Propeller | Quartersnacks

The Best Skateboard Videos of the 2010s — QS Reader Survey Results

Features & Interviews November 27th, 2019 · 12:00 pm · 15

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.

Links Worth More Than Money

Daily News June 29th, 2015 · 5:20 am · 4

~~No clue who took this photo, sorry :(~~ Photo by Adam Wallacavage

Nieratko goes back to Love Park and City Hall (now reconstructed) with Stevie Williams for the latest “Skaters in Cars Looking at Spots” installment.

Damn, someone tell this dude to learn how to skate.

Skateboard Story has a cool interview with James from Labor about the insane prospect of starting a skate shop in New York.

No Ray Barbee, but the 12-minute version of Propeller is pretty good.

TWS has a quick proof sheet photo feature with the bro Mike Heikkila.

Lurk NYC went HD.

Philadelphia’s Sabotage crew didn’t go HD.

Did you ever think there was ANY chance they wouldn’t knob the shit out of what was temporarily the best new spot in midtown? The mini hubba ledges over the stairs are all still good to go as of this weekend, but expect those to get capped next. There’s also more outdoor security than when it first opened, so…

A recap of this past weekend’s Bobshirt show in six seconds.

Here’s the lookbook for the upcoming Bronze and Huf collaboration.

Damn, when’s the last time you bumped some Muska Beatz?

“Mike Vallely alternately over the past 30 years has functioned as the hot-shoe am; deck-shape innovator; Steve Rocco cohort and nemesis in turns; launcher of at least six different board companies; slam poet; pro wrestler; pro hockey player; three-time rider for George Powell; vegan advocate; maniacal tourer; ‘Beef’-style DVD star and vicarious defender of skate honour; Black Flag manager; Black Flag singer; titular performer in Mike V and the Rats; founding father of Revolution Mother; supporting actor to Paul Blart; podcaster; and more recently, streetstyle helmet-endorser.” …damn, and y’all thought Alex Olson wore many hats ;)

Yo shout out to Jersey City.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: 6′ 10 writer pretends he got drafted by the Utah Jazz last Thursday night, takes selfies, makes it onto the floor of the ceremony, and then hooks up with some chicks. He get into 1OAK though?

Quote of the Week: “I hate how phone cases feel. It’s like wearing a condom. Why would you do that?” — [Name Withheld]

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Gucci Mane actually still top five dead or alive (ok, maybe top eight.)

A Review of the Noseslides in Vans’ Propeller Video

Features & Interviews May 8th, 2015 · 5:00 am · 12

andrew-allen

Watching a big company skate video in 2015 is like watching a championship game between two teams you have no emotional attachment to. Everything built up to that moment, everyone’s been waiting a long time to see the result, the people involved are the best at what they do, but it’s impossible to go all in on. That’s why most verbal reviews of skate videos are prefaced with “The skating is obviously good…” At a certain age, there’s no point in re-watching any new video that doesn’t have your friends in it — or skaters that remind you of your friends.

…or at least people who clearly skate together.

With every big video, we find something to latch onto. Some watch them for the #fashion. Many watch them to catch sightings of the old guys without active Instagram accounts (these six seconds were the loudest the theater got on premiere night in New York.) Some do have friends that make it into company videos, so they watch it for the hometown heroes (e.g. it was probably loud as shit for the Richmond premiere.) Quartersnacks’ most common lens for discourse on this type of thing is the noseslide.

The Vans roster does not seem loaded with nosesliders — the video is largely devoid of ledges altogether, which are the noseslide’s most compatible partner — but Propeller does boast an ensemble of impressive nasal maneuvers.

Back in the Office…

Daily News May 4th, 2015 · 1:39 pm · 6

bandwagon

On the bandwagon since 2013 :)

Had a rough past week for site updates. Just spent a lot of time trying to figure life out, yaknow? (No, not returning to the dark days of 2006-2009 where it was updated three times a month — the modern news cycle couldn’t handle that, r u crazy?)

New teamrider on Mother Collective.

Nieratko interviewed Peter Sidlauskas over on Vice.

What a week for wheel company videos! If the future of skate videos isn’t in a Shorty’s Guilty VHS tape or fifteen-second IG edits, maybe sub-two minute wheel company videos could be a guiding light? Jordan Trahan for Autobahn with the non-IG angle of 2014’s 360 Flip of the Year / leading practitioner of boardslide-tech, Jesus Fernandez, with a quick part for Bones Wheels (sidebar: I was recently informed of a weird sect that swears by Bones over Spitfires…is this real?) / Michael “Top 3 Person to See Skate in Real Life” Mackrodt with a part for a potentially unsubtle drug front.

Lurker Lou came through with a wear test for the Osiris D3. Apparently, it’s not much different than skating a foamposite.

Tyler, the Tufty has the opener in the D.C-based “Alley Bar 9.”

New iPhone edit via Rob Gonyon with a bunch of the Bronze guys, and one of the highlights off Barter 6.

A half-minute of J-John the Don footage from the Krooked Korea trip.

This video got e-mailed to us more that pretty much any other video ever throughout the past week. It’s good for a few laughs.

There are a lot of new things to skate in Milan, beyond just the train station.

Brief Ray Barbee sighting, who also probably earned the loudest cheer of the night at the Propeller premiere, just off an intro appearance.

Oh wow, another Colombia skate clip with a missed #musicsupervision opportunity.

They made one of those “oral histories” about Redman’s Cribs episode. “The reason I was on the floor was because the couch — you know how it is when you’re sleeping on a leather couch and it gets all hot? When it’s too hot to sleep on the couch, I just go right to the floor. It’s a cooler situation.”

If you borrowed money to go to school, and need a reason to cry and/or begin planning on how to fake your own death, have fun reading this.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Steph beat James Harden MVP voting. Fingers crossed for a Clippers-Warriors Western Conference Finals.

Quote of the Week:

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Nah.

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Still some items left in the webstore btw ;)

Constantly Chilling

Daily News April 27th, 2015 · 5:20 am · 12

vacation

We restocked the webstore with a few spring items that were sold out before. This will be the last go-around for these. #supportyourlocalskatesite ;) ♥ ♥ ♥

Zered Bassett v.s. the Yonkers white hubba.

Another Brian Brown sighting. What’s the most-trick record for a single IG line?

25 minutes of raw footage extras from Life is Goodie. Buy a DVD copy here.

Someone compiled all of @olsonstuff’s Instagram footage.

Yo shout out Norway and Norwegians: “For Snøhetta’s Opera House in Oslo, architects consulted skateboarders regarding surface textures and materials, leading to parts of the building and its immediate surroundings being kitted out with skateable marble ledges, kerbs, bench-like blocks and railings.” Damn, that’d be chill if we got consulted for the Lincoln Center renovation.

Great John Choi footage in this Puerto Rico B-sides clip with the Paych dudes.

Boil the Ocean on Cliché’s Gypsy Life video. Also #lol @ “Arcadian manual-pad mixologist who had languished for a time in a kind of post-Tyron Olson teammate limbo” re: Joey Brezinski.

On the topic of French people, got a kick out of this Youtube account, which has a bunch of spot compilations for name-brand French skate spots e.g. the Lyon hubba, the Bercy blocks, the Le Dome hubba, etc.

Ripped Laces has a lengthy interview with Franck Boistel, the guy who designed a bunch of the most well-known skate shoes from the late nineties and early 2000s.

Yaje has a new part filmed during a three-week period out in southern California. A lot of hot moves. (“It’s cool, but it’s still Cali.” — E.J.)