2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 5-1

5-chineseseaport

Final post of the year. Previously: 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 2014 in T.F. Obstacles.

Happy New Year. Be safe tonight if you’re inclined to go outside.

5. The Burning Question of 2014: “Is Chinese Seaport #Legit?”

It is bad enough that our culture has been diminished to an abyss of spots-that-aren’t-really-spots and Houston Street construction scraps. New York-based skateboarders have now found themselves overthinking miracles like the resurrection of Seaport.

“Does it look too much like a skatepark?”
“Will my footage here still look #core between the traffic barriers and late-night wallrides in my ‘Summer Trip to New York’-part?”
“Am I lame for thinking a metal ledge needs wax?”
“Will my friends back home say I sold out for not skating Reggaeton Ledges instead?”
“If there was some #urban graffiti on the ledge, would it be more #legit?”

Do you think the dudes at Para-lel, who attained ungodly manual and ledge abilities over the years, ever stopped to question as to whether or not their spot was *too* good? Americans, man.

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2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 10-6

supreme dollar slice

Line around the corner.

Moving on… 25-21 here, 20-16 here, and 15-11 here.

10. The Dollar Slice Hints at an Eventual Extinction, Mass Starvation to Follow

Any New York-based news outlet spends at least eighty-percent of its content discussing how expensive it is to live here. We are no better, even if we have checking accounts to brave through higher prices for shitty pizza.

Since the dollar slice boom of 2010, this bare-bones food option has become an emblem for #poor skateboarders. It has been steadfast in its immunity to inflation, unlike every other pizza place that has raised its per-slice cost by 25 cents every year or two. That is, until 2014, when we began to see the unthinkable: dollar slice outlets charging TAX on a once tax-inclusive product, and promotions like a “Supreme Dollar Slice,” for $1.50. This hints at a future not unlike Interstellar, where [underemployed] skateboarders run out of available food and have to pack up and move to…Philly? :(

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The Year in T.F. Obstacles – #TFReport Special Edition

tf report

Yesterday, the Ride Channel posted a guide to skateboard-related ## hashtags ## on Instagram, probably as some sort of distraction from the Great Follower Purge of 2014. Now, we weren’t as upset as some of our colleagues by Ride’s weeks-old assertion “that style matters more to east coast skaters because they aren’t as good” (it’s true duh), but this Instagram “guide” is a load of crap.

Who cares about Sequence Saturdays or Slappy Sundays? There is only one ## hashtag ## that matters on Instagram and it is #TFREPORT. Now, the ‘Report might have gotten diluted in recent years, as those who don’t live close enough to feel Tompkins’ magnetic draw still opt to tag their shoddy T.F. imitations with this precious label, but that hasn’t stopped its main function. Nowhere else is there such a one-stop overview for the most vibrant skateboard institution still in operation today.

What better day than today to post our annual T.F. Year in Review. As in past installments, contributors to the #tfreport thinktank cede any creative rights over their images once they are tagged. The T.F. is far bigger than picture credits. Have a good weekend. Seems like it will include some decent T.F. weather, at least for December.

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2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 15-11

rock

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.

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2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 20-16

the tombstone

Photo via Lurker Lou

Part two of our annual countdown series. Part one is here.

20. Marble at the T.F.

Throughout its history, Tompkins obstacles have been wood, steel, rubber, and sometimes even glass. The ability to move these materials without much manpower has been essential to the spot’s transient nature. Only the flat and The Crack™ remain — everything else is just passing through until some green-suited bandit musters up the nerve to remove it.

T.F. culture experienced a shock this summer when a foot-tall, slanted slab of marble mysteriously appeared inside the baseball diamond. It became the first marble obstacle in Tompkins history, and dubbed The Tombstone™. This two-foot-wide piece of rock broke the record once held by the blue rail for the longest-standing loose object of the post-Autumn era. Claims of liquid-nailing it to the ground were abound in May and June, except that was, like, way too much work for anyone to do. The spot was gone as mysteriously as it appeared by the end of the month.

A video posted by . Kevin Tierney (@youngkev) on

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