Okay so we are BACK. I had to finish off Season one of Betty on HBO. I kind of stopped posting on Quell as the tragedies of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery started to come to light. Obviously it’s incredibly important to recognize that not much has changed with police brutality in this country. I do want to however celebrate the beautiful stories and opportunities Betty gives women of color in the skate community. No one asked for this, and probably no one cares but we’re going to give this season the send off it deserves.

Episode 04

We start off this cliffhanger of an episode with Kirt having no idea that everyone got arrested. Camille is being mad annoying in jail and arguing with Janay about how they ended up there. The mean jail woman calls out Janay and Camille for being asshole friends. Camille calls Bambi...who *spoiler* is absolutely useless. Indigo ends up bailing Janay and Honeybear out of jail with the money she owes for losing her drugs.

The girls absolutely drag Kirt for literally leaving them to get arrested even though she was the one who caused them to get arrested in the first place. “I’m sorry I’m lucky!” “No, you’re white.” I mean...that’s basically what’s the theme of 2020. 

The morning after, the ladies are taking stock of their day. Farouk calls Indigo asking for the money and obviously she just used it to bail out the girls. Indigo takes that modeling job from a couple episodes back. Camille gets out of jail and go finds her man who as I mentioned before, LITERALLY FORGOT TO BAIL HER OUT. We cut to a moody scene of her skating in Queens and ~*realizing things*~

Honeybear asks out Ash finally and we see a really cute date. We catch back up with Kirt who is with a girl who gives her shrooms. We end up at Cooper Park where we get a little clip of Janay skating the manny pad. She addresses the twin and wants to apologize to Yvette so they exchange numbers. Kirt finds them at Cooper and has a big idea to do drugs with them to make it up to them. They obviously won’t hear any of it and leave her. 

Janay asks the girls if they’re wearing bras...and we cut to them at the public pool. It’s all coming back to me, this episode breaks my heart. Janay gets in the pool and hears Yvette’s story about happened between her and Donald. Janay drops a bombshell when she says she knows she’s telling the truth because it happened to her.

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Episode 05

Janay starts talking to Honeybear and Indigo about her past trauma with Donald. This is a really beautiful moment of friendship and support for someone who has been through SA. Honeybear suggests saying something to him and Janay agrees. Cut to a super cute scene of them all holding hands and skating by the pier.

Camille is back with her friends drinking boba and they meet up with Honeybear, Janay and Indigo. They’re all friends now which we love to see it. Bambi comes back and starts acting like nothing happened. Janay destroys him for forgetting Camille’s bail and he obviously gets up and leaves. Indigo admits she took the modeling job and has to go. Camille ends up at Blue Park to meet Bambi after that little interaction. Camille is kind of watching for Bambi as he literally doesn’t pay attention to her. Then he starts to ignore her which really pisses me off personally. She calls him out on it and then he basically brushes her off. Camille kind of tries to bring it up later and realizes how mean Bambi is. Officially team fuck Bambi...don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Kirt takes the shrooms and hangs out at a pet store. The boys find her laying in the park with a rat she got at the pet store and she offers the shrooms to the rest of them. At this point, I don’t care about Kirt’s story. We’re mad at her. We cut to indigo at the modeling job and it becomes super clear how insanely problematic it is. There are lots of white women cornrows, and cultural appropriation like crazy.

Janay calls out Donald for everything. He obviously gaslights her for telling the truth. This scene is super triggering so if you’re somehow reading this before watching the show months later...be aware. It’s super problematic to see what Donald is saying about Yvette and how she’s basically lying for what happened. I hate to see this because he’s so clearly manipulating her. I think it’s so important though to have included this because at any age these things can happen and sometimes you don’t realize it was wrong until after the fact. It’s valid and okay to feel different about a situation after it happened.

This is the crux of the episode. Honeybear and Ash have a super cute date. Honeybear sees her Dad on the way to the ferry and she hides. She gets kind of defensive about it and ends things with Ash. Honeybear knows it’s wrong but leaves. She cries on the very home.

