The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2011: 25-21

You know the drill. Five at a time, one post a week. Have a good weekend.

25. The Blue Flatbar Shatters the Record for the Longest a Loose Obstacle Has Been Left at Tompkins

Every skateboarder in New York is guilty of having once been too lazy to return a box or rail back to Autumn after it gets dark. Neglecting to bring the box back is so common that we deliberately left it off our Tompkins etiquette guide. If the Parks Department held on to all the obstacles they have removed from the park over the last ten years, then they easily have the capability of furnishing every basketball court and concrete baseball diamond in New York with at least one box and flatbar. The historical average for the longest an obstacle has been able to remain loose in Tompkins Square without confiscation is roughly 10.2 hours. This past November, amidst the 12th & A lockout, the blue flatbar was brought to the T.F. and lasted an unprecedented three weeks before being taken by the Parks Department and thrown in a trash compactor. It is quite possible that this record will never be broken.

24. An Australian Brings Back the Slappy Crooked Grind

As tensions between Australians and New Yorkers have continued to heat up this year, an unlikely hero reignited interest in a lovable, yet very much under-the-radar no-pop maneuver. Originally made famous by Loki on the Astor Place curb, and more recently, done in a switch variety by Ted Barrow, the slappy crook often took a backseat to its easier two-truck counterpart. Callum Paul came to the Slappy Capital of the World this summer, and did many memorable slappy crooked grinds, restoring interest in the trick itself, and bringing some good P.R. to the always controversial Australian-in-New-York contingent.

23. Skateboarders Begin Scouring Storage Lockers For Lost Footage Artifacts

With websites like Hella Clips rising in popularity, and the overall rate in which footage is released accelerating tenfold over the past year, skateboarders (particularly in New York, which likely has more storage lockers than any other city in the country…) have taken cues from A&E’s hit show, Storage Wars, to outshine current day trends with archeological discoveries. Rummaging through the deep abyss of dusty, and once thought-to-be-lost storage contents has resulted in some of the year’s most memorable web clips — Gerwer’s Part in Number Nine, Apple Juice, and this 14-minute gem — all of which had eclipsed interest in any other modern-day footage released in their respective debut weeks. Perhaps VBS or a similar network would be interested in funding our Storage Wars rip-off, in which skate nerds bid on shoeboxes of tapes from ex-filmers in an effort to locate forgotten footage.

22. The Slap Subway Video Makes It Into the Ranks of NYC Subway Video Infamy

While New York’s influence in hip-hop has continued to decline these past ten years, it’s influence on World Star Hip-Hop has remained at an all-time high through an endless barrage of subway antics. Everything from fights over spaghetti, fights on Christmas Day, fights with baby carriages, licking shoes, naked racists, fearless rats, and hundreds of other results have kept New York’s relevance in tact. Though Slap‘s subway video made it onto more traditional online media outlets like The Village Voice and Huffington Post, the view count (and the fact that it is in the top 10 results when you search “nyc subway” on YouTube) easily earns it respectable placement among the many internet-ized MTA moments from the past year.

21. The Internet Gives Up On Promising an Anthony Pappalardo Comeback

Anthony Pappalardo has the most annoying fanbase out of any professional skateboarder. Though how much time and interest he decides to allocate towards skateboarding is no one’s business but his own, his legion of vocal web supporters insists that he is on the verge of putting out a five-minute video part that will solve the European debt crisis and crash the Slap board all at once, despite having no real evidence to support such a claim. After a Berrics “Off the Grid” segment consisting of flatground ollies that were probably filmed five blocks from his home, and nothing more than a bail in the latest Chocolate trailer (the one Gino had a trick in), most of these people realized how stupid they look and began considering other options for underseen skaters to have ten-page message board arguments about.

Mini Top 5 — It’s almost 2012, your friends are going to stop hanging out with you if you do any of these tricks in games of S.K.A.T.E…

5. Any shove-it trick that spins more than 360 degrees
4. Bigger spins (extra body rotation)
3. No complys (this has nothing to do with Berrics rules, but is a pure common courtesy)
2. Late anything
1. Nollie bigspins