Ledge professor Gavin Nolan chose the dulcet tones of Kool Keith to fuel his latest street clip filmed in Boston, Philadelphia and New York City.
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The Zoo York team are flexing muscles this morning by taking over the Yankee Stadium for a private session. Watch this edit with Chaz Ortiz, Dave Willis and Brandon Westgate on the shred through the stadium whilst indulging in a popcorn party.
Quartersnacks have re-edited a bunch of random seen and unseen footage of Zered Bassett this week featuring footage filmed by R.B. Umali, Joe Bouillot, Jason Jenkins, Steve Marino and Richard Quintero.
“Just think of it as a post-State of Mind part.” Press play for Edit of the Week.
Zered Bassett Quartersnacks Re-Edit (2012) from Quartersnacks on Vimeo.
Eli Reed joins WESC this week with a new video edit filmed just before the recent Hurricane Irene swept through NYC. Watch his last sesh on the streets of New York before the city took a beating.
Visit WESC for their new Fall catalogue here.
Read the Brandon Westgate interview yet? If not then start reading to help you find the answer to this month’s competition to win his Zoo York deck, Swiss Bones Bearings, Hubba Wheels and a pair of his new Emerica signature shoes.
To enter, like our Facebook page and answer the question here.
[competition_17]
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Brandon Westgate Interview
Portrait/sequence courtesy of Emerica and Atiba Jefferson
2010 was a cracking year for Brandon Westgate. Not only did his official pro status on Zoo York come to fruition, his part in Emerica’s most anticipated DVD Stay Gold kicked off smiles for miles as his technically gifted style stomped through the streets of SF and beyond.
His pro shoe on Emerica released last month brought another edit that swept the web and kept his skating do the talking so we decided to share a few of our own words with the Massachusetts kid that keeps himself one step ahead of the game by wielding some seriously devestating pop.
Easy Brandon, what’s going on?
Nothing much just got back from my shoe party in LA.
New Year’s Eve wasn’t too long ago, do you remember it?
It wasn’t messy, my girlfriend and I went to her sister’s and she had this karaoke machine set up and everyone got drunk and sung songs all night, it was fun.
Turns out you’re a month younger than me. That’s bonkers. I haven’t even bombed a hill in SF yet? How did that feel the first time you did it?
It was the best feeling and every time it gets better, you really have to get out there one time.
Compared with many other skaters in recent years, very little is known about your personality and life off the board. Was it a conscious decision to not let the world’s collide and let your skating do any necessary talking or are you just being you?
I guess I’m just being me. I like being out here and Massachusetts, away from everything.
Even a recent interview with Chris Nieratko didn’t disclose too much about you. So let’s just talk straight skateboarding for the rest of the interview: last time we interviewed you was in 2006, has skating changed for you at all during those four years or is it still the raddest thing ever?
It’s for sure still the raddest thing ever, I’ve learned how to skate different and learned new tricks I never would have thought about then. Thats the best thing about skateboarding you can learn whatever you want.
Over the last few years who has helped you out or inspired you to get you where you are right now?
There’s a lot of people who inspired me and helped me out: Jeff, Timothy, Miner, Seamus, Suski, Leo, Shetler, Herman, Reynolds, Figgy…
Your shoe has just arrived and everyone is mad stoked on it. Looks a little similar to the Hsu model (very good thing). Was the design inspired by that model at all?
I always really liked the Jerry’s so I started off that, but I just tried to make a really comfortable skate shoe that skated good and held up.
Think back to when you first got a pro deck, what were you more hyped on: a graphic with your name on or a shoe?
I was so stoked on both but if I had to say probably the shoe. it’s really hard to get your name on a shoe and you get full advantage to make the best shoe you always want to skate.
How about the part itself… was it made up from leftovers from Stay Gold? You can’t have had much time to gather new footage so soon after Stay Gold come out…
There’s some left overs, but there’s a lot of new footage. Miner and I worked really hard together on this one. It was mainly just us and not the whole team so I think it easier to focus. To begin with they just wanted to use leftovers to make a little clip online then we ended up coming up with a lot of new stuff given the time.
As a pro skater this side of the decade, do you feel under any pressure at all to produce more content as the online edit takes over the skate DVD?
I feel the same amount of pressure either way people see it and online more people see it sooner than a DVD.
What surprised many is how both parts could essentially be interchangeable, they’re both so good. What approach to filming did you prefer, the long-term project approach of the short but exciting turnaround of footage?
I liked them both. The short-term project was a lot more stressful because I didn’t have much time and it was a clip of only me, not the whole team. I prefer the long term just because it’s easier to get the tricks you want for your part.
Are you stoked with how both parts come out?
Yeah I’m stoked on them, there’s always more tricks I wish I could have got for them but time just runs out. I think Miner killed it putting it together. I think that makes it more enjoyable to watch when they’re edited really good.
You have a good mix of East and West coast skating in your parts… what elements of each do you enjoy skating the most and why?
I really like skating the West because SF is so fun. There’s nothing like bombing those hills and skating all the natural bumps- it’s truly like nowhere else. I like skating the East because the spots are a little bit more beat up so you usually have to do some fixing up and the spots turn into a challenge to skate.
Who had your favorite part in Stay Gold?
My favorite part was Leo’s, just seeing him skate is so gnarly and he just loves to skate. Herman also had one of my favorites; all those picnic table lines are amazing. I love everyone’s part though for their own way of skating.
Leo obviously was a deserved winner of SOTY but was there anyone you skate with often that kills it that you think was overlooked a little?
There’s definitely a lot of skaters who kill it but Leo I think deserved it by far.
Ph: Brandon shows Atiba one of his favourite FS 180 5050’s in China.
What trip in 2010 did you enjoy being a part of the most?
