50% Of The Time, The Answer Is Yes

Harold Hunter at the Bleecker Street Banks, 1994. Photo by Lance Dawes. Honestly can’t remember if this has ever ran as a headliner image before, but that spot has always stuck out as a “it’d be nice if that was still around”-spot, even though it was probably just a 2% better version of the McDonald’s Banks in Brooklyn ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rest in Peace, C.J. Tambornino. “C.J. put the ‘G’ in genuine.”

“Don’t drive through Arizona acting like an idiot staying awake for days at a time.” The Bunt came through with what we’re going to dub “Everything you ever wanted to know about Brian Wenning but were afraid to ask.” The interview is brave, brutally honest, and a positive start to a new chapter in the life of someone we all looked up to as kids. Must-listen for anybody who came of age in the Photosynthesis and DC Video days.

A bunch of Canadians in Spain, with a handful of B-roll to “Yo, Best Idea.”

Always great to see new Philly Santosuosso footage, one of the hardest working men in skateboarding. (Always liked the way this remix came out, too.)

NESH” is a rad New York edit from Victor Garland, featuring every spot we were too lazy to venture out to when we had the “where do we skate?” debate yesterday.

There are mixed reports about the severity of the whole police situation right now, but be careful if you skate the new Brooklyn D.I.Y. spot. Apparently, *building* may be more of an issue than just skating. Max Palmer never hurt nobody.

Shout out to the Long Live Southbank organization for keeping ambitions running high. They started up a fundraiser (with a million dollar goal) to restore a section of the spot that has been closed and un-used since 2004. The promo video for it is sick. (And P.S. The Banks are never truly “back” until the city restores the small Banks.)

Philly is going from having three of the most iconic street plazas within one block of one another, to potentially zero by next summer. Place can’t catch a break :(

What would the internet be if it weren’t for remixes of Bloby Instagram footage?

The Mira Conyo squad threw a contest up at the 181 Park a few weeks back.

Jenkem has Tommy Koehne’s HYD video playing in full over on their site.

This seems like a fun way to spend three months :)

Why didn’t you chase her down dude?

The most common e-mail from the past week has been a size chart request for the QS swim trunks, so here you go. All sizes in both colors are still available — it’s a long summer and we stayed stocked :) Grab them before some guy with a job does. Also got a good size run in tees and some bags left. Thanks for the support everyone ♥

Quote of the Week: “In this day and age, it’s sicker to not get footage.” — Nik Stain

First Post of 2016

drake

Happy New Year to everyone. Late start to 2016. Still coming to terms with this “oh right, this is what winter is supposed to feel like”-feeling. Keep it positive this year and have a good one. Stay warm :)

First Posts Time Capsule: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Let’s start off 2016 by still talking a bit about 2015… Some year-end lists that point you in the direction of parts and videos that you might not have caught. 1) Better Skate Than Never listed the top thirty videos / promos of 2015, with a primary focus on independent ventures e.g. Bleach is #1. 2) Café Creme blog with a gourmet selection of 2015’s ten best. 3) Boil the Ocean already had a detailed post-by-post top ten countdown, and offered some bonus suggestions.

Always fun to see what’s going on uptown. A new one from the Mira Conyo squad.

IG comp featuring the quick-footed 2015 Q.S.I.G.S.O.T.Y. contender, Dane Brady.

2016 resolution? Stfu and stop complaining about spots. Probably gonna last a week.

A crash course in skateboarders v.s. natural disasters.

Ever wonder what happened to early-aughts child star, Knox Godoy? Jenkem tracked him down. Seems like those Baker guys like drinking a beer or two, huh?

The dude who kickflip back tail gapped the ledge to three-stair gap at Pulaski Park just back tail kickflipped the ledge to three-stair gap at Pulaski Park.

Another year, another video blog from Johnny Wilson, and another iPhone clip from Genesis, both featuring the Most Productive Crew™ in New York skateboarding.

Four minutes of Sabotage 4 extras, and twenty-four minutes of Duzzed extras. That urban mega ramp section at the beginning is insane. Where is “2015’s reigning lord of hairball” when you really need him?

Kids worship is basically the skateboard/downtown-equivalent of rappers’ Scarface worship at this point, but still got a kick out of these unseen behind-the-scenes polaroids from it + interview via the film’s costume designer. Aanndd Washington Square is a full central spot again. Shit goes in circles bro.

Village Psychic theorizes that scenes with harsh winters produce the best videos.

