2014 New York Skateboarding Year in Review: 10-6

supreme dollar slice

Line around the corner.

Moving on… 25-21 here, 20-16 here, and 15-11 here.

10. The Dollar Slice Hints at an Eventual Extinction, Mass Starvation to Follow

Any New York-based news outlet spends at least eighty-percent of its content discussing how expensive it is to live here. We are no better, even if we have checking accounts to brave through higher prices for shitty pizza.

Since the dollar slice boom of 2010, this bare-bones food option has become an emblem for #poor skateboarders. It has been steadfast in its immunity to inflation, unlike every other pizza place that has raised its per-slice cost by 25 cents every year or two. That is, until 2014, when we began to see the unthinkable: dollar slice outlets charging TAX on a once tax-inclusive product, and promotions like a “Supreme Dollar Slice,” for $1.50. This hints at a future not unlike Interstellar, where [underemployed] skateboarders run out of available food and have to pack up and move to…Philly? :(

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One Less Spot Downtown :(

wtc-knobbed-1

View from the top of the spot here

The building started knobbing the entire southern ledge section at the World Trade ledges as of a few days ago. They haven’t completely ruined the ledge off the seven yet, except you’ll need to gap out a foot past the first two knobs if you want to get a last minute trick on it. It’s safe to assume they’ll knob the entire ledge sooner rather than later. The northern section with the manual pad and the small ledge over the tree gap is skateable, but who knows how long that’ll stay around for…

For a spot that came pre-knobbed when it opened up in the summer of 2006, it’s amazing the rest of the ledges here made it this far. It was probably the best spot in the Financial District area that you sorta kinda maybe occasionally had a chance of skating, especially with the metal Seaport ledges gone.

Here’s a fun session from when we were filming for the Christmas 2013 clip. We didn’t get kicked out from 3 P.M. onwards. It was amazing and unprecedented. Good times.

There’s also this dumb clip from summer 2007. 240p.

Don’t Make Me Remember Stuff

robbie gangemi tompkins

Robbie Gangemi via @zered1’s Instagram

R.I.P. to the best T.F. box in years. It barely even lasted a week. The pre softball permit culture of the T.F. was its golden age. Imagine if the next generation of Americans has more skateboarders than baseball players, and they kick out the softball players with skateboard permits? That’ll be funny.

The editor behind Dog, the greatest remix compilation skate video ever, put together an hour-long compilation of Girl/Chocolate/Four Star tour footage, entitled Super International Tour Zone. Thanks again, you should own a share of the company.

Boil the Ocean rounded up all recent Pappalardo sightings, which mostly stem from his friends’ Instagram accounts. There seems to be a recurring theme of tricks on motor vehicles and 5050s.

Transworld offers a rap remix of Walker Ryan’s New York-heavy Perpetual Motion part, which is bound to put a smile on any backpacker’s face. Speaking of Pappalardo, Ryan’s trick on the manny pad-to-bank at Grant’s Tomb is nuts.

Matt Militano’s part in the \m/ video is great. The line at J Kwon is quite impressive and the hurricane grind shove-it out at Lenox Ledges is pretty chill too. (Lurker Lou is such a dick, man.) You can check the video’s intro here and buy the full thing here. UPDATE: They just uploaded the whole video on YouTube.

Did Adidas generate a year’s worth of content from its summer 2012 New York trip? NY Skateboarding compiled scans of New York-related content in this month’s crop of skate mags, and yes, there are more Adidas New York photos.

Spot Updates: The parks department knocked chunks out of every ledge on the pier next to the Tribeca park, as an effort to ruin them before we got the chance to or something.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Game 7! The only horse we have left in this race is a Heat loss, though the NBA is probably sweating bullets over viewer projections for a Pacers-Spurs finals. Don’t be surprised if there are a few questionable, Miami-favoring calls tonight in the event of a close game…As for an actual “play,” the moment when Tim Duncan discovered he had arms was cool.

Godspeed, Jason Kidd. He retired from pro basketball today.

Quote of the Week:

boyfriend

If you missed the PWBC revival that went live this weekend, check the post below this one. Don’t make me remember stuff.

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2012: 15-11

knobs

Previously: #s 25-21, 20-16. Have a good weekend.

15. The Average Completion-of-Construction-to-Knobbing Time Frame For New Skate Spots Reaches an Unprecedented Low

New York continues to have issues with underreported hate crimes. For the first time ever, the under-construction spots that we have been eyeing for months have begun coming with pre-installed knobs (cue up Rob Welsh’s Free Your Mind intro.) Consult the too-good-to-be-true “Late Show Ledges” on Broadway, and even bad spots like those marble blocks across from the Hilton on Sixth or those shitty wooden ledges at the hospital by the Banks for examples, all of which got knobbed within a month of blockades coming down.

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The Michigan Deposit Bottle Scam

“No, an 18-wheeler’s no good. Too much overhead. You got permits, weigh stations, tolls. Look, you’re way out of your league.” You know that thing about life imitating art? Yeah. The Quartersnacks Michigan Bottle Deposit Scam Tour: Coming Soon. Our G & A goes down 50%!

If you ordered a tee or board, your package will be shipped tomorrow. Black tees are sold out online, but will be available at Supreme later this week.

You may have noticed that the entire school of which 12th & A is a part of has been completely fenced off. Well, the building is not condemned, like many had assumed. (There were rumors of a developer trying to get the school off the land in order to build condos some years back.) There is a structural defect on the eastern wall (12th & A is on the west side of the building), and the Board of Ed. had to temporarily close the school in order to administer emergency repairs. You can’t skate there for now, but hopefully, the spot remains when it’s re-opened.

It looks like summer now ends on Columbus Day instead of Labor Day. There’s a place you could go this winter, though. Cut back on the bars and start saving now.

Late, but Ice Cream rebooted their skate team with a few kids who have been ripping around New York these past few years. Not sure about Easter egg colored shoes, but new footage of Andre Beverley, Stephan Martinez and Jamel Marshall is always welcome.

Connor Champion’s full part from the NC-based 3Hunna video.

The Philadelphia City Council temporarily put a bill that would increase fines for skateboarding from $300 to $2,000 (with possibly up to 90 days in jail) on a temporary hold.

Some dudes skating every single crusty bank spot in New York City. #noskateparks

Did Paulgar re-do his look to land some street style shots on menswear blogs?

Here’s an all-night MCVX montage. They skate Crosby Street and seem to be in favor bringing back skateboarding to the front of Union Square, something that has been on a consistent decline since summer 2004.

Fabian Alomar is currently facing 26-to-life in jail as part of California’s “three strikes” law (his “third strike” was a non-violent offense.) DGK released four minutes of largely unseen footage, claiming it would have been his Menace video part, had it actually ever come out. If Fabian has four minutes of footage, there’s got to be other people with unseen clips. Why don’t they just go ahead and release the entire “Menace Video?” Better 17-years-late than never. For now, DGK is selling tees with 100% of the proceeds going to Fabian’s legal fees.

One of the most beloved curbs in lower Manhattan (as seen in those Skate NYC clips from the late-80s and Aaron Szott’s Lurkers 2 section) is no more.

Quote of the Week
Non-Baseball Fan #1: “The Mets are for old Jewish guys.”
Non-Baseball Fan #2: “No, the Yankees are for old Jewish guys.”
Both Non-Baseball Fans Together: “…baseball is for old Jewish guys.”