Richmond Report — Venue Skateshop’s “To The Bone” Video

The full-length shop video is the purest undertaking in skateboarding. Having been in operation under various names since 1994, Richmond’s Venue Skateshop is thus one of the most O.G. shops in the country (is FTC the oldest?), and has at its disposal a wellspring of lore to tap into.

From the intergenerational opening shared part between shop owner Maury Blankinship and his son, to the farewell to the 50-year-old Richmond Coliseum currently slated for demolition and co-opted into D.I.Y. usage by the city’s skaters, to appearances from the greater Bust Crew and Quasi-verse that have helped Richmond become a globally recognizable skate scene — there is plenty to smile at in this 34-minute labor of love. (Though you’ll be a lil’ disappointed a certain somebody’s part gets intro’d and then …yeah, you’ll know when you see it. Hopefully a teaser for something otw though.)

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City of Scaffolds

“The pop guys are good looking and the drop guys are weird looking.” Lurker Lou and Aaron Herrington head out to Staten Island to skate “anything besides ABC Ledges” in the latest installment of Village Psychic’s “Lurking With Lou” series.

It takes Shaggy nearly 100 blocks to spend $100 in the latest installment of Skate Jawn‘s “$100 Chill” feature, which spans from World Trade to the Upper West Side. If you’ve always wondered what goes on inside the mind of skateboarding’s most prolific letter-writer, this is a nice intro ☺️

“In response to an art-making AI, the only comforting thing is, who cares? Art has never been about being proficient and skilled at making images with mediums. It’s always been about the time and the place and the person behind it and the story, and a computer doesn’t have any of that.” Jenkem spoke to Alexis Sablone about AI art, secret societies and invisibility cloaks.

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‘The Fundamentals Of Skating Are In A Video Part’ – An Interview With Gilbert Crockett

Interview & Video Edit by Farran Golding
Collages by Requiem For A Screen
Original Photography by Anthony Acosta

Even in the avalanche of daily skate videos, you can always distinguish the parts that had a little more tact put behind them from the ones that are footage dumps. Gilbert Crockett has been releasing thoughtful video parts for over a decade — many of which are largely filmed in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia by childhood friend, Will Rosenstock — and all of them are distinguishable from one another.

Having just opened up Greg Hunt’s Alright Ok for skateboarding’s de facto Oscars season, we had Farran reach out to Gilbert to speak on his process, and how it all works, often without having to go very far.

We also have a special bonus video of Gilbert’s footage from SunTrust and the surrounding downtown Richmond spots with commentary, all courtesy of Will’s archive ♥

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Dancing in the Street

Kareem by Atiba. Put this in the MoMA.

Phew.

If you have a few extra bucks, please contribute to Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight organization, which combats voter suppression in Georgia — a place that you’re going to be hearing about a lot these next two months. Shout out to our Georgia readers ♥

Nobody will ever back 180 after a tre flip quite the way Huf back 180ed after a tre flip. R.B. Umali and Hanni El Khatib put together a touching video tribute for Keith Hufnagel.

You likely caught this one via Free last week, but Hosea Peeters’ “Interlude” part by Daniel Policelli rips, complete with a Karl Watson nose manny 360 interpolation on Park Avenue, and a 10/10 back 3 down the big steps across from World Trade. Filmed entirely in New York over the course of two summer weeks, with guest tricks from the new gen Chocolate riders.

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