RAT RATZ | Quartersnacks

Hybrid Learning

Daily News November 30th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 1

2020 Time Traveller and/or Tom Penny in 1993 by Andrew Horesly, spotted via Science Versus Life

HUF uploaded a raw footy diary of a cross-country road trip with Mason Silva, which includes much of the Spitfire part. The New York portion runs from ~6:55 through the end. It’s rad to see him pay tribute to Jake Johnson Mind Field-era spots, and they do a good job of showing why that West Houston Street hubba was an NBD for so long.

Angel Fonseca has a new part out that’ll have you missing summer days at that BAM ledge.

Vague magazine shared Hiroki Muraoka’s part from the new Traffic video, Third Shift. It includes a *wild* keyhole kickflip at the McCarren Park couch.

‘Rat Ratz 5’ — Milano Centrale 2020

Video & Remixes November 18th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 2

One of the great pleasures of skate travel is immersing oneself into the workings of a scene via its central spot. Every plaza has its own skate government, some loose form of a hierarchy, and sets of implied to not-so-implied rules that visitors can sometimes get a pass on. You can tell who the local legends are, even if they’re seated for 95% of the time, or who the lurker everyone diplomatically avoids is.

But the funnest part is watching the kids who are on the come up. (It’s also the part that you can observe vicariously via videos.)

The Rat Ratz dudes feel like that right now for Milan, and thus for Italy’s most storied skate spot. Already a step ahead of their last video from March, these edits still feel fun, playful, open-ended, and the scratches on the fisheye only add to the charm. It is almost like you’re watching someone’s drafts leading up to when they make the proverbial Leap™ — to the video that makes everyone who had been paying attention up until that point go “whoa.”

Ruben Spelta’s ‘Astratto’ Part + Milano Centrale Bonus Cuts

Daily News March 31st, 2020 · 2:49 am · 2

Ever since he all but deactivated his Instagram and grew his hair out, Ruben put out two parts in the span of a half year (“Astratto” originally premiered in December), plus had a good bit of stuff in that “Storia Italiana” Magenta edit. (Actually, between him and Shogo Zama, Magenta now has two of the best flowy skaters out there, look at that.)

This latest one went live on Free yesterday, and is by Hadrien Buhannic, the guy who has been quietly at the helm of the Bloby edits that shaped up to be some of the most influential skateboarding of the past half decade. It’s about a third Milano Centrale stuff, with the rest in Paris, and like the last part, it is music-supervised by someone who did fire movie scores in the seventies.

Stuck On Earth

Daily News March 30th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 6

TWS interviewed a handful of pros and industry people about the effects of corona virus on the skate industry, as did Parade — except with a focus on small, independent skate brands (like QS!) The common theme between all of them is the resilience of skaters. Yes, shit is crazy right now, but skateboarding isn’t going anywhere once this is all over. The fact that Seattle is experiencing a slowdown in new cases (it was the first part of the country to get hit) is a tiny pinch of an indicator that social restrictions are working. Be safe, be patient, be supportive ♥ And while we know people go on QS to forget the noise of the outside world, if you want to read something COVID-19 related that’s responsibly reported and level-headed, this is the one.