Rob Pluhowski | Quartersnacks

Only Love Can Do That

Daily News January 15th, 2018 · 12:49 pm · 2

Front door of Andre Page’s old office ♥

“You Americans are too serious about the pro board shit, in Europe you just turn the homie pro. Fuck it! It’s not about being ‘pro’ at skating. If you are a sick character, you should be pro!” Chris Milic and Jesse Alba interview Hjalte Halberg for Solo mag, with a resulting transcript that you can read in everyone’s voice inside your head.

Wise words: “Bro, you just skate and put it on the internet.” — Genesis Evans, who practices what he preaches considering he uploaded a a clip of his L.A. trip to the new Sahbabii song within like…24 hours of it being released.

Thrasher has Nick Ferro and Mark Humienik’s Calzone part, YouTube has Mark Wetzel’s Calzone part, and Big Cartel has Calzone DVDs.

One of the most astute eyes for spots out there. Chris Jones’ new part for Free is obviously great. And P.S. Casper Brooker went pro this past weekend. Congrats G.

Mostly park footage, but still heavy on the smiles: Louie Lopez IG remix to some Sade.

If you want to get bummed out, Vice did an article on how the city of Seattle is suing 35th North (the city’s longest standing skate shop) over a D.I.Y. bowl they built in the middle of the woods. Never not saying shout out to Europe in situations like these.

New Jerry Mraz footage in the promo for a new board company called Adult Inc. Guessing there’s ledges at the top of that L.I.E. hill from the old Bronze videos now?

Strobeck has an over two-hour interview with The Nine Club.

Chapter six of Elkin raw tapes is now live.

Dude I don’t even know how many years ago 2017 was, but apparently the Theories guys still want to talk about the best videos from that weird ass year. It’s dope that one of their fave videos was “Theories in Chicago” ;) ♥ My fave was Josh’s Inkwell part.

North interviewed skate photo collage god and frequent Quartersnacks contributor, Requiem For A Screen, in their latest issue, and just published the piece online.

That Sixth Sense era raw footage clip that everyone was re-posting last week actually got uploaded in 2011, but gave us a good excuse to fix a typo in an old post!

The cultural institution known as the Delancey McDonald’s finally reopens today!

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Anthony Davis what the shit.

Quote of the Week: “The only jobs in London are working for i-D or Dazed.” — Sean Kinney

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Mad Luv

Daily News May 8th, 2017 · 3:06 pm

abduction

Illustration by Mark Hall-Patch

The QS webstore is now live with spring merch. Quantities are thinning out a bit, so grab something while you can :) Available in U.S., Canadian and Japanese shops now. Those stockists can be found here. Arriving in Europe this week, but we need to update the list of Euro and Japanese shops. Hold tight. Thanks everyone for your support in helping us continue to do what we do (e.g. compile John Choi quotes.)

Please support Civil Skateshop & the Adrian Hall Plaza spot in Providence, R.I.

I’d be perfectly fine with watching a full part of T.J. skating Columbus Park ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

iPhone video of Cyrus’ cover photo, via Communipaw Ave legend, Tyler Tufty.

Big surprise, Bobshirt compiled another amazing interview, this time with Rob Pluhowski. He runs through the full history of Habitat without any hints of entitlement or bitterness that seem to color some others’ recollections of the era. Gracious interview from a guy who graciously bowed out of skateboarding.

“It’s not even that he seemed unconcerned what people may think, but that he seems only vaguely aware that such people might even exist, and doesn’t seem much interested in sweating it too much either way.” — Boil the Ocean re: the aforelinked interview, and the rare act of bowing out of skateboarding and never looking back.

While on the topic of level-headed skateboarders, Sammy Winter seems like a fine lad.

Can’t really remember the last time the thought “wow, what a front tailslide heelflip out!” came to mind, but wow, what a front tailslide heelflip out! Via Neil Herrick’s Meadowlands part. Support Jersey-owned businesses and buy the DVD here.

New video from Frog Skateboards with a dope ender.

Riley Hawk and Danny Brady seems like an odd pairing, but ok, why not?

Um, there’s a Muska silhouette deck generator. Sure?

Someone remixed all of Taylor Nawrocki’s footage from John Valenti’s “Valencia Report” video that went live on Transworld about a month ago.

“I once knew someone who wore a thick gold rope and kept it tucked into their shirt, so that the weight of it rested against their bare chest, but the unmistakable thickness of it could be seen around their neck nonetheless, like an opulent snake. It occurred to me that this, perhaps, was truly the way to show off: Keep most of what you have at a whisper, but keep just enough so loud that it won’t be forgotten.” — Reflecting on ten years of Boosie, Foxx and Webbie’s “Wipe Me Down.”