We cut to Camille crying and one of the boys comes to comfort her. He admits as a friend that he goes through the same energy that Camille has felt. We’ve all been there and that fucking hurts. Janay deletes her channel with Donald on youtube because she knows that at the end of the day she was right. Indigo can’t believe the insane shit that this guy’s photo direction is. She leaves the photoshoot in makeup and her red Gucci coat. We cut to the girls dancing with the coat and smoking  in Janay’s room. They kind of circle back to harassment and the topic of “me too”. The girls come back and Kirt apologizes to them. I guess we’re friends now. 

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Episode 06

We open with Camille skating flatground. This little girl sees her skating and she offers to let her try to skate. Kirt shows up and they teach her a little bit how to skate. Her dad shows up and starts to yell at them. They decide to host a girls skate meetup.

Indigo offers up her Gucci coat to pay back for her drugs. Farouk admits he was teaching her a lesson and she needs to be more careful in life. Indigo goes home and her mom kicks her out of her house.

Honeybear and Janay start making flyers for the skate event. Janay asks about Ash and Honeybear admits what happened between them. They all start to pass out flyers and there’s a little Jaime Reyes and Tony Hawk cameo. We’re back at the deli from episode one and she puts the all girls flyer on their cash register.

Donald finds Janay at the park and finally admits that he fucked up. But he asks for her help to be a better person. Janay is no longer having it and she basically tells him to grow up and take accountability for his actions.

Honeybear makes an apology video to Ash. Kirt is on her way to the meetup and gets hit with a car door. The meetup is POPPING off. All the ladies are at the monument. They’re so excited to see all the girls but no Kirt. They facetime Kirt and she’s in an ambulance. She tells them to go on without her. Then we get the beautiful montages of everyone skating over the bridge and down the street into LES park. 

All the guys are kind of shook which we love to see. Janay facetimes them all and they’re showing Kirt how many women have shown up the the event. Seeing this now made me tear up? Am I ok? We get a bunch of hand filmed footage mixed with everyone just having such a fun time. Then it cuts to Camille’s board outside the little girls house from the beginning of the episode and that’s a wrap on Season ONE.

Okay these episodes keep getting better and better. We’re back with a recap of episode three of Betty, Skate Kitchen’s HBO series. There’s not a lot to say other than: why are these episodes thirty minutes long? This one was JAM packed with so much information that I wish we got a little breathing room.

As the weather starts to turn, it’s so nice to see these summer skate scenes. Who know’s what this summer will truly bring…at least it’ll bring three more episodes of Betty!

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We open on the night after sleeping at the bottom of the bowl from the previous episode. Kirt, Honeybear and Indigo are at a diner and Kirt realizes it’s Janays birthday! Time to celebrate. Indigo realizes that she left her weed pens somewhere and Honeybear goes with her back to Chelsea to scout them out. Kirt starts smoking in the diner to distract them from paying the bill as she runs away.

At Chelsea we have a Zoe spotting! We get a vibey montage of Zoe and a guy skating and another organic title drop on the side of the bowl. Indigo starts to see these guys smoking her pens and yells at them to get them back. They’ve taken and smoked a bunch of them, and she realizes she’s about to be in deep trouble.

Her and Honeybear leave the park and Honeybear sees the girl that she had a crush on in the park the episode before. Indigo encourages her to go say hi but we later see Honeybear skate towards her to say hi and completely skates past her.

Afterwards, Honeybear is grocery shopping and realizes that Camille still works at the grocery store from the movie...that’s a funny plot to stick with. Honeybear grabs a bunch of shit and obviously goes straight to her check out lane. Camille attempts to apologize as she rings up the items. After Camille rings up everything, Honeybear says she only needs the water bottle, and they exchange “got cha” glances because that is honestly amazing revenge.

Janay is looking at our girl Jules “instagram” when she hears Kirt in the window. Jules aka Yvette is the girl who claims that Donald sexually harassed her. What are we plotting… Anyway, Kirt stole a balloon on her way to hang out with Janay for her birthday and brings it to her to celebrate. They go get their nails done and Kirt doesn’t understand why Janay is glued to her phone. Please note that Jules is with our angel Liv in these cutie fake boomerangs. Janay finally admits that Jules aka Yvette has been talking shit about her and Kirt agrees they should fuck her up.

