That’s An Awful Lot Of Bad Ledges

95th and Columbus might be the *original* Forbidden Banks, as explained by Eli Gesner in Jenkem’s “Neighborhoods” video on the Upper West Side. 📷 Photo by Greg Navarro.

Pretty much the only Go Skate Day edit worth your time, year after year: Sabotage’s GSD 2022 is now live.

“Can post-Olympics, post-Instagram, post-Phelps skateboarding still maintain the purist allegiance to the etiquette and rules of old?” Free has a #longform piece on the politics of finding spots, preserving the secrets of spots, and being the first-and-second to get tricks on certain spot up on their website. (For additional reading, Mike Munzenrider interviewed Atiba, Tim Fulton and Mike Heikkila about this same ever-complex dynamic back in 2020, and QS ran an interview with the creator of Skhateyou, the website every single skate tourist has used when traveling in Europe, back in 2017. Things haven’t gotten any clearer, as you can tell by the Free article having the widest net of perspectives yet.)

More »

Mailbox Money

Congrats to Jason on the pro board ♥

Chrystie NYC’s first full-length video, Chapter One in now live on Thrasher. Features an ender part from Aaron Herrington, a bunch of footage of that dude Kuae Cosa who’s been popping up in Cons edits, the up-close angle of the other way ollie at the Crosby Street Vespa Bump… and that ride-on grind at LaGuardia High School is insane.

As far as “concept parts” go, filming one entirely on cobblestone spots is a bold undertaking.

On the opposite end of the texture spectrum, Village Psychic made a montage only at playground spots around New York, and reminded us of why we don’t do remix videos without skate audio anymore.

“The guys in the video don’t give a fuck about the American industry anymore. We were also all listening to a lot of Tupac at the time and getting kicked out of spots in Cali, then jumping into the van and blasting that Tupac song kind of cemented it.” Ok then. Free has a full retrospective on one of the seminal skate video imports of the 2000s, Lordz’ They Don’t Give A Fuck About Us (and answers the question we were asking a lot back in 2013: what happened to William Phan?

Steve Mastorelli made a rad Silvester Eduardo remix. Actually missed a bunch of this footage before. Syracuse nollie flip was sick.

Jake Johnson v.s. The Louvre. Still holding out for Chris Pfanner v.s. The Met one day.

These Bunt episodes are getting pretty long. Kerry Getz is the latest guest. Love a level-headed, smart former pro. Shame that the angry, “everyone screwed me over” curmudgeon types tend to get all the attention though.

Theories uploaded what will be the final installment of the Elkin raw tapes series, and Tombo uploaded #9 of his raw deals series in the event that you need some VX footage from a long time ago to go along with your morning coffee ;)

Copenhagen and Malmö still got Paris beat on the whole “skateable obstacles integrated in public spaces but not exactly skateparks”-thing, but yeah! What they said! But for New York! Would trade like 3-4 New York skateparks for just that little red plaza on the side street in Berlin.

Paper has a quick feature on Skate Mamis, a collective of girls doing cool shit in Puerto Rico.

Aaron Herrington and Mark Suciu go on an artsy cruise around Lower Manhattan.

The Sabotage crew is releasing another video in 2020.

Ricardo Napoli’s new video, Ciao is premiering in Williamsburg, next Monday, April 8. Flyer + more info here. Teaser can be found here.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Tyshawn’s T.F. West part on the big screen at Barclays.

Quote of the Week
Charles Rivard: “He skates like he’s on coke, and parties like he’s on weed.”
Rob Harris: “More like he skates like he wishes he had friends.”

Monday, Call the Girls, Get ‘Em Linked Up

Photo by Jason Lecras

We have a capsule with Nike SB releasing this Saturday, April 14. It’s definitely our best one! More info soon ♥

Gonna throw in an early left field link, but the Pass~Port in Greece edit is the best (i.e. watched it more than once) trip edit that’s dropped during 2018’s Winter Getaway Footage Dump Season (yes, I know Australia is in the southern hemisphere.) It’s always nice to learn of some nice new songs in a skate edit too :)

“That’s what I keep telling myself, ‘maybe in ten more years.’ Those ten years go by and I’m still not ready. Actually, I’ve come to terms with it, this is it.” Skate Jawn interviews productivity legend, Dave Caddo.

“In a Warhol-esque version of a future skate industry where 1% of pros earn lavish salaries and the rest ball for position, will everyone have their own brand, with price-points scaling higher in accordance with gnarliness and footage releases?” Boil the Ocean on pros’ t-shirt ventures, and the cult of Jerry Hsu’s Sci-Fi Fantasy brand.

Even if it is in the Times + includes the phrases “daredevils” and “neoliberal training grounds,” Jeff Ihaza’s feature on how skateparks came to be understood, accepted, and built passes the litmus test of linkable traditional news outlet skate coverage.

Noah Johnson’s GQ profile of the GX1000 crew does as well. (Yes, Noah skates.) “It’s frustrating shit when you almost die.” Yeah, dying seems pretty wack.

While the Times may think we “won,” we also lost one of the best ledges in lower Manhattan this past week. The deknobbed ledge at Seaport that was more-or-less a go over the past year-plus is now knobbed not only for grinds, but for manuals too!

Weckingball is the latest guest on The Bunt.

Normally don’t care about “oh, so-and-so already skated to that song”-isms — especially in this fickle footage economy — but “Blowing Up Fast” holds a special place in many hearts. This guy does a line at Three Up Three Down, hypes up P-Rod, and has never seen Baker Has a Deathwish, which is totally fine because it’s almost ten-years-old now goddamn.

