📷 Photo by Stafhon Boca
When we were doing a compilation of all of Nick Michel’s clips from our “For Nothing” Vans trips — on the occasion of him getting The Cover™ — a few people asked for a Diego edition. While doing the cutdowns for Diego’s Five Favorite Parts earlier this week, that suggestion floated back to mind. Great idea!
📹 Video by Adam Abada
Back in 2021, when we did part two of the oral history behind all the skate photos featuring the Twin Towers, we got Atiba on the horn to talk through a few shots from ~1997. In doing the digging for those, he happened to uncover a small cache of unscanned New York photos he forgot about because they didn’t feel like much at the time, but obviously took on new meaning as the years went by and the world changed.
In the midst of Atiba’s monthslong media tour promoting his latest Vans collection, we visited him at his office to see just what else he had in the stash from New York. For a guy who got started working in skateboarding in San Diego in 1995, headed into what can only be described as a “golden age” for print media, we wanted to know what he saw, shot, and remembered from this city that was generally only a novelty in an era dominated by the west coast.
Dubbed by Boil the Ocean as “the patron saint of clipping up,” this man from Tim Savage and co’s Free Game video has our vote ❤️
Readers Poll voting opens later today… 🗳
Max Hull put together a great recap of the Light Rail Riot / Friendsgiving Jam at the Hole Bowl in Newark. Kinda figure these guys are going to be doing these every year. (For those who don’t know, the Hole Bowl is the successor to the belated Newark Shorty’s D.I.Y.)
SOAP OPERA is a new Rochester scene video from Michael Breitmaier (you may recall his Memoir video from 2023), featuring parts from Adam Kerrick, Justin Grzechowiak, David Kimball and more. Lots of beautiful VX upstate crust, some downstate trips, and Euro excursions. Something about that Berlin manny pad spot feels like it’d fit in upstate New York.
Vague has a premiere of Neil Herrick’s part in Tristan Mershon’s new video, Singer Tower. Loved the Police Plaza choreography and the unlocking of the out ledge at Brick Nine.
📷 Photos by Charles Rivard, Esq.
The Dime Glory Challenge turned ten this year.
If you watch that first recap video from 2015, which was in a warehouse — and feels comparatively slapped together like you had a long weekend to bring your drunk, late-night “wouldn’t it be sick if” skate event fever dream to fruition — you get the sense that everyone there knows each other.
As you’ve likely heard, our buddy Nick Michel got the Thrasher cover next month.
We love Nick.
He’s one of our favorite skaters.
In fact, we’ve been on three Vans x QS trips with Nick: to Sicily (2019), Majorca (2022) and Buenos Aires (2023.)
Nick always got really good footage on those trips.
So, to celebrate his cover, here is a raw reel of all Nick’s clips from those “For Nothing” trips.
Because we love Nick, and wish him the world.
