The 2017 Shirtless Kebab Tour

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C. Champion via W. Dada

“Every time you disprove the prejudices of a pedestrian, you win a small victory that reverses the erosion of our collective social capital.” As sarcastic as we may get about the tired “skaters see the world differently” trope, there’s always something reassuring in our ability to — on on some tiny level — leave the world better than it was before, provided we stop sitting around talking shit about pants for long enough. Caught in the Crossfire’s “Four Small Ways Skateboarding Can Change the World” is inspiring, intelligent and heartwarming writing for a tough world right now.

On that note, #respect x999999 to Young Will and everyone in Providence, Rhode Island. “If you have an idea, for pity’s sake run with it, for the good of us all.”

Half a million pounds of Love Park granite is being shipped to Malmö, Sweden. Shout out to all the cities and people doing cool shit to make humans’ time on earth better.

If you guys in the comments are calling Shanahan a “’99 Kalis deadringer,” you better brace yourselves for the ’99 Stevie version because its really really real.

Ugh, Jake ♥ Just wait on it

This might be an illegal link, but here’s Yaje’s Riddles in Mathematics part til it gets taken down. Non-sketchy link to buy the video here. Sorry TWS, it’s Yaje ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“One day’s lifted bar soon becomes the next day’s hurdle to be ollied, and later kickflipped, and eventually kilty mcbagpipped for an after-credits clip set to a whimsical indie-rock tune.” — Boil the Ocean explores ledge skating’s shrinking middle class, via the lens of Tiago’s switch back tail™. And yes, YouTube debaters, Antonio could’ve easily been #1 but Tiago got it for the trick’s status as a “culture-unifying moment.”

The most entertaining raw files clip in a really long time: A full 18 minutes from Na-Kel Smith’s X-Games “Real Street” part. Most elastic slams in the business too :)

ICYMI: Johnny made a clip of Cyrus and some Nike SB boys skating in Texas.

Skater types.” Facepalm emoji ya.

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine is now available to stream on Hulu. (You may need to put in your card info for a free trial blah blah blah.) You can read and disagree with the QS review here.

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*Non-Skate Related Alert* The latest episode of 99% Invisible deals with abandoned buildings, squatters, riots, and everything else surrounding Tompkins Square Park in the 80s and 90s. “You got guns? We got piss buckets.” Shout to Mostly.

Quote of the Week: “The price isn’t the problem. Pryce is the problem.” — Dallas Todd

I learned frontside flips via Pryce’s Seaport line A.K.A. have never fully *flipped* one in my life. They still count in S.K.A.T.E. though ;) Thanks Pryce.

Some Random German Links

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Travel Tip: An Airbnb for seven dudes with one bathroom in Mexico is a bad idea.

Contrary to Instagram reports over the past week-and-a-half, the Banks are not *technically* open. A full section of the fence was down, and the DOT security booths were gone, but that section has since been put back up. Cops are still kicking people out (no tickets…yet), and claiming the space will soon re-open (also remember it was only supposed to be closed off until 2014, so, you know…) TWS caught up with R.B. Umali for a full status report, and a bit of new footage.

A bunch of Euro links for this Monday Links post…

Who would have thought that one of QS’ highest affinities for a non-New York skate crew would be out in Italy? Five-minute montage from the Milano Centrale boys, including #musicsupervision via Strap from Travis Porter, experimental pants supervision, and minimal tricks on objects over two feet in height.

Village Psychic threw together a remix of the extra-prolific “Sour Files” series, which has dominated the QS Top 10 perhaps more than any other single skate team.

A quick new one from Hjalte and the Blobbys.

/* end Euro links ;)

Always get a lil’ smile out of “Summer Trip to New York” edits that put the effort into skating midtown and SoHo, which seem to be antiquated routes in the L.E.S. + outer-borough dominant mindset of the past several years. The New York section in “Double Egg & Cheese” (begins at the 7 minute mark) is a fun watch.

Abada with some words on the enduring inspiration that is Mike York. (Related.)

They’re building a new skatepark at Van Courtlandt Park on 240th and Broadway. Also, it looks like they’re starting construction on the skatepark at Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, with a projected March 2018 completion date.

Behind the scenes of Yaje’s Columbus Park polejam 5050 TWS cover.

Tennyson put together another 411 comp, this time for S.J. and Sean Mullendore.

Pete Spooner uploaded the New York montage from Insano.

Mike Blabac has a three-part series over on Slam City Skates’ blog about some of his favorite photos and the stories behind them.

A bit of new Anthony Correa footage in what is apparently a “VX Mode” on one of those Panasonic cameras.

Our bud Gianluca’s podcast “Skate Muzik” has a new episode with Jeff Pang.

Paul Coots started uploading single parts from BSA’s Whole Bitch video.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Who the hell would want to get a get a drink alongside somebody whose favorite basketball player is James Harden? Russ for MVP. Uninterested in any other arguments. Bye.

Quote of the Week:

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skaters

File Under: When sports fans start sounding like skaters.

30 Skaters No Wax

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Photo via Graver

Anyone too stubborn to accept the cyclical nature of human history should be aware of the fact that the Banks is maybe the most popular spot in the city again, and twenty of us drove out to Staten Island to skate the ABC Ledges last week.

Time warp innit ~ June 22, 2010 QS post from the day the Banks first got fenced off.

