Ray Barbee | Quartersnacks

Unknobbing Rails on the Run

Daily News August 24th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 6

Lebron is battling Carmelo in the NBA Playoffs …in August, and Nas made a new song with Foxy Brown, AZ and Cormega. Who really knows what fucking year it actually is, what’s going on — or anything, really.

Incredible manuals, great spots, and chic skate noises in Japhey Dow’s Heirloom part, which traverses all around New York state.

“If skateboarding is the quilt and all of these other interests that make up so much of skateboarding, if those things are the patches, just keep adding patches.” Sage Elsesser interviewed Ray Barbee for Thrasher.

Have A Bagel Alright Guy

Daily News July 16th, 2018 · 5:00 am · 1

The Quasi video is now online.

“What’s the story behind Harold’s ‘Cheer Up, Bagel’ remark?” We finally learn the origin of the greatest sound byte in skate video history (“sometimes I wanna live and sometimes I wanna die” is runner-up) via Chrome Ball’s new interview with Dan Wolfe.

I C Y M I.

“The production numbers were so large that when I was on a solo trip to Korea tasked with moving production from one factory to the next, during a business dinner at a 5 star restaurant with the factory owner, I was told through a translator that, ‘The factory owner would like to inform you, that he can kill a man in this country and their body will never be found so you might want to change your decisions too.’” — Anthony “The Writer” Pappalardo tracks down the history behind the Osiris D3 with its designer.

Though he let up on the gas a bit since he got robbed for S.O.T.Y. by the third #big #rail #skater to get it in the past three years, Village Psychic offers up a mid-year remix video of Tiago’s stray bits of coverage to emerge these past seven months.

Jahmal Williams’ favorite skateboarder is Ray Barbee ♥

Kyota remixed his part from Bot Video 2. Watch the full video here.

Rory Milanes = the new Chad Muska, and Thrasher posted their Palace in Hawaii article and photos online.

“Think of this magazine as a platform for you — yes, you! — to showcase what it is you do for skateboarding. Wherever you are. Whoever you are. Because as you’ll see here, skateboarding can really be anything you want it to be. It’s just a fucking toy after all.” Vice has an interview with the creators of Skateism, a magazine focused on nontraditional and underrepresented corners of the skateboard universe.

J.B. Gillett returns to San Francisco and Embarcadero for the first time since moving there all the way from France at the age of sixteen.

Jenkem runs down the history of Blubba with R.B. Umali and Steve R.

Hot take: midtown night footage looks better than 99% of cellar door footage.

Skate Muzik interviewed Mike Gigliotti from Lottie’s Skateshop in their latest episode.

You most likely caught it already, but Tao put together a southwest U.S. edit with Cyrus, Max, et al. for Nike SB, and I’ve had that Sunday night at Sway song stuck in my head all week.

Quote of the Week: “If it starts snowing tomorrow, I’m not even mad. Summer 18 has to end, g.” — Will Marshall

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In an age of tuning out pre-roll commercials before skate parts, this line and song are still burned in everyone’s brain — it’s The Chocolate Commercial™, after all. The word “timeless” gets thrown around a lot, but it is hard to imagine this ever looking dated.

Chit Chat

Daily News August 7th, 2017 · 2:33 pm · 4

Still late. Oh you thought the slump was over? New #content dropping tomorrow though :)

The roster and categories for the 2017 Dime Glory Challenge have been released. Tiago will be there. You can read Baker’s wonderful recap of last year’s event here.

Manchild has some New York clips in his raw B-sides video from The Flare (check the 5:18 mark), Bobby De Keyzer has some New York clips in his now-online Riddles part, and Paul Young has a quick compilation video from the Bronx Courthouse ledge-to-bank, one of the few New York spots to appear in a 411 opener.

Jason Byoun has a clip from the pool people have been skating in the purgatory abyss of Midwood. Be careful, because people have been getting tickets.

“Was Nyjah’s rave the most 1990s thing so far this summer?”

To supplement Mike Arnold’s incredible “Lloyd’s” part, Sidewalk threw together a two part history of England’s second most famous skate spot :)

With one-spot parts trending hard these past several years, Politic’s sister brand, The Vacation, put together a remix video of Ross Norman (a.k.a. the guy Hjalte stole all his tricks from) at Legislative Plaza, one of the few remaining plaza™ spots in the U.S.

“That is what skating does: it fills the cracks in society…”

An undercover cop wearing DC once asked us what DC stood for. We told him it stood for “Danny and Colin.” I guess we lied. Anyway, Droors Clothing is making a comeback. Alphanumeric up next?

Fucked up T.F. obstacle hall of fame, first ballot

“There’s no hierarchy there. No one tries to out cool each other. And I love that the place is a real public place in the sense that you meet other people there and you get to see real city life. It’s warm, it’s tough – it’s diverse.” Village Psychic with some more knowledge from the skateboard utopia that exists in Denmark’s capital city.

And on that note, Max Hull has a video recap of the drunkest skateboard contest on earth. It’s the only bit of CPH Open coverage I’ve managed to watch in full.

