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? :(

9. Instagram Knobs the L.E.S. Park

les knobs

Speaks for itself. The internet really can be the best.

8. A Construction Crew Piles a Bunch of Metal Plates on Top of Each Other

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

If you needed further evidence of how endangered the low-bust ledge spot in New York is, look no further. The most frequently skated ledge in lower Manhattan (that you stood a chance of enjoying for more than a half-hour) was a knee-high stack of road plates on Hester and Orchard Streets. People have such fond memories of this admittedly photogenic yet totally-just-okay ledge that they’re already looking for replicas.

7. T.J. 5050s the Police Plaza 16

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Every person who lives in New York and skateboards, or has visited it for the purpose of skateboarding, has walked down this set of stairs at least a thousand times. It is the gateway to the Banks and the Financial District: the most heavily-skated part of the city, at least until a rock became its premier spot. Everyone’s trucks have imaginatively grinded the rail on the walk down. Some people claimed it and a select few even tried it. But for as long as skateboarding has existed in New York, no one ever succeeded — this includes every visiting pro, hungry kids looking to get famous, etc. It has been in front of everyone’s face as rail skating has gotten crazier year after year.

T.J. pulled it off for the ender in the Supreme video this year, irrevocably renaming it “the cherry rail.”

6. Stativ IV

The internet may have “consumed” skate videos, but at least it’s beginning to deal away with the relevance of Detox videos (based on the True reception.) There’s a wide space between some slapdash web clip, and a video where you watch the grom in the first part complete puberty and enter fatherhood over the course of four minutes. Keeping focus in the middle ground from now on would be fine.

Static IV took almost ten years. Unlike many of its endlessly-delayed counterparts, and taking into account all of its surprises, it was worth the wait. We got Quim and Jahmal parts this year, God bless Josh for going through the work of making that happen. Except holding the DVD and being able to say “Whoa, it’s really real, no more waiting!” is almost as satisfying as actually watching it.

Bonus Mini 5 — The Chillest Lines of 2014
5. Chewy – Nosegrind, frontside crook, nosegrind revert, switch ollie (1:35)
4. Reider – Backside heelflip picnic table, switch backside heelflip picnic table (“cherry”)
3. Lucas – Nollie flip nosegrind, 360 flip, kickturn, fakie flip 5-0 (1:42)
2. Bobby – Switch frontside flip up three, nollie back heel, white rapper down three (3:29)
1. Sinner – Firecracker, kickturn, switch firecracker (5:04)

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