Maine Archives - Quartersnacks

The Wharf Report III — Michael Babbitt’s Maine Scene Video, “A Way Out”

Daily News February 11th, 2026 · 12:05 pm

It feels like it has been an eerily quiet season for New York scene videos. You can blame the worst winter in a decade, but winter has typically been the perfect time to edit shit from the past year. This week, we’ve ran stuff from Chicago (statistically worse weather than us), Lisbon (where it’s been raining all winter), and today, Maine (look at a map.) I guess we gotta work more to afford to live in this fucking place or something like that.

ANYWHO, we at the QS office love a seasonal skate video franchise: think Jeff Cecere’s 2022-2024 December three-peat or that era when every summer came with a Bronze video. For three winters now, Michael Babbitt and his crew have been reporting on the happenings up in Portland, Maine in skate video form. Three videos in, it feels like Portland thrives on the sort of spots that pop up in that liminal period between construction projects and may not last more than a week, or the sorts of things that can only be skated while negotiating with someone already halfway into calling the cops. Between the trio of projects, it barely feels like they repeat spots. We asked Mr. Babbitt how such a small scene manages to cast such a wide net: “did you guys barely repeat spots through the past three videos?”

The Wharf Report II — Michael Babbitt’s Maine Scene Video, “Idiot Boy”

Daily News February 10th, 2025 · 7:06 pm

You might remember us clamoring on about last winter’s sleeper hit, Sucks To Be You, which was a …portal into the skate scene in …Portland, Maine ;)

Michael Babbitt dropped Idiot Boy yesterday, a follow-up and even more refined portrait of the east coast’s northernmost place that could still be called a city. (69,000ish people.)

Damn That’s A Wrap, Boys

Daily News December 30th, 2024 · 12:00 am · 2

Truly an honor for QS to make Simple Magic’s year-end best skateboard writing list four times. The fact that people actually read around here means the world. Thank you, Cole. Shout out Mike, shout out Farran, shout out Adam, shout out Frozen in Carbonite.

Crazy it’s taken this long for a Muni video to get pinned onto the list… Added Brian Panebianco’s “The Final Plaza” video, which documents the final days at Philly’s Municipal Services building, to the QS One-Spot Part Map 📍 This crew’s dedication throughout the heartbreaks is truly awe-inspiring. Amazing work from all involved.

Jace Detomasso briefly spoke to Thrasher about his Reggaeton Ledges ollie, on which he dislocated his shoulder first try and had to wait a year to go back. Pretty dope how anytime Jace ollies something, people want to get him on the horn about it.

The Wharf Report — Michael Babbitt’s ‘Sucks To Be You’ Video

Daily News January 23rd, 2024 · 12:00 am · 3

It is odd that despite being quite a bit closer to the epicenters of east coast skateboarding, we collectively know far less about the scene in Portland, Maine, than we do about the scene in Portland, Oregon. Maine is the northernmost state on what esteemed geographers refer to as “the east coast,” but beyond it producing one of history’s most prolific nosesliders (who appears for a cameo in the video below!), our knowledge is largely anecdotal.

Michael Babbitt‘s Sucks To Be You is a dive into the Maine scene — which, while it isn’t exactly in our “backyard,” is still close enough to make not knowing more about it kinda ridiculous.

Free Agency

Daily News July 1st, 2019 · 1:11 am · 9

You may have heard that the city approved plans to cover Tompkins with synthetic turf after a hearing this past May. There is very sparse information about this, outside of the Tompkins courts being outlined with a rectangle in a PDF. Several friends with, um, knowledge of how to navigate these things have begun to reach out for more info, as groundbreaking looks like it is set to begin this winter. Anyone with insight into how this could be debated and compromised with Parks, even after it has been approved, please feel free to share what you know. We’ll try our best to keep you updated as well.

“My project in Malmö felt unreal. Imagine that happening in New York. I wouldn’t even know where to start.” Hmm, on that note… MIT Masters degree holder, Alexis Sablone, has been heavy on the interview circuit lately, and everyone is happy about it. Alexis for president of skateboarding :)

Josh Kalis re-did the ender that capped a video part he filmed at age 23… at 43 ♥

Go Skate Day videos aren’t exactly the first things that get clicked on around here — unless they’re from the Sabotage dudes, who, rather than running the whole “this is the one day I refuse to skate” thing that contrarian “core” guys do, went out and got nine minutes worth of Philly footage in 24 hours. (Yo, where is that mini windowsill ledge? Figure it’s Center City somewhere and sucks IRL, but that thing looks super fun.)