Mike Munzenrider Archives

The QS Anonymous Skateshop Survey Asks: What’s the ‘Matter’ With Skateboarding?

Features & Interviews April 17th, 2025 · 12:00 am · 16

Words by Mike Munzenrider
Art by Francesco Pini

Do you remember that demo?

Ben Jones, co-owner of Kinetic Skateboarding, in Wilmington, Delaware, does. It was the early-90s, Toy Machine. Jahmal Williams and Jerry Fowler were still on the team. It was at a metal skatepark in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “It’s seared into my brain how hard Ed Templeton ripped,” Jones says.

Many readers of this article do remember that demo — a flashbulb moment early in on in a love affair with skateboarding that really sealed the deal — but such memories are becoming increasingly harder to make. That’s one of the takeaways from the Quartersnacks Anonymous Skateshop Survey. We reached out to 20 shops all over the United States that we have close ties with. We asked five questions, but ultimately, tried to get to the bottom of one. It began as a joke, but maybe it isn’t one? There’s a widespread refrain right now that skateboarding is “fucked.” So, is skateboarding “fucked?” …again?

The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2024 — QS Readers Poll Results

Features & Interviews December 24th, 2024 · 12:00 am · 11

Graphic by Francesco Pini
Ballot Count by 4PLY

The results are in and we have an official, publicly sourced snapshot of 2024 skateboarding, as voted on by hundreds of people. And unlike last year, when the eventual Thrasher S.O.T.Y. winner dropped a part on the day that voting closed, there were no last-minute surprises. There are some new names, and some longtime favorites who have only ranked 20-11 in the past have finally broke into the top ten

Thanks to everyone who voted, and everyone who did some writing below :)

This ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 9th to December 13th. Editors and contributors can vote, but this is not a selection curated by QS staff. If you’re interested in the methodology, 4PLY broke down how we tally the votes

The Long, Strange Trip — How Travel Took Over Skateboarding

Features & Interviews August 28th, 2024 · 12:00 am · 4

Words by Mike Munzenrider
Collage by Francesco Pini

One of the most remote skateboard demos ever happened more than 20 years ago in a village north of Madang in the lowlands of Papua New Guinea. Located off Australia’s Cape York, Papua New Guinea is the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Some 840 different languages are spoken there — more than anywhere else in the world. Just around an eighth of its population lives in cities, so it is very rural. “It’s not developed at all,” says former pro skater Kenny Reed, who in the early 2000s, read a book about the place and decided to go there by himself following a skate trip to Australia.

Reed says he had hoped to get deep into the country’s highlands, but the travel agency with which he booked his trip said such excursions can take six months of planning. He was coming on short notice and was given a more simple itinerary. “It wasn’t as far out as I wanted to go but it was really far from civilization,” he says. The people he met were subsistence farmers who didn’t wear shoes. He’d brought his board and folks were curious about it, though hard surfaces were tough to come by. “The king of the village had a plywood floor in his hut [so we took it out] and we used that,” Reed says of the resulting one-man demo. “After that, they taught me how to throw spears and shoot bows and arrows.”

Identity Politics — On Skateboarding’s Evolving Attitude Toward Sports

Features & Interviews February 28th, 2024 · 12:00 am · 11

Words by Mike Munzenrider
Collage by Francesco Pini

Deathwish am Davey Sayles was too ripped to rip. “I couldn’t skate the first month, I was so top heavy, I was swole,” he says. Six years ago, Sayles quit college football. He took a three-day bus ride home from West Florida University to Vista, CA. At 5’10” he had a playing weight for the Division II Argonauts of 220 pounds. Sayles says his skating weight is 50 pounds lighter. “It took me three months to slim down.”

The 28-year-old says he was a skate rat turned running back who was a natural on the football field. Sayles says he played because his family has a history with the sport and that he broke records at every stop in his gridiron career; he walked away from it while having pro prospects in Canada. Still, he says, he wasn’t able to be himself as a football player – for years he watched from afar as friends like Rowan Zorilla succeeded as skaters, stacking clips and turning pro. Having given up on football, Sayles says he wanted to prove himself as a skater. And he has – check him out in Baker Has A Deathwish Part 2 for proof – cutting a fascinating career arc along the way.

Wish It Was Miami

Daily News December 26th, 2023 · 12:00 am

Simple Magic compiled a list (with excerpts!) of 2023’s best skateboard writing, including Mr. Munzenrider’s QS story about skate shop tees + Mr. Carbonite’s annual Song of the Summer x Part of the Summer study.

“You just got white rice?” Stephan Singh has a sick edit out called “Drop Top Drippy” featuring some deeper spot digging than any ol’ local edit. That firecracker bank thing on Morris Avenue might be the most London-ass spot in all New York. Kickflip was the one.

IMPULSE is an Albany / upstate scene video by Chris Sendzik with parts from Cooper Qua, Jeremiah Gray, Yafay Towles and a great closing section from Nick Persico.