The MTA | Quartersnacks

My Baby Takes The Morning Train — A Timeline of Skateboarding in the Subway

Features & Interviews October 13th, 2022 · 12:00 am · 5

In a city where everything has been aestheticized by skate videos — curbs, trash cans, cellar doors — skateboarding inside the New York City subway system has still kept up an illusive mystique. We are hardly the only culture to fetishize the subway, which has tribute IG accounts chronicling the malarky that goes down on trains, right down to books celebrating the MTA’s use of Helvetica or cataloging its insignias. (Shout out BK!)

One of the great pitfalls of human psychology is that the more we can’t have something, the more we want it. Skateboarding in a subway station is no different. Every hurdle is revved up: there’s more people, less space, cops are generally angrier, the fines for getting caught are higher, and if your obstacle happens to involve a platform-to-platform connection, there’s an electrified third rail below. While the overall size of the system is about 850 miles, its A.B.D. list is still shorter than, say, Mambo Bar.

Ephemeral Moments — The Subway Tricks From ‘Mixtape’

Time Capsule February 10th, 2016 · 5:12 am · 10

Before skating in the subway was an aesthetic direction you could film a montage around, before tricks underground went viral on mainstream news sites, and before we qualified what’s been done on pieces of MTA furniture, there was Mixtape. It featured the first shot of New York subway skating ever put into a skate video.

They were six B-roll tricks dumped into a friends montage, but they’ve kept a more permanent imprint in my memory than the majority of things I’ve seen in skate videos since. I’ve never made the walk between the L and the 8th Avenue trains at 14th Street without thinking about this clip.

Every interview with someone involved in the current *moment* of small companies touches on the “relate-ability” a niche-oriented brand is able to communicate over the might-as-well-be-CGI skateboarding you see in major company videos. In the years after Mixtape came out, there wasn’t a lot of relate-ability going around. Until the early 2000s wore on and innovations like IRC democratized the reach of skate videos, a company video guaranteed one thing: California.

Mixtape wasn’t just relatable because it was local, or because the skating wasn’t down big handrails. It meant so much more because of subtle moments like the subway tricks — they were as opposite of California as you could possibly get.

A Bunch of Dumb Big Pictures & No Numbers

Daily News January 26th, 2015 · 6:05 am · 5

After much deliberation, the Nosesliders Guild of America has awarded Hjatle Halberg its “Noseslider of the Year” award based on recent output. This is an unprecedented event, as no foreigner has ever won the coveted title. Photo above by Mike O’Meally.

Studies in Flat — Daniel Lebron.

It seems that Frozen in Carbonite’s hyper-nerdery and far-fetched non sequiturs aren’t translating to Ride Channel commenters, because this was great, at least for fans of the blog: An analysis of the parallels between the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry and current day Boston-New York skateboarding. (Boston is 200+ miles from New York btw.)

Part one of NY Skateboarding’s joint interview with Gino and Dill is live.

A lot of familiar faces and hot moves in Debut, a new video featuring the youth.

A boom-bapified remix of peak era Wu-Welsh via Hit You Off Management. That five-trick line at Pier 7 is the absolute best.

Anthony Pappalardo, early Alien days. Shot by Tim Anderson.

“Ugggh, I have such a weakness for cute skateboarders.” We have such a weakness for any Ant Banks #musicsupervision in skate videos.

The VX is dead volume seven via Johnny Wilson et al.

Seeing Michael Mackrodt skate in real life is genuinely one of the most impressive things you could ever witness in skateboarding. His consistency and quick footedness is absurd (personal top 3 most impressive IRL pros.) The next best thing is seeing him skate on video, via this new all-lines part filmed out in the Parisian suburbs. (He also had a New York “Fishing Lines” part in 2010, in case you didn’t know.)

Despite all its frustrations, midtown is still the funnest.

Quick montage from the crew at Matériel Supply.

Got a kick out of this: “Fear City,” a mid-seventies pamphlet covertly distributed to tourists by NYPD unions at odds with the mayor (sound familiar?)

In case you only go on skate websites…you’ll be paying $2.75 to ride the train and $116.50 for an unlimited starting March 22nd.