See also: Children skating the three block set-up at Columbia University, and placing trash cans after it in the latest installment of LurkNYC’s “New York Times” series. Shout out to Ja$onwear, Yellow Rail, Dan’s Skate Page and the Metrospective forum.

There’s not enough John Choi footage in it, but Cyrus threw together a twelve minute iPhone edit full of B-sides from New York and L.A.

Jahmal Williams footage and probably the last clips you’ll ever see of the CBS keyhole ledge in “Initiation,” a two-minute clip from Theories to kick off the spring.

Village Psychic follows up on the Stefan Janoski episode of The Bunt to consider the “Hovercraft” / a over tailslide (?) / booger tailslide (?), a trick that would be best left to the spirit of Darrell Stanton.

A bunch of classic NJ spots in Rob Snyder and Jeff Starch’s new part for Municipal.

Cafe Creme rounded up a handful of Keith Hufnagel cameos and mini parts from montages and 411s in the nineties, and put them into one convenient clip.

“Freed of past eras’ smallmindedness that shackled hive-minded bros to goofy-boy kits in the early 1990s or carcass hucking in the early 2000s, a supposed ‘anything goes’ renaissance over the past decade has freed pros and bros alike to pursue moves from retroactivated no-complies to multisyllabic ledge combos and horse pools, wearing fits that run from short shorts to graphical sweatpant products to Tuscan leather. Just as long as you did it on a board that was at least eight inches wide.”

Damn, T.F. North is the dubstep capital of New York skateboarding. Respect.

Drake wearing a TWS tee was an inside job (of the Adobe variety.)

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Jamal Crawford will probably be in the NBA in 2109 when the earth is completely submerged in water. P.S. Mask on, fuck it, mask off.

Quote of the Week: “This place is like the south.” — Kevin Tierney re: Staten Island

Not A Review Of A New Transworld Video

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I can’t remember the names of the last four Ghostface albums and I can’t remember the names of the last four Transworld videos. I haven’t been waiting for either to live up to some expectation that waned well over a decade ago, either. The last dozen-plus Transworld videos have come and gone. There were some good parts, but they’re no less immune to one-and-done Instagratification wormhole that gets talked about by anyone giving a skate interview in 2017.

It seemed like we all agreed on this. Except people have had a lot of, um, not the nicest things to say about Riddles in Mathematics. First, The Bunt went in on it, then the comments on the Ben Gore part that was live for twenty-four hours — fidgety filming, GX and/or Colin Read envy, the soundtrack — skateboarders complain about everything, but apparently this one rubbed people in some way that the last five didn’t.

In the time since Transworld lost the website wars to more Biblical and Scientological outlets, it has been easy to forget that the magazine’s video program was once an eminent of a tastemaker in skateboarding. Transworld packaged Stevie/Kalis and Dill/A.V.E. better than even their sponsors. It prolonged the legend of Cardiel into a generation that was a decade removed from his S.O.T.Y. win. In Bloom predicated Tony T’s 2002 S.O.T.Y. trophy, and punctuated the release of Street Cinema. Heath Kirchart never got S.O.T.Y, but he had the Sight Unseen part. But that space where a Transworld video was an unmissable cultural event can’t co-exist with the internet.

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Pacific Ocean in the Backyard Looking Sexy

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There are obviously an overwhelming amount of causes that need contributions right now, but even if it’s just a few bucks, please contribute to the construction of the Annapurna Skatepark, Nepal’s first international-standard concrete park.

Slapmagazine420 @ gmail shared this amazing Jim Greco flow chart. What’s ur fav?

Congrats to Yaje on his Transworld cover. 1) Is it safe to say the easiest way to land on the cover on a major magazine while skating a spot in New York is via the Columbus Park rail. 2) Why does the cover layout of TWS now look like TSM?

“I’d rather watch Kenny do a backside 180…” The same wonderful remixer who treated us to post-Pretty Sweet remixes of Jesus and Carroll went ahead and put together a feel-good George Benson x Kenny Anderson pairing.

Always nice to break free from the L.E.S. Park industrial content complex on Monday Links :) Bill$ is a new, 11-minute video from Angel Fonseca and The Bronx boys.

Choppy Omega was the first one to ollie the Love Gap, Vinny Ponte was the first to document it, and Reynolds is the first one to piss people off for flying in to just get one trick and bounce. Vern Laird and Jimmy Gorecki wax on about the days when not everything at Love Park was on film.

Even though it was only partially based in New York, Last of the Mohicans was a 2008 that further propelled the typical mode of skating this city into deep outer borough crust. Joe Perrin and OJ Wheels put together Relapse of the Mohicans, a 13-minute video with parts and cameos from the entire original cast.

The Bunt’s latest is with Bastien Salabanzi.

Boil the Ocean furthers expands on the concept of professional skateboarding as professional wrestling by weighing its potential future as a Pay-Per-View spectacle.

Spot Updates: 1) The building further knobbed everything at CBS, to the point where you can’t even skate it as a keyhole ledge anymore. 2) M2M closed down / is moving.

Anyone go into Think Coffee on Mercer and looking to make some extra money?

think coffee

Stop shaming night owls you squares. The case for going to bed at 2:30 A.M.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: 6′ 3 180 pound Russell Westbrook over … 6′ 11, 270 pound Demarcus Cousins.

They could’ve given an Oscar to Network because apparently it came out yesterday.