Snack Language

Congratulations to John Gardner on the pro board ♥ There are few skaters as contagiously fun to watch as John, and if getting people hyped to skate is the principal purpose of why we have pro skateboarders to begin with, John should’ve been pro ages ago :) Creature dropped a remix of his footy from the past few years to illustrate that exact point. Photo by Nik Stain.

Can’t think of a recent skate commercial that was this good. Philly Santosuosso and a friend pay homage to Spike and Mike’s “Is it the shoes?” Jordan ad on the occasion of Philly’s new Venture truck. The execution is just so, so good, right down to every little detail. Give everyone involved a raise.

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Jake Church — Yardsale ‘YS 2’ Raw Clips & Offcuts

Around the time of YS 2‘s official release, the QS office was winded from year-end #content, and on a much-needed vacation. This, unfortunately, resulted in the new release desk being unable to give Yardsale’s second video the analytic accolades that it deserved. There are only a select few video series that feel wholly of their own world, and the YS videos syphon your eyes into a dimension away from their contemporaries.

In consolation, the Yardsale boys were kind enough to allow us to share some raw footage from Jake Church’s ender part with everyone.

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Monday: The New Wednesday?

ICYMI: Troy made a T.J. IG mix from that brief slice of time when the Museum of Natural History being a go was the best-worst kept secret in the city ;)

Or is it Big Screen Plaza: The New Love Park?

Max Hull has a five-minute edit from the bumping Long Island City D.I.Y. spot.

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‘A Place For The Nerds’ — An Interview With Nick Sharratt of The Palomino

Interview by Farran Golding
Photos by Chris Mann, Rafal Wojnowski & Rich West

As we age, it’s easy to only remember the “big” changes: VX to HD, social media, Thrasher becoming the only magazine. The smaller ones are tougher to catalog, but when you think about it, had a substantial impact. In the not-so-distant past, “raw files” weren’t a “thing.” You couldn’t DM on Instagram. Polar was a small brand selling outline logo tees to the few who could get them. These things changing had huge reverberations, and in many ways, helped make “underground,” independent skateboard brands the dominant brands they are today.

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Deeper Understanding — An Interview With Charlie Birch

Interview by Farran Golding
Collages by Requiem For A Screen
Original Photos by Marimo Ohyama & Alex Pires

It seems like just the other day that Palace was a small U.K. brand buzzing with montages filmed on VHS tapes, and P.W.B.C. news segments aimed at a skate industry still coming to grips with how to use the internet. In the ensuing decade of successes, it has remained unshakably English in its vision — even the fact that Jamal Smith is the only American to turn pro for the brand rings of a certain “foreigners appreciating your homeland in a better way than you do”-type thing.

To the American eye, Palace rose to prominence in that void left by Blueprint at the onset of the 2010s. In the time since, the world of U.K. skateboarding feels like it became closer intertwined to our own. This of course is thanks to Palace, yes, but also because of things like Isle’s unanimously adored “Atlantic Drift” series, the Yardsale videos, Free becoming one of the best alternate channels for skate media, and the inspiring success of the Long Live Southbank campaign.

With little context for how the U.K. scene actually operates, we asked Farran Golding — the man behind many of the deep-dive features on the Slam City Skates blog — to interview Charlie Birch, Palace’s newest teamrider, who we don’t know all that much about on this side of the Atlantic ;)

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