[Ed. note — Wish Young Nudy dropped “My Gang” in late May. Any video that begins with the boys cutting their pants into shorts and hitting Biscayne Bay on jetskis is a bonafide summer anthem. Leaving this headliner as a tribute to the summer that could’ve been ❤️]
The world is a different place from the one in which I started this series a decade ago (not gonna go into all the ways here.) In my second summer of not drinking, I set out to find a new location to vibe out; the local bar wasn’t hitting like before.
So, I regularized my gym’s rooftop pool. For some reason, my gym has a pool on the roof in addition to the indoor lap facility. Although not as sick as those famous NYC rooftop hotel pools, it’s still pretty dope. Most importantly, the ratio at any given time of day is roughly the opposite of the one at your average skate function.
Photo by @sciencecock, who also has a story about what may have been the last session at the Brooklyn Banks before the pandemic took hold of the city, and construction began to dismantle the bricks. There’s currently a petition to try and save the spot. If you have any memories of the Banks, please post them on social and tag @nyc_dot #nycdot #savebrooklynbanks so they understand this is not just some random underpass, but a landmark to tons of people who have pilgrimaged to New York for it. Also FYI: This space has nothing to do with the Parks Department, so leave them out of it :)
Backing this recent uptick of people reviving their dormant YouTube / Vimeo accounts as we ease into spring. (Could a new Krispy Du-Rag edit be around the corner?)
Matt Velez just put up his first [non raw files] edit since uploading Calzone in full over a year ago. It feels like a handful of b-sides from the last Bronze project, that Brad Cromer New York part, and whatever Wade Desarmo was filming for until it started raining — but definitely has enough to get you hyped for whenever the fuck it gets consistently warm outside.
And as far as spots you skate before succumbing to Commodore’s gravitational pull go: they might look boring, but we’re definitely all fine with getting stuck at those plastic benches on Metropolitan instead of Reggaeton for the next year or eight.
Throughout most of our lifetimes, the four-peat has been elusive in professional sports. (The last one was the New York Islanders’ dynastic run of Stanley Cup wins from 1980 until 1983.) This weekend, however, we approach the real possibility of the first four-peat of the new millennium: Wade Desarmo could become the World Champion of Skateboarding for the fourth time in a row.
Only one obstacle stands in his way: winner of Thrasher’s 2013 “Skater of the Year” Award and recurring recipient of Quartersnacks’ more encompassing “Best Skater” award, Ishod Wair.
Your local shop, bar, and T.F. bench has no doubt been abuzz with predictions about this weekend’s game, but predictions seem split down the middle. Sure, Ishod is the Best Skater™ — except who really wants to play devil’s advocate by doubting a three-time repeating champion? Since none of us have ever played a World Champion in S.K.A.T.E. before, our opinions are reduced to amateur guesswork. To get some real insight, we contacted Wade’s past three Glory Challenge opponents and Dennis Busenitz, who once famously swept him in an obscure exhibition series called “Battle at the Berrics,” for their predictions.
These “new old” clips can be hit-or-miss (often miss), but Tombo’s 2000-2010 one that dropped late last week is an incredible document. It encapsulates the entire first decade of east coast skateboarding in this millennium — brown pants, first-wave cellar door searchers, Justin Barnes cameos, I-Paths, ABC Ledges, etc. Also, why does it still feel like Brandon Westgate has been 20-years-old for the past 15 years?
It’s that time of year when the Barcelona clips really start to roll in. Spencer Hamilton, Dana Ericson, Brian Delaney, Nick Ferro and Wade D. went out to the land of zero skate spots and came back with a sick clip for Grand Collection.
Much respect to Uru out in Japan for distributing and spreading the word about QS, Alltimers and other hot skateboard brands in the far east. Skateboard Story has an interview with him about his operation.
