The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2012: 5-1

seaport

2012 is just about a wrap. Have a happy and safe New Year’s. Previously: #s 25-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-6 + 2012 Predictions, The Year in T.F. Obstacles.

5. New York Knobs a Skatepark

With the knobbing of a plaza made up of ledges better than any ledge in a New York skatepark, we reached a new level of absurdity. Previously, tearing out a strip of ground in front of the Small Banks, installing chessboards to entice average citizens and failing miserably was the lowpoint. This spot’s demise more-or-less ended the days of skating Water Street for an entire afternoon, as there’s no longer a “great” spot on the east side of downtown. People now skate skateparks, former C-list spots like Gay Ledges, or went back to what they were doing before Seaport got built, which is skating flat at T.F. If there’s one consolation prize from this situation, it’s that all those overzealous security guards, who would angrily warn everyone of the day when the spot would be knobbed, got fired because there was nothing left for them to do.

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Nothing Like It

Raw & uncut. Beanie Sigel at the L.E.S. / Manhattan Bridge Skatepark. Photo by Black Dave.

FYI: Supreme has Snackman cruisers and Lamborghinis (designed by Pryce Holmes and Will Carpio) available for $50 + tax. Available online soon eventually.

Another FYI: Get your entries in for our stupid line contest by the end of the week (due by the end of the day, Friday), and win a Girl/Indy/Spitfire complete, Nikes, Oakleys and 4-Star gear. The stupider, the better.

Here’s a standalone YouTube link to the Bronze / Flipmode section from TWOMANJI in all its 360p glory. In our initial post, we neglected to commend TWOMANJI on its usage of two classic Styles P songs (“Holiday” and “Nobody Believes Me“), so lets take some time out to do that now.

The Chrome Ball Incident interviewed Jeff Pang about being a New York-based pro skater in the 80s and early-90s. “I think in Harold’s mind he thought that the letter was somehow delivered to it’s destination through a wormhole, not knowing that a postman comes by every day to pick up the mail and brings it to the post office.”

Anyone looking for a job? There’s a chill opening in Midtown.

Animal NY did an interview with “two dudes who skated from Boston to New York.”

Here’s a throwaway reel from the crew behind the “Gravity Hammers” from several weeks ago. Been saying this forever, but skateboarders really like Big L.

After getting sidetracked on Twitter about the ten-year anniversary of Lord Willin’ and how there are barely any decent Clipse songs in skate videos, this Dan Murphy part from YOUGOTTAGETTHAT edited to “Popular Demand” (the only great song from the last Clipse album) came to mind. There’s also this 2006 SevenFiveSeven.org clip edited to a “Mr. Me Too” and Outkast “Chonkyfire” blend.

Lil’ Wayne says he doesn’t like New York (Whew. No TrukFit demos at the L.E.S. park!), and a New York senator demands that he apologize. This is what New York politicians worry about nowadays — apologies from Lil’ Wayne and banning big sodas.

Check out T-Bird’s music video cameo debut. Add this to the list of Mooney and Ty in an Ashlee Simpson video, Tierney, B.D. and Mooney in a N.E.R.D. video, and Weiss in a Timberlake video. We big in the music video extras world.

Quote of the Week:


R.I.P. Neil Armstrong

TWOMANJI: The 2012 Skate Video From 1998 (?)

VHS may currently be the most reliable form of time travel available to humans (at least as far as skate videos are concerned.) TWOMANJI is a video by Kurt Havens that claims to originate from 1998, but looks like 1988, as it has more in common with the Skate NYC videos that surfaced online last spring (see here or here) than anything actually released in 1998. (Much speculation surrounds this theory.) Many fear that we will soon live in a world where skateboard plagiarists begin filming new tricks at spots in the VHS format in an effort to convolute skateboard history and A.B.D. timelines. Government intervention within this largely unregulated form of time travel seems inevitable.

The video features various Flipmode affiliates, and even a 5-minute Bronze section midway with extras from the past several Sidlauskas productions. A good watch, even if many mysteries surrounding TWOMANJI‘s origins remain.

