The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2011: 5-1

2011 is over in five hours. Here are the final five. Have fun tonight everyone.

Previous installments: #25-21, #20-16, #15-11, #10-6, The Best Video Part(s) of 2011, The Year in Rap.

5. The Rise of 12th & A Rap

As 12th & A’s stronghold on New York City skateboarding waned, it began to rise as an epicenter for New York City skateboard *rap*. With artists like ASAP Rocky, Odd Future, and Krayshawn getting deals off YouTube videos, the young skaters of 12th & A drew inspiration from their D.I.Y. attitude, and set out to make a name for themselves in perhaps the only professional world more overpopulated than pro skateboarding. Slicky Boy remixed Ice Cube and has been promising a mixtape all year. The Stoned Rollers took Lex Luger out of the trap and the strip clubs, and brought his trademark thump to the skate spot. And Black Dave, perhaps 12th & A rap’s greatest success story, is one-for-two with making it onto WorldStar with his videos.

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Autumn Skateshop: 2001-2011

Photo by Emilio Cuilan

It sucks to end the year off on a sad note, but today will be the last day Autumn is open for business. They still have tees, beanies, and shop decks, so run over there and grab something as a keepsake. (No Bradley “Demon Child” tee re-issue, but there is talk of a Slicky Boy update of the same tee.) The shop will be open until 7:30.

There had been rumblings of the shop closing earlier in the month, even when we celebrated their ten years in business, but frankly, “Autumn is closing” rumors have been going on for years, so no one took it seriously until actually walking in yesterday and seeing this. Dave is deciding how he wants to proceed with the shop, and is still potentially re-opening in another East Village location come springtime. There is also the possibility of turning Autumn into something else down the line (e.g. more projects like the Autumn Bowl), but everything is still very much up in the air.

Like every other great thing in this city, it was easy to take the shop for granted. Much respect goes to Dave, Paul, Grandpa, Martin, and everyone else who has worked there throughout the years. None of us can imagine how tough it is to keep open a respectable skate shop in such a high-rent neighborhood without running some sort of gimmick along with it, especially when parents buy everything online, and outer-boroughs all have their own shops. Thanks to Dave and the crew for always being friendly, helpful, and down to talk nonsense or let us post up and watch a video whenever it was too cold or too dark to skate Tompkins. Thanks for all the T.F. boxes you built, all the discounts you gave, and all the lurk sessions you endured these past ten years. We’ll miss you guys, and hope to see you back in business soon.

Until then, the AUTUMNNYC.COM shop is open. You can buy tees, hats, etc. on there while the physical shop is still in a transitional stage. They’ll be adding more things to the shop in the coming weeks.

Update: Lurker Lou holds a vigil in front of the store.

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2011: 20-16

Back on it, sorry for the delay. Previous installment: #25-21

20. Blackberry solidifies its status as a “core” video device for skateboard videographers

2011 saw the largest wave of Blackberry-to-iPhone conversions from New Yorkers to date. Even those who swore by physical keyboards eventually crumbled in their stance, and purchased history’s most advanced piece of glass, allowing the iPhone to be seen on at least five out of every seven Tompkins benches by the end of the year. Though progress on smartphones is more rapid than on actual skateboard-filming-devices, this dynamic shift in technological preferences cast the Blackberry into the same core device category dominated by the VX1000. Blackberry loyalists (snobs?) like Paulgar, and other T-Mobile customers have continued to burn the torch for what has become the cellphone equivalent of skateboarding’s favorite “standard definition” camera, by continuing to release core-targeted Blackberry montages to combat the staleness of most iPhone edits.

And if “VHS is the new Super-8,” what is the Sidekick in this equation?

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Lockout Wall Street, Occupy the NBA

E.J. added some new lifestyle-ish photos to his portfolio site, Tomorrow’s New Happiness. Covers various points of interest: the T.F., M2M, Supreme, Black Donald Trump, the fact that “Lil” Andre is taller than all of us now, and how Tru Religion jackets are going to get big in skateboarding after that 2 Chainz tape drops tomorrow and changes everyone’s perspective on life.