Of course Pho Bang is first on this list. Of course #skaterfaves

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Jimmy Butler beat some guy named Michael Jordan’s franchise record for most points scored in a half yesterday.

Quote of the Week
Sweet Waste: “Where did my youth go man…”
Observant Gentleman: “Enid’s.”
Sweet Waste: “Shit, you’re right.”

We’ll miss you, Dr. Zizmor.

It’s the Sixth Time Getting Kicked Out

ludlow bar

Wake up, take a sip of Ace of Spaces like it’s water

After a twenty-plus year run on Ludlow Street between Hester and Canal, the photogenic bar that was most photogenically [switch] ollied over by Quimothy Cardona and most recently ollied over by Michael Carroll (also a one-time nearest spot to the G-Man’s circa 2009 flophouse residence, and the ender in the second QS clip ever), has been replaced by a much higher, un-ollieable bar (until Aldrin Garcia shows up or something…) Thanks to James from Labor for the tip.

Speaking of which — a few seconds of new Carroll footage in New York.

This edit was sick… Marshall with a new one featuring Kevin Bradley, Sage, T.J., Troy and the rest of the Hardies Hardware dudes. Skating starts at roughly the 2:30 mark.

This is an incredible undertaking. Over the course of multiple letters sent to him in jail, the Chrome Ball Incident managed to facilitate an in-depth, fully autobiographic interview with the currently incarcerated Lenny Kirk.

Best New Jersey trick of 2015? Via Paul Young’s thoroughly awesome Bleach video.

A heartwarming / potentially tear-inducing Christmas gift from the most astute golden era Girl/Chocolate nostalgists working today: Goldfish extras, remixed.

Village Psychic and Danny Falla did a wear test for one of the earliest non-Dunk Nike SB models. Shout out to everyone who stocked up on $20 pairs of these and E-Cues from Jersey Gardens circa 2003.

Monster Children interviewed the coolest skateboarder of all-time.

Odds & Ends… 1) Jason Byoun sneaks into the Brooklyn Banks. 2) Cell Jawn #19. 3) Raw footage of J John the Don in Philly via Bust Crew. 4) New York edit via Waylon Bone featuring a handful of the names you often see in New York edits. 5) Some new Rich Homie Juan footage in the second “Futur” edit by Yoan Taillandier. 7) Some “Sequence 1” outtakes in HD video blog #17 from Johnny Wilson.

Thanks to the crew at House of Vans for getting rid of the bowl that even people who are good at skating bowls didn’t like (i.e. Corey Rubin…the only person I know who’s good at bowls), and maximizing on all the space it freed up. If you have any New York-based friends who work for Vans, they’re gonna hate you by March ;)

“I even remember being quite shocked at the response during the premiere in Sheffield. I recall that there was a UK DC tour coming through and the same guys that owned the distribution that focused on DC – and all the USA board brands – looked heavily bummed at the impact the premiere made. It seems they might have been right, as the video was the heralding of legit UK companies.” Sidewalk with a detailed oral history on the video that more-or-less introduced an entire post-900/THPS generation of Americans to British skateboarding, Blueprint’s Waiting for the World.

Max Palmer made Skate Jawn-branded sewer caps that are kinda sorta skateable.

The Mira Conyo squad is premiering their new vid and releasing a new Heights-based skate zine uptown tonight. 4447 Broadway, off the 190th Street A train.

Boil the Ocean’s annual top ten video parts countdown is now underway.

Some progress shots of the skatepark being built in place of Fat Kid Spot.

How is this only happening now? Arizona Iced Tea officially has a skate team.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Ran off on the plug twice

Quote of the Week: “Don’t walk up to me pretending like you’re going sober. I don’t care.” — T-Bird

Let’s end the last Monday Links post of the year off with 2015’s drunkest song.

P.S. In anticipation of #another #year, here’s one last chance to take 25% off the remaining goods in the webstore. Enter promo code “anotherone” when buying anything. Expires at midnight. Thanks for all the support throughout 2015.

If You’re Linking This It’s Too Late

arizona

Slow news week last time around. Will try to pick up for this one ;)

“A skateboard is the most basic ambulatory machine. It has no gears, offers no assistance. It will protect you from nothing. It is a tool for falling. For failure. But also for freedom. For living. On a skateboard you must stay balanced in a tempest of forces beyond your control. The key is to be brave, get low, stay up and keep rolling.”

Remember when Chad Fernandez got snubbed for that Oscar? Damn.

