Beyond Lucas Puig’s reputation as the quintessential European who “made it,” his sponsor history alone weaves his name into the skateboard culture of not only France and America – but also England, China and however many other countries in which he’s filmed video parts.
Born and raised in Toulouse, France, and traveling from a young age, Lucas had no desire to live elsewhere for some time. “I felt like I needed to be home,” he says of the gaps between skate trips. “That’s why I never moved to Paris or another big city.”
Five years ago, however, he relocated to the small Basque town of Biarritz. “We came here to be close to the beach,” Lucas says over the phone one morning. “For me, it was for surfing and for my girlfriend, it was for a different lifestyle. More chilled and less subways, less people. Just taking our time.”
This was the decade that the full-length skate video was supposed to die. We began the 2010s with everyone insisting that Stay Gold would be the last full-length skate video. Then, Pretty Sweet was supposed to be the last full-length video. Some people thought that Static IV would be it — the end, no more full-lengths after that. But I feel like I heard someone say Josh was working on something new a couple months back? Idk.
The experience might’ve changed. We’re not huddling around a skate house’s TV covered in stickers to watch a DVD bought from a shop anymore (if this past weekend is any indication, it’s more like AirPlaying a leaked .mp4 file via a link obtained from a guy who knows a guy), but the experience of viewing a fully realized skate video with your friends for the first, second or twentieth time is still sacred.
Just as we asked for your votes for the five best video parts, we did the same for the five best full-lengths: if you could choose the five videos that defined the 2010s, what would they be? The results were a bit more surprising than the parts tally in some ways, given that it felt like independent, regional and newer, small brand videos dominated the decade, yet Big Shoe Brands™ and Girl + Chocolate still made their way into the list. The top-heaviness of some companies or collectives was less of a surprise, in that certain creators loomed large over the 2010s.
Like the installment before it, this list is sans comment for 20-11, and then via favors from writer friends for the top ten: here are the twenty best skate videos of the past ten years.
There’s snow on the ground, and not a ton of links to recap from the past few days, but at least we get post-7 P.M. sunsets back on Sunday. Tiny victories.
Rest in Peace Dillon
New car and live with your parents, or move to New York and live in a basement apartment in Bushwick? Jesse Alba has a new interview / Day in the Life thing.
“For Heitor what’s funny is that we saw that he’d bought shit on the website so I hit him up and told him I could send him some clothes.” Like a brand? Looking for a sponsor? Buy their stuff (using your real name!) and maybe you’ll end up riding for them and getting your entire order refunded ;) Danny Brady has an interview over on Free about his current role as the Palace team manager.
Any Skate Perception alumni read QS? Ty Evans and some other camera nerds created a microphone that can be plugged into modern cameras to record sound that mimics the audio from the VX1000. 300 bucks and still only available for pre-order. (No, this isn’t a sponsored post. Just crazy that’s where skate video technology is at right now.)
No matter the decade, people are gonna keep ollieing off that slanted grey wall on Water Street. Geeked is a full-length video by Bernie Leonor that looks like it’s mostly filmed on a GoPro, all throughout the city.
This dude’s organs probably began to disintegrate as soon as he walked out, because I can’t imagine how bad the curse you get put under for stealing a cat from a bodega is. No wonder he returned it.
“We now enter a realm where seemingly everything been done, in which all eras exist simultaneously, where nothing and everything is cool and wack all at once everywhere.” Boil the Ocean re: what it takes to impress us in 2018, and Ty Evans.
Chris Mulhern mashed up some of his favorite clips from the past few years into a “Second Sighting” montage, which includes a bunch of T.J. footage at the beginning.
A couple new clips of Stevie Williams skating in Barcelona via…this Weed Maps clip.
Not New York, not east coast, not even North American! But this Remy Tav “Welcome to WIP” part is really sick. Fully yelled at the screen when he clipped on the final ollie.
A true testament to the abysmal state of skateboard Twitter is the fact that after ~eight years of being on there, the Quartersnacks account’s most popular post is of a scooter kid focusing a skateboard. Maybe they really are taking over!
“Stripper punched out my teeth after I called her a bad mom.” Good. “One of the restaurants I was interviewing for was called, ‘Smile.’”
Sremmlife 3 is going to be a triple album but they haven’t given us a release date. “The only human on earth I’d trade places with is Swae Lee.” — Pryce Holmes.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: The guy who reposted this on Twitter probably summed it up best…”You’d have trouble defending this with a shotgun.”
Quote of the Week Ashamed Gentleman: “I actually don’t know how to powerslide.” Max Palmer: “I wish you didn’t tell me that.”
Copies of Matt Velez’s new video, Calzone, are on sale. Another teaser here.
“This urgent, shouty Mannie Fresh anthem, a sort of primal materialistic scream from within a sumptuously appointed mansion, stands as the best song in any Ty Evans-helmed Film to date; paired off Lucas Puig’s luxury-brand tech, it makes a strong argument for the greatest song in any video ever.” Boil the Ocean offers up eight of Ty Evans’ best #musicsupervision victories, the man who introduced skaters to electro.
^^^2017 Best of Dustin Henry, reigning titleholder for QS’ “Skater You’d Be Most O.K. With Your Daughter Dating” Award. Edited by Tyler Warren.
This one was pretty heartwarming: Monster Children has a mini doc on Josh Kalis’ relationship and history with the city of Chicago. I’ve seen that street gap kickflip a hundred times before and still said “oh my God” on this go-around. (Maybe Ride will finally stop asking us why Chicago isn’t a bigger deal in skateboarding with this one?)
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: 76ers-OKC was game of the year so far, yes? Gonna give it to Embiid’s block on Russy in OT1, but only because Russy ended up winning anyway :)
Quote of the Week: “I fucking hate getting phone calls.” — Andrew Wilson