The Northern Co. boys skate the Willy B Momument, Delancey curbs + the Banks.

And like that, the trinity of 6th Ave. spots that defined our adolescent years is gone. Though it has been 70% skateblocked since 2011, Ziegfeld is now closed off for renovations. You might be able to skate the barrier off the ledge though ;)

“I learned a word the other day. Refurbish.” C’mon you know that’s a five.

Quote of the Week: “Two years from now, we’ll all be living in Maspeth.” — Max Palmer re: increasing rent costs in New York City

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2 Bros. has a new logo.

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An Interview With Ray Barbee

Features & Interviews February 15th, 2017 · 5:00 am · 8

Interview by Genesis Evans
Collages by Requiem for a Screen via scans from Chromeball
Intro by QS

Mythology has become an accessible commodity. Fifteen years ago, the people who shaped a generation’s manner of approaching the world on a skateboard were confined to hard media with dwindling circulation. Half of my age group grew up hearing the holy words “Tom Penny” for years, without seeing anything until Menik Mati came out. Today, mythology is a click away; you can tend to your old soul without going far. The full spectrum of inspiration is available.

Ray Barbee, for this same reason, has become even more of an inspiration to us in the present day — even as we drift further from the days when he was releasing video parts. Ray’s graceful simplicity on a skateboard is an image that summarizes why anyone skateboards in the first place, no matter the age. We usually save thank yous for the end of interviews, but preemptive thanks to Ray for taking the time out to talk to us, and for pretty much everything :)

+++++++

Where are you from and how old are you?

I was born in San Francisco, and when I was five, we moved to San Jose. That’s where I got into skateboarding. Right after my sophomore year of high school, we moved to Orange County. I’m 45.

How old were you when you first started skating?

I was 12. It was right before 7th grade.

I think I also started around 12. Do you think that where you grew up had an impact on the way that you skated?

Oh, completely. Your biggest sphere of influence is your immediate community. When I got into skateboarding, I didn’t know about magazines or videos. My friend got a skateboard for his birthday, and then when we went to school, we met up with other skaters. They took us to backyard ramps and things, and that was my introduction into the culture. Later, I started finding out about videos and magazines.

Did you face challenges in the skate world because you were black?

Yeah, I did. But never from skaters, or not from whites, if you will. I got it way more from other brothers and sisters…other blacks who thought I was trying to be white. They would always make fun of me for riding a skateboard because they thought it was a white thing. In the 80s, it was so close to punk rock and surfing, so I can see why they thought that, but at the same time, it motivated me. I always felt like, “I love what I’m doing, hopefully you guys are digging what you’re doing.”

Did you get that same response from family members?

No, not at all, thankfully. I’m sure they were probably scratching their heads — I know my parents were like, “what is this skateboard thing?” But for them it was more like, a financial thing. Skateboarding’s not cheap, man! But no, my family was encouraging.

~Positivity is Sexy~

Daily News September 6th, 2016 · 11:14 am · 4

Free beer to whoever disses it with a Tas Pappas tag. Photo via The Shady One

“One thing I realized once I started being in the world of Instagram was that people don’t let go of things. If something has emotionally affected somebody in some powerful way sometime in their life, that doesn’t fade. If anything, social media kind of fans the flame of that and almost reestablishes that emotional connection.” With so much discussion of social media and its pros/cons in any skate interview these days, it’s nice to hear that it actually does have a way of bringing about some greater good from one of the happiest people to ever ride a skateboard, Ray Barbee.

“With a skater like Jamal Williams, Ricky Oyola or even Pat Steiner, people aren’t pulling out the yardstick to measure how high they’re ollieing. It’s more the feelings people get by watching that person on a skateboard.” Also with a good bit of social media talk + skaters having an impact on people’s lives, Get Born Mag has a detailed interview with Josh Stewart. ~feelings~

Hotel Blue is the new board company from the LurkNYC camp, and Nick just dropped a nine-minute promo featuring the entire team over the weekend. Back smith backside flip on the Leonard Street ledge was wild.

Bobshirt has a 25-minute interview with Bill Strobeck detailing pretty much every last anecdote about the prime era of Alien Workshop + Habitat. Includes a special guest appearance from a former orange-beanied colleague halfway in ;)

Huf gave Jenkem a tour of some of the places he grew up skating in Manhattan.

Boil the Ocean on Anti-Hero’s persistence in an increasingly tense landscape of board brand longevity, and a potential Daan Van Der Linden S.O.T.Y. run.

Some warm-ups from Yaje Popson and friends at the L.E.S. Park.

Village Psychic has a content monopoly on anything having to do with the little guys keeping the romance in printed skate media alive. An interview with the minds behind Germany’s Solo mag.

Mushrooms to switch flip into a bowl + other debauchery from CPH Open.

Part two of The Bunt’s interview with Spencer Hamilton is now live.

Well, this is the first instance of someone skating in Polo shoes I can remember, which re-opens the hypothetical discussion of what the Ralph skate team would look like…

Quote of the Week: “Positivity is sexy. Creativity is even sexier.” — Andrew Wilson

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Thank you for everything Gene Wilder.