#TRENDWATCH2016: Heritage Spots

heritage-spots

In 2016’s edition of the always wonderful “Song of the Summer x Part of the Summer” series, Frozen in Carbonite stumbled on a name for a #trend that has appeared in a good bit of this year’s footage: the notion of “heritage spots.”

There are a multitude ways to be nostalgic. Some fondly tell yarns of the past, remembering the wild days of to-go margaritas being consumed in public, and bust-free, straight [fucking] ledges existing in lower Manhattan. Others spend their precious years on earth leaving comments about how Lil’ Wayne ruined hip-hop on YouTube videos. More and more skaters are winking at the past via fashion; outlets like Vintage Sponsor have made a name for themselves by trafficking in garms from skateboarding’s sartorial lineage. Our more talented colleagues time travel through tricks nobody is supposed to do anymore, via the darkslide, pressure flip or street grab’s increasing presence in modern videography.

A new form of loving past eras has recently began to take form. In the past nine months, the following events have occurred in New York:

1. Pyramid Ledges has been unknobbed for the first time since 2010, ending the longest drought the spot has experienced since the building first began skateblocking it in the early 2000s.

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The QS Year in Review Countdown: 25-21

arizona cans dollar

It’s December. You know what that means. We pontificate on the past eleven months.

Previously…2014: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1 / 2013: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1 / 2012: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1 / 2011: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1 / 2010: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1

25. The Arizona Inflation Crisis of 2015

Eras in recent New York skateboarding are earmarked by shifts in the lowest of price points. For example: Up until it was phased out in maybe 2003, the chicken cutlet sandwich + can of soda for $2 deal at Universal News kept half the people I know fed. By late-2005, Little Debbie’s line of 25-cent snack cakes had doubled in price. Dollar menus were becoming dollar-and-up “value menus.” Some psychopaths really tried to charge tax on a dollar slice.

And now, the beverage that we lovingly spent our adolescence drinking, and punishing our blood sugar levels with, is trying to pull a fast one. You’re ranting about a generation of kids being homogenized by a skatepark; I’m more worried about the thought that they’ll have to pay $2 for an Arizona tall can, or $1 for 11.5 oz. of one.

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Talking ‘Bout a Whole Lot of Spinach

olson air

Extreme. Photo via Gigliotti.

281-330-8004 x 917-692-2706.

HD video blog #11 from Johnny Wilson even though Transworld commenters hate it ;)

Forrest Edwards ain’t for contest judges, he’s for the people.

Shocked to see that the new Staten Island skatepark has straight, normal ledges. NY Skateboarding takes a look at Faber Park. Looks like Astoria but with more hubbas.

Didn’t know bearing companies really go on “tour” — Bones Swiss has a new Euro tour vid out with a bunch of really good B. Worrest footage. Sorta miss the era when you could still put a really long manual in a video :(

This has been online for eight years, but saw it reposted a bit on Tumblr: raw footage of Anthony Correa from 1997. Mostly Houston and S.F. stuff. Wish there was more footage of the dude out there (or at least a version of his Mixtape 2 part that didn’t feature a rapper who actually said “my crew packed full of nuts like an Almond Joy.”) Also, that back smith on the Seaport bench in the first Static video is still reigning atop the smith grind hall of fame nearly twenty years later.

Not sure which “Summer Trip to New York” cycle this should even count for…it came out in 2015 but was seemingly filmed in 2014. Anyway, some Australians who really love helicopter shots skate around New York for a bit. The kickflip up / turn around / switch flip down line at Columbus Park is awesome.

Russians produce bleaker skate footage than even the Brits. They love tracksuits too.

Always surprised to remember that Riverside Skatepark still exists.

Happy to hear the lease at House of Vans was renewed. Place was a real lifesaver these past few winters when you just want to listen to Drake and skate with the boys.

There are the Boil the Ocean posts that I sorta get, and then there are the ones that I sorta don’t. The new one is in the latter category.

The low barrier in front of Punjabi on Avenue A and Houston is gone.

R.I.P. Chinx Drugs. “Let him be remembered for being one of the few rappers who didn’t waste Harry Fraud’s production.”

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Iguodala probably should’ve been called for the foul here, but Steph hit a shot behind two three point-lines. Big no thanks to the Los Angeles Clippers for allowing this excruciating-to-watch Houston team to make it to the conference finals. You guys are horrible and hate people who watch basketball.

Quote of the Week: “Vaping is the rollerblading of smoking.” — Billy Rohan

Ok, who do we talk to about the New York version?

From the Cell Block to the Skate Spot

shawn powers sutherland

Shawn Powers for Dior Homme S/S ’14. Photo by Peter Sutherland.

We cut a few prices on some remaining QS gear in anticipation of fall items.

Much like Riff Raff is the undisputed king of Vine (sooo spring 2013, right?), Lucas Puig is perhaps the only Instagram user making good use of the app’s video function. He put together a brief “Best Of” video of his straight-to-Instagram tricks. Also, why exactly didn’t he skate to “I Can’t Wait” in Bon Voyage?

There’s a new minimal, manual-friendly skate park in Bushwick, similar to the one that popped up in Park Slope two years back. More of these please.

Though they are less “minimal,” Templeton from Mostly Skateboarding put together a cool #listicle of the most innovative skateparks on earth for Complex.

Yaje Popson came back from Brazil and is still really good at skateboarding.

One of Yaje’s friends, Luke Clerkin, has a fun midtown night session clip online, too. It can easily get frustrating, but its still tough to think of a spot more fun than a good night in midtown. (P.S. The ground is fixed at that wallride on 65th Street.)

Billy McFeely has a quick interview and a few tricks over on the Transworld site.

Added Lurker Lou’s Williamsburg Monument spot check from Faux One One to its spot page.

Deep Dish is a new video out of Chicago with a New York section as its opener.

Some stuff that has been online for a bit (i.e. content that is ~five days old): Jake Johnson came back to the city and destroyed everything in thirty seconds, Alex Olson skated New York for a bit and then went to Iceland to exfoliate, Huf put out the obligatory “Summer Trip to NY” clip with some lesser seen spots (fakie boardslide down Black Hubba is nuts), and Chris Nieratko ran down the history of New York’s first skateboard company for ESPN.

The New York Times had some skate-related content in the past week: an article on preserving the first skatepark ever built in New York (and still the only public vert ramp in the city, right?), and a site feature on some of Allen Ying’s photos.
Quote of the Week: “Sick, now there are babies crying. This is like eating in a hospital.” — Josh Velez on eating in Golden Krust

Boil the Ocean claims Quartersnacks is the skate industry’s Traps N Trunks. And here we were thinking we were its Purple Diary :(