The 2013 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 5-1

2013 was okay. What is it about New Year’s this year that makes it seem more garbage than usual though? Anyway, like, where’s everyone at tonight? ;)

Previously: #s 25-21, #s 20-16, #s 15-11, #s 10-6, The Year in T.F. Obstacles

5. The Subway Track Ollie

If you have ever stood on a subway platform staring at the countdown clock, the thought has come to mind: “Could someone hypothetically ollie over the tracks?” In theory, if Jeremy Wray did that water tower ollie, it’d have to be possible. Then you’d consider the additional curve-in, the timing, the train, the bust, and eventually, the third rail, which stands to give anyone who touches it an unpleasant departure from earth in the event of a worst case scenario.

The speculation ended this year, as Koki Loaiza ollied from platform to platform at the 145th Street A station…going towards the third rail and earning press from media outlets far beyond skateboarding’s typical reach.

4. Leo Gutman Q.S.S.O.T.Y.

You know that friend you grew up skating with who was really good, but who you increasingly saw on a bump-into basis as the years wore on because he moved to some island that no trains go to? That’s Leo for a lot of people.

Needless to say, it’s nice when the subject of “Whatever happened to..?”-inquiries is filming an amazing video part, and you feel stupid for ever asking that question.

3. The Fish Closes

Skateboarding will be the same, in that skateboarders will still give second hand embarrassing interviews about a bar closing. #EWTS

Lit can put in a pool table to lure those displaced by the Fish, Beverly’s can try its best at becoming a Sweet Paradise successor, and a select few can pretend that Sophie’s is a Fish expat hideout. (It’s not.)

All those pros you’d see at Max Fish these past three years were one-percenters being put up at the Rivington or Thompson Hotel by their sponsors. The truth is that the majority of the Fish’s clientele was priced out of Manhattan long ago, and Enid’s has been the marquee bum on wheels bar for years now. The concept of the Barmuda Triangle still having been in Manhattan in the days leading up to the Fish’s closure is a piece of convenient nostalgia. If anything, it’s a surprise that it took this long for Max Fish to move to Brooklyn.

2. The Only Videos That Really Matter

It took Francis Ford Coppola five years to make Apocalypse Now. Sure, the end result was one of the greatest films ever made, but the point here is this: It should not take anybody longer (or half as long) to make a skate video than it took Coppola to make Apocalypse Now.

Peter Sidlauskas and Johnny Wilson make the best videos because they come out like clockwork every year. They’re not footage dumps — they’re videos that are more fun to watch than what some companies with fifty-times the resources are churning out. Everyone has passed that point of wanting to hear about a video for five years. It’s 2014; the Chocolate Tour and Guilty days are over. Put it out there, get people hyped (or don’t) and move on.

(Or just disregard everything said above. It’s your time.)

1. People Got Really Good at Skateboarding

People being “good enough” to achieve certain things on skateboards in 2013 has been a recurring theme throughout this list. Skateboarders are moving to New York more than ever (when’s the last time you walked ten blocks without hearing a board rattle in the background?) to actually focus on skateboarding, rendering years of our jokes about productivity or lack thereof dated.

There will always be someone saying “But so-and-so isn’t *from* here!” If you’re still beating that drum, and haven’t realized that millions of people have been moving to New York to do great things (oftentimes even greater than skateboarding!) for as long as this place has existed, you’re probably too bitter and stuck in your ways to ever be convinced otherwise.

2013 was the first year where we could make a top ten list of the best parts predominantly filmed in New York by skaters who are unsponsored, on flow, or currently attached to a small company. Here are ten dudes that killed it, in alphabetical order. The list is limited to one inclusion per skater and per video.

Andrew Wilson – Beef Patty
Ben Kadow – \m/
Billy McFeely – Solo Jazz
Cyrus Bennett – Looney Bin
Derm – In Crust We Trust (More NJ than NY but whatever.)
Leo Gutman – The Brodies
Max Palmer – Mama’s Boys
Richie Rizzo – Nevermind
Tony Durao – Welcome to Waters & Army Part
Yaje Popson – Dece Vid

Bonus Mini 10 — Best Pro Parts of 2013:
Brandon Westgate – Made
Danny Brady – Definitely Brady
Danny Montoya – Real Street Part
Dennis Busenitz – Euro Lines
Donovan Piscopo – Nike SB Chronicles 2
Erik Ellington – The Deathwish Video (Yeah, the Clint Walker and Dane Burman parts are insane but we’re going old fashioned for this category.)
Ishod Wair – Sabotage 3 Remix
Javier Sarmiento & Eric J. Pettersson- Stee
Lucas Puig – Bon Voyage
Mike Carroll – Dog (It’s a re-edit of old footage, but this got more burn than anything on this list.)
“Not pro but should be getting paid to skateboard in some shape, form or fashion” Entrants: Jordan Trahan – “Boros to Bayous” and Christian Willis – The Homie Video