armand.

Everything in this twenty-five minute Byrdgang video — from the spots, to the tricks, to the picture quality, to the fact that it’s named after sub-sect of lower tier peak-era Dipset affiliates — reminded me of early-to-mid-2000s, post-Metrospective skateboard website montages in the best way possible. Smiles the whole way through :)

A minute of Ishod footage at the new indoor Nike park in Brooklyn.

Related: The [far different] state of skateparks on the east coast, circa 1998-2000.

As if filming a video exclusively in London wasn’t hard enough, they decided to do it with a ten-pound camera from three decades ago. Mike O’Meally with some photos and words on the upcoming Palace video.

Relevant Today: Skateboarding’s Beloved Soundtracks — David Bowie.

New Cell Jawn clip featuring purportedly some of Love Park’s last days.

Thanks to NY Skateboarding for the full flip-through of the QS book in 15 seconds.

If you watch only one skate video today… Stereo uploaded a clean, full version of A Visual Sound online. One of the most #influential vids to ever exist, especially with regard to a lot of what’s going on in skating today.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Damian Lillard got on the same juice cleanse as Steph I guess. Seventeen points in three minutes.

Quote of the Week: “Whoa. Somebody made our beds.” — Max Palmer re: hotels

Londoners: Slam is throwing a party for the DGK + QS stuff on Thursday :)