And on that note! Village Psychic interviewed Josh Stewart about the unwritten rules of #musicsupervision and editing gimmicks in skate videos.

Our friends from 2nd Nature did the “winter trip to Barcelona” thing.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Everyone else is on the Sixers playoff bandwagon orrrr?

Quote of the Week
Rob Harris: “Yeah, Baker is having tricks in everyone’s part in the Alltimers video.”
Adam Zhu: “Oh, so he’s like the Gonz?”

Summer Friends

sjkickflipchrome

Dunno why there’s been so many B&W headline images lately ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Scan via Chromeball

#TBT that time Daniel Kim ruined the BBQ.

“You have to create all new levels of skateboarding that never existed before.”

Speaking of all new levels of skateboarding, Tiago was in town for Street League and these two clips of him skating Seaport and the L.E.S. Park got brought up in at least four conversations this weekend. #SOTY.

Put a formal Twitter inquiry regarding the inventor of the noseslide earlier this summer (the consensus was Gonz.) Mackenzie Eisenhour discusses it in this TWS piece regarding the origins of the noseblunt: “Even prior to the noseblunt, Mark is also credited with adapting the noseslide to ledges and handrails on the streets, after seeing photos of Neil Blender innovating nose stalls on ramps.”

Some more footage of Antonio Durao skating Harlem, presumably from the same day that he did the line that was #1 on the QS Top 10 last week :)

Given as how they’ve been dominating all forms of culture since Switch Mike started blasting So Far Gone in any and all of his BMWs and Herschel became the new Jansport, it should come as no surprise that the most enjoyable skateboard podcast also comes from Canada. Season two of the Bunt is now running, and starts off with cult hero, Spencer Hamilton. Expedition-1 talk, non-alcoholic beers, etc.

Lindsey Robertson and the Media Bias Against Heelflippers: A Case Study.

Tao did a rad remix of the Nike SB FRI.day video with the CPH fam.

The early 2000s nostalgia continues. Is the Pace Ledge due for a comeback?!

Glad the news about the Berlin benches getting removed ended up being a false alarm. A replica of that should be mandatory for every U.S. city with over six skaters. My second favorite skate spot on this planet.

Kingpin interviewed Ian from Jenkem about the Jenkem book. Available here.

NY Skateboarding posted up part two of their interview with Keith Hufnagel. A good bit of Brooklyn Banks talk in there. Aaannnddd there’s a new Crail Cocuh with Huf and Carroll. Good bit of Embarcadero talk in that one.

Um, no. New Jersey is actually the best. John Cozz’s HYD part.

Quote of the Week: “It’s literally harder to get into a bar than it is to get married.” — Rob Harris

Enjoy that school year everyone ;)

Party at 8

uptown ollie

Just left Columbia. Photo by Matt Roberge.

QS x DGK coming next month.

Cee Lo, the new one from LurkNYC, is great. Sick spots (probably the most astute prop grate finders working today), a soundtrack sure to please anyone who’s ever left a “you guys actually like this?”-comment on a Quartersnacks YouTube video, and an awesome ender part from John Shanahan (above) that will be on repeat for the foreseeable future. Fakie bigspin manny line was a real crowd pleaser :) Also, those security guards at the gold rail on 52nd Street might be the worst in the city…

New interview with Gino Iannucci in Italy’s Brief Glance mag. Starts on page 37.

The 550 Wheels promo begins with what’s basically a full, new Ron Deily part. (There’s a junk spot successor already?) Also has a Kevin Taylor appearance.

Max Palmer Presents: A new barrier at the Bushwick Blue Park.

An iPhone video from Jesse Alba, a Blackberry (yeah) clip from E.J., and a handycam video from Rob Harris.

John Valenti’s Local Express video is online in full. New full Caddo part.

“What advice can you give someone wanting to work in skateboarding?” “Whatever it is you want to do, just start doing it on your own. Shoot photos how you want, film how you want, put up your videos, reach out to the companies you want to work for…” Skateboard Story has a solid interview with Transworld‘s Blair Alley about still working at one of the remaining print publications left in skateboarding.

SMLTalk chronicles the stylistic evolution of Robert Welsh.

Matt Nordess at the top-10 worst ledge and less bad places for Labor Skateshop.

QS faves, Budapest’s Rios Crew, goes to Croatia.

An interview with everyone’s fave Scandinavian beast, Hjalte Halberg.

Couple quick New York clips in Flo Mirtain’s new part for Jenkem.

Is riding over the full length of a car a NBD?

The odds being stacked against company comebacks never stops anyone from trying.

A skate tour through Alaska with Brock, Worrest, etc.

It’ll always be Pigeon Shit Double-Set to me ;)

Turn audio on for maximum effect.

If you ask 100 people to give you the twenty best Young Thug songs of 2015, you’re going to get 100 different mixes. Provided you don’t want to sift through five thousand songs, Hotbox Social did a pretty good job of condensing his past twelve months into ninety minutes of music — though you’d probably wanna include “Dome,” “Numbers,” “Bang Bang,” “Pacifier” — actually no, it’s sorta impossible…

QS Sports Desk: Going to switch it up a bit this week and link an article. I thoroughly enjoyed this new interview with Real Sports‘ Bryant Gumbel. His whole “as you age, you care less and less about what a bunch of 20-year-olds are doing”-thing is something I often try to remind [30+] people pontificating on the [non-existent] “death” of skate videos. Sk8 videos r 4 the youths man.

Quote of the Week: “He showed up to the skatepark in a cashmere poncho.” — Dom Travis

Still some beanies [and assorted sizes of fall goods] left in the webstore, even though it’s going to be seventy degrees on Christmas Eve