#TeamSweatpants

Germany doing cool things with skateboarding is becoming a common theme on QS.

The FTC Book blog has been posting snippets / mini-interviews with various people in the lead up to the book’s release this fall. Huf on his song in Penal Code 100A, Aaron Meza on filming for Finally…

A clip of the Palace and Polar jam in Leeds this past weekend, featuring Danny Brady, Pontus Alv, Benny Fairfax, and…Shawn Powers.

An interview with Manolo, the guy who painstakingly re-dubs sounds and researches the depths of skate video history for all those “Best of” tribute mixtape clips.

Iron Claw Skates with a disco-tuned Daniel Stone in New York mini-part and a trip to Baltimore. The fact that people are editing 4:3 iPhone fisheye footage alongside VX1 clips furthers the equivalency theory. Also, VX1000s are just stupid.

In anticipation of his first work of erotic skate fiction, Roctakon started a Tumblr for his musings. RT if you want to read so the publishers know…

Elijah Cole’s standalone part in Cathode, in which he does a 10/10 hardflip on flat.

Some historic reading for your afternoon: The story of Nimbus skates, the New York company that existed between Shut and Zoo York, and Zoo co-founder, Eli Gesner on skateboarding in New York in the eighties and nineties for Dazed Digital’s 1993 series. (Though this is the far better Gesner-written article on the same subject.)

This was uploaded in 2010, but has been re-making the rounds on Tumblr for the past week: Skateboarding in Brooklyn, circa 1989.

The second teaser for Colin Read’s video, Tengu, which will be premiering later this month.

Spot Updates: 1) The final remodeled version of Bubble Banks = Two two-up-two-down manual pads, and some wooden benches that are going to get knobbed, but that you could still ollie over. 2) One of the few spots in lower Manhattan that you had a chance of not getting kicked out of is, in the best case scenario, not going to be skateable for a long time.

Quote of the Week
Inquisitive Gentleman: “How are you doing?”
Torey Goodall: “Good. Pretty bad.”

Weird, 2:16 P.M. is also the best time to show up at the T.F.

#TRENDWATCH2012: Final Fall/Winter Report

The summer is over, there’s snow on the ground, Barack Obama has been re-elected, and with no “We Found Love” to guide us through the static this year, we are left with a mess of developments that are harder to pinpoint as genuine movements than #trends of earlier cycles. There has been no defining #trend this fall, just miscellany with varying levels of staying power. Seven key observations below.

Earth Tones

Greens and browns are known to have wardrobe visibility spikes in October, as fashionable skateboarders depart from greyscale to indulge the fall spectrum, but they have stuck around longer than usual for FW12. Please note that earth tones are not a #trend but a staple for two distinct demographics: 1) Skaters from Florida / skaters from New Jersey who are commonly mistaken as being from Florida, and 2) People whose favorite video part circa 2008-2010 was Pappalardo in Fully Flared.

Swishy Pants

Analysts expect that increased tolerance of earth tones is due to the re-canonization of camo. By that same token, the heavily #trending category of comfort-wear has provided widespread adoption of skating in sweatpants. And where is there to go once camo is the norm and everyone is at peace with sweats? Swishy pants, obviously.

More »

Autumn in New York

Autumn the Season is not the same without Autumn the Skate Shop. Photo by Emilio Cuilan.

If you’re trying to get a black QS tee (sold out online), Supreme re-stocked them several days ago. There are less than a dozen white ones left in the web store, so pick one up before Rihanna wears one and they start going for $200 on the Bay.

Baker gave Los Angeles a flashback of April 1992. We’ve reached an age where riot police need to be called to subdue skaters unable to get into a video premiere.

Some more parts from the NJ-based Feelin’ Friendly video are now online. It’s been on Real’s YouTube page for a bit, but this dude Nico Magalhaes’ part is insane. Even if you’re typically not into grew-up-watching-Zero-videos skaters, it has at least five bonafide “OMG/WTF/HOLY SHIT” moments, including (spoiler alert) a 5050 on the Newark Penn Station Hilton wallride (it’s ~waist high), a cab back tail on the Trinity College ledge-to-bank, a kickflip crook on the Passaic bank-to-rail, and both frontside and backside 360s over the handrail and into the bank at the project spot in Rockaway. Eric Dermond’s part has a bit of a Quim Cardona vibe going on. Maybe it’s the headwear choices and olive chinos. Buy Feelin’ Friendly here.

