Rodney Torres | Quartersnacks

It’s Just Another Cyber Monday

Daily News November 27th, 2023 · 12:00 am

Do you have $99,000 lying around? Want to own a skatepark [a lil’ over an hour from the city]? Peekskill’s 2nd Nature park is for sale. No cybermonday promo code for that though ;)

The promo for the upcoming Late Nite Stars full-length video went live last week. (Yes, a Trung sighting is included.)

Shari White made a new 11-minute edit called “Gleek / Blueberries,” featuring a solid chunk of Dustin Henry footage + appearances from Una, Breana, Nelly, Stafhon, Shealy, Chandler Burton and a mini curtains section from Evan Wasser.

#TRENDWATCH2023 — The Search For This Moment’s Really Long Ledge

Daily News March 1st, 2023 · 12:00 am · 7

Human beings are infatuated with ways to measure their endurance: Usain Bolt’s 100-meter dash, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, 76 hot dogs in ten minutes, etc.

In ledge skating, this measuring stick is holding a given trick over a long ledge. If it stands to reason that everyone’s first time doing anything on a ledge is a quick grind off the end, then holding it the distance is the true form of mastery.

For this purpose — in New York, at least — The Grate™ is a unit of measure.

Have you been getting really good at backside tailslides? There is no doubt that one of your idiot friends will ask, “D’ya think you could do it over the grate?”

Blast Off

Daily News January 6th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 3

…aannddd we’re back.

The world isn’t off to the best start in 2020, so you’d be well advised to watch this uplifting video about two Afghan girls who moved to Berlin from a refugee camp, and completely fell in love with skateboarding there. Lovingly put together by our friends at Place.

When’s FedEx dropping their video?

“Back then it was all a blur.” Yo these Bobshirt interviews are all so special. The latest installment is with Rodney Torres and is loaded with nineties New York nostalgia and stories, e.g it pretty much mentions three decades worth of skate shops in the city, and harks back to a time when New York coverage was limited to a montage here and there every couple years in a bigger video. (Also #lol on this YouTube comment.)

The youth has good tre flips. “Practice” is a very rad homie video by Cesar Fuentes featuring a bunch of up and coming skaters from The Bronx.

YouWillSoon (!!!) chopped up a remix of all Andrew Reynolds’ 2019 Instagram footage.

Slam City Jam One Foot Crook Let’s Go

Daily News September 24th, 2018 · 5:03 am · 7

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…

Idk what you’re doing if you haven’t watched Justin Henry’s Quasi video “Rough Cut” yet. Good bit of New York clips obvs, etc.

“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.

Shout out to every “Summer Trip to New York” clip with no Blue Park footage :) Here’s a nine-minute one from the Sk8 Hop dudes out of Puerto Rico, featuring some Watermelon Alex cameos!

Always great to see new Juan and Karl footage (that nollie nosegrind revert!) — here they are in the Yoan Taillandier’s latest “Futur Timeline” clip, skating an undecipherable European city ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Would probably leave Milano Centrale off a “hidden plazas” listicle (this one in Turin, on the other hand…), but Theories has a feature about Europe’s best, non-Spanish/Southbank/Republique/obvious plazas. We out to Bulgaria?

“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 ;)

Boil the Ocean considers the enduring legacy of Haulin’ Ass To Hall & Oats.

Luis Tolentino and Leo Heinert skate the 181st Street park for an afternoon. That park is actually a street spot btw.

Antosh put together a quick street edit of our friends in Vancouver.

Skate Jawn flew out to Morocco to help build a skatepark. Here’s the video.

Quote of the Week: “Imagine how mean Torey would be if he had boobs.” — Julia Kidder

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This album arrived and went with a whimper when it came out, but now it’s a few degrees cooler and this is the only song the office listens to.

In Absentia: The Newport Remix

Time Capsule · Video & Remixes October 10th, 2014 · 1:58 am · 9

newport

After yesterday’s #controversial post, it felt necessary to quell the tension and focus on the waterfront utopia that existed on the opposite side of Manhattan island, some fifteen years ago.

Jim Hodgson was generous enough to lend us all the Newport footage from his In Absentia series for this QS remix. Out of all the romanticism that surrounds east coast skateboarding, the Love Park / City Hall / Photosynthesis era carries the most weight. These wooden blocks on the East River waterfront were New York’s concurrent answer to what was going on 100 miles south on I-95 at that time. The baggy carpenter jeans, bulky shoes (be on the lookout for D3s), steadyshot turned off, and above all, the first-ever sight of advanced technical skateboarding within New York City limits remain points of nostalgia for all late-nineties / early-2000s skate nerds. Consider it the video companion to July’s “History of Skateable Seaport” post.

Also, let this stand as a prime example of how easy-to-solve the issue of skateable space in New York is: A few wooden blocks with metal affixed to them, and we’re still talking about it a decade-and-a-half later. It’s not that hard. You don’t need California Skateparks to figure that one out.

Features Bobby Puleo, Albie, Mike Wright, German Nieves, Andy Bautista, Rodney Torres, Brian Wenning, Anthony Pappalardo. Filming by Jim Hodgson.

P.S. While on the topic of 90s-themed QS remixes: This past summer, a prominent Danish skateboarder told me that his “favorite video part” was the Quim Cardona QS remix. He was probably just trying to be nice, because, like, why wouldn’t the Non Fiction part be your favorite if you’re going that route? — but in any event, I always felt bad about the aspect ratio being f’ed up in that clip, so we fixed for 4:3 viewing over on Vimeo. For that guy, and all others. Have a good weekend.