Ever since he all but deactivated his Instagram and grew his hair out, Ruben put out two parts in the span of a half year (“Astratto” originally premiered in December), plus had a good bit of stuff in that “Storia Italiana” Magenta edit. (Actually, between him and Shogo Zama, Magenta now has two of the best flowy skaters out there, look at that.)
This latest one went live on Free yesterday, and is by Hadrien Buhannic, the guy who has been quietly at the helm of the Bloby edits that shaped up to be some of the most influential skateboarding of the past half decade. It’s about a third Milano Centrale stuff, with the rest in Paris, and like the last part, it is music-supervised by someone who did fire movie scores in the seventies.
We first met Ruben on a QS family trip to Italy back in 2016. Milan has a tight-knit and friendly skate scene — it feels like a lot of it revolves around Milano Centrale and the Chef Family crew. He and his friends were kind enough to show us around their city when we summoned the willpower to leave an absolutely perfect plaza spot. When a spot is that good, you willfully forget that the whole “exploring the city”-thing is a big part of skate trips. (Colleagues echo our sentiments.)
We visited Milan again a year later. On the train-ride into Centrale (yes, the train from the airport drops you off at Italy’s best skate spot), I remembered out loud, “Oh, I should probably DM Ruben and let him know we’re coming.”
“Don’t worry, he’ll already be there,” a mutual friend replied.
Once upon a time, we went years without breaking the annual tradition of End of Summer clips posted right before each Labor Day Weekend.
Then, we were lead astray. To give you some context, the last time we posted one, it was to a Rich Homie Quan song in 2015, and not long after, he devastatingly walked out of our lives never to be heard from again.
Some might say we were too busy indulging in the finer things life has to offer at the expense of time spent on a skateboard. Others blame Instagram for cannibalizing the footage economy, i.e. how often do you see a run of the mill city montage getting uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo these days that isn’t a longform project promoting something or a trip clip? Like, who makes clips over sixty seconds just for the sake of it anymore?
…we do! At least we’re trying to again! Because montages are fun! You get to use more than sixty seconds of a song you like! You don’t have to hoard footage for twelve months waiting for everyone to get their parts together! It’s way more fun than uploading shit to an IG story and getting a bunch of praying hands emojis in your DMs! Montages have vibes! Montages are memories! Montages are beautiful!
Following the start of this year’s summer solstice — amidst the build-out of this snazzy new redesign — we made a resolution to start bringing the #RealCamera™ out all the time. Also, we were still reeling for the devastating loss of Final Cut 7; we had to get with the times and figure out how the hell to use Premiere. August was hindered by a bit of a nagging health issue, but as a bonus, we mixed in the footage from the two-and-a-half days we spent in Prague because there were never any concrete plans for it. (So, it’s basically a July 2018 montage.)
We’d like to extend a special individual thank you to Antonio Durao for keeping everyone hyped this summer, because without him, there’s no way this clip would exist. (You’ll see.) Contributing filmers: Jesse Alba & Emilio Cuilan.
Features Antonio Durao, Daniel Kim, John Francomacaro, Conor Prunty, Connor Kammerer, Chris Milic, Brian Brown, Myles Gable, Hjalte Halberg, Ruben Spelta, Anton Juul.
Who knows, maybe we get real wild and drop a Christmas clip this year too ♥
Gino Iannucci asks “Who’s going around skating in a $400 sweater?” in his Monster Children feature about restarting Poets as a brand. I gotta introduce him to Troy, though I think his shit is a good bit over $400 ;)
“I kind of wonder how I had so much nerve to do some of those graphics.” This is nine months old, but shout to Palomino for just linking it — an hour-long interview with Mark McKee that gives insight into the wild west era of skateboard graphics.
Huck has posted some iffy articles about skateboarding in the past, but this one about a Bristol D.I.Y. spot and the general rise of skater-made spaces is an a-ok quick read.
Boil the Ocean on “a mile-long backside tailslide and, perhaps in tribute to Dan Pageau’s freshly funded legacy, a switchstance trip down the fearsome El Toro.”
Rest in peace Bankroll Fresh, get well soon Ricky Ross, everybody else please take good care of yourselves, and skateboard and laugh with your friends as much as you possibly can yaknow ♥
“I remember when dinner depended on my fishing rod” is one of the greatest things a rapper has ever said.
As long as you walk outside and hear “waaaaaa waaa waaa” coming from car speakers every thirty seconds, the summer is going to keep getting extended. This Insta remix of QS office fave, Ruben Spelta, should help you stay stoked for the rest of the week — though why not use, like, an actual M.J. song. Euros, man.
New York is a big place and it’s always refreshing to watch videos dominantly filmed outside of the L.E.S. Park/Williamsburg/Columbus Park groupthink bubble. Angel Fonseca’s new 17-minute video, “Stay Fufu,” chronicles the extended fam of all the locals at the Bronx Courthouse.
A question that has gently been whispered among conspiracy theorists for years now: Did the United States government fake Tony Hawk landing the 900?
“As I watched I began to wonder if he had any right to film and share what he did. Then I remembered his tenure in LOVE, his legacy of videos, and what it’s like to be a skateboarder in a space.” Nice to have another skate website with actual words on it in this day and age. Our bud Adam Abada started a site called Stoke of the Week, which is, simply put, a weekly log of what single skate video got him psyched that past week. The first edition is re: Brian Panebianco’s “Love Park Photographer” short.
..aanndd here’s a teaser for Chris Mulhern’s upcoming Love Park doc, “15th & JFK.”
QS Sports Desk:Shout out Lebron. Sorry for rooting against you so many times. #2011mavs4ever. (Don’t read the replies unless you want your blood to boil.)
