Just Did an Ollie ‘Bout a Week Ago

eli back 180 ng

Eli skating a rock. Photo by Black Dave.

Still a bunch of gear in the webstore. #supportyourlocalskatesite ;)

“Skating through midtown Manhattan that night, I remembered that I used to think skateboarding would never get too big because it hurt too much. Because you can’t take the pain out of skateboarding. Because putting yourself deliberately in harm’s way is a quick, easy, and reliable route to the truth.” This is a solid read.

TWS’ “Skate Nerd” segment with Kalis and Smolik is more entertaining than any link you may find below. “Kelly Slater?”

Worth repeating that Wes Kremer is the best?

Our good friend Alexander Mosley A.K.A. the Watermelon Man is having an art show at 2nd Nature in Bushwick this Saturday, October 4th. 7-11 P.M. Flyer here.

Finally: Frozen in Carbonite’s annual “Song of the Summer” x “Video Part of the Summer” mash-up segment. It tackles Static 4‘s equivalence to a prog-rock epic, Chris Brown and Bronze’s penchant for controversy, the truth that VX just looks blurry now, Bobby Shmura videos having a similar gender breakdown to skate videos, and Sinner’s post-modern, post-genre take on a video part. Incredible.

Monster has a new interview with Jake Johnson. Some heavy reading on the current situation at Alien Workshop, relationships in skateboarding, life after skating, etc.

GX1000 also posted this incredible IG clip of Jake bails. Last one is nuts.

Quick clip of Danny Supa cruising around Washington Heights.

Antwuan Dixon back on it.

For such a high-profile world city, Paris has been rather underrated for skating ever since the Lordz video era. Last week’s nine-minute “Scene” edit from Kingpin really puts how great it is into perspective. Spent a good two weeks there this past summer, and never saw at least 75% of the spots they skate. Features some solid Rich Homie Juan tricks. Also, if you slept on Vincent Touzery’s part in the Cafe Clope video (14:40 mark) earlier this year, you’re dumb.

Yeah, uh, about that unreleased Lakai Koston 1… (Part was sick though.)

Wow @ ollie over the Gino manual pad (not Roslyn) and probably the first trick down that kinked 57th Street rail in this Frankie Spears “Video Check Out.”

New northeast-encompassing video from the Mood NYC crew.

#weird skaters v.s. the 181st Street park.

“Don’t try to impress the old people. Be yourself. I think it’s the duty of all young artists — no disrespect — to say ‘Man, fuck y’all’ to the people before them. That keeps the music going.” — Andre 3000. Why couldn’t this interview be an hour longer? (“Nah nah nah yo real hip-hop yo NYC yo.”)

Quote of the Week:
slicky

New Thug and Quan in a few hours, btw.

SHARKS IN THE WATER, DROP A MOLLY IN THE TANK: Late Pass on Stee, the New(ish) Sk8Mafia Video

doubles

At a moment when everyone is preoccupied with the Emerica video, we are going to discuss some skateboarding that is two or three universes away, not eight. Stee, the collaborative video between Sk8Mafia and Sweet Skateboards, has been out since June, but recently went from “I’ll see it when I see it” to “must-see,” thanks to a hyperbolic tweet from Frozen in Carbonite (more on that later.)

Sk8Mafia is great. Though they are grown-ups who spell “skate” with an eight, rarely travel outside SoCal, and have art direction that reaches the bare minimum required for a brand to look more like a skate company than a drug front, they utilize a winning formula in which everyone onboard actually skates together. This translates to a fun experience when watching anything they put out.

“If you like Sk8Mafia so much, why did it take so long to watch Stee?” To put it bluntly: What the hell is Sweet Skateboards? (Answer: Sweet Skateboards is a Swedish company that has existed for over ten years, with a bunch of tall, mostly technical white guys whose names you cannot pronounce on its team.) It’s like the skate video equivalent of when Cam’ron started putting out those mixtapes with Vado — there’s always some hesitation when an old favorite mixes with an unknown. This sort of European crossbranding has worked in small doses, e.g. J.B. in the late-period World videos, the likes of Penny being introduced through 411, etc., but an entire project seems like a bit much.

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