Side A:
I. Billy McFeely ft. Don Gonyon: 0:01 – 3:25
II. Bill Pierce: 3:26 – 5:53
III. Friends: 5:54 – 9:42
IV. Rene Perez/Richard Quintero: 9:43 – 11:09
V. A.J. Nagy/ Robert Sunshine (ft. James Buchman, Jimmy Pakidis, JP Blair, and Jersey Dave): 11:10 -15:15
VI. Curt Havens ft. Joseph Amsel: 15:16 – 17:41

Side B:
VII. Bronze Hardware co. commercial [chopped and screwed by Peter Sidlauskas]: 17:42 – 25:34
VIII: Pat Murray ft. Don Gonyon, Shawn Powers, and Peter Sidlauskas: 25:35 – 28:58
IX: Paulgar on Houston Street: 28:59 – 29:13
X: Nick Ricciardi: 29:14 – 32:43
XI: Credits: 32:44 – 35:09

God Forgives, The T.F. Don’t

Called it. Remember that “joke” post about $1,000 griptape last month? Guessing what’s next isn’t a tough call. P.S. Our trend forecasting and consultation services are available for a hefty retainer fee.

The Bronze 56K DVD (which includes the other three Flipmode videos) is now available at DQM for those who are afraid the government watches their every move, and are hesitant to enter financial information online. The DVD is not the extensive box set we had envisioned for New York’s greatest skate video franchise, but even as a bare bones release, it is a must-own. Hopefully, sometime before the DVD completely dies off, we’ll have a 6-disc Criterion Collection release with director’s commentaries, “Where are they now?” featurettes for Why Man Why and Billy Lynch, Flipmode 3, I Woke Up Dead, and the believed-to-be-lost first video all included.

If you’re over 21, have an internet connection, and ride a skateboard, there’s a 98% you’ll see any Gino-related thing within 12 hours of it going online. If not, watch his DQM welcome video. Wow on the music supervision.

Vice has a cool retrospective on early-nineties skate ‘zines.

Quim Cardona gives you a tour of the oft-neglected Newark, NJ skate scene. (“Daytime’s the shit out here in the bricks, boy. I love it. But when nighttime come…”)

This “Lil’ Wayne is into skateboarding” thing doesn’t look like it’s ending anytime soon. Hey Wayne, unless you’re Mike Carroll filming for Fully Flared or something, 30 isn’t the best time to begin focussing on skateboarding. Stick to what you’re good at what you used to be good at. (Also: Will the grand opening of the skatepark Wayne is building in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward look anything like the “Pop That” video?)

Here’s some extra crisp-looking footage from New York and Philly via the crew that brought you the video named Video.

Josh Kalis talks about how pills suck and other things.

New Krispy Du-Rag clip to keep them waves tight. Features Luis Tolentino skating the Maloof Park like it’s a street spot.

A few weeks ago, it was skateboarding in Uganda. This week, here are some photos of the skate scene in Afghanistan. Skateboarding is super chill.

A pre-trip video interview with our two friends who are skateboarding from Boston to New York right now. (Follow via @backstreetatlas on Instagram & Twitter.)

Nevermind, a video by Paul Young featuring yet another Jersey Dave part, is premiering later this month. Flyer here, teaser for the video here.

Quote of the Week: “Hamburger featuring cheese.” — Black Dave ordering lunch


Brooklyn is gross.

New Flipmode / Bronze Video: ’56k’

In recent times, many have opted to fetishize VHS. The new Flipmode video went another route, and mined the 90s for every other piece of technological nostalgia, devising a Amazon Women on the Moon-esque concoction of early-internet imagery, late night TV channel guides, Jordan-era NBA clips, Baywatch?, and uh, mixtape drops. 56k loves the 90s, but is less fond of the 2000s. The only nod to the previous decade is a tasteful reutilization of perhaps the only great song to ever be in an EST video. And if you were to base a drinking game around taking a shot every time someone skates a spot on the island of Manhattan in this video, you’d end up taking around ten shots. Features Phil Rodriguez, Billy McFeely, Adrian Vega, Matt Daniels, Kevin Tierney, Shawn Powers, Joseph Delgado, Rob Gonyon, and guest tricks from others. Whether or not Bronze is an actual “company” has yet to be determined.

You can buy 56k on DVD, along with the past three Flipmode videos (Trife, Sognar, and Caviar) included on the same disc. $10 + $2 shipping, so it’s stupid not to.

Best outfit of the video goes to Phil Rodriguez: Camo pants and a tie-dye crewneck sweatshirt.