Once synonymous with men flown by Super-8 umbrellas and the occasional gas-masked Swedish penis, Polar has taken a refreshing 2.0 turn in its video output these past twelve months. The cuts are still quick — the Polarian fingerprint remains — but the skating has began to gain in its armwrestling match with the art.
Sometime after the release of We Blew It At Some Point, and in that tiny window before “Mo Bamba” became a year-late inescapable hit, the office floated the idea of doing a remix of Andrew Wilson’s Polar footage to the song. Throughout the spring and early summer, Drew was always the first to throw it on during a car ride to the spot. The hit-anointing gods had other plans, as by the time fall came and our hackers extracted the footage from Pontus’ computer, it was impossible to walk ten feet in New York City — or any other city — and not hear “fuck! shit! bitch!” from someone’s car.
It was too obvious. And as the fall wore on, it got even more obvious. So obvious, that we didn’t even use it for our “Best of 2018” video. Nobody needed to hear “Mo Bamba” unsolicited for a very, very long time.
But we didn’t want to squander our hackers’ sleepless efforts. The footage sat around until Drew sent over a couple songs he thought would go good for a part, and we came up with this — just in time for some snow day hype.
Thanks to Tao, Johnny and Jesse for filming. Thanks to Pontus for the plug, and thanks to divine intervention for keeping us from editing Drew’s We Blew It At Some Point part + a batch of extras to last year’s most obvious song.
Previously: Don’t Call Me Hjalte (I Like It Here Inside My Mind remix.) Full disclosure… when that edit went live in 2017, I was a bit iffy on it, like, on some “oh this could, and should probably be better”-shit, but on revisitation just now that thing fucking goes. Both songs are *fire* and Hjalte still manages to surprise you even when you know all the clips. I edited that thing and was still saying “omg” rewatching it just now.
This week is exclusively dedicated to the new Polar video, though I’m realizing that springy lipslide on the polejam definitely should have been in here. Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Everyone have a safe weekend, enjoy the cool down, and we will return on Tuesday, September 4. Special thank you to everyone who linked up our End of Summer clip. So happy to be making montages again, you really have no idea ♥
Original Clips:
Previously: August 24, 2018
“When I spoke with one of my friends about writing this piece, she cautioned against it, stating that women in skateboarding have come so far in the past few years and I should wait to see what happens in the next few. But this isn’t an article about female skateboarders. This is a piece about my experience as a woman in skate culture.”
Cyrus made an eight-minute iPhone video with tons of 917 crew extras + clips from his travels.
The Canal Wheels full-length video, Mode, premieres at 198 Allen Street (between Houston & Stanton) at 8 P.M. on Thursday. Quick teaser here. Flyer here.
Gang Corp uploaded a bunch of B-sides and outtakes from their last California-based video, “Grabba.”
Kickflip god Brandon Westgate is the latest guest on The Bunt.
Village Psychic offers up some thoughts on the Polar video, which rather than being viewed collectively as a culture via a bunch of humans gathered in a room, was experienced on…PornHub. (Ed. Note: The video has been left off #QSTOP10 consideration until it is offered up on a more “official” viewing channel, because if we start counting things uploaded there, we probably have to start considering all of achievements uploaded to the ol’ Hub in a given week.)
“It’s dancing. And dancing’s fucking subjective. That’s why it’s a really weird thing when you can make a living doing it. And I was lucky that some people liked the way I danced. And I don’t ever take that for granted.” Rob Welsh reflects on his first-ever TWS Check Out.
Vice has a piece on the history of the frontside flip — both the Reynolds kind, and the Muska variation.
“As nostalgia deepens to the point that people tune in to watch retired and beloved pros flipping through old CCS catalogues, each new print ‘Thrasher’ and ‘TWS’ issue begins to look like a collector’s item, every board on the shop wall a potential hanger, every pro with a couple video parts under his belt a legend.” Boil the Ocean ponders on just when does the nostalgia go too far.
Ricardo Napoli’s Making It Happen video from last year is now online in full.
“Juultage” is a montage filmed around New York that’s presumably Juul’s first not-so-covert foray into piercing through a skater market otherwise dominated by Cheap Cigs™ purchased in Chinatown with a state of Virginia stamp.
On the occasion of us getting into a tangent about European skaters aging more gracefully over on the small #skatetwitter community, here is a new Jesus Fernandez part composed out of footage that was leftover from The Flare.
Quote of the Week
Sweet Waste: “It’s crazy you’re 30 and never had a video part.”
Keith Denley: “I’m just gonna go down in history as one of those O.G. legends who never had that much footage.”
For whatever reason, this has been the go-to morning soundtrack in the QS office for the latter half of August.
As we enter the great unknown abyss of 2017, Quartersnacks will make the extra effort at embracing the things that make our world glow, and bringing them to the public’s attention (e.g. listened through the circa 2010 masterpiece of jubilance known as Suntrust Leland three times yesterday.)
To start, we took one of 2016’s more ~serious~ video outings, and remixed the 2014 Noseslider of the Year’s part with the same vibes that made 56 Tricks a perennial favorite Quartersnacks clip among office personnel.
Shout out to Roctakon for help on the mix ♥ and the Polar boys for sharing the footage.
Previously: Jordan Trahan – Summer ’16 Remix
