Truly elated that we can begin a Monday Links round-up as we close out the summer without a link to a petition ♥ There’ll definitely be some formal news coverage of the day — which turned into a T.F. reunion rather than a rally — but caught this slideshow from Eric Cruz on IG earlier if you’re looking for pics. We should do a T.F. reunion the Saturday after every Labor Day every year, no? Like Bastille Day, but for Tompkins.
Ben “Actually, I Like Wearing Wack Gear” Blundell receives redemption after barely any clips in Courtesy. Go watch his “OJO” part over on Thrasher. Rest in Peace Dillon ♥
Gotta hand it to Europe’s Most Productive Crew™ for consistently doing something that feels so natural and different than everything else out there, year after year — especially in a country without much of a skate industry. Also ~love~ the recurring role of dogs in their videos. “Nap Mint Nap Volume 4” is the latest from the Rios Crew. We really gotta make it out to Budapest, pretty much everyone says nothing but good things…
In hindsight, it’s pretty crazy that a peak shiny suit era Bad Boy song ever slipped into an Alien Workshop video, even for 45 seconds. And guess what! Twenty years later, we get the full [re]edit: Manolo remixed two decades of Kalis footage to the complete extended version of Black Rob’s “Whoa.” FWIW, that album has some sleepergems.
“Pornography had already been done, and the skate/fetish graphic thing said all that needed to be said on the subject. Take away the black bag and the sticker about censorship, and you just have a dumb idea repeated endlessly. For nearly 3 decades.” Ted Barrow wrote a nice piece on the history of the black bag World Industries board, and everything that followed it over on Skateism.
Solange in a skate clip ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Def worth the watch from Peter Deigaard + Drew, Hugo, Ville, and all the Copenhagen boys, which will make you feel the summer even if you have no Danish travel plans :)
“DOA RMX” is a video featuring some upstate dudes (pretty sure…), and has a random ass remix of Pat Washington footage from the early 2000s at the end, which is timely given Jamal Smith reminded us about his iconic Got Gold? part last week.
Realized the other day that Tao’s “KBH MIXEN” video is the 2018 video that still gets the most revisitation in 2019. Felt Ville’s section deserved it’s own upload :)
Rodney by Reda, behind Pyramid Ledges from the June 1998 TWS via Ted Newsome’s “New York Minute” spreads. This spot would be extra contemporary today had it not been knobbed for ~two decades.
“Words are escaping me, you’re talking about people I have a strong emotional connection to.” Torey Goodall’s Bunt interview is reaffirming proof of the fact that if you just go on enough drunken trips to New York, things sometimes just kinda work out in the end ♥ Just don’t ask him how he feels about Charles Rivard…
“Don’t mansplain tricks. Get out of here, you’re taking the fun out of skating. If you just go away, I’ll be so much happier. Half the fun of learning is doing it yourself.” Imagine having the audacity of giving Lacey Baker unsolicited trick tips. Anthony “The Writer” Pappalardo wrote an extended profile of Lacey for Huck magazine.
“Bontó” is the latest from the Rios boys, Europe’s most productive crew, and specialists in skating spots that I have absolutely zero interest in ever skating ;)
Somehow only catching this one now, but Embassy Skate Shop (Columbus, Ohio) put together one of the best videos of the year thus far. It is tightly-edited, each skater is distinct from the other, and it maintains a tight-knit hometown vibe even though ~half of it is filmed in S.F. Add this and Adam Bos’ “Steel” to your morning rotation.
“With this risk spectrum in mind, when I see a skateboarder do a trick while smoking a cigarette, I can’t help but feel inspired by the sheer audacity involved.” Here is a brief reflection of cigarettes’ role in skateboarding, though it inexcusably writes Mr. Butts out of history. “To young kids, don’t smoke. It’s a horrible habit.”
“Among the improbably growing ranks of skateboard filmers, the thrill of the hunt tends to scale alongside duration.” Since everyone is pissed about our Artforum MasterCard coverage of the Converse video, perhaps you will find Boil the Ocean’s take on Purple less triggering — and maybe laugh at the phrase “something of a freethinking homicidal” as much as I did ;)
Connor Champion ♥ has a new edit for Grand Collection *airhorn*:
Even though Shorty’s has been demolished for nearly a year, the “last days” clips are still coming out. It’s with Freddy and Tommy Cuba, so nobody’s complaining :)
Life before cell phones = keeping a foldable card of every skater you’ve ever skated with’s handwritten number in your wallet.
Can’t say Helly Hansen was at the top of the imaginary list of brands to collab with a skateboard company, but they chose a pretty perfect crew to do the “wear test” video for it. QS Budapest 2019…we out?
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: This week, the Rap Desk is filling in for the Sports Desk, and giving the P.O.T.W. to to Young Dolph. (Do you think people will ever stop overreacting to Lebron losing a game in a playoff series? This shit happens every year and it is so annoying. Still hating Lebron in 2018 is like not being at terms with Drake in fucking 2018 — like, who has the time to hold onto some stupid 2011 grudge? Just let go and move on in peace ♥)
Quote of the Week: “She’s like the Jamie Foy of lying.” — Charles Rivard
This past year, nobody else incited as many smilesand remindersof the gloriousescapism that skateboarding provides. Thank you Jamal Smith, 2017’s Q.S.S.O.T.Y., for inspiring us to enjoy the world on a skateboard. Sadly, we can’t fly you to Canary Islands like Thrasher can (…not yet), but just wanted to say thanks :)
Even as an institution that often gets chastised for Rihanna songs in skate clips and bad filming, we gotta chime in here: wtf is with the choppy frame-rate, wtf is up with the darkass clips, and wtf is up with that Morrissey song in Antonio’s new Berrics part? The skating though…is absolutely F U C K E D.
Oddly enjoyed this way more than expected, probably because they skate a bunch of weird shit that nobody bothers with, e.g. they got two clips at the Gristedes on 96th Street — a Weed Maps “Summer Trip to New York” clip with Jaws, Tommy Sandoval and Boo Johnson. I think we ran into Jaws at a rave when he was filming this.
…aaannndddd Village Psychic made a “Best of 2017” mix of the year’s ACTUAL S.O.T.Y., regardless of what the yellow t-shirts may have told you.
“Belgrade is the best city I’ve ever been to in my life.” The Rios Crew continues to inspire skateboard travel dreams far outside the conventional Euro destinations with each new clip. “Dunja,” their latest, hits Serbia’s capital, Montenegro and Croatia.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: It’ll never not be funny that Kyrie was just like “nah, I don’t wanna play with this dude anymore.” He lost yesterday, but this was sick.
Quote of the Week: “You should just make Q.S.S.O.T.Y. ‘The Max Palmer Award.'” — John Choi