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Is John Wall your favorite player in these playoffs? (Isiah is a fine choice too.) Guess it doesn’t really matter who wins that series because they all know what fate awaits them at the end.

Quote of the Week: “I don’t really start partying until I’m in the meatpacking district.” — John Choi

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Ever, like, not listen to a really good song for a couple months, and then hear it come on shuffle and think, “whoa this is a really good song!?”

Not sure he should be driving a boat on Xanax though…

The Origin of the White Rapper

Features & Interviews May 9th, 2014 · 5:00 am · 21

For a group that considers itself so creative, skateboarders sure suck at naming tricks. The sex change, benihana and even salad grind have all fallen out of fashion, and so have fun trick names altogether. Skaters have grown into stringent conservatives about trick names; QS is routinely lambasted for use of the term “nollie half cab” for nollie frontside 180s, as if 90% of the T.F. doesn’t call it that already. Even seemingly clever names e.g. “the fishhook” for the nollie frontside 180 switch nosegrind revert point to mechanical similarities rather than any hint of playful nomenclature.

But one name has stood strong over the past decade. Maybe it’s not an official name, but the “white rapper” B.K.A. the switch varial heelflip is still keeping the fun in trick names up and down the eastern seaboard, and evidently abroad as well. (Some corners will contend that it also refers to regular stance varial heelflips…more on that in a bit.) What genius came up with this name? Who did it refer to and where did it originate from? We decided to find out.

The most common origin story comes from Philadelphia, some ten-plus years ago. That is where we will begin our journey…

The 360 Flip’s Less Attractive Sister: A Study of the 10 Greatest Varial Flips in Skate Video History

Features & Interviews April 26th, 2013 · 5:54 am · 57

top 10 varial flips

The varial flip occupies a strange space in skateboarding. It’s pigeonholed as a little kid trick — a midway point between the kickflip and 360 flip, and sometimes even the first flip trick learned by a kid who found the shove-it motion easier to land on than a straight up kickflip. Beyond that, it has a far better looking, more shapely and marketable sister trick: The varial flip is the Khloe to the 360 flip’s Kim and Kourtney.

Even when you run an image search for “varial flip” (every result is hideous), Google is right there with “360 flip” as the sole related search. Except when you Google “360 flip,” the term “varial flip” ceases to be relatable. No need to backtrack.

google varial flips

As observers of professional skateboarding, an eternal question burns in our minds every time a pro does a varial flip: “Why wouldn’t he just do a 360 flip?” Whether you agree or not, 360 flips infallibly share the “you can never have enough of them” category with ollies, kickflips, backside tailslides, or anything else you’ve seen Keith Hufnagel do several times in each his Real parts, while the varial flip remains a lumpy oddity that sets alarms off for critics of trick selection. No company would dare introduce a new rider with a varial flip ad, and Skechers certainly had no intention of calling Khloe for their Super Bowl commercial if Kim was unavailable.

Surely the most standard of 360 flips is superior to the greatest varial flip — if such a thing were to exist. Is there even such thing as a “great” varial flip? We set out to find an answer to this question. Here are the ten instances in which the Khloe Kardashian of flip tricks looked jussst right, by ten of skateboarding’s Lamar Odoms.

Philadelphia C. 1996

Time Capsule April 6th, 2011 · 11:26 am · 14

Rob Pluhowski never occupied the “He changed my life and/or wardrobe” status that Anthony Pappalardo and Brian Wenning enjoy after years of elusiveness (which is of course, camouflaged by devout fans spending unhealthy amounts of time promising a comeback on various message boards.) However, he was still a crucial, style-centric chunk to the whole period that has come to be defined as “the Photosynthesis era.”

Several days ago, he uploaded the closest thing we have to a Revisited volume for the city of Philadelphia and the many individuals who gyrated around it as it rose to become a huge skate city in the mid-to-late nineties. The clip includes a handful of Sixth Sense makes and outtakes, and footage from several crucial years that preceded all things related to Alien Workshop and Habitat becoming massive parts your life if you happened to start skating in Philly, Jersey or New York between 1998 and 2002. Pluhowski doesn’t spend much time skating these days, as he is a family man (some of this is touched upon in Pappalardo’s “Epicly Later’d” series), but a big thank you goes to him for going out of his way to bring something like this to the surface.