Meanwhile, Bambi is at the Queens globe and asks fo get a clip with Camille. She loves the way he’s filming her. The other boys are hyped for her except Charlie who says some fucked up shit to her because he’s jealous that Bambi is paying attention to her. Bambi clarifies that he’s not just shooting her because she’s a woman and that she’s actually good. After skating, Bambi starts to talk to Camille about her style and she admits to love Charlie Chaplin. Bambi starts to do his walk and she feels super embarrassed. Do you feel the chemistry? Yikes.

Cut to Janay, Kirt and Honeybear pull up at the park trying to find Yvette based on nothing but Instagram. It’s New York city so I don’t know how effective this would be in actual real life. There’s some fun party where lots of Brooklyn friends make cameos dancing. Janay finally gives in and dances a little bit.

We get a dreamy synth clip of the gang skating down a street in Williamsburg. They all pull up to a spot where everyone went after skating and Farook finds Indigo. They go leave to have a drug convo. Janay is talking to Honeybear and starts judging Yvette based on her instagram and starts to justify why she’s going to fuck her up. We kind of travel through all these conversations and it really makes you feel the energy of being at a party.

Back in Farook’s car him and indigo start arguing and she leaves him to go her his money. Indigo opens one of those insane apartments where the elevator is street level. I’ve always wondered about those. We realize that indigo lives in a super nice apartment with her mom and that she’s pretty wealthy. Indigo asks for $3,000 and her mom obviously says no. She sneaks into her office and writes her check. 

Back at night Bambi and Camille are still walking around and he doesn’t invite her back up. Whats going on there? He asks her to go to “The Dome” in a hour. I’m starting not to trust this hoe. What is he doing to you Camille? Was he worth ruining your friendship with the girls over?

Everyone seems to be at the Dome. Honeybear makes Camille introduce her formally to Ash. They start to make awkward talk but Ash asks to get a drink with her and gives her her number on her board. Skater boys and girls, that’s a move I want to hear about in the future.

Meanwhile, Janay finds “Yvette” and starts screaming at her. Turns out though that Yvette has a beautiful twin who is ready to throw down for her sister. The real Yvette comes over and the girls start to get into an argument. Kirt pushes her out of nowhere and punches someone. Camille gets hit back and a huge fight erupts and then suddenly ends by a skateboard smashing the window.

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

Wow. Episode two of Betty was SO much better than Episode 01. Watching this made me feel so many feels. Like I just felt that nice sticky summer feeling of being busy and hanging out with your friends. I specifically thought of a time Quell was judging something for Redbull at LES and then we went and got pizza after and then I skated to a roof and a bar and it felt like the day never ended. Whatever enough about me…

I want to know everything about the characters and where this is going!!! I was genuinely disappointed when this episode ended.

This as always is not sponsored, I just really admire Skate Kitchen and I think what they’ve done and continue to do to spread visibility for SO many groups of people in skateboarding is incredible. Their show is genuinely diverse and AUTHENTIC and they really care about portraying it that way. I think these girls really deserve so much and it’s awesome to see what this series will do for skateboarding. Let’s get into it!

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We start the episode off with small cuts to check in with our characters. We start with a look into Honeybear aka Elizabeth’s??! life. strict household, states island native, religious? We don’t get much more than that but maybe foreshadowing. Cut to Kirt and Indigo living their summer truth. Skating in Union Square, eating ice cream, HANGING OUT…remember that? 

Anyway, Janay and Donald are filming some sort of youtube video about Janay doing a graffiti tour. Donald turns off the comments on their channel because he didn’t like what they were saying about Janay. Sure Donald…

Now, we’re at Fat Kid wooooo! It’s my favorite park honestly, especially for beginner skating. I don’t know why but it’s kind of mellow and it’s huge so you get a bit of practice with speed and your approach. 

Kirt and Indigo see Camille and they’re still not happy about it. Camille’s mystery bae shows up and she starts filming clips of him on her phone. The girls are having fun without her, teaching Indigo a little bit. We get some vibey moments of all the girls doing tricks around the park. 

“You know those betties don’t you” a classic name title drop from Camille’s bae aka Bambi. Camille goes to talk to bae about music and editing and they both admit to watching each other’s clips. Later Camille rolls in shit and Bambi offers to help her clean it off.

