One Step Above Garbage

curbz

They painted the curbs here yellow, and now it’s the second or third best spot in the city that you don’t get kicked out of. Paint more stuff yellow.

Can’t remember the last time a montage got me as psyched as “Faces,” the new one from Ben Chadourne, featuring the Blobys, Bobby Worrest, Hjalte, etc. These videos have a remarkable way of making Paris look like the funnest place in the world (which it probably is), even in the winter. The Rod Stewart is also perfect.

“As tennis’ stars age, will aping skateboarding provide an elixir of youthful advertising audiences or will tennis’ wealthy overlords catch onto the notion that a sizable bulk of pro shoes and contract dollars are tied up in veteran pros whose salad grinding days of filming feature length video parts may lie years in the past?” — Boil the Ocean re: skateboarding’s current infatuation with tennis. Frozen in Carbonite also tackled this subject four years ago following Gino’s Mcenroe commercial et al.

Kingpin interviewed Nick Von Werssowetz about his new company, Hotel Blue and the evolution of LurkNYC. Part 3 of Lurk’s “Mean Streets” series is also now live.

The Bunt has a tell-all interview with Darren Harper. Daniel Kim is my fave skater too.

Whoa is this the first wear test video to feature the Le Bain hot tub? Is that even the Le Bain hot tub? Ripped Laces x Canal Wheels give the Brad Cromer Huf pro model a try.

Given that 2016 marks the twenty-year anniversary of everything from Welcome to Hell, to E.E. 3 to Mouse, SMLTalk has a retrospective of all the seminal 1996 videos in two parts. Also kinda hard to disagree that Tincan Folklore was a precursor to a lot of the shit going on in videos today, even moreso than its exalted predecessor.

After the demise of Love, the Sabotage boys took a southern trip hitting a string of the few remaining plazas left in the U.S: Pulaski, Raleigh Courthouse, Legislative (safe to say this is probably the best spot in the country at this point?), Blackbox, etc.

The 917 team dropped a midwest tour video in anticipation of their Nike collab.

“Pure Moods” is a new half New York / half S.F. montage from Waylon Bone.

NY Skateboarding posted part three of their Huf interview, which discusses the rebirth of Metropolitan Wheels, the Marc Johnson v.s. Choc beef, etc.

Um, Ghetto Child Wheels is making a comeback, with almost the same team. And the god Peter Smolik already left the rebooted Menace before the reboot even got to booting in order pursue his own skateboard business venture. Godspeed to the god.

Quote of the Week
Pryce Holmes: “I probably spend $30,000 a year on booze.”
Ben Blundell: “I’ve never made over ten.”

What a Time to Update the Website

alltimers wall

Mike Carroll re: the greatest line ever done and hardflip quality control. Also shout out to regional names for tricks. Nollie half cab for life. Buzz off dude.

Contest footage isn’t exactly #onbrand for QS but some pretty wild stuff went down at 50 Kent and the L.E.S. Park for Damn AM. They even fixed the crack in front of the double set so we can all skate it every day! Meet you there in five.

The only fashion week journalism that has really #mattered: SMLTalk walked us through all the stages of Jim Greco’s personal style. Italian mobster was maybe the sickest look. But maybe only saying that because Goodfellas turned 25 last week.

Kinda hard to debate Barcelona not being the greatest skate city on earth when you can watch a six-minute edit from there that spends its time at practically none of the most commonly known spots. “Let’s just put a bank here.”

A straight-up nollie on the bank / wallride at Chase downtown is a pretty hot move. They moved the planters back in front of that thing a month ago, btw.

Route One has a mini video interview with Zered.

Apparently three people skate in Bangladesh.

Fuck off Hawk, you can’t even flip your board you old prick.

Boil the Ocean on Quiksilver’s demise and maybe something re: Trukfit becoming a gas station brand + Corey Kennedy’s Hawaii thing? I don’t know man.

Quick #summer #trip #to #NY clip with some dudes from S.F and here’s the new Skate Jawn iPhone montage featuring notable MPC™ affiliates.

