Union Square | Quartersnacks

Best Bloody in Brickell

Daily News April 18th, 2022 · 12:00 am · 1

Added Thrasher‘s “The Union Square Video” — from San Francisco’s Union Square, naturally — to the Quartersnacks One-Spot Part Map, which turns one this coming July! We started out with 46 parts filmed exclusively at one spot, and have quickly worked our way to two shy of 80, with at least one on every continent except Antarctica 🥶 Wonder what it’d take to film a video exclusively at New York’s Union Square though (slated to be renovated soon, too.)

Be sure to stop by and support Skate Like A Girl’s 4th annual “Get On Board” silent auction fundraiser.

Anybody who has pulled up to the Kosciuszko Bridge spot (the new home of all the Blue Park obstacles) has asked, “Wait… is this a skatepark or..?” Jenkem got the full backstory on how it got built and why it differs from other skateparks in New York. Still didn’t answer why they used round coping 😡

In The Crib Watching Larry King Live

Daily News January 25th, 2021 · 12:00 am · 4

A late night pandemic savior. Photo by Zach Baker.

Though it’s far from the most #trending skate spot these days, a plan for the renovation and expansion of Union Square was unveiled last week. Just give us a couple République-style planters in the back, don’t kick us out of them, and the city can keep the next two skateparks they were gonna build. Thanks!

Good vibes in this one: “Vlog #1” via Josh Paynter, featuring all winter footy around the city. Footage can never do justice to that backside noseblunt at the L.I.C. D.I.Y. — that one was wild. Bed frame and subway clips are a hoot too :)

We’re living in a high-flying golden age of Instagram compilations on YouTube: Brandon Scott A.K.A. NevaSkimp, Sage Elsesser + Kevin Bilyeu, all just this past week.

That’s A Crazy One

Features & Interviews June 14th, 2017 · 5:17 am · 5

Imagery from New York skateboarding’s most romanticized decade is finite. The city spent half of the nineties without an industry, so all the existing artifacts have been reblogged, reposted and #TBT-ed a million times — Zoo, Kids, Ari Marcopoulos’ Metropolitan ads, a couple early 411 or Transworld montages, and then it runs scarce.

What does remain is people’s private collections (e.g. you may remember the homemade SkateNYC videos that made their way online back in 2011.) High and Mel Stones are two girls who grew up alongside many of the names you’d immediately associate with that era of skateboarding in New York, touting a camera from their respective school photography programs along with them. After posting outtakes on their Instagram over the past year, they are releasing a book of personal photographs from those years to celebrate the lifelong friendships they created in that time. We asked Mel to caption some of those images. The book can be purchased on ThatsACrazyOne.com, and all proceeds will be donated to the photo department at Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

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 :(

Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 12.11.09 PM

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

Follow @quartersnacks

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

The 2013 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 15-11

Features & Interviews December 19th, 2013 · 1:43 pm · 14

Apologies for this being a bit late. We spent all of yesterday looking for the only dry spot in New York. Past installments here: #s 25-21, #s 20-16.

15. R.I.P. to an Empire, the Water Street McDonald’s Closes

For every great skate spot, there is an accompanying fast food restaurant: the Burger King down the street from the Banks, the McDonald’s up the hill from Pulaski, the Wawa by Love, or the In-N-Out across from Hollywood High.

Water Street was once the most heavily treaded road of lower Manhattan skateboarders; Pappalardo and Wenning’s days of going to Burritoville near Pyramid Ledges to sustain on free nachos are well known. But that place closed. The aforementioned Burger King is now a high end grocery store. The nearby Wendy’s was turned into a tourist center. And this past year, the final remaining destination for hungry, poor skateboarders, shut its doors. Skating on Water Street isn’t irrelevant just because all of the spots are knobbed — but because everyone except the top 1% of skateboarders (those with ~~an above minimum-wage income~~ any income whatsoever, who can afford a Chipotle burrito) have effectively been priced out, right down to food options.

More »