Janay starts to list her ideas about her show to Honeybear. Honeybear starts to mention that there are negative comments around Donald, Janays best friend and she realizes the comments weren’t about Janay they were about him. She finds Donald and starts to scream at him in the park about lying about the comments. Allegedly Donald didn’t like someone who liked him and she accuses him of being a predator. he starts to feel trapped and Janay tries to help him. 

This casting agent scouts Indigo in the park and the boys start to laugh at her while the other girls get a little jealous it seems that they weren’t selected. She then bumps into one of Camilles friends, Luis, and he starts screaming at her. Kirt starts a fight with him to defend Indigo. Indigo starts to get really mad and quits skateboarding.  After Kirt finds the girl who has been lingering and screams that she’s gay. they get into a small argument about the girl and she leaves Kirt.

Kirt, Honeybear and Indigo meet up randomly a lot later on the quest for Indigo to keep skating. Kirt apologizes with rave toys and sneak into the park. There’s a beautiful night skating scene that once again makes me tear up a little bit. They skate around and get super high. While laying at the bottom of the bowl, Honeybear admits to liking Ash. 

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

YAAAHHHOOOO Betty is here! For those of you who live under a rock, or somehow found this page accidentally, Betty is the newest comedy / skate masterpiece from The Skate Kitchen written by Crystal Moselle + Lesley Arfin.  Betty is kicking off its first season with six episodes exclusively on HBO. HOWEVER you can watch the first episode on Instagram live now

ALSO want to give a huge shout out to Betty + HBO for sending us such a sick package. Feeling really blessed and excited to use all those goodies to share the love. This post wasn’t sponsored - but needed to give a little love and kudos.

The description of Betty states: A group of diverse young women navigate the predominantly male-oriented world of skateboarding in New York City.  I mean lmao story of my life right...but let’s get into it SEASON ONE EPISODE ONE

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We catch Nina aka Kirt (spelling change in this show versus the movie The Skate Kitchen) taking some ass shots of a seriously bruised butt. Wonder how much of that was costume makeup or real life. She facetimes our girl Dede aka Janay because they’re about to meet up for their first girl’s sesh!

It’s absolutely foreshadowing who the guy is with Janay but we shall see. PS shouts out that Janay had on a KCDC tote. But anyway - we catch our girls at LES somewhere *incredibly* extra. Enter Moonbear aka Honeybear, and immediately we clock that she’s a filmer, so our gang starts to catch some clips. 

Camille shows up with her two boys and immediately is a way different character than her movie debut. Then we get this montage of skating and general LES shenanigans. How many times should I mention that I miss being outside? It starts POURING and they all mob to a bodega. I wonder if that was real rain or not - but I’m going to go with not. I’m from Miami and I don’t remember it raining like that here.

“Phillip” orders a bacon egg and cheese and my heart dies a little. Camille realizes she forgot their backpack at the park and freaks out on her to go get it. The girls are not having how he treated her and they all get kicked out of the bodega. 

The gang realizes that the backpack is stolen. Janay proves to be the smartest thinker trying to get Camille to use find my iPhone. Phillip doesn’t have an iPhone because “he doesn’t trust the government.” I wish I couldn’t say that I haven’t met a New York skater exactly like that but…

Phillip is really upset because he lost his “Winter Bowl Key” which Kirt quickly reminds him girls can’t get in there anyways. Our first look into the divide of the skate scene. But they make a deal that when they get the backpack thief, they can get into Winterbowl.

They run into a friend Farook and meet Indigo, our baddie smoking in the van. Camille doesn’t want to hear her stoner friends excuses and just wants her backpack. Kirt, Phillip, Honeybear and Indigo pile in Farook’s van to smoke. Janay gives her stuff to Honeybear and her and Camille embark on this adventure to get the stolen backpack. Camille and Janay first see a similar backpack on a young man, and think they find gold but in reality it’s some mean 14 year old boy. 

Back in the van, Farook tries to remember his weed prices to send out Indigo to sell some *drugs*. Kirt delivers the best line of the show “not my fault if my lets skate and my lets smash vibes have some overlap.” She tries to get Indigo to skate with her, and speaks the truth about skating: it’s not about landing tricks all the time, it’s about having fun. This scene seems really chill but it is in fact the pivotal moment of the show. The difference between how men see skating and how women are developing their own communities.