With thin ledges trending hard after Aaron Herrington’s Dime Glory Challenge win, Kingpin compiled a #current #listicle of the all-time greats on narrow surfaces.

Skate and Annoy has been posting some sick old skate ads over in its archive.

QS Rap Desk: Hotbox Social’s Young Thug “Leaks & Loosies” compilation from earlier this summer is actually better put-together than Slime Season, though the latter features mastered versions of some of the same songs.

Quote of the Week
Sexually Active Young Lady: “I’m not sure, I might’ve only fucked him because his bio said ‘free spirit.'”
Tron Jenkins: “Don’t be mad at him because he went to college.”

R.I.P. Jersey City Junk Spot.

Banned From Sweden

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Photo via @oldbearsweatpants on IG

Yo did TWS really just hint that The Storm 2 is in the works?

In 2012, it was “I’d rather watch Gino push.” In 2013, it was “I’d rather watch Busenitz skate a curb.” In 2014, it was “I’d rather watch Jahmal do a 5050.” In 2015, it’s “I’d rather watch a bunch of kids in Ethiopia skate than Chris Cole do some NBDs at the DC park.”

Pretty much every skateboarder outside of the Bay Area who knows about Andre Nickatina discovered Andre Nickatina through skate videos. SMLTalk gave a rundown of notable Nickatina #musicsupervision throughout skate video history.

Pretty rare that you see a New York clip in 2015 almost entirely filmed in Manhattan. Nice to see a lot of seldom-skated U.W.S. and Morningside spots.

Paych (or whatever) is now online in full.

Corey Rubin is my one friend who can skate bowls.

Anyone who started skating at least ~10 (or maybe less, who knows) years ago grew up with at least a couple Mike Blabac photos on their wall. This Chromeball interview with him is great, and gives the behind-the-scenes details on what we now consider some of the most iconic images of skateboarding. Also worth reading for any young skate photographers looking to be humbled by how good they have it in the digital era. That A.V.E. nollie crook revert sequence story is wild.

Jenkem has a bunch of behind the scenes photos from the Palace / Bronze video.

Yeah.

Huf doesn’t really flip his board anymore, just like Kevin Tierney ;)

The video that brought the concept of “oft-delayed S.V.A. skate video” to absurdly new heights released a twenty-minute B-roll clip, twenty-something years after the announcement of said video’s production: Outdated B-sides, 2007-2012.

Skaters are idiots.

Some quick vids“Subway Series” via the Mood NYC crew, and a Village Psychic bro cam clip edited to a relatable song about women repeatedly not understanding that you have a chauffeur. Live life.

QS Sports Desk: Anyone pretending like they know what’s going to happen in this series is lying. If it’s a one-point Game 7 decision, it won’t be surprising in the slightest. Also on the slim chance you missed it…J.R. Smith’s Game 4 entry.

Quote of the Week: “Young Thug is good at making sex sound unappealing.” — T

Rest in Peace Ryan DeWitt.

Wishy Washy

yaje-jd

Smoking is lame, but this photo is cool. Via Jersey Dave. Dave is also selling photo tees over on his website, so give him some money if you’re feeling generous today.

If you need some skate spot pornography to cheer you up on this rainy day, Kingpin ran a listicle of the “Top 25” skate plazas in the world. FWIW, Bercy is gone and Republiqué (see 1:33) took its place, and Para-lel is unfortunately on its way out soon. The #stalinplaza tag on IG is also a great way to kill a half-hour fantasizing.

Also, how could you forget about Eggs? The northeast’s last great ledge spot / plaza north of the Beltway.

Shorty’s Guilty is sorta the Caligula of skate videos.

This seems like an occasionally horrific endeavor: Two dudes snuck into an abandoned psych ward out in New York state…so they could skate inside it.

Here’s an an A.V.E. Gardner line and an A.V.E. interview.

It’s really cool to see Jerry Fowler still at it. His 411 Profile and tricks in the Rhythm industry section rank as some of the most frequent 411 revisitations, and even Strobeck admitted that he was the catalyst behind the backside nosegrind pop out’s development, which Pappalardo and Wenning later popularized among New Jerseyians in baggy jeans and DC Lynxes. Simply seeing the dude do a noseslide is sick. You can catch other parts from Orchard’s Stone Soup video here.

