Made Mistakes In ’98, But ’99 Will Be Better

Salomon Cardenas, Etienne Gagne + Jason Byoun share a part in the Frog video, Killer Skaters 2.

The first one-spot part of the decade: Sergio Rodas and Brian Douglas share a section entirely filmed at Scudder Plaza A.K.A. the Princeton University spot. It’s crazy how no matter what talk there is about the decline of plaza spots in the U.S., post-Love skateboarding on the east coast has coincided with a surge in footage from here, Empire State Plaza, Everson, etc. — all of which went largely under-covered in the two decades prior.

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R.I.P. Fall ’19 — We Barley Knew You

Spread via @geometricskateshop on IG

Quartersnacks for Spitfire Wheels arrives in stores today. We will not be carrying this in our webstore, but have a lot of fab regs QS stuff in there if you’re trying to support. Any shop with a Deluxe account near you should be a safe bet though ♥ (And for anyone asking, yes there are both hard wheels and cruiser: hard wheel is Formula Four 53mm 99du, and soft wheel is 54mm 80du.)

“We did crime to fund it basically.” File this one under: Had no idea how much I would love this interview when I first started skimming it. You’re probably familiar with @muckmouth the Instagram page, you might be familiar with Muckmouth the website, but you probably aren’t familiar with Muckmouth the Auckland-based skate magazine. Free has an incredible interview with Muckmouth founder, Alex Dyer, about his journey through three generations of skateboard media that is full of stories to make you laugh and sit at the edge of your seat. “Where the fuck is Callum?”

Skating to one of the ten best songs ever recorded by humans is bold, but whatever, the world is gonna end soon anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Justin Grzechowiak’s part in the Buffalo, New York-based Remedy video is a good time.

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MTLiens

The Dime Live @ Stadium highlight they DON’T want you to see! (Jk, they def want you to see it. Holy shit.) And obvs a late Monday round-up after returning from Montreal is practically a QS office tradition. Sorry for the delay.

Next Video is a full-length from Andrew Kennelly AKA @Dudesarecool5, filmed pretty much entirely in the city (minus the obligatory “Cali section.”) New Kyota part + plus a bunch of people you’ll recognize from skating around downtown…or Borough Hall. Village Psychic has a quick highlight reel of GIFs.

Just before Jake Phelps died, Zered recorded what would be the final interview on Thrasher radio with him as the host. They put the 30-minute conversation online last week.

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It’s 5 Hours Somewhere

Photo via Zach

Nice! So we made it two weeks without having to rally for a skate spot’s survival on a Monday Links post… This time, the spot is an ocean away, but in this media enterprise’s opinion, it’s the best spot in the world — even better than Tompkins when there are two boxes! Everyday Hybridity has the most current update on Prague’s Stalin Plaza being fenced off / condemned to renovation.

It’s all fun and games until Balenciaga actually does a renegade runway show at Blue Park next September.

A dear friend, “Zach from Crown Heights,” called into The Brian Lehrer Show’s episode about the “cost of climate resilience” to provide a T.F. anecdote to the ongoing battle with the East River Park renovation. The convo in question happens just after the 17-minute mark. Whole episode is worth listening to if you want some context as to how this whole issue came to be in the first place.

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Skate Spot Porn: Prague’s Stalin Plaza

Fall 2018 marks ten years since Billy Rohan rescued those slabs of marble from Albany’s defunct Shelter Skatepark, with which he would go on to create the best iteration of 12th & A that there ever was. Through the spring of 2013, 12th Street became a rare place to skate straight, stone ledges in lower Manhattan without having to worry about a kick-out. I remember Billy being in awe of how he and Curtis Rapp pulled off this marble heist and installation without a hitch: “This spot is perfect — it feels like Stalin Plaza, except instead of marble ground, I have to settle for a basketball court.”

I also remember that when we were doing the interview for this old segment about the Chapman Skateboards archive, Gregg mentioned how Billy equated their patented technology for a “performance tip” (a piece of special plastic at the nose and tail of a board that kept your pop crisper for longer) to be like skating on Stalin Plaza ground at all times.

Apart from Billy’s anecdotal obsession with Stalin Plaza, I have wanted to go there since Harsh Euro Barge came out. It looked the right amount of different from any other European holy grail spot; something stood out about those arbitrary pieces of marble stacked on flawless ground, with a precision applied to the spacing between each one. How were these piles of beautifully sliced rocks left alone in a buildingless abyss?

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