On the same day that we dropped Toda Fuerza’s Havana edit, we got an email asking, “We saw you posted a Cuba edit. What about a Vietnam edit, another place where the skate scene is only just now beginning to grow exponentially?”
The two polarities of QS are that we are incredibly interested in what’s happened at the ledge down the street from the office, and we love a video out of a scene that we know next to nothing about. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is certainly one of those places.
📹 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.
If DANY was the origin story, The Hardbody Video was the proof of concept, OD was the ensemble, “NEVER ENUFF III” was compliments of the house, and “INTERLUDE” was …well, the interlude, Hardbody’s latest is the arrival. In the nearly two years since formally announcing a two-pro roster of Hjalte Halberg and Antonio Durao, they’ve been quietly stacking for this not-exactly-full-length, but effectively three-way shared part between the two of them and AM Ross Berkowitz, who might have the most lawyer-sounding / “I’d trust him with my divorce” name in skateboarding.
A journey through Copenhagen that overshoots a pitstop in San Francisco and lands back in Hardbody’s hometown of New York — right down to clips at E.J’s Avenue D childhood stomping grounds — “HJALTE, ROSS & ANTONIO” is what this city and the rest of the world needed to close out this year on a hype.
Who knew Hjalte was also Jamie Foy?
The year flew by and it is time for us all to collaborate a canon of 2025’s best video parts and full-lengths. While you may think, “Shit, way too much came out in just this month!” — you got to at least remember five goddam parts and videos that made you feel ~something~.
Well, those are the ones we are looking for.
It feels like this is a relatively new content franchise on QS, but this is year SIX of us doing this. According to QS readers, the five best video parts of the past five years are:
2020: Tom Knox in “Atlantic Drift — Episode 11”
2021: Joey O’Brien in “Untitled 005”
2022: Louie Lopez in Converse Cons’ As You Wish
2023: Cyrus Bennett in HUF’s Forever
2024: Emile Laurent in Polar’s I Don’t Even Know How To F*cking Airwalk
If you have issue with any of these, it’s time to put your thinking cap on and get it right for 2025.
To anyone just joining us: our objective is to combat content fatigue and our cooked attention spans in the era of endless content by making a time capsule of the last 12 months.
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.
