Moving right along with our annual recap series….
Previously: 25-16
Tag: Courthouse Drop
… And Then There Was X
“Took this at the corner of 3rd Street and 2nd Avenue almost eight years ago to the day. DMX was stopped at the intersection waiting for a red light. I nervously fumbled to get my phone out, framed him up, snapped one off and gave him a nod. He smiled, nodded back and told me to buy his record. The light turned green and he was off… R.I.P.” — Keith Denley, 4.14.13 / NY, NY
Not often that you see such an expanding brain take on skating the Courthouse Drop :)
The Skate Media™ loves Hungary’s Rios Crew. They’ve kept it interesting and evolving for so long. Just take it from Live’s lovely write-up on Mátyás Ricsi’s new Rios part, or the corresponding Grey interview with him about it. Budapest and Marseilles — that’s the post-pandemic travel wishlist, and that has everything to do with watching random skate edits on the internet ♥
2 G’s On Salads
“‘You had all these planners and architects in the 1950s and 60s saying cities need these grand, celebratory spaces — and they really didn’t.’ But apparently skaters did.” Curbed has an awesome feature about how some odious, post-WWII federal legislation ultimately lead to the creation of the sorts of public plazas that would prove to be the breeding ground of modern skateboarding.
“That might be a trick that’s been done, but it’s done differently…and with different pants on.” Vice has a video profile of Breezy and Una about growing up being two of the few girls skating in Vancouver.
The new Bluecouch edit starts in CT and ends in the city. Some rad stuff in there.
The Finnish guys who made the Hard Water video that went live on the Free site last week actually also put together a trip to New York edit that we only now caught onto. Love a vacation edit when the trees are bare + everyone is still in hoodies, though I’m sure it’s warmer than Helsinki. Also impressed by their cobblestone deterrent that keeps your board from rattling down into Sutton Place traffic.
Maybe it goes through a vigorous off-screen sanitizing process — but one’s bed seems like a bad place to sort through street debris. Anyway, here is an eight-minute glimpse into the life of Bobby Puleo.
Law & Order: Skateboard Victims Unit
Original photo via Jordan Zuppa
After snow plows and salt trucks, a good seven hours of Law & Order is the third most crucial element in New York’s snow recovery. Instead of spending yesterday’s snow day with Benson and Stabler, our researchers opted to combine their iconic theme song with footage from the New York skate spot seen in every episode of Law & Order. It might also be the most commonly filmed-at marquee gap spot in New York skateboard history, at least until it got put out of commission via a maze of barricades at its landing some two summers back. (Hasn’t stopped some people from trying.)
In the New York skateboard system, the Courthouse Drop is represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the skateboarders, who do the tricks, and the filmers, who film them. These are their stories…
Related: In Absentia – The Newport Remix
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?