Brooklyn Banks History via Blading Info

Brian Shima – Fishbrain stall. Photo: Drew Amato

“The Brooklyn Banks in New York is one of the most famous spots in the world of extreme sports. Already in the mid 90’s the first generation jumped the stairs and worked on their first grinds. Over the years the spot, which is in front of a huge police station, became a legal street spot and some of the biggest real street events in blading, skateboarding and BMX took place at the banks.

But today the spot is un-skatable since its giving construction crews a staging area for trucks and equipment until 2014 during a four-year renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge. We spoke to some of the NY locals to find out how they feel about the situation