Now we get to a Fuckin Problems montage to find our backpack through Chinatown. We start to see Camille and Janay develop their relationship and it seems like a fun promising future for our ladies. Meanwhile back at the van, Indigo is learning to skate from Kirt. Indigo baby mall-grabs the fuck out of this deck while flirting with this guy to sell some weed. She skates now though “it’s whatever”. My personal favorite part of the episode is that Kirt teaches the importance of how to hold your skateboard.

Janay and Camille have a terrible interaction with an old man and start to get a little more open about the overwhelming sensation of older men preying on younger women in situations they should be safe in, like the school bus. Back in Farook's bus, Honeybear realizes she found the backpack thief on her camera. The ladies meet back up to fuck this guy up. He’s sitting on a park bench and then starts cursing at them in Spanish but surprise Camille speaks Spanish and gets! her! backpack!

YAY we did it we’re all best friends wooooooo. So Farook drops our ladies off at the Winterbowl and Camille opens the door to get in. They’re greeted by some random guy who refuses to let them in. A guy vouches for Camille but she ditches the other girls at the door. All of a sudden the sky opens up and leaves our ladies out in the rain.

That’s all she wrote.

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

Welcome to the first, of what will be many posts from our new series: Skate Pop.

We’re taking you through on this rocky journey of skateboarding through pop culture by recapping movies and TV that feature our favorite skaters. Kicking off the series, we decided to feature the most mentioned skate movie to us in recent history: The Skate Kitchen.

The Skate Kitchen Movie is so special to us because we’ve heard that it has inspired SO many women to start skating. It’s an amazing representation of our mission at Quell: visibility for women and non binary people in skateboarding. If you have not watched The Skate Kitchen it is streaming now on Hulu. Hope you enjoy the first Skate Pop.

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First, we’re introduced to our protagonist miss Rachelle aka CAMILLE about to ollie a four stair. I’m on board for this solo sesh…until we get this BRUTAL fucking credit card scene.

I am so squeamish that this literally hurts me to watch this and has re instilled a fear in me that I can’t even put into words. The timeline seems insane because you would never get released from the hospital after having major vagina surgery that quickly and then just WALK your ass home but whatever let’s roll with it no pun intended.

So enter Camille’s mom who is my favorite Orange is the New Black character–and she has the reaction of every parent who has ever seen their kid skateboard and fall: promise me no more skateboarding. Okay mom…I promise. But Camille does NOT care. I’m kind of obsessed with the fake instagram and then like google maps transit view of LES because baby our real New York journey is about to begin!

Here we go! Enter Janay (played by Dede), Kurt (played by Nina) and Ruby (played by Moonbear). “I follow you on instagram” is my favorite introduction also. But lets stack these clips ladies. I wonder what they’re actually looking at on that camera honestly. But cut to a downtown montage that is literally making me so sad to be sitting on my couch doing this review. “Can you do an ollie?” is also my favorite introduction…fuck that guy. Who else has had that experience?

I also wonder how much of this is planned or acting - like the car almost hitting Nina aka Kurt etc. Anyway, I feel like they wouldn’t just leave her hanging like that but we had our first day skating with the ladies! Camille get her clip on “The_Skate_Kitchen” insta...fuck yeah bitch as Kurt says.

Day two of hanging out with the squad. Our ladies go to this amazing rooftop tennis court scenario and smoke weed in a beautiful sunset. Kurt brings up and incredible point about the Mandela effect. I am obsessed with this. Camille has to make up a reason to leave and it is SO awkward I am even hurt emotionally.

Still sad we have to hide that skateboard...which another thing, how is her credit card injury going ??
WHAT, was it her birthday all along??? is she vegan? 
Why is she doing the skateboard out the window if we saw her put it in the bushes?
I have a lot of questions clearly.

Now we enter a vibey montage of time passing and their relationship building. Camille states a very sweet sentiment about not feeling lonely because she’s found this group and it makes me really happy. I think it’s so important to have a safe space to feel comfortable with…I mean duh I do. Also, it’s so nice to actually have friends to be able to hang out with. I miss that feeling.

