Moving right along with our annual recap series….
Previously: 25-16
15. The N.A.C. Into the Courthouse
When does a famous skate spot reach its peak saturation point?
A good marker would be when people start doing the N.A.C. on it — the notorious trick that eluded P. Rod in the seminal 2009 film, Street Dreams, which coincidentally has now been voted as the 7th greatest film of all time on the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey .
And before you lambast the guy in the comments for calling Felipe Gustavo’s execution of the N.A.C. “such a NY trick,” let’s not forget Queens native Rodney Torres did it on the Flushing extension in a 1999 Transworld video.
14. Knocked Over Signposts Reach New Heights
Via “iPhone Mixtape” by The Star Team
Via Alex Greenberg’s Much Needed After a Long
And what happens when you begin to run out of tricks at a spot?
Obviously, you bring the knocked over signpost that was sitting on top of the manny pad at Divison and East Broadway, and set it off the edge.
ABD scroll… erased 🪄
13. The High Fashion Detente
Fashion week came roaring back to pre-2020 highs this year, and 50% of the people on your timeline took September off from skateboarding to model.
Except, what if the biggest collaboration between fashion and skateboarding wasn’t on the runway, but in the fact that the Rick Owens store on Crosby decided to stop kicking skaters out during business hours? See Nik Stain’s Play Dead part for the most fully-fledged display of Rick “getting” skateboarding far more than any would-be fashion line that wishes to “align” with skating.
(The Margiela flagship across the street still makes you wait until close to skate its Philly step 🙄 pfft.)
12. Gettin’ Sturdy at Blue Park
Since the pandemic, Blue Park overtook even L.E.S. Park as the most-skated location in the entire city. As you know, it suffered a major setback early this year, when all its extra ramps were forcibly relocated to the far less-convenient K Bridge Park, leaving it a shell of its former, bustling self.
Well, that was until Woody, Minnie and a Minion came through at the Alltimers x Tenant jam this past August, and planted the seeds for a revitalization, in a viral moment that spanned from Akademiks to Worldstar.
11. Danny Weiss Gets A Haircut
Life is all about being in the right place at the right time.
Earlier this summer, Upper West Side O.G. and day one QS affiliate Danny Weiss was getting a cut across the street from the Yellow Rail that holds “first flatbar” status for manny Upper Manhattanites. It is also where Bobby Puleo did one of the more famous backside nosegrinds in skate video history. The park was in the middle of a demolition, and through some careful plotting, we were able to salvage this iconic hunk of iron, refurbish it, and bring it to T.F.
Shout out John Cruz, shout out Greg Navarro.
10. Sunset on Sunrise Mart
Eating on the cheap — while still maintaining some semblance of health — isn’t easy. For that reason, Sunrise Mart’s under-$3 onigiri rice balls and close proximity to Tompkins held a special place in our hearts, until they closed due to a rent beef with the landlord this past March.
(Yeah yeah, there’s still one in Soho and Midtown, but those never got the same amount of skater traffic.)
9. The Banishment of the Forbidden Banks
Hitting Forbidden Banks on one of your first-ever childhood midtown missions was a formative experience; if you got more than a minute, you talked about it for a week. Security on the loudspeaker, people throwing shit at you from above, or a guard threatening you with a bat — there was never a dull moment. This place retained a mischievous air no matter how many years you had been trying to get time there. That is, until 2022, when the spot got forbidden for eternity into a pile of dusty rubble. Some real “I’d rather destroy it than see you enjoy it”-shit 🤨
8. The City Knobs A Curb
We tell them you want healthcare, better schools, and affordable housing.
They tell us they can’t hear us, they’re too busy drilling knobs into a curb on a closed-off street.
7. Cardiel’s First Street Clip Since the Injury
A skateboard trick is never just a trick — there’s a story, a background, a mythology to the whole thing.
To the average onlooker, a 48-year-old man front boarding a parking block in Soho might not register as much, but for an entire culture — whether you grew up with Cardiel’s Sight Unseen part on rotation or learned his story through Epicly Later’d — it was hard not to smile at the sight of him doing it against all odds.
6. Zak Anders’ Lipslide
New York, like any big skate scene, is full of “why is this waxed”-mysteries.
While the answer is often BMXers or rollerbladers, we learned that the curved ledge in the median at the westernmost point of Canal Street (coincidentally across the street from one of the most insane things Brandon Westgate has ever done) actually had a skate trick done on it, via Zak Anders’ lipslide around in “COW BOY” by Chase Walker. Insane.
Bonus Mini Rapidfire 5
Best Song Drop In A Video: DJ Assault’s “Cold” @ the 11 minute mark of O.G.2000’s “One Note Is All It Takes” video.
Book of the Year Award: Palace Product Descriptions: The Selected Archive.
#TRENDWATCH2023: That rail through the grass on Kent.
That’s One Way To Celebrate: Getting your pro model javelin’d into your head at your pro party.
Outstanding Achievement in Evading Security: Julian Lewis and Jenkem at Roosevelt Island.
Jordan gesko grind the canal street ledge a decade ago
Drop that link baby!