Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope

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YO, massive shout out to the crew, politicians, shops and community in Providence, Rhode Island, on getting an approval to turn an underused corner of their downtown into a full-on block of a skate plaza. Let this be a precedent for cities across the U.S.

Also congrats to the boy Sean Pablo on going pro

“If they didn’t name me Genesis then my dad would have named me Jubilee, from X-Men, who was a girl. That would’ve been very funny. I’m glad they named me Genesis.” Sex mag (sure) has an interview with Genny re: growing up, DANY, etc.

Zered is on Alltimers, and has a new part out to reassure you of his decade-plus status as the east coast’s most productive pro, and the king of the worst spot in Queens ;)

“It’s still the same if I just don’t let myself become too jaded and reclusive. There are still endless possibilities.” Huck has a feature with Jerry Mraz, who they apparently dubbed “The Batman of Skateboarding.”

The ender of Pat Gallaher’s Insano part is insano. Great part :)

Josh Kalis and Mike Blabac talk about the state of the plaza in 2017 + other things, and The Muska reveals what was in his backpack all those years. Get well soon bud.

Antosh and the Canadians have a new one out on TWS.

“We decided to make the game more fun so that’s why it was never a realistic simulation of skateboarding. That was key to the success of the game.” Ironic that the reason maybe 50% of the people now in their late 20s started skateboarding was something intended to be an unrealistic simulation of skateboarding. Jenkem has the oral history of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Keeping a real skate shop open in 2017 is God’s work ♥ Thank you to all who do.

Rodrigo TX skates Three Four Up Three Four Down, T.J. does a bunch of crazy shit, and lol that there’s security standing at the bottom of the bank in every clip ever gotten at the Roosevelt Island Monument in this link to a clip with 54k YouTube views.

Boil the Ocean re: Lil Wayne’s proclamation that skateboarding is a better feeling than sex with an actress while her movie is playing on a screen in the background.

Canal uploaded a 30-min 2016 Year-In-Review compilation of Instagram videos.

A bit of street skating + a Maple tee in Quim and Freddy’s Portland, M.E. visit.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Isaiah is the second funnest player in the NBA.

Quote of the Week: “Only three things are keeping me sane in 2017: cocho, hucking, and the boys.” — John Choi

First* Post of 2017

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Z. Photo by Joe Brook.

Technically it’s the *second* post of the year after the online DANY video premiere (YouTube link here btw), but let’s not screw tradition up yaknow :)

As always, let’s get anything pertinent to the last year out of the way: 1) Tiago, Hjalte and Jerry Hsu round out the top three of Boil the Ocean’s ten best of 2016 countdown. 2) Better Skate Than Never is always good for a round-up of largely independent web clips that stood out. Their top 30 of 2016 is a nice reminder to rewatch Hjalte’s Jonas Skrøder part. 3) Ripped Laces runs down the best skate shoes of last year.

Village Psychic put together a sick new remix video of Mark Humienik, avid practitioner of the backside shove-it out, and one of the few remaining devotees to the early-2000s Staten Island ledge relic known as the ABC Ledges #wenning #durante #charlesives

Conor, Jesse and Loose Trucks Max all heavy in Genesis Evans’ new iPhone clip.

36 Stair Ollie” is the new ~moody~ clip from the Marbio Worldwide crew out in L.I.

The Bunt is really coming through with the heavy-hitters this year. Episode two of the new season is with new Anti-Hero rider, Brian Anderson, who has apparently been skating Anti-Hero boards with stickers over the graphic since the Yeah Right! days.

Brunch is a fun new full-length out of Montreal (pretty sure…) with a good bit of New York footage. A lot of familiar faces and an E.T. cameo :)

Diamond Days, now ten away from a hundred.

Hardies threw an unannounced best trick contest at the L.E.S. Park a few weeks ago.

Joe Cups has hard copies of Lurkers 3 up for preorder + some other merch.

Steve Mastorelli’s new video, The Meadowlands, is premiering at the SVA theater on 23rd Street between 8th and 9th at 9 P.M. on Saturday. You can find the flyer here.