A wood pallet up to the never-functional water fountain at T.F. may be the most desperate Tompkins obstacle of 2014, but then, we are reminded of this.

Jerome Campbell likely locked up “360 Flip of the Year” honors earlier this fall, but Al Davis might’ve just snagged the switch title.

Slam City Skates has a cool feature about his five favorite photographs, which acts as a springboard for some stories behind the scenes of the past few Static videos.

Not a whole lot of subtlety going on in the Chocolate Epicly Later’d finale.

Five years later, still #relevant in this fashion game. Available for consulting, etc.

FYI: Mentioned this on Twitter, but all of you privy to riding the occasional “loose” Citi bike you may stumble upon — be careful. Got stopped for “running a red light,” only to have the cops run a serial number check to verify that it wasn’t stolen. Was completely random, and not in a sketchy zone at all. Be careful.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: J.R. Smith’s face after Trey Burke hit that game winner is priceless, especially since he hit the most J.R. Smith-esque game winner of the season, not by J.R. Smith, who hasn’t hit any game winners.

Quote of the Week: “I dead-ass saw him slap some dude dumb bigger than him.” — Andre Page

Friendly reminder that the best trick ever done down the Flushing six-stair manual pad wasn’t even a manual trick. New Jersey’s finest, 1999ish:

Just Did an Ollie ‘Bout a Week Ago

eli back 180 ng

Eli skating a rock. Photo by Black Dave.

Still a bunch of gear in the webstore. #supportyourlocalskatesite ;)

“Skating through midtown Manhattan that night, I remembered that I used to think skateboarding would never get too big because it hurt too much. Because you can’t take the pain out of skateboarding. Because putting yourself deliberately in harm’s way is a quick, easy, and reliable route to the truth.” This is a solid read.

TWS’ “Skate Nerd” segment with Kalis and Smolik is more entertaining than any link you may find below. “Kelly Slater?”

Worth repeating that Wes Kremer is the best?

Our good friend Alexander Mosley A.K.A. the Watermelon Man is having an art show at 2nd Nature in Bushwick this Saturday, October 4th. 7-11 P.M. Flyer here.

Finally: Frozen in Carbonite’s annual “Song of the Summer” x “Video Part of the Summer” mash-up segment. It tackles Static 4‘s equivalence to a prog-rock epic, Chris Brown and Bronze’s penchant for controversy, the truth that VX just looks blurry now, Bobby Shmura videos having a similar gender breakdown to skate videos, and Sinner’s post-modern, post-genre take on a video part. Incredible.

Monster has a new interview with Jake Johnson. Some heavy reading on the current situation at Alien Workshop, relationships in skateboarding, life after skating, etc.

GX1000 also posted this incredible IG clip of Jake bails. Last one is nuts.

Quick clip of Danny Supa cruising around Washington Heights.

Antwuan Dixon back on it.

For such a high-profile world city, Paris has been rather underrated for skating ever since the Lordz video era. Last week’s nine-minute “Scene” edit from Kingpin really puts how great it is into perspective. Spent a good two weeks there this past summer, and never saw at least 75% of the spots they skate. Features some solid Rich Homie Juan tricks. Also, if you slept on Vincent Touzery’s part in the Cafe Clope video (14:40 mark) earlier this year, you’re dumb.

Yeah, uh, about that unreleased Lakai Koston 1… (Part was sick though.)

Wow @ ollie over the Gino manual pad (not Roslyn) and probably the first trick down that kinked 57th Street rail in this Frankie Spears “Video Check Out.”

New northeast-encompassing video from the Mood NYC crew.

#weird skaters v.s. the 181st Street park.

“Don’t try to impress the old people. Be yourself. I think it’s the duty of all young artists — no disrespect — to say ‘Man, fuck y’all’ to the people before them. That keeps the music going.” — Andre 3000. Why couldn’t this interview be an hour longer? (“Nah nah nah yo real hip-hop yo NYC yo.”)

Quote of the Week:
slicky

New Thug and Quan in a few hours, btw.