Complete side note but obsessed with this bedroom with a couch in it because WHERE in New York is this. Also I love supportive dads.  It’s so nice to know that this tampon fear has made it onto main screen. I do think I talk about this with my friends but I have to say that this is not what women sit around doing all the time . So then we move into the shitting on men portion and that’s my favorite thing to do with the ladies. The two sexual spectrums are outlined by Kurt- Do you like sucking dick or eating pussy? So Camille likes boys – not sure why we needed to state that but lets see where this goes.

Camille is late to get home and her mom takes away her skateboard. Fuck.

But, a new day is here. We’re at cooper and Charlie, the nicest person in this movie, has delivered a board to us so let’s set this up for the shredding montage. Enter trap music and said montage. Also enter another corona related depressive episode.

Camille sleeps over Janay’s house, and steals her tampons. How’d that go? We’re living our best life now, back having fun at fat kid until mom literally shows up to scream at her and actually hit her in front of her friends? So bye mom we’re leaving your ass and new jersey long island and shacking up with Janay.

It’s so sweet to have this friend moment and hear Camilles story about her struggles with puberty and identity. I think it’s a really difficult grounding point in the movie and her relationship with her mother and the pressure to make these relationships work as you’re trying to know who you are growing to be. You shouldn’t feel that much pressure as a child and it’s so sweet to see someone listening and seeing Camille have that moment where someone is there for HER.

Anyway time to go fuck someone up. We’re back at LES! There’s a dreamy Clairo song playing while there’s just a full on altercation started by Kurt. Hi Jaden aka Devon, welcome to The Skate Kitchen. Fast forward to the grocery store where Camille and Devon both happen to work.

A small but important scene here, is when the girls are on the way to the party and they start talking about their past hookup experiences. Gaslighting is the worst thing possible. I hate having to hear how many shared collective horrible experiences we have with men. But this scene brings my favorite coming of age movie scene- putting lipstick on your friend to a Princess Nokia song. Fast forward through the scenes that probably make this a rated R movie.

I’ve noticed that this movie is really like just about these beautiful friend montages and a couple key plot points but just kind of feeling that emotion and without dialogue it gives you time to like bring it back to your own self. Is that too deep? I don’t know.

Anyway, Camille goes to hang out with Devon to take photos. My fear of heights is giving me insane stress in this moment but it’s clear that this kick flip photo shoot on the roof is a ~turning point~. Especially when he says: you’re the only girl i’ve ever brought up here oh FUCK that’s the worst sentence I have ever heard.

Camille goes back to her new home, aka Janay’s home and wants to skate this street spot with the girls. I feel the tension building. Janay is nervous and isn’t feeling respected which is culminates in a skate injury and a metaphorical riff in her and Camille’s relationship. Sad.

Camille tries to ask questions about boys to Indigo and we’re finding out the tea between Janay and Devon. Tension builds when Camille lies to Janay and hangs out with Devon. But at least we get another vibey montage of skating with the bros.

The next day, we hang out at Cooper. Literally what is good with this weed she is dead??? but Indigo just realized what is GOOD with Camille and Devon…uh oh. Fast forward, another day another Cooper scene. Janay comes back to the park to hang with her friends and also beat Camilles ass because suddenly learns about her “friendship” with Devon. Seems like this is not going to go very well for the future of The Skate Kitchen.

Not that this is the point of this scene but when Camille is mad as fucks her hair looks incredible. So anyway, Camille made her bed and now has to lie in it...and by her bed I mean this couch in the living room of Devon’s apartment until she literally gets in his bed instead. UH OH. I’m excited for this all to get better because now I am sad and I miss my mom.

And here we are, mom gives the best advice to just apologize. Squad scene, we are back. Let’s vibe it out a little more. I don’t know about you but I MISS MY FRIENDS.

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This recap was written by Adrian Koenigsberg.
If you have a movie or show you want us to recap let us know.

Stay tuned for more Skate Pop and follow The Skate Kitchen's journey when Betty comes out on HBO May 1st.

On today's episode of Quell Party we brave the heat to talk about the Skate Kitchen Movie, crack ollies, and sit down with the ever rad Sierra Prescott.

If you love us, please rate us 5 stars and write a review! DM us @quellskate on Instagram or email info@quellskate.com with any questions, comments or concerns. Thanks for joining the party.