Fireworks

Tompkins is back, Nik Stain is pro. Happy summer. Photo via Caleb.

“Ahh the banks at the Jamaican embassy… Iconic spot, great spot, fun spot. Quick bust of a spot though… so the fact that you guys have a little group with a campfire going…”

Someone made a twenty-minute super cut of Tyshawn footage.

“I will do anything for skateboarding. This episode can save lives, it creates communities. It’s the closest thing to music, and the coolest thing about music is that there’s no place on earth where it doesn’t exist.” Skateism has an interview with Buddy and Rick about making the LGBTQ+ episode of Love Letters to Skateboarding. There is also a supplementary “Love Note” with Cher Strauberry and Barker Barrett about how to be a better ally.

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April Showers

Via @lefthandande on IG

“Mired in gloom, to whom to look to for hope? A swaggering, bearded and sometimes-shirtless Frenchman beckons, modeling responsible social distancing behaviors from within a picturesque seaside flat. Lucas Puig is the COVID-19 therapeutic the world needs to see through these dark, blurring-together days.” Boil the Ocean throws Lucas Puig’s name in the hat for S.O.T.Q. — Skater of the Quarantine. And after that Biarritz edit, we are inclined to agree ♥

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A Deadstock German Shepherd

Shout out to Twitter for tracking this one down. More skate photos with friends in the background please ♥

Interblend” is a New York / New Jersey montage by Tokyo-based filmer Rob Taro, who made the full-length Time Scan video from last year. Features a mini Central Park section in the middle. Eby’s ollie over the barrier into the rock is fucked.

A fun Twitter thread, which hones in on a #trend that we had not noticed until now: skaters whose parts are set to recent movie scores, some of them totally random. Cheers to Henry for the research.

#Skatevideohouse lives! “Parking Lot Music Video Installation 1” is a montage with some new faces at a very #current circuit of spots around the city.

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3 Mophies Is Basically a VX

Brian Panebianco at the ever-enduring ABC Ledges. Photo via Mike Heikkila, who actually has an interview over on the Skate Jawn site.

“The only survivor of this whole mess of skateboard media is Thrasher. And why? Because they’re still owned by a skateboard family…If I ever were to start another magazine, that’s how I would do it.” Hanson O’Haver wrote wrote an awesome oral history of Transworld, which closely parallels the greater story of skateboard media in the last thirty years.

“I didn’t want to be that kid asking for stuff. I’d rather just buy it.” Josh Davis wrote a rad profile of T.J. for Hypebeast’s magazine. They just put up online.

Ross Norman — a longtime favorite of the QS office, and the guy who Hjalte said he stole all his tricks from — has a new part over on the Free site. Hasn’t long a single step.

“So how does it feel to be a woman in skating?” “Well, I have a vagina, and if I do a kickflip, it’s still there.”

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Crazy But It’s True

Photo via Giese

“Jake Phelps surely embodied worlds in decline: Old San Francisco, famously non-PC, MJ1s on his feet until whatever deadstock tap ran dry, proofing a decades-old print publication with a snarling discontent any seasoned editor would recognize and respect. An artifact arguing and cussing every day for a place in a world moving some other way.” Unfortunate to link their way two weeks in a row for obituary purposes, but Boil Ocean has a way with them words.

“Though I would sometimes cross the street to avoid him, I can remember so much of what he said to me.” Patrick O’Dell also wrote a thing about Phelps over on Vice.

And here is a re-link to Willy Staley’s California Sunday profile of Phelps that originally ran in 2016, A.K.A. what BTO labeled as “secular-press skate piece top five.” Would be *so* open to a conversation about what the other four are ;)

The new Gang Corp video, Black Business, is premiering this Friday, March 22, at 198 Allen Street at 7 P.M.

Someone mashed together five minutes of Hjalte Insta clips a nice remix

Mike from Lottie’s takes five minutes to tell you what he’s pissed off about.

Munchies has a mini doc on the institution that has sustained New York skateboarding like none other throughout the 2010s — of course, we’re talking about 2 Bros. They also bring up a terrifying reality re: the ten-year leases that got signed at the start of the decade ending (e.g. when everyone was still reeling from the recession), and the dollar slice soon becoming a thing of the past.

“I think the mainstream American skateboarding culture is kidding itself. They’re really dismissive of emotions in a way that is hurting itself. It’s becoming more and more inline with traditional athleticism, but also what is acceptable as a skateboarder is so narrow – you have to be cool, not talk about your feelings.” If you’re one of those idiots like me who put off watching Minding the Gap for months, here’s another motivator: Skateism put their interview with director Bing Liu online. Yeah, you need to enter your card details, but a Hulu trial to watch it is free, and you can cancel the second you finish the movie — provided you’re not destroyed for the rest of the day.

Solo has a video profile of steez lord and Polar rider, Shin Sanbongi + Nick from Palomino took his legacy media expertise and wrote an introductory guide on Japanese indie zines and videos for the mag’s all-Japan issue. No Meatball interview?

TWS interviewed John Shanahan, though we all know A.V.E. had the best part in The DC Video.

Let’s just throw the interview loosies in one place… Frank 151 interviewed R.B. Umali (text), Enrique Lorenzo interviewed Dani Lebron (this one is audio, and yes, they have heavy accents, but their english is pretty perfect) + the Slam City Skates blog interviewed Colin Read (text.)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Going to suspend our micro coverage of the NBA this week to acknowledge that the best feat of teamwork and athleticism of the past seven days was this guy getting a ~15-foot I-beam onto a New York City subway.

Quote of the Week: “Who the fuck is Andrew Wilson?” — Jake Phelps, flipping through a Skate Jawn