Let’s get it going — a review of the year when it rained every single weekend in the summer.
Without further ado, here is the minutiae, the laughter, the tears, the triumphs and defeats that defined the year 2023 in New York skateboarding.
Tag: Forbidden Banks
The 2022 Quartersnacks Year in Review: 15-6
Banished To Our Memories — Rest in Peace to Forbidden Banks
The Forbidden Banks are no more.
There has seldom been a Manhattan spot that incited thoughts of “Well, what did you think was going to happen when you built this?” quite like Forbidden Banks did.
Located between an apartment building and the Jamaican Consulate, this maybe five-foot-high brick embankment lead up to an uninviting wooden platform. The spot was nestled between so many tall buildings that it rarely encountered natural light; there are far better parks nearby for an office worker to enjoy lunch, and few people ever chilled here.
The plaza did, however, invite an unintentional activity.
This spot had been around since many of us were kids skating midtown for the first time. It earned its name because you could consider yourself lucky if you got more than a try-and-a-half. How they hadn’t skateblocked it after decades of trench warfare with security and doormen was one of New York skateboarding’s great mysteries.
Like A Farmer
What in the wide wide world of sports is a “Training Field?!” Ummm hellooooo, it’s a F A C I L I T Y. There’s a quick feature on the making of the Palace Calvin Klein collab up on GQ. If you want some more Willem Dafoe New York content, highly recommend you watch Light Sleeper from 1992, assuming you’re ok with your movies being more ~vibes~ than plot. Written/directed by Paul Schrader (dude who wrote Taxi Driver obvs), and Susan Sarandon is hot af in it (lol) 🥵
Switch flip goals via Jessyka Bailey’s part in There’s Ruining Skateboarding video, which went up on Thrasher late last week.
Sometimes the skate gods smile down upon you, and you and some friends get a lot of time at Forbidden Banks. SOMETIMES. All that and more in Misc Moments #4 from Marcello, Nabi, Caleb, and the Canal boys.