“Late Night TV,” a New York and Philly night footage montage.

Sorta relevant: NY Skateboarding rounded up all the indoor spots in New York.

Ride rounded up a brief history of skate company videos, a.k.a. the “stepchildren of wheel video productions.” The Lordz video barely even counts as a wheel video. 1) Who has ever seen, let alone rode, a set of Lordz wheels? and 2) It’s better than most board and shoe company videos from that decade.

Chad is a 16-minute New York video by Sam Fickinger showcasing an activity that you could resume performing outside in about a month or so.

Mike Blabac unearthed some rare photos of Rickk, Carroll, others from the nineties.

Security guards aren’t the brightest bunch, international edition.

Always hear a lot of great things about Glasgow, so got a kick out of this interview / video about skateboarding in Scotland.

“‘In Syria, I couldn’t go out and play because of the war, but in Amman I can enjoy my time, stay out late and make new friends at the skate park,’ nine-year-old Ahmed Rayen, who has been in Jordan for two years, told Al Jazeera.” There are kids out there who cannot go skate because there is a fucking war going outside of their homes. It’s cold, but you don’t have it that bad dude.

#TBT on a Monday: Grandpa was / is a really good skateboarder #heelflip

Some Phone Vids: Happy 2015 from Mira Conyo, “Thirsty

QS Sports Desk: This looked like it was going over the top of the backboard, until…yeah, Steph for MVP. Harden is boring. Also, the Amare Stoudemire “era” is officially over in New York. It panned out like every other Knicks decision of the past 15 years, but Nov-Dec 2010, when the Amare-Felton-Gallinari-Chandler-Landry team really started to gel, is literally the fondest Knicks-related memory — save maybe Chris Childs punching Kobe or the occasional J.R. Smith hero game — of these grim fifteen years. Hopefully Marc Gasol knows better than to take Dolan’s money in July.

Quote of the Week: “Quartersnacks? What’s up with that? Is that like the same thing as the Dunk?” — Queens Mall Zumiez Employee

Tell Plan B to get it together and send that.

‘Cuz Baby You’re a Firework

katyperrymike

Seven or eight years before Katy Perry was dancing alongside some sharks for Superbowl 49’s halftime show, she was at Beatrice, putting her number into Mike G’s flip phone. Not ashamed to have ran this as a homepage photo twice before. Photo by Sam Salganik.

America.

New Juicy Elbows winter montage with some #relaxing #musicsupervision. (McCarren Skatepark: So shitty, it’s a #street spot.) The varial flip, [almost] varial heel line is sick.

Fascinated by this odd, new sub-genre of New York skateboard videos where it’s clear that everyone involved has a job (i.e. living above dollar dumpling -class.)

New York’s premier January and February getaway is still going strong. Billy Rohan, Watermelon Alex, and others in Acapulco Gold’s Puerto Rican excursion.

Not sure why anyone would call a skate video Smegma (2014 skate video title sexualization gone awry?), but it’s a solid half-New York / Half-Virginia production. Lots of impressive maneuvers, including a wild transfer trick on the Lincoln Center Movado wallride, Leo Heinert 5050ing through the knobs in the Union Square rail, and a thoroughly great ender part from Clement Oladipo.

Whatever happened to the shifty flip?

Can skateboarding be portrayed in the non-skate media as anything more, still, than a strange unknowable mystery?”

Credit to Mostly Skateboarding for shining a light back on this J.J. Rousseau Puzzle Video mag part from 2002. Dude always flew a bit under the radar between J.B’s peak and Lucas’ little kid phase. That part was way ahead of its time. And nothing quite says early-2000s Euro video like a bangers section that degenerates into drum and bass ;)

Ludlow Street and some familiar faces, circa 1995.

“What’s the magic way into a skater boy’s heart?” “It’s so simple.”

Notable IG Developments: Aaron Herrington Static 4 extras, Bill and Supreme got something new on the way, our Euro friends did some cool tricks, and our French Canadian friends found their hero in the produce section of a Safeway.

A few quick montages:Cashmere,” “Punch Reel,” Mira Conyo iPhone outtakes.

Word is that the balls were deflated for this one:

A Most Violent Year, IRL though

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: This guy getting snubbed for a Western Conference all-star slot is another reason why the NBA should abolish conferences.

Quote of the Week: “Blacking out is nice every now and then. It’s like you don’t have to worry about anything for a while.” — Leroy Holmes

It might’ve snowed last night, but at least this isn’t your apartment.