“It all started because most of the tricks I wanted to film, no filmer got too excited about filming them; the level was not high enough and some tricks didn’t make much sense.” Didn’t see this get posted around nearly as much as it should be: Our boy Ruben Spelta has a new, mostly self-filmed, vignetted, and very awesome part for Magenta that was inspired by Krooked’s Gnar Gnar video.
Incredible manuals, great spots, and chic skate noises in Japhey Dow’s Heirloom part, which traverses all around New York state.
“If skateboarding is the quilt and all of these other interests that make up so much of skateboarding, if those things are the patches, just keep adding patches.” Sage Elsesser interviewed Ray Barbee for Thrasher.
“What’s the story behind Harold’s ‘Cheer Up, Bagel’ remark?” We finally learn the origin of the greatest sound byte in skate video history (“sometimes I wanna live and sometimes I wanna die” is runner-up) via Chrome Ball’s new interview with Dan Wolfe.
“The production numbers were so large that when I was on a solo trip to Korea tasked with moving production from one factory to the next, during a business dinner at a 5 star restaurant with the factory owner, I was told through a translator that, ‘The factory owner would like to inform you, that he can kill a man in this country and their body will never be found so you might want to change your decisions too.’” — Anthony “The Writer” Pappalardo tracks down the history behind the Osiris D3 with its designer.
Though he let up on the gas a bit since he got robbed for S.O.T.Y. by the third #big #rail #skater to get it in the past three years, Village Psychic offers up a mid-year remix video of Tiago’s stray bits of coverage to emerge these past seven months.
“Think of this magazine as a platform for you — yes, you! — to showcase what it is you do for skateboarding. Wherever you are. Whoever you are. Because as you’ll see here, skateboarding can really be anything you want it to be. It’s just a fucking toy after all.” Vice has an interview with the creators of Skateism, a magazine focused on nontraditional and underrepresented corners of the skateboard universe.
In an age of tuning out pre-roll commercials before skate parts, this line and song are still burned in everyone’s brain — it’s The Chocolate Commercial™, after all. The word “timeless” gets thrown around a lot, but it is hard to imagine this ever looking dated.
With it being high season for trips out to Rockaway (back up to 92 degrees tomorrow…) that include a pitstop at the charmingly bad beach 90th skatepark, it is worth pointing out that the park just got a bunch of new ramps. Unclear as to whether it is better now or before. Hopefully, before the world ends, both the bowl and mini ramp there will get replaced with cement versions of the exact same thing.
Gangcorp threw a BBQ and best trick contest at L.E.S. Park on July 4th. Here’s the recap video.
“Best of all, skateboarding’s independent streak means it fosters a healthily rebellious worldview — no small accomplishment as our society drifts toward bland authoritarianism. To be sure, there is money to be made in ignoring this drift, in remaining beholden to libertarian corporatism.” Hanson O’Haver’s “A Crime and a Pastime” piece looks at the underbelly of the skateboard business and its eerie house-of-cards-isms.
New London clip from the POP boys. That nosegrind revert / 3x flat tricks / switch nosegrind revert line reminds me of something that would’ve been in an old 411.
Some Canadians offer up one of the first entries to what will no doubt be an eventful “Summer Trip to New York” clip season. What % of people appearing in S.T.T.N.Y. clips do you think end up moving here? Thirty five? Eighty?
Approach every project / job / challenge in life with your sights set on creating something so influential that’ll follow you around for the remainder of your time on earth, like the Osiris D3 does for Dave Mayhew ;)
“So do you think the Menace guys were good at skateboarding?” “No.” Lee Smith has the floor in the latest installment of Bobshirt’s always incredible interview series.
This clip was a good time — SK8 Locos in NYC. Always had a bit of a bias toward how nice all those spots on the west side of Harlem look on film.
Pretty sure this is the first line ever filmed at the ultra mega super duper bust federal office building across from Black Hubba. Beware of plot twist.
“As skateboarding was our purpose and it was relatively unheard of in this part of the world, whenever we started to skate, massive crowds would assemble to watch.” Now, maybe more than ever, it’s important to keep an open heart toward places that those in power prefer to dehumanize. Monster Children has a rad photo feature on skateboarding in Balkh, Afghanistan via Dan Zvereff.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Russell Westbrook isn’t a starter on the 2017 All-Star Team, so we’re going to impose a media blackout on the Quartersnacks Sports Desk this week. And this is an accurate summary of why you see minimal Knicks coverage on here these days. We just know better ;)
Quote of the Week: “I’ll never do my own taxes. 5 + 5 + 2? I’m over it.” — Francesco Pini