ICYMI, there’s nothing to skate at Astor again. This headline has some nerve

One thing that moves lightyears quicker than the Thrasher homepage is the Live Mixtapes homepage. For that reason, RapZips.tumblr.com has been a massive help in catching up on music that might’ve slipped through the cracks last year.

Uncle Murda’s “2016 Rap Up” is wwwaaayyy sketchier than last year’s.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: This Kris Dunn sequence is fucked, but also the Blazers are 30th in the league in defense (don’t worry, the Knicks are 23rd.)

Quote of the Week
Yaje: “In Europe, you can get beer anywhere, even at the vending machine.”
Jason Byoun: “Word. That’s like the Staten Island Ferry.”

Let Roy help you get through this next year…or four ;) ♥

The Vicious Cycle House — An Interview With Zered Bassett via 2003, a Year Magazine

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The following feature appeared in 2003: A Year Magazine. (We ran a feature from 1991 last year.) The issue is now available for purchase on 2003magazine.com, along with a QS hat we produced in collaboration with 2003 to commemorate the northeast blackout of 2003 — the day the T.F. was dubbed the safest place on earth.

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Skateboarding was maturing in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Videos went from handycam promos to hour-long blockbusters with pro-level production values, skaters were padding their pockets with royalty checks from sponsors that were fatter than ever, and prodigious 15-year-olds were outshining the grown-ups with tricks that were unimaginable in the early 90s.

Except in New York, where skateboarding was still synonymous with chilling, of a lifestyle without an end goal. After 9/11, it felt even further removed from what was happening in the skate industry at large. The spots throughout Lower Manhattan became either desolate or off-limits, which made chilling (instead of missioning into the outer boroughs) that much more appealing.

But being New York, there was, of course, an exception. Vicious Cycle, released in 2004, was a video made throughout those years that upended the attitude associated with New York. Filmed by R.B. Umali and Doug Brown for Zoo York from 2002 to 2004, it was the first video to emerge from a crew of skaters living in New York who refused to accept what was becoming the status quo for a city that dominated in most other areas of culture. The result was very much up to par with anything coming out of California or elsewhere.

In 2003, Bassett and other skaters involved in the making of the video cohabited a windowless apartment in Lower Manhattan. This is the story of the Vicious Cycle house.

Where are you from and how did you end up in New York?

I grew up in Chatham, Massachusetts, which is in Cape Cod. I started skating there, met people, and then started going to Boston a lot. From there, I started getting hooked up with Zoo stuff from Jeff Pang, and would go out to New York to visit those dudes. I went back a few times, and then on my 18th birthday, I moved to New York. That was in November of 2002.

Were you getting paid to skate at that point?

Zoo paid for the house that I moved into, but I wasn’t getting paid.

How did the house come together?

The house was on Broadway and Fulton Street. I wanted to move to the city, so I talked Zoo into getting a house for me, Brian Brown, and Billy Rohan at the time. Billy eventually moved out, and Brian’s brother, Doug, moved in. He was the main one filming us back then. Lou [Sarowsky] would stay over a lot, too. People would always come to town and crash, whoever was around skating.

More »

Why You Bring a Money Machine to T.F. For?

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Photo via Peter Sutherland

Start your day off right.

The 2003 magazine is now available. It includes a Quartersnacks feature with Zered Basset about the Vicious Cycle house, which was blocks from Ground Zero in the years after 9/11, and what it was like living/skating down there. We also released a hat with 2003, based on the QS Block Party tee from earlier this year. You can buy the two as a bundle, or individually ;) [Related: The skate feature from 1991.]

The Alltimers Jenkem mix by DJ Shrimp C is now live. Run your bands up.

“Yeet” is the new mini vid from Blue Couch. Features a pretty wide swath of spots around the city, a ton of night footage, and some #very #interesting line choreography at the park on 27th and 2nd Avenue. Also the back tail fakie on the fat flatrail on Water Street was really chill. Generic skate house song idk.

