The first year of the QS Cup Presented by Vans went down in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — just steps away from the onetime home of the world famous Autumn Bowl. Sixteen of the world’s best skaters were paired in an eight-race bracket, racing each other around our specially engineered pump track until only one skater was left standing with the trophy.
Jack Sabback @ CBS, 20 years ago • 📷 via Matt Swift. Memory Screen had a fire #tbt post of Jack the other day, too.
The rumors are true, yes. We’re bringing The Quartersnacks Cup back this year, but with Vans. It’ll be more public. More info coming soon ;)
Shaquille Waite put together a thorough initial #tfreport of the re-done ground with his crew. It’s so …green! The fakie frontside flip over the bump-to-bar was nuts.
“Skaters who think they smoke a lot of weed have nothing on hockey players.” Una Farrar is the latest subject of Skate Jawn‘s “$100 Chill” series — except it’s about $120 Canadian! (Somehow, it’s actually like $135CAD…)
“‘The EP me and Thug [are going to] drop? The hardest duo since Outkast.’ The interviewer’s eyes widen. He starts to push back (‘Now that’s—’), but Quan cuts him off. ‘I’m not being funny.’ He presses. ‘I’m not putting too much on it. Hardest duo since Outkast.'” 💔 💔💔
“Every Saturday and Sunday morning I drive around drinking coffee and looking around the city. I’m always looking for a spot where you could put a little piece of concrete and see if it stays.” Skate Jawn interviewed our good friend John Cruz about life after Shorty’s, and the D.I.Y. scene in Newark, New Jersey.
Day one rider for Travel Skateshop [Rahway, NJ], Derek Patterson, dropped a new part for Bronson Bearings. Mainly NY + NJ clips, with a wild ender and an incredible hardflip on that drop-in gap over the street behind Pyramid Ledges.
Jermaine Whittaker has a sick new part out over on Vague, filmed and edited by Blaine Williams. Lots of Seward Park ledge tech-ery and great switch front shove form at the end.
📷 John Cardiel by Gabe Morford via Science Versus Life. 1998 btw.
Elisa Martini released her debut part for KCDC Skateshop via Skate Jawn. A fire noseslide, all New York clips, with some guest clips from the rest of the KCDC crew. Fantastic work.
Stephan Singh has a quick new montage of his crew. Really dope to see people still getting clips at Big Screen despite all odds.
“There’s a new emphasis on personality, and people want to know who the person is and the context of that person. It’s kind of funny, like we’re swinging really far into this abstract realm of not caring how good skaters are.” Jenkem has a great interview with QS-favorite, Zak Anders. Favorite skate interview in a minute.
🎨 Illustration by Cosme Studio
📊 Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine
The results are in: a time-capsule of 2023 skateboarding, as voted by QS readers. Some old favorites have returned to the rankings, and some new ones have emerged.
And yes, it should be stated, perhaps louder than in other years, that year-end rankings are an imperfect artform. Miles Silvas’ “City To City” part that would eventually land him Thrasher‘s S.O.T.Y. trophy premiered a few hours before voting for the QS Readers Poll closed (that didn’t stop him from getting some votes in those final moments though.) Yuto dropped his April part three days after voting closed. But we are committed to the belief that nobody wants to talk about 2023 after Christmas. And for a year when it felt like Skateboard Oscars Season™ began in August, we had to make the call. All those parts that missed the cutoff will be eligible for next year’s voting, same as years past.
If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from December 4th to December 8th. If you’re interested in the methodology, 4PLY broke down how we tally the votes ✨
