Congrats to the 2024 Skater of the Year, Jamie Foy... unless | Simply Ranked
Plus: Shane O'Neill in conversation with Shane O'Neill, celebrating public space, evil landlords, EDGLRD's billionaire backers, and more.
The definitive weekly ranking and analysis of all the skateboarding and other things online that I cannot stop consuming and how it makes me feel, personally.
Congrats to the 2024 Skater of the Year, Jamie Foy... unless
Rank: 1...
Mood: 🏆...
There are roughly two months between now and the usual time that skateboarding's preeminent award, Thrasher Magazine's Skater of The Year, is announced in early December. While a lot of incredible skateboarding has been released throughout the year that has been 2024, it would be hard to argue that anyone else is currently as clear a contender as Thrasher's 2017 SOTY, Jamie Foy.
In September, Foy was the star of an impressive solo effort for Spitfire Wheels and closed the show in the much-anticipated Dickies full-length, Honeymoon. That alone would put him in the running, but you may have forgotten (like myself) that he also had curtains in Baker Has a Deathwish 2 back in January and fakie-5-0'd a triple-kink handrail(!!!)? Three extraordinary video parts could easily seal the deal most years. But, of course, a concerted SOTY push goes the extra mile. His shoe sponsor, New Balance, announced Intervals last month, a project starring Tiago Lemos, Brandon Westgate, and Foy. It's set to premiere any day now.
If Foy delivers in Intervals, which he should as he always does, it's almost assured he will become the fourth two-time SOTY in the 34-year history of the award. That's not to say there won't be the regular October and November content pushes from other skaters that could make deliberations tighter. But, between the video parts, the clips in numerous tour videos and ad spots, and the cover of, and an expansive interview in, the December 2024 issue of the award-issuing magazine itself, Foy appears all but anointed.
And he deserves it. Or the presumption of victory, at the very least. Foy has done nothing but produce and progress since he came onto the scene in the mid-2010s, consistently putting his body on the line to release, generally, multiple video parts per annum. Hell, he was even in contention to be on Team USA's Olympic Skateboarding team for the Paris 2024 games. Whatever Red Bull is paying him to wear those hats isn't enough. The resume speaks for itself. Unless...
Antonio Durao, drop one more part, baby. You've already put out a handful of 'em, and your three-to-four tricks in the Nike SB | Dancer video were amazing. Give us three-to-four more minutes and SOTY could be yours. If not for you, do it for us. Spice things up a little for the viewing audience at home.
Shane on Shane
Rank: 2
Mood: 🤖🤖
Not many professional skateboarders have had a career span so long, and their abilities continue at such a high level that they can remain in conversation with themselves nearly a decade later. By this, I mean the self-referential Shane O'Neill, whose Shane Goes 2 video part, uploaded by Thrasher last Friday, touches, builds, and comments on the contents of Shane Goes, also uploaded by Thrasher in March of 2015.
The project's name makes clear its theme. O'Neill has produced a "sequel" to a video part, an interesting idea considering he's had a number of full-length sections between Shane Goes and Shane Goes 2. To further associate them, Beach House soundtracks both. Then there's the skating. Some of the connections therein are apparent, whether it's similar-ish tricks on the same spot:
The same trick on a more imposing spot:
Curiously, the same trick on a smaller spot:
Slight variations of previously done maneuvers:
Or, the unnatural conclusion and parallels of what happens when you are simply too fucking good at skateboarding:
But there are also more subtle notes, perhaps ones that I've chosen to believe are there to be heard, like how some lines follow similar patterns or how hyper-technical tricks are followed by well-executed simplicity. Do these echoes, callbacks, and progressions constitute a "concept" video part? Are these examples even self-referential or just the natural evolution of a professional skateboarder who has managed to keep their skills sharp?
Whatever the case, Shane does go. Still goes. To watch him skateboard is to see someone with, potentially, the most control someone has ever had over a skateboard. To continue the theme of self-reference, in last week's newsletter, I wrote, "...the skateboard cannot be controlled. We can always get better or more consistent at reining it in and figuring out how to get it to do what we want it to, but it will always have an unruly streak."
While I still think that to be true, O'Neill has done more than most any living being to rein the skateboard in. He's domesticated it. And after all these years, it remains at his beck and call.
This space is a home
Rank: 1
Mood: 🌇
We need more celebration of public space. In a time when housing costs only ever skyrocket, the private sector swallows or closes off parks and plazas to the constantly shifting definition of "undesirables," and the militarization of local police forces and private security firms increases, it's imperative to hold onto and appreciate what we have — and advocate for more.
That's a bummer segue into a nice video recap of an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of Montréal's Peace Park, but it's also a creeping reality. If you don't push back, you lose ground. Montréal locals had to fight to make skateboarding legal in Peace Park, which they managed to achieve in 2014 after years of working with the city; officials also swayed after watching a documentary by David Boots, which highlighted the importance of the public space to the various communities who use it.
These things take time and effort, but success is possible. Montréal locals even saved the Big-O, convincing the landlord whose property it sits on to lift the 350,000-pound concrete whistle out of the earth to a location safe from the Olympic stadium ground's upgrades in 2013.
