“h” is a new, eighteen-minute homie video by Blaine Williams that’s mainly filmed in New York, with a sick part from Aidan Spencer to close it out. The fact the Polish Park planter-side ledges have endured for so long despite having three-feet of landing space is reason enough to never give up on your dreams ❤️
“So it was a little bit of everything: disappointment in myself, a little bit of wanting to try something new, and a lot of not thinking about it.” Spanky speaks about reinventing the way he skates and approaches video parts in the latest installment of Village Psychic + Ian Browning’s “Rules of Skateboarding” series. Spanky was also a recent guest on the How Long Gone podcast.
The Blue Couch crew is back with a four-minute refresher edit featuring a solid batch of clips from Noe Horiwaki, Mecca Mshaka-Morris, Caleb Yuan, Zac Negron and Carlos Canter. Ender at the 125th Street banks is 🔥
Probably the heaviest Duplex edit to date: “Low Rent — Episode 2” is now live on Thrasher, with a hall of fame nollie backside flip from Jace that they don’t even save for the ender 😲
Pushing Against Racism is an initiative launched by the Good Push Alliance along with a dozen other social skateboard organizations to promote a commitment against racism within the skate community and beyond. Skateismalso has a full feature about it if you’d like to learn more ♥
Ok, this might legitimately be the largest slate of locally-filmed videos to make it on one of these link round-ups in a long time, so let’s get to it…
“I went from being a kid skating on my block to hanging out with all the best skaters in New York City because I learned how to do a frontside 360 boneless.” A friend once had a story about how their book club took a razor to The Powerbroker and sliced it up into three books to make it more reasonable of a read. This isn’t that dramatic, but a blog interview that takes over two hours to read is a lot for most people in the era of byte-sized #content — but we’re *SO* happy that people are putting detailed, rich content on the internet that requires a commitment! Isn’t that what it’s for?! The Slam City Skates blog’s interview with Eli Gesner about skateboarding + graffiti in New York in the 80s, night clubs in the early 90s, the beginnings of Shut + Zoo York, etc. is like a little history book :)
“Jake Phelps surely embodied worlds in decline: Old San Francisco, famously non-PC, MJ1s on his feet until whatever deadstock tap ran dry, proofing a decades-old print publication with a snarling discontent any seasoned editor would recognize and respect. An artifact arguing and cussing every day for a place in a world moving some other way.” Unfortunate to link their way two weeks in a row for obituary purposes, but Boil Ocean has a way with them words.
“Though I would sometimes cross the street to avoid him, I can remember so much of what he said to me.” Patrick O’Dell also wrote a thing about Phelps over on Vice.
And here is a re-link to Willy Staley’s California Sunday profile of Phelps that originally ran in 2016, A.K.A. what BTO labeled as “secular-press skate piece top five.” Would be *so* open to a conversation about what the other four are ;)
Munchies has a mini doc on the institution that has sustained New York skateboarding like none other throughout the 2010s — of course, we’re talking about 2 Bros. They also bring up a terrifying reality re: the ten-year leases that got signed at the start of the decade ending (e.g. when everyone was still reeling from the recession), and the dollar slice soon becoming a thing of the past.
“I think the mainstream American skateboarding culture is kidding itself. They’re really dismissive of emotions in a way that is hurting itself. It’s becoming more and more inline with traditional athleticism, but also what is acceptable as a skateboarder is so narrow – you have to be cool, not talk about your feelings.” If you’re one of those idiots like me who put off watching Minding the Gap for months, here’s another motivator: Skateism put their interview with director Bing Liu online. Yeah, you need to enter your card details, but a Hulu trial to watch it is free, and you can cancel the second you finish the movie — provided you’re not destroyed for the rest of the day.
