“I would be on tour with all these guys and that late 90s San Diego, hip-hop style of culture was ruling at the time. And I was just a kid from Northern California who liked My Bloody Valentine.” There’s a really nice interview with Jerry Hsu about life after sponsors in …GQ? Jk, Noah knows what he’s doing ♥
The text is in German, but the dudes from Irregular skate mag put up a supplementary article to their “Summer Trip To New York” clip that was linked last Monday, and it includes a ton of really sick photos. Shout out to everyone going the extra mile in the #legacy #content realm. Tricks can be A.B.D. — but everyone’s story is different yaknow.
The fashion mags are onboard for the cause — Dazedran an article about the cultural significance of the Tompkins asphalt, and Paperdid the same. We cannot stress enough that this is so much bigger than skateboarding, and more about the community that this small patch of asphalt has cultivated. → Please sign and share the petition if you have yet to do so. Actually, if you read QS and haven’t signed it, please focus your board and computer. (And no, we haven’t heard an update back from Parks yet, but are hoping for some news this week.)
Thanks to everyone that picked up something from the webstore last week ♥ We caught up on shipping all of last week’s orders by Friday, so if you are worried something went awry, feel free to hit us up. Still some stuff left on there, and it’s supposed to almost hit 90 today, so perhaps you could use a new pair of shorts? ;)
DC, Skate Jawn and Village Psychic brought two pieces of plywood to Borough Hall, made a hip at the bottoms of the steps, and threw a skate jam last weekend. Has no one ollied the set yet?
“But I look at it this way. If it makes us happy, it has value. If we love it, it is as real as that love. And with some love and happiness in our hearts, we might just solve climate change and cure cancer too.” Jenkem has a nice feature with Mackenzie Eisenhower that covers sixteen pieces of advice that he’d give after sixteen years of writing about skateboarding for a living. (#17: one of the greatest hacks to writing about skateboarding is not writing about skateboarding.)
Chrystie NYC’s first full-length video, Chapter One in now live on Thrasher. Features an ender part from Aaron Herrington, a bunch of footage of that dude Kuae Cosa who’s been popping up in Cons edits, the up-close angle of the other way ollie at the Crosby Street Vespa Bump… and that ride-on grind at LaGuardia High School is insane.
“The guys in the video don’t give a fuck about the American industry anymore. We were also all listening to a lot of Tupac at the time and getting kicked out of spots in Cali, then jumping into the van and blasting that Tupac song kind of cemented it.” Ok then. Free has a full retrospective on one of the seminal skate video imports of the 2000s, Lordz’ They Don’t Give A Fuck About Us (and answers the question we were asking a lot back in 2013: what happened to William Phan?
Steve Mastorelli made a rad Silvester Eduardo remix. Actually missed a bunch of this footage before. Syracuse nollie flip was sick.
These Bunt episodes are getting pretty long. Kerry Getz is the latest guest. Love a level-headed, smart former pro. Shame that the angry, “everyone screwed me over” curmudgeon types tend to get all the attention though.
Copenhagen and Malmö still got Paris beat on the whole “skateable obstacles integrated in public spaces but not exactly skateparks”-thing, but yeah! What they said! But for New York! Would trade like 3-4 New York skateparks for just that little red plaza on the side street in Berlin.
Quote of the Week Charles Rivard: “He skates like he’s on coke, and parties like he’s on weed.” Rob Harris: “More like he skates like he wishes he had friends.”
♥ A heartwarming story about a New York skate shop owner, a New York surf shop owner, Paris, and Mike Carroll doing a backside 5050 ♥
We rant about seeing the same spots in Big Skate City™ trip edits like anyone else, but just the right mix of people skating them, and all of a sudden, none of the nitpicky skate criticism matters anymore. Really wish this Insta edit of Max Palmer, Remy Tav and Sylvain Tognelli skating go-to spots in Paris was 4x as long. (Also funny how 2/3 of the people in it don’t even have Instagrams.)
And on that note, Victor Campillo’s ender for his Quota part is the first bit of recent République footage to really stick to the memory. (Starting to notice a trend when New York news is slow…we just post a bunch ofParisstuff. Can’t wait to get this satellite office popping.)
It had a brief run on the TWS site, but “Crop Circles Volume 1” is now online in full, and is one of the best post-Love Park / Philly survivalist videos yet.
“A typical day was waking up at 6:30 A.M., breakfast, heading to the construction site, working till 10-11 P.M., and having a late night crew that stayed up to 3 A.M. on some days.” Monster Children has the story about how a small crew with minimal resources built the first-ever skatepark in Angola in just 28 days.
“Did skateboarder’s hopes for a professional minimum salary level die along with Rob Dyrdek’s dreams for a skaters’ union? Does there exist a ‘rough cut’ of Nike’s commercial in which Kyrie Irving clowns Eric Koston for not having a video game character in the last 10 years’ worth of THPS titles? Is this commercial ripe for parody by the remaining aggressive inline rollerbladers, except where they’re barging Lance Mountain’s backyard pool?”
TWS put up Antonio’s tricks from Duets, which includes maybe the first-ever clip shot from the inside of a trash can? We’d add it to our ever-growing thread of trash-themed skate memes, but it almost becomes low-hanging fruit at that point…
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: We don’t often showcase dramatic dunks on here (or 2019 Warriors highlights, for that matter), but that Demarcus Cousins dunk was straight out of the 1990s NBA. And we’ve honestly been far too exhausted with any and all developments pertaining to the basketball team who plays on 33rd and 7th this past half-decade to have any solid opinion about the Porzingis trade. It’s just all too tiring. We have shit to do.
Quote of the Week: “The vegan girl at the vegan restaurant was having a vegan crisis about her vegan Super Bowl party.” — Alex Mosley
“For longtime devotees of the Art Dump, SHT Sound and goldfish-toting retirement home scammers, it’s difficult to separate dudes’ seeming lack of enthusiasm for skating their own boards with the company’s at times painful evolution.” Boil the Oceans looks toward the future of Girl Skateboards on the announcement of their upcoming am-focused video, Doll.
Element did a Keith Harring collaboration and the only reason we’re telling you about it is because the accompanying video for it contains about a minute of new Brandon Westgate footage from the Banks.
Big week for Chief Keef video parts, and a bad week for that antiquated tradition of keeping an unenthused stone face after you land your ender. Here’s another section from the Buffalo-based Jeb video. We have been claiming we’d drive to Albany to skate Empire State Plaza since before the summer, and now’s it’s probably too cold, huh?
“Bryan saw this pool while landscaping at the house next door and somehow charmed the owner into letting us skate for two weekends. How he did this, I have no clue. Must have been just the right mix of 7-11 egg salad, and ’90s skate photos that gave him the confidence.”
Some of you will be triggered by the aesthetics, but the skateboarding in Romain Batard’s “Giddy” series is always unique, albeit in a fried way. Episode #9 is live.
Ignoring the fact that its objectively horrid to look at (not even talking as a skateboarder here…but what the hell is wrong with them renovating these parks in a way that makes it look like their budget was a $200 Home Depot gift card?), there are these weird slappymetal things at the park on Spring and Sixth Avenue now A.K.A. the old marble chessboard park.
Bad news: McNally Jackson is closing. Good news: They’re insisting that they will remain in the neighborhood. So excited for that corner to become a Chase bank :(
QS Spots Desk Play of the Week: The Trae Young game winner seems like it was the most unavoidable highlight of the preseason. Regular season starts Wednesday!
Quote of the Week: “They don’t play Drizzy in pubs man.” — Tiko re: whether he heard the Spanish Drake song in London