If you've been skating a spot — public or otherwise — for years, that means something. As a third space, yes, but also as a stand against losing space to the maw of dead-eyed capital. You are part of a community. Your continued presence is an argument for making room for people.
On EDG
Rank: ?
Mood: ...
It can be a little tricky to understand exactly what Harmony Korine's multi-pronged EDGLRD outfit actually does. They make visually nauseating films like AGGRO DR1FT and Baby Invasion, release records with artists like the Weeknd, and produce ad campaigns for Kim Kardashian's SKIMS brand, while also ostensibly being a skateboarding company — one that appeared to announce Eric Koston as a team rider with little fanfare via Instagram Story in August. A few days after that, on August 20, EDGLRD made another announcement via Business Wire: "EDGLRD Announces Growth Investment from Reuben Brothers."
The British billionaire Reuben Brothers, whose holdings include properties on Fifth Ave and Madison Avenue in New York City, Newcastle United football club, and the racecourse operator Arena Racing Co., bought a stake alongside EDGLRD's founding investor Samizdat. Samizdat is a bit of a mystery. According to Crunchbase, it's founded and run by Otto Eckstein, who doesn't have much of an online presence. His LinkedIn page is barren, but besides investing, he also appears to be a screenwriter, per IMBD. It's unclear where his capital for Samizdat comes from, but he likely wouldn't want for it, considering his father was once the Vice President of Merrill Lynch, his mother is a high-profile realtor whose online bio touts "$5 billion of luxury co-op, condo and townhouse sales," and he takes his name from his late grandfather, the famed economist Otto Eckstein, who advised multiple American presidential administrations. Samizdat's only publicly available investment is in EDGLRD.
It's not stated how much capital was invested by the firms, but EDGLRD's VP of product, Dr. Sajid Farooq, wrote on LinkedIn that they "raised a significant amount of funding from #ReubenBrothers at a very healthy valuation." Farooq also noted that the company's tech "ended up playing a central role in the raise." EDGLRD's COO, Jonathan Lutzky, shared on LinkedIn in the wake of the announcement that "This investment will help us to execute our vision of using AI-driven technology to create groundbreaking, immersive content experiences."
Which, as their growth investment press release expands on, is the ultimate goal of the company:
Together, EDGLRD, Samizdat, and Reuben Brothers will create one of the world’s biggest content generators—focusing on movies, video games, advertising, interactive content, social media, music, fashion, hospitality and sports. Driving EDGLRD’s work across these worlds is a proprietary suite of AI-based entertainment software products designed to generate awe-inspiring visual experiences and boldly transform the creative process.
That makes one wonder a few things: is EDGLRD's skateboarding division just a field for experimentation, a place to try out its "AI-based entertainment software products?" Will the influx of money from international billionaires and mystery backers go to EDGLRD's rostered skateboarders? Should we be wary of an organization pining to be "one of the world’s biggest content generators," a stomach-turning mission statement aimed at those with deep pockets and an itch to spend? Moreover, does Korine's foray into the skateboarding market even matter? Who knows.
However, what does matter is Korine attending the 2023 Miami International FIDF Night of Solidarity event last November. As a recap article from World Red Eye explains, this was a fundraiser for the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
The venue buzzed with an oversold crowd of 500 passionate supporters, all fervently contributing to the evening’s sole purpose: rallying behind the FIDF emergency fund, a lifeline for soldiers and their families.
These are the same soldiers who have been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza for over a year and are currently assaulting Lebanon and threatening to enact the same horrific atrocities there.
Between this and Korine allegedly spending time with the legitimately villainous Jared Kushner, whose own private equity firm, Affinity Partners, received a staggering, ethically dubious, and potentially payola $2 billion from the Saudi Public Investment Fund in 2022 — which the murderous Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly intervened to approve — there are reasons to be wary of EDGLRD and the person behind it. You know, besides the corny AI aesthetics and not showing Koston any love.
Local news update: BC goes to the polls
Rank: 8
Mood: 🗳️🏀
A provincial election is underway in British Columbia. For the voting citizenry, it features a depressingly feckless incumbent BC NDP government that is supposedly the "progressive" option but has been easily goaded to the right on issues like homelessness and the toxic drug crisis by their only real challenger, the BC Conservative Party. The latter, once a non-entity, is now surging in the polls despite running a slate of conspiracy-addled bigots and being helmed by an anti-vax, fear-mongering dumbass with the charisma of a loose fart who lied during a televised debate on Tuesday about seeing someone die of an overdose on his way to the studio. The executive director of the BC Conservative Party is also a far-right troll who may-or-may-not-have "[torn] his taint open because he didn't wanna get up from playing RuneScape to take a shit" while in high school.
The BC Green Party has a seemingly competent leader but is poised to win approximately one seat. There was also once a wildly corrupt provincial Liberal Party, but this year, they changed their name, flailed embarrassingly, and then their leader gave up and had them subsumed by the BC Conservatives in August. Good riddance, honestly.
Party dramas aside, one of the major issues facing British Columbians, and a central focus of this election, is the ever-worsening housing crisis. From a lack of new, affordable builds to increasing rents with little help or recourse for tenants, things are bleak. Vancouver is consistently one of the least affordable cities in the world. It's almost comical, especially when it comes to the derangement of local landlords.