Until Travis Porter fulfills recent promises of bringing the “fun” back to music, Rae Sremmeueurururd is the Rap Desk’s fill-in vote for “funnest” rap group of the moment:

[Late] Spot Updates: 1) Not many people caught onto this spot, but it had a short lifespan. 2) Those round flatbars on 22nd and Fifth near the Flatiron Building are gone. 3) The two-second bust Marriott Banks are also gone.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: What else? Klay Thompson went 13-of-13 from the field (nine of which were contested three-pointers) against the Sacramento Kings earlier this week, in what was an utter video game of a single quarter. He now holds the record for most points in a NBA quarter with 37. The Golden State Warriors will be at Madison Square Garden on Saturday :)

Quote of the Week: “Oh Fifty Shades of Grey, I want to read that when the movie comes out.” — E.J.

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Good luck with the snow these next two days. The National Weather Service is predicting we may get up to two feet in the city :( Dust those ‘Lo boots off.

68 Degrees

Daily News November 24th, 2014 · 12:25 pm · 6

The Watermelon Man. Photo via Merchants of Ill.

Johnny Wilson still trying to pretend like he uses his VX1000.

Also, some guy compiled a bunch of Cyrus Bennett’s footage from the more recent video blogs and put it over a more recent Migos song.

As far as “Summer Trip to New York” clips go, the skating in this is tops by non-pro team clip standards. These dudes somehow skate every spot in New York (e.g. when was the last time someone filmed a line at Breezy Ledges? Jeff Pang in 1997?) Obligatory Wu-Tang song included.

“The new Transworld video, Outliers, as seen through the prism of the Malcolm Gladwell book of the same name.” Frozen in Carbonite looks through some prisms.

Cario Foster on his Reason part and Danny Montoya on his incredibly ahead-of-its-time One Step Beyond part. “For the record, filming is hard.”

Lucas and J.B. in the Cliché U.K. tour clip.

Twenty seconds of “lost” Jake Johnson footage. 360 flip noseblunts, etc.

Jordan Trahan apparently kickflipped into the Washington Square Park fountain.

We can officially verify that the Plan B video exists, and that PJ Ladd does not have a part in it. The joke is dead. Except how is Hoboken going to get a premiere and New York isn’t? Was really looking forward to getting drunk in the theater for that one :(

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This is what your 2015 MTA fare hike is going to look like.

QS Holiday Gift Guide: This pixel print of skate shoes from the nineties is chill and this Hans Moleman x Muska Silhouette deck is amazing. “My name is Hans. Drinking has ruined my life. I’m 31 years old!”

Spot Updates: 1) It happened months ago, but finally just got around to updating the spot page…the ledge-to-flatbar in Battery had its runway knobbed. Some Japanese guy with quick feet will still get a trick on it by next summer. 2) The grate at Union Square that people propped up to skate over the pillar is gone. It’s a gap now. 3) The Blue Banks in Albany are being turned into an official skatepark. Even if it ends up being some pre-fab crap, at least you get to skate the banks worry-free now. Funnest spot north of Tompkins :)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: 6′ 3 Reggie Jackson v.s. 7′ 2 Brook Lopez.

Quote of the Week: “The first thing I thought when I started watching that catcalling video was, ‘Oh no, I hope I’m not in this.'” — T-Bird

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No idea what the point of this will be, but yeah, it’s there for now.

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2011: 25-21

Features & Interviews December 2nd, 2011 · 3:35 pm · 12

You know the drill. Five at a time, one post a week. Have a good weekend.

25. The Blue Flatbar Shatters the Record for the Longest a Loose Obstacle Has Been Left at Tompkins

Every skateboarder in New York is guilty of having once been too lazy to return a box or rail back to Autumn after it gets dark. Neglecting to bring the box back is so common that we deliberately left it off our Tompkins etiquette guide. If the Parks Department held on to all the obstacles they have removed from the park over the last ten years, then they easily have the capability of furnishing every basketball court and concrete baseball diamond in New York with at least one box and flatbar. The historical average for the longest an obstacle has been able to remain loose in Tompkins Square without confiscation is roughly 10.2 hours. This past November, amidst the 12th & A lockout, the blue flatbar was brought to the T.F. and lasted an unprecedented three weeks before being taken by the Parks Department and thrown in a trash compactor. It is quite possible that this record will never be broken.