This rules: Jenkem and Quell Skateboarding have an article that chronicles the history of Rookie Skateboards, the very ahead-of-its-time New York brand that began in the 1990s.
The Post profiled Alexis Sablone.
The crew behind The Upper West Side Curb Club is holding a contest at the Riverside Park curb this Saturday, July 10. Video teaser here.
Intro + Interviews by Frozen in Carbonite
Top Collage by Requiem For A Screen
Illustrations by Charles Rivard
Pants, as an article of clothing and a philosophical entity, dominate the skate zeitgeist. They consume the daily banter on #skatetwitter, inspired an Instagram account dedicated to IDing them, and have the potential to become the most controversial item of one’s kit. Pants factions line up like the gangs at the beginning of The Warriors — Dickies disciples, nineties enthusiasts, Polar people, and so on.
So began our quest to investigate — not so much the what of pants — but the why. To accomplish this goal, we interviewed four skaters over a generational spectrum and asked the same set of questions.
As we stitched together the interviews, one common thread stood out: Like everything else in 2020, one’s choice of pants is a political act.
Keith Denley by Josh Stewart
Dustin Henry and his brother Tristan are asking for skaters’ aid in fundraising for Nations Skate Youth, which helps build indigenous communities, provides skate lessons, and advocates for skatepark construction. Any donation helps.
Max Palmer and Ryan Mettz curated a group art show with some friends to fundraise for SNaP Co. and Emergency Release Fund. You can buy a raffle ticket for any piece of your liking via a $20 Venmo, and all proceeds go to a good cause.
Illustration by Cosme Studio
This was the decade that the full-length skate video was supposed to die. We began the 2010s with everyone insisting that Stay Gold would be the last full-length skate video. Then, Pretty Sweet was supposed to be the last full-length video. Some people thought that Static IV would be it — the end, no more full-lengths after that. But I feel like I heard someone say Josh was working on something new a couple months back? Idk.
The experience might’ve changed. We’re not huddling around a skate house’s TV covered in stickers to watch a DVD bought from a shop anymore (if this past weekend is any indication, it’s more like AirPlaying a leaked .mp4 file via a link obtained from a guy who knows a guy), but the experience of viewing a fully realized skate video with your friends for the first, second or twentieth time is still sacred.
Just as we asked for your votes for the five best video parts, we did the same for the five best full-lengths: if you could choose the five videos that defined the 2010s, what would they be? The results were a bit more surprising than the parts tally in some ways, given that it felt like independent, regional and newer, small brand videos dominated the decade, yet Big Shoe Brands™ and Girl + Chocolate still made their way into the list. The top-heaviness of some companies or collectives was less of a surprise, in that certain creators loomed large over the 2010s.
Like the installment before it, this list is sans comment for 20-11, and then via favors from writer friends for the top ten: here are the twenty best skate videos of the past ten years.
Johnny Wilson [depicted above] broke his collarbone this past weekend and needs some of your help covering his medical bills. Please donate here. He promises to post weekly video blogs again once he’s recovered jk.
Damn, the HUF store is the new hot spot in New York.
“What’d you do last night?” “Got choked up watching twenty-year-old footage of people I’ve never met before.” Manolo’s FTC remix video is I N C R E D I B L E. It’s twenty minutes long and an emotional rollercoaster that reminds you how beautiful skateboarding is, how amazing all the friends you meet in it are, and how many perfect songs have been born via “Munchies For Your Love” samples.
“Once I finished the Sideyard, I didn’t have anything else to work on. I started having ideas of stuff to do with mold-making because I was doing so much of that at work, so I started building little concrete sculptures.” — Zach Baker interviewed my favorite skater, Max Palmer. P.S. I have seven or seventeen favorite skaters.
Black Sheep Skate Shop’s second full-length video is now online.
To supplement that psychotic part Oski dropped last week, Free Skate Mag compiled a bunch of his scattered clips throughout Instagram and montages to make a summer remix. That three back 360s line omg.
You’re doing pretty good if the biggest regret of your career is only riding for Quattro Wheels. Chromeball interview #101 is with 101 rider, Eric Koston.
Matt Velez uploaded Mark Humienik’s Sable part as a loosie as per our request :)
Here’s fifteen minutes of Walker Ryan New York raw footage, including a good bit of B-sides that weren’t in the reedit video from a couple weeks back.
The POP videos are one of our favorite (and oddly enough, most underrated) montage series coming out of Europe. Someone made a 15-minute POP remix.
Louie Lopez had to give his report card to his first shop sponsor in order to get on the team, and Pontus Alv looks through some old boxes.
Skate Muzik Episode #6 is with Peter Bici.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Ewing Theory™ for the win!
Quote of the Week: “Yo, do you wanna hear some bars?” — Slicky Boy, 2:30 A.M. on the dance floor of a China Chalet party
Be yourselves y’all. Baby you’re a firework ♥
