In many ways, 2022 was a benchmark year where so many definitive things turned ten. Everything from Labor to Tinder to Bronze to Jenkem to Bill’s first-ever edit with Tyshawn for Supreme have been with us for a decade now.
Things keep changing, time keeps flying, and we’re back to keep a lil’ inventory of it all.
25. Keith Gets a Tech Deck
Favorite spots will get bulldozed, just as our favorite pants will tear to shreds. Our favorite skate shoes will get discontinued, or at least only made in worse materials. Board brands come, board brands go, sometimes taking our favorite shapes with them.
But Keith’s Tech Deck is forever.
24. Straight Fucking Ledges™
Certain spots have worn themselves into such fixtures on the Summer Trip to New York circuit, that’s its almost as if the tricks cease to register. The Wall Street dirt gap ledge is one of them, which makes it all the more ironic that Diego Todd was able to unplug us from the matrix by simply skating the straight ledge ten feet over. Not sure a noseslide nollie flip over the dirt would’ve even registered, but this one did.
23. R.I.P. NY Skateboarding
We’ve seen enough print is dead v.s. long live print battles in skate media over the past 10-15 years, but something about digital publications shuttering almost feels like a new frontier for alarm. Godspeed to the crew at NY Skateboarding for being the NY1 of skate events and new skatepark openings for 12 years.
22. Polish Park Lives
An endearing facet of skate videos is seeing a crew maintain allegiance to certain things after they fall out of flavor. The Bronze dudes and Derrick Z. made the Polish Ledges on McGuiness famous in an era that could be called the genesis of online skate videography. Seeing them bring a whole new generation of affiliates through in promotion of a shoe collab for “What If God Said” felt like an Easter egg for those of us who have been rocking with them since the beginning.
21. Caddo’s “Pattern Language” Part
If there’s one dude who we’ve been in absolute awe of with each passing part, it’s Caddo. Dude’s in his 40s, just dropped a kid, has a job, has been skating the same city for two decades, and still manages to hit midtown, go on rock missions with Lou, and have patience with cellar doors. The FedEx ledge got knobbed? No worries.
20. Nick Matthews’ HUF Homage
Photo by Mike Heikkila
Politics had a rare moment of unison this past spring, when the Senate unanimously voted to make Daylight Saving Time permanent (e.g. it won’t get dark at 4:30 P.M. next November.)
In skateboarding, that moment came this year when Nick Matthews paid homage to Huf’s lipslide on 36th Street by doing it backside ❤️ Whether you are the grumpy old head or the kid who leaves fire emojis under every fucking post, it was hard not to smile.
19. Stu’s Part
The only thing cooler than first-try front boarding the fifteen-stair rail in front of potentially the biggest bust in the city is the fact that you already front boarded the big rail on the other side of the Brick 9 building first try in the same day.
18. Rappers Begin a Long Road Back From Skinnies
Rap and skateboarding have enjoyed a fruitful coexistence. In the nineties, hip-hop was the impetus for much of the standard-issue fashions in many classic skate videos; artists then earned lifelong fans who’ll still hit a GZA show in 2022 after first hearing him in skate videos.
In later years, it was skaters who supplied the fashion tips. Lil’ Wayne laid claim to “skinny pants and some Vans” in 2010, and rappers have stuck to it, long after the Krew skinnies era ended for skaters. In fact, there’s been minimal movement in rappers’ pants choices whatsoever since then.
That is…until this year, when two artists we hold dear to our hearts admitted they need …bigger jeans.
Which brings us to the next point…
17. Is #Pants Discourse Reaching Critical Mass?
It remains to be seen whether Big Boys end up being the 2020s version of Janoskis: worn into unprecedented ubiquity in skateboarding, proceeded by widespread mall adoption, only to be looked back on as a relic of a very specific era. But the Noah designer making headlines for turning the ship around at J. Crew partly due to the cult-like following of their really big pants might be a sign of where we’re headed.
16. The Seagram Ride-On Grind
Like Elaine Benes once said, “It’ll be years before they find another place to hide more cheese on a pizza.”
And it’ll be years before someone figures out a new way to skate Seagram. Let’s give it up to Noah Singleton for unlocking a ride-on over an eight-flat-nine in ‘Till It’s Gone at a spot that you only thought was a step-up ledge.
Bonus Mini Rapidfire 5
Still Makes Zero Sense: Eddie Cernicky front wallride back 180 at the Jake Johnson white wall
Skate Event MVP: @nolimitbrod
Videographer of the Year: The kid who films on his laptop
2023 Resolution: Timestamping YouTube uploads with names if you’re not going to put titles in
Most Replayed Single Clip: Alan Bell’s heelflip from “be honest“
Love Stu but I need to put respect on Nolan Lee who also front boarded that rail first try in a tie dye hoodie circa 2013 filmed by Richard Quintero. Not sure where the clip lives.
It’s a way bigger rail now than it was in the Pappalardo days.
Sincerely,
Guy Who Lives in Midtown
I’ve made it onto the site I’ve accomplished everything in skating
AND the rail was way flimsier back then
Agree that time will tell if Big Boys end up being the Next SB Janoski but also feel its just as likely that the slim pants era was actually the fad similar to how skinny boards had a big shine in the late 90s-00s. Once boards got bigger they never really went back down in size. Feel like its tough finding anything under 7.8 anymore
Pretty sure that permanent daylight savings time bill got stalled in the House and did NOT get signed by the president.
For fuck’s sake.