This week, The Tyee published a story about one particularly — and I mean this sincerely — evil property management company.
Jen St. Denis
The piece details how this spring, shortly after a West End apartment building was purchased by Plan A property management, a tenant "noticed cameras being installed in the hallway, with one positioned in a way that captured the door to her suite."
Soon, Payot would get an eviction notice from Plan A. Her landlord alleged her partner had been living with her full-time, which Plan A said breached a clause in the tenancy agreement that prohibited visitors from staying in a tenant’s unit for longer than two weeks.
To prove its case, the landlord used surveillance footage from the camera and evidence gathered by a private investigator the company hired.
When Payot received the evidence, shared with her and her legal advocate when she fought the eviction, she was shocked.
“It was a bit disorienting see that they’ve hired this private investigator to follow my partner, who in my opinion has nothing to do with my current lease,” Payot said. “[They] stalked him on social media, and then had all this video evidence and photographs of him just visiting me, as anybody in a normal, healthy relationship would visit their partner.
The eviction was overturned by the Residential Tenancy Branch as "the lease provision that visitors can’t stay more than two weeks violates B.C.’s rental housing law." Because, yeah, of course. However, it turns out that this is a tactic Plan A and its director, Anoop Majithia, had been using for years to evict tenants and raise the rents on the suites for whoever moves in next.
Plan A, as you might expect, has a long and sordid history of treating human beings like mud, including attempting to, in one building, enact a "315-per-cent increase in laundry fees," which would have increased the cost of a load from an already exorbitant $3.25 to $13.50. On top of that, "16 tenants in the 23-unit building had received eviction notices."
The Tyee piece catalogues an incredible amount of indignities Plan A and Majithia have put people through, but this one stands out:
In 2020, a CTV story described how tenants of a building owned by Plan A had criticized Majithia’s decision to put a memorial to Kobe Bryant in front of their building. The tenants asked Majithia to focus on repairs they said were needed to their units instead.
I should note that it wasn't just one building, but multiple, that received Bryant memorial signs.
rofl. Photos via CTV and Reddit.
"I was a big fan of Kobe Bryant and really admired his work-ethic, his attention to his craft, his commitment to success, and I really tried to embody some of those values into my own work," Majithia told CTV. Which makes sense, as Majithia has dutifully applied the Mamba Mentality to being a complete piece of shit.
Something to consider: Supporting Rajab of Gaza Skate Team. He has a GoFundMe set up and SkatePal is selling shirts with all proceeds going to that same fundraiser.
SHOP
Good thing: The Quartersnacks Cup is this weekend. Good luck to all of the participants (Curren probably takes it).
Another good thing: I know this is a newsletter about four-wheelers, but 'sletter friend and new San Francisco Standard reporter, Max Harrison-Caldwell, has a good one out about two-wheelers.
maxhcsfstandard.com
A good thing about a bad thing:
There are some economists who fretted about ZIRP because it can enable so-called “zombie businesses”: companies that survive only because of the availability of cheap capital, who stagger along, refinancing debt, never failing — artificial, undead things. And I think about this concept when I look back at the tech world’s takeover of culture. That these business strategies, and this river of money diverted to bring them to fruition, created a sort of zombie discourse in our culture, one that appeared vital and real, and then — coincidentally or not, over the last few years — started to dissolve before our eyes.
A Kultish thing: For the latest issue of Thrasher, I talked to Depth Leviathan Dweller of the Barrier Kult about the group's 20 years of making videos, their next project, Horde 3, and, obviously, their favourite snacks. (Only in print, currently.)
Thrasher Magazine
Another promo thing: For those in the City of Champions (Edmonton, Alberta), I'll be taking part in a couple of events for LitFest next week. Should be a nice time.
Until next week… there is something about attending a sports game and just, simply, yelling. Cheers, jeers — whatever it is, it feels good, doesn't it? If you find yourself in an audience of any size watching professional or amateur athletics, do not miss your opportunity to shout a hearty let's goooooo. Or, better yet: C'mon boys/girls!
Laser Quit Smoking Massage
NEWEST PRESS
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My new collection of essays is available now. I think you might like it. The Edmonton Journal thinks it's a "local book set to make a mark in 2024." The CBC called it "quirky yet insightful." lol.
Book cover by Hiller Goodspeed.
Right, Down + Circle
ECW PRESS
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I wrote a book about the history and cultural impact of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater that you can find at your local bookshop or order online now. I think you might like this one, too.
Here’s what Michael Christie, Giller Prize-nominated author of the novels Greenwood and If I Fall, If I Die, had to say about the thing.
“With incisive and heartfelt writing, Cole Nowicki unlocks the source code of the massively influential cultural phenomenon that is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and finds wonderful Easter-eggs of meaning within. Even non-skaters will be wowed by this examination of youth, community, risk, and authenticity and gain a new appreciation of skateboarding’s massive influence upon our larger culture. This is my new favorite book about skateboarding, which isn’t really about skateboarding — it’s about everything.”
Photo via The Palomino.