There’s an official video from the Polar Skateboards “Bum Rush the Spot” event. It’s chill that Pontus Alv rocks gear from other European skateboard companies despite owning one himself. We’re all in the same gang.

The Skateboard Mag posted a Vicious Cycle-era Zered Bassett interview from issue #8 (2004?) online. P.S. QS Zered re-edit coming this week.

Some HD footage from the crew that brought you the Steady Lurking video.

While a bunch of pro skaters were in Newark for Street League this past August, Fred Gall showed the Strange Notes crew a side of town much different from the Prudential Center with Scum League.

We went ahead and switched the audio on Kevin Tierney’s Outdated part to “Scatman” and uploaded it to YouTube, so you don’t have to load two videos at once.

The G Man reviewed Cell Out, a Virginia-based skate video that stars Gilbert Crockett and is sponsored by DeWalt power tools.

Hey commenters, watch Jack Sabback’s Moving in Traffic part.

Quote of the Week: “Why the fuck is Rihanna taking a train to the airport.” — Roctakon


Cruiser prices may also soon skyrocket. Support your local skate site.

Bum Rush the B.Q.E. Spot

The “Bum Rush the Spot” event that was originally scheduled for this Saturday, is going down tomorrow (Friday, the 21st) from 4 to 6 P.M. The Polar / KCDC / Converse / B.Q.E. / etc. crew behind it has gone through great lengths to elevate the B.Q.E. / Lorimer Lot from its status as a dusty, dirty refuge for local brown pants skaters into something more akin to the D.I.Y. scene in Polar’s native of Malmo, Sweden. Some photos of what they’ve been building have surfaced on Instagram, but naturally, the process included a few hang-ups. Everything looks like it’s a go for tomorrow, though. Sweden seems like it is more rational about constructive uses of neglected space than New York (or anywhere in America, for that matter), so let’s hope that these new obstacles last.

Stop by tomorrow if you’re not going to be the token idiot who waits in line for an $800 piece of glass. Take the L to Lorimer, skate one block north, make a right, and skate east under the B.Q.E. There’s an after party / art show at the new KCDC location (85 N. Third Street) afterwards. Full flyer here.

Turn On the Lights

It may look like a skatepark, but you can’t skate here.” — Volume 2

Four decades ago, Louis Kahn unintentionally designed an incredible skate spot, which is just now being opened to the public. The chances of ever being able to skate there for an excess of twenty seconds are likely non-existant.

“I get mad bodied.” Kevin Tierney stretching the grammatical boundaries of modern New York slang, and out-of-towners raising awareness of the disdain for “Two times if you know me” greetings in the northeast, in yet another “Summer in New York” clip.

Island Music is a video entirely filmed in Long Island by the same crew that brought you Missing Persons (which strangely disappeared from YouTube) last year. Based off the teaser, it looks like it’s going for a similar black-and-white jazzy feel. Anything inspired by the by the best skate montage in skate montage history is cool.

Skateboarding, fiction writing, and uh, Mike Carroll’s Modus Operandi part.

Where would east coast skateboarding be without the wallie? This clip has a lot of wallies, wallrides, and other NY/NJ/PA skate hallmarks.

Apple could call the iPhone 4S a different name, and millions of people would still ditch the current model for it. Crazy.

Is Palace the next Apple? The next Supreme? The next Menace? The next Maybach Music? Because this is wild (£137 = ~$220.) Also in the realm of skate-gear resale values, Lamborghinis apparently appreciate in value.

Events: 1) Polar Skateboards, Thrasher, Converse, KCDC, etc. are holding a Bum Rush the Spot event at the BQE Lot off Lorimer this Saturday, September 22 from 4 to 6 P.M., followed by a Polar art show at KCDC. 2) File under “Demos Grown-Ups Might Attend” — Cliché and DQM are holding a demo at the L.E.S. Park on Thursday, so you could see French Mariano skate in real life.

Spot Updates: 1) The remaining ledges at Seaport that were not knobbed, have all been barricaded off as of a few days ago. Again, New York sucks sometimes. Developers are idiots. Spot’s done. 2) Those new good material / bad set-up ledges on 53rd and Sixth got knobbed. 3) Oh, and those new high wooden blocks by the Banks / Fulton Street Burger King (R.I.P.) also got knobbed.

Our homie Ren made his first music video. Unlike Black Donald Trump, he doesn’t skate, but his video is chill. Everybody raps.

And once again: If you can’t ollie up it, don’t ollie down it.

Quote of the Week:


29 Random Things That Happened at #NYFW.” Check #9. We out here.