Are backside 360s where both feet kinda leave the board the #new #thing?

The Rios Crew went to Belgrade. I think I got anxiety watching it because of the song and the night footage where you can barely see anything else.

The Bunt has a new pod with Canadian legend, Russ Milligan. This part is still perfect.

Well, this plaza certainly looks fucking insane.

Andrew Wilson, Max Palmer, Mango and Aaron Herrington went on a Korea trip with Carhartt W.I.P., and reminded me to re-watch this old clip Conor Prunty made of Max Palmer’s first time in Korea [with John Choi] :)

Boil the Ocean on the Brian Anderson Vice Sports documentary and non-snitching sentiments being embedded within the skateboard industry. Actually had no idea Wes put Smolik on blast like that either, but shout out to 1998. What a cool year.

Everyone of a certain age holds a special place for Scott Kane in their hearts because of his Bootleg 3000 part. The “Free Lunch” series caught up with him to hear some stories from the Bootleg days :) “Man, you got that flick.”

Someone made a three-song/five-minute Kevin Bradley remix video.

2013 Q.S.S.O.T.Y. Leo Gutman crashes a quinceañera on a boat and skates Chelsea park with a disposable camera for Vice’s “First Person Shooter” series.

Aaron Herrington recreated Anthony Pappalardo’s needle-thread ollie at Blubba.

Josh Davis did a mini profile on Thrasher and Phelps for Hypebeast. I love Rihanna.

“Street Urchins 9” is a new iPhone clip from the summer full of streetside psychos.

Quote of the Week: “We were supposed to make way more money, but we spent it all on limousines.” — Phil Lavoie

Happy birthday Dre. (It was yesterday tho…)

Go Skateboard With Your Friends

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Stingwater.

The most unexpected event of 2016 has got to be Fat Joe and Remy Ma legit making a hit twelve years after “Lean Back.” (I still got “Inside the Mattress” on though.) And now, the pressing question of which summer clip will be the first to go…”all the way up” is over ;) The promo for the new HYD video has a bunch of gems in it, including the second most unexpected event of 2016: someone filming a line at the ABC ledges.

Some of this footage appeared in Deathbowl to Downtown and Huf’s Epicly Later’d, but it is the best old footage to resurface probably since “Apple Juice” went online. Huf, Keenan, Liversedge, Bici, etc. circa 1991. Shout out to skate spots.

TWS posted TJ’s full AM spotlight interview and photos.

“My favorite skater is Louie Lopez, and my second favorite skater is Louie Lopez when he gets older.” (Only online for 48 hours btw.)

Blueprint Alumni Update: Some chill Danny Brady footage in the new Slam City Skates clip, and Nick Jensen has a new part to some Red and Meth.

Ripped Laces been posting a good bit of cool shit lately — a requiem for Reekbok’s DGK Workout Lo (which 80% of the people involved with this website were skating in 2005 because that store Clientele [R.I.P.] had pairs for $30) and Kerry Getz on life after pro skateboarding at a #legacyskateshoebrand.

Remember that chill D.I.Y. spot south of Alligator Ledge that was around for like two weekends? Max Hull posted some highlights with the BSA squad.

Sidewalk interviewed Aaron Herrington re: everything.

Zered talks talks about what “vicious cycle” actually meant and photography.

Is Reggaeton the new #skatevideohouse? Diamond Days #88.

Stöösy has a new clip of Jesse Alba skating around Brooklyn.

We were just at the Christiana bowl a week-and-a-half ago. Someone said “that’s where Tom Penny sleeps” re: a sleeping bag in this small zone above the bowl. New [indoor skatepark] Penny footage.

Support Humble Skateboards.

I have no clue what the new Boil the Ocean post is talking about.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Given that Game 4 was like the only “fun” one to watch, it’d be dope if this went seven, but looks doubtful.

Still most played jam of 2k16. Yo can someone please do a full Future + Nard & B mix? Respect to Young Metro but its the most under-appreciated rapper+producer combo.