When choosing a headline image / thumbnail / still from this crew, it’s so easy to go with some shit they’re about to skate into because it mimics the experience of first watching the video. Like, “is this dude actually about to do this?” When the answer is “no” — at least to run up a couple slams before cutting to the make — it’s always a full body battle with ten types of sandpaper ground until the glory of the rollaway.
You might remember Decline’s first video, Xola 955, which made the rounds on Free and some of the European media platforms a year ago — it included the clip of the guy flying perpendicular into a wall, and down a drop for a frontside wallride burned into the memory of anybody who saw it.
Decline is a skate crew based out of Mexico City, and ever since Xola 955 wrapped up, they’ve been filming for Lo Siento Emmett, the video we are honored to bring you today.
95th and Columbus might be the *original* Forbidden Banks, as explained by Eli Gesner in Jenkem’s “Neighborhoods” video on the Upper West Side. 📷 Photo by Greg Navarro.
Pretty much the only Go Skate Day edit worth your time, year after year: Sabotage’s GSD 2022 is now live.
“Can post-Olympics, post-Instagram, post-Phelps skateboarding still maintain the purist allegiance to the etiquette and rules of old?” Free has a #longform piece on the politics of finding spots, preserving the secrets of spots, and being the first-and-second to get tricks on certain spot up on their website. (For additional reading, Mike Munzenrider interviewed Atiba, Tim Fulton and Mike Heikkila about this same ever-complex dynamic back in 2020, and QS ran an interview with the creator of Skhateyou, the website every single skate tourist has used when traveling in Europe, back in 2017. Things haven’t gotten any clearer, as you can tell by the Free article having the widest net of perspectives yet.)
Photo via Kooks Mag
None of us ever had to talk about each other’s bowel movements so much. Then we went to Mexico City for a week.
“Don’t drink the water!” is what they say — disregarding the fact that it’s impossible to avoid every little thing that has ever come in contact with the city’s tap. Whether it’s the lettuce in a sandwich or the ice in a sexy drink, some percentage of everything is tainted. Nobody escaped unscathed. We went from claiming 100 tacos in seven days, to fifty tacos, to eating Domino’s for lunch halfway thru the week because, like, how scary can bread and cheese be?
Between searching for public bathrooms, and after realizing a slight culture barrier between us and the people showing us around (they took us to Baker spots because we had a couple people paid to skateboard with us, and based on the videos we were watching, being good at skateboarding in Mexico means you can tailslide a fifty-stair round rail), this is how the week went. A true testament to the beauty of Mexico City is that despite our unanimous gastro-intestinal ailments, everyone still had an amazing time. And no, nobody gave a fuck about that stupid wall.
Thanks to everyone who showed us around, and to the cops that accepted our like ~$25 bribe (oddly enough, you can’t drink in public) ♥ Also, I’m ok with not hearing Kodak Black for a couple months.
Features Etienne Gagne, Zach Baker, Zered Bassett, Emilio Cuilan, Adrian Vega and Will Marshall.
All the cool garms you see in this clip can be purchased on the Alltimers site btw.
