2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 15-11

Keeping it going. Part one is here and part two is here.

15. The Best Spot on Water Street is a Rock

The spot depicted above is the most frequently sessioned Water Street spot in 2014.

The gateway to acquiring skate footage in lower Manhattan held on for dear life until 2014, when a rock became its marquee tourist stop. Heading further south on this once heavily-treaded path will yield nothing more than knobbed remnants of a once thriving ledge-based ecosystem, those shitty round ledges across from the Veteran’s Memorial, and nary a dollar-menu for the broke boys in sight.

14. VX1000 Videography Decreases to Single-Digit Marketshare

Speaking of irrelevance ;)

Rational humans inhabiting 2014 are finally beginning to admit that HD looks better. Nobody — except perhaps the most low-income skate houses in operation — watches skate videos on a tube TV anymore. Even some of the most stubborn VX survivalists are conceding that it looks dated by the time it reaches YouTube.

Between Strobeck filming his first full-length in HD, Anti-Hero making the switch, and video blogs joining the modern era, the point of even having the argument is becoming moot. It’ll never go away (hell, skate videos still use Super-8 here and there), but filming VX will inevitably be treated as more of a special project, like the ol’ “I prefer to listen to music on vinyl”-snob way of thinking. Rejecting modern cameras altogether will be at the level of refusing to vaccinate your children.

13. Cutthroat Skater-Installed Skate Deterrents Make Their Way to New York

We’ve long heard about guys in California chaining up spots to prevent one-uppers, or overzealous “I created it therefore I will destroy it”-D.I.Y. guys slamming a sledgehammer into their spot after they’re done with it. That’s never really been a part of our culture. Most New York skaters already got a text about some party before the opportunity to consider someone doing a better trick arose. Now that we live in the summer home of the skate industry, self-imposed deterrent tactics have made it to our more recognizable spots. Rumor has it that the guy who invented knobs themselves skated, too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

12. First Known Footage of “The Holy Grail”

A video posted by IRON CLAW SKATES (@lurker_lou) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:47am PST

Tricks have gone down at some of the most high-bust spots within city limits. Dudes have done stuff off the ledge and into the street at the 59th Street Apple store, caught a lucky 15 minutes at the Lincoln Center benches, and skated that one-try narrow bank on 33rd from Pappalardo’s Mosaic part.

The Nostrand Avenue “Holy Grail” spot, as its known to anybody who’s done a double-take after passing by, is impossible to skate. It entails a locked building lobby, a security guard at the front desk, and a spot dead-center of an apartment complex courtyard. Even the most resourceful spot hackers have failed to crack the code — until this year. This footage of Meatball and Dave Caddo is the first known documentation of it. The session was reportedly under ten minutes and accompanied by militant senior citizens chasing them around the spot, canes in hand.

11. The Great Wallride Nollie Renaissance of 2014

Short of maybe skating over a trash can or showing up to the spot and not skating at all, channeling Ryan Hickey’s wallride nollie from Underachievers was the most New-York-as-an-adjective shit you could do these past twenty years. That is, until Brad Cromer and John Motta came along and flipped the trick on its head, sending one of our staples down a road that can only be navigated by those who are really good at skateboarding.

Bonus Mini Top 5 — Predictions For 2015
5. We finally see the footage of the backside lipslide to tailslide at Three Up Three Down!
4. More Podcasts. Seriously, skateboarding is sorta starting to embrace the medium more than ever. With a growing sector of 25+ guys who sit in offices and need some background noise while doing emails, the market for audible skate banter will only grow in coming years.
3. No one mentions the Plan B video again. Shecks gets down with QS.
2. Antonio turns AM for a major company, then turns pro, like, a year later.
1. Old guys re: shaped boards, no complys and wacky haircuts..