As you probably heard, November is a wrap for the NBA. The most spoiled professional sports league in the world has robbed us of a Knicks v.s. Heat season opener at the Garden, which would have been on Wednesday. Our friends Adam Abada and Gabe Tennen printed some “Lockout Wall Street, Occupy the NBA” tees and are selling them for $15 to cover medical bills after Gabe’s recent ankle surgery. Hopefully, the slogan turns true, so Melo could stop playing pick-up games in Williamsburg, and drop his membership to the Under 40 Jewish League.

Never knew Frank Gerwer kickflipped the double-set at the Garden, like, fifteen years ago. Dude’s a legend.

The Times ran a brief article about Allen Ying’s 43 Magazine, with a slideshow of some sick photos. This one of Brian Delatorre switch olling the rail-to-bank on 33rd Street is a real standout. (To non-New Yorkers: That spot is literally a three-second bust.)

Happy Halloween. 4th Annual Naysayer Halloween Clip, Halloween-themed post on The Chrome Ball with old ads inspired by horror movies, etc., and an artsy Opening Ceremony Halloween skate clip. Below is our Halloween clip from four years ago (time flies.) We should have kept doing these in subsequent years, but we didn’t. The 2008 one was, uh, lazy.

Autumn has a re-stock of “NYC Man” Bart Simpson tee designed by Jerry Hsu.

Jason Lecras is having a photography show at Holmes & Co. this Saturday, November 5, from 7 to 9 P.M. Jason is one of the best people I’m fortunate enough to know, the greatest skateboarder from Long Island not named Frank or Gino (maybe), and a talented photographer. You can check out some of his work here.

This video, and everyone involved with it, set western civilization back fifty years.

Quote of the Week: Shawn Powers sends some pretty odd “Are you skating?” texts in the morning.

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Happy 1017

Go make some money today.

KCDC is releasing a video next month. Teaser here. The most exciting part, beyond the cast list (Dan Carrerio, Derick Ziemkiewicz, Myra Gallegos, Billy Mcfeely, Dan King, Rob Gonyon, Danny Falla, Bill Pierce, and what will inevitably be a plethora of cameos), is that the teaser was uploaded on the legendary Mark Markenson Vimeo account, home of the Sognar video.

Good news: The city fixed the ground at Columbus Park, but didn’t touch any of the skateable obstacles. Hopefully, they add some good benches.

Somebody does one of the more creative tricks at Marcus Garvery in this teaser for an upcoming Chicago/New York video. It’s cooler than the 957,573rd backside feeble grind probably being filmed there right now.

In other impressive local spot trick news, someone does a sick hardflip into that sketchy hill under the Long Island Expressway in this extras clip from the Dimestore video. It cuts out before riding into traffic, so it might technically not count.

Are Lakais ever acceptable footwear for aspiring NYC socialite-skaters?”

Pretty late on everything else, but in case you missed these:

Paulgar Blackberry cam montage featuring Brad Cromer, Jake Johnson, and Brengar at a karaoke bar. “Blackberrys are like the VX1000 of cell phone cameras, iPhones are HD.”

This brief profile on Autumn unfortunately does not run down any of the prominent nicknames of East Village skateboard staples, or call out any of the people who have slept there for prolonged periods of time.

First set-up, first video watched, first sponsor, and other firsts with the King of Flushing, Rodney Torres.

This shouldn’t be news to anyone, but West 4th is insane sometimes. Like, sketchiest-part-of-New-York insane, given a wrong night.

Quote of the Week: “I’m like the ‘Captain Save a Hoe‘ of skateboarding. I pick the worst possible spots and put too much effort into trying to skate them.” — Torey Goodall, in reference to skating this hell hole

Free Gucci.

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