Artist Unknown
The Pledge, 2017
Spraypaint on cement
426.7 cm × 137.16 cm (160 in × 54 in)
Summer requires no extra motivation to go skateboard with your friends (bringing that camera out…that’s another topic.) Short of going to Tribeca Park, we’re all perfectly willing to go anywhere, skate flat, watch someone good try something hard, look at girls, and skate more flat on any day with tolerable humidity. On the eve of September 1st, we felt we’d give a nod to the parts that gave that additional jolt to get out there and maybe do something extra. The *asterisk is for the fact that we are obviously avoiding the summer bangers. (More on that next month.)
Three of these are from the Free site, which is admittedly, our most oft-visited #competitive #skateboard #media #outlet. They won’t let you embed their videos externally, so follow the links above the .gifs to watch the parts yaknow.
Ruben Spelta — Another Meaningless Video
Ruben is an Instagram must-follow — when else in history has a boardslide on a foot-and-a-half high ledge left your iPhone screen and entered human conversation for the next several days? Ruben’s part in our friend Matteo’s video is a bit tuned-back with the #fits that pervade his current reportage from Milano Centrale, but features all the same hallmarks of his improvisational skating. He doesn’t look like he attempts a single trick that won’t flow naturally, and made a 5050 nollie backside 180 look as stylish as its more commonly-seen front truck counterpart. Him and his friends were in New York these past several weeks, and I can’t remember the last time the office has so anxiously awaited a “Summer Trip to New York” edit to make its way online.
