The 2013 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 10-6

blubba tricks

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Let’s get this thing done with.

Previously: #s 25-21, #s 20-16, #s 15-11, The Year in T.F. Obstacles

10. Skating Over Black Hubba Becomes a “Thing”

2013 was filled with benchmark moments that emphasized just how fast skateboarding is progressing: Ishod’s versatility among three parts, Nigel Hudsons’ superhumanness, Westgate’s aversion to physics, and Mark Suciu’s career-worth-of-footage-in-12-months productivity. In New York, life moves a bit faster, but as a result, skating progresses, much, much slower. Everything is five years behind if you want to be generous, ten if you want to be a dick about it.

Our moment came on a smaller level. Filming on Black Hubba has seemed kinda silly ever since Riley Hawk saw it fit to do, like, a bluntslide varial flip down it. Good skateboarders had officially run out of tricks to do there — except now people are good enough to skate over it. Olson kickflipped over it three years ago, but things ramped up this year with a front three, a nollie back 180, a backside flip, and two switch flips.

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OMG THE BAND IS BREAKING UP!!!!!!!!!111

dill ave off alien

(This is the mandatory “Dill & AVE Are Off Alien Workshop” skate site post)

Much of the QS office fell out of love with Alien Workshop in the twelve-year (and counting) drought of no Black Rob music supervision or new hires of skaters in sweatpants. Despite our toughest efforts of rekindling the flame that was initially lit by 7.4 Kalis decks and a time when capri cargoes were acceptable attire for hip-hop white guys, the magic has been gone for quite some time. And now, with a shocking resignation, the final pieces of a bygone era have severed official ties, leaving us with no straws of remaining nostalgia to grasp.

Though the Slap board will crash due to today’s news, and the Boil the Ocean guy may be writing a thinkpiece with big words on the subject, it’d probably be wrong to assume either of these guys are destined for anywhere but their own venture. Given the current state of the skate industry, where an unsponsored 21-year-old is considered over the hill and damaged goods, it is unlikely that a legacy name is going to leave an almost two-decade-long sponsor situation for another company in the few remaining years of his career. So please keep that in mind when contributing to the Great Slap Crash of 2013 with statements like “I could tottallllly see Dill on Krooked” and stuff.

Otherwise, Alien will be fine as long as the best skater alive is still on their roster. He’s just not the best person to have a conversation about rap with.

“Highwaters will be at half mast tomorrow.” — Street Piracy