My favorite trip in 2010 was to China with Emerica filming for Stay Gold. It was a fun crew and awesome skate spots.
You just got a house right? What’s it like? Got any plans for it?
Yeah it’s cool, big back yard, farmer’s porch, fire place, garage, it’s just really comfortable. I’ve been doing work here and there a lot the whole time I’ve had it, mainly tile, painting and yard work. I’m planning on making a sick ramp in the back yard this summer.
What about when you hang up your trucks?
I would like to own some cranberry bogs I think they would be fun to try and run. Plus, I just like all the land that comes with it.
What would you be doing right now if skateboards were never invented?
I was going to a tech school which is a school where you do regular class work like your math and science, and the next is your shop class, I was in marine machines where I worked on boats. I would probably have tried to get a job in that field.
Finally, any words of wisdom?
Just keep skating and have fun.
Win a package of Brandon Westgate ‘s sponsors that includes a Zoo York board, Bones Swiss Bearings, Hubba Wheels and a pair of his Emerica signature shoes here this weekend.
My interest in sports peaks in whatever novelty crossover Nintendo have got Mario involved in and up until this point, the italian plumber has raced in little cars that gobble shrooms and shit banana skins and has even engaged in tedious golf tournaments; but never has he jumped on the basketball bandwagon, even during the height of Fresh Prince tie-in possibilities. So the word, ‘Three-Peat‘, serving as the name for one of Chaz Ortiz’s trio of inaugural pro models, meant absolutely nothing to me other than it’s a terrible, terrible pun. What’s cute is that I’ve since discovered that a retired basketball coach had trademarked the portmanteau (a posh word sometimes used in place of ‘terrible, terrible pun’) ‘Three-Peat’ for commercial use. Thankfully, in later years, more people realised that making money out of a pun is as intensely stupid as making Mario play mini-golf so Zoo York had no legal trouble using the name for young Chaz’s three-peat success of boards. Fun fact: neither did we writing it in that last sentence. Why? Because it’s just a fucking pun.
Three-peat is the correct term however, as Zoo York have taken the tried and tested plain and simple approach and made three solid models making sure no one misses the point: Chaz Ortiz, the young gun and comp-destroyer picked up by the late legend Harold Hunter himself is a professional skateboarder and you can buy boards with his name on.
I’ve only rode one Zoo York in the past but have been equally pleased with the results. Their shape (and this comes in the glorious street skater’s dream size, 7.75″) is spot-on, complete with expertly crafted dips in the concave that help provide an instant sense of excellent board control, response and subsequently gives you more confidence while skating, which I haven’t noticed in a deck in some time. Feet-on manoevres are so simple with Zoo York, so if you’re out to learn 360s for the first time then it wouldn’t be out of line to give them a go on this. It’s mad durability may take you by surprise too. As someone who favours ugly spots that tear up decks faster than the notorious blue shell I was stunned by how intact this deck has remained. Not a single chip, no pressure crackes, no ugly grom scratches on the graphic from where it looks like I’ve been boardsliding a rock (which I had).
So this one is undoubtedly exclusively for the street skaters, but as the second ZY deck I’ve loved to ride in a row I feel tempted to make a threepeat purchase (hohohohohoho) and can only recommend that you give these a try too. All puns aside, Chaz is pretty ripping, hasn’t let the pro status go to his head yet, is stoked on school and skating. So big ups.
Stanley
Waste-not-want-not is the mission of one woman in Falmouth, Cornwall this year- an anarchist and artist under the name of O’Blue who is recycling old, snapped skateboard decks that have been used by her family. These pieces are turned into jewellery whilst her husband uses the decks that didn’t break to make garden gates, chairs and tables.
You can find Blueprint, Death, Enjoi, Zoo York, Real and Girl decks within the collections that are available online. These include pendants, key rings and earrings that are made from handcrafted, polished cuts of old 7 ply decks and could make fun stocking fillers this Xmas for your lady. Check out what’s on offer below, see if you can try and work out what decks are used from the images below and post your answers on our facebook page.
This Thursday (September 9th), Brandon Westgate will be answering any questions you wanted to ask as part of Zoo York’s ‘Ask An Official‘ on Twitter at 9PM (GMT).
So if you want your questions answered then simply send your questions to the @zooyorkinst Twitter with the hashtag #ASKANOFFICIAL. Head here for more information.
Pigeons are my favourite animal ever. They’ve got a bad reputation and I dig that. This rep stems from the same breed of idiots that attribute notions of purity and peace to those butter-wouldn’t-melt bastard doves. Despite the dove and the pigeon being in the same family of birds, they are dismissed as a disease-riddled nuisance. Never to be put down by racial profiling, the pigeon is so bad-ass it just struts around cities where ever it pleases, eating up whatever we’re too lazy to put in a bin. The pigeon is an urban bird that quite obviously doesn’t give a fuck. And I love them.
So imagine my delight when Zoo York put out a board with a flock of up-to-no-good pigeons lurking on top of the tallest building in the sprawling menagerie that is New York. The caption reads ‘plotting doom from high upon the empire state building’ and that’s precisely what they’re up to. These birds belong in the same cage that houses the likes of Forrest Kirby, Zered Basset, Aaron Suski and other wood-pushers that are simply too gnarly to exist outside of some sort of enclosure. It’s only fair that my bros the pigeons get a pro board too.
The deck itself rides like a dream made straight from the concrete jungle. The very place that according to Alicia Keys has an assembly line specifically designed to pump out dreams as relentlessly as time passes. The only difference is that this dream is a solid piece of wood, but it did come from a similar assembly line. Zoo York regularly produce excellent planks to ride and this is no exception. It also happens to have the raddest graphic I’ve seen from them in some time. Hold tight Zoo York and hold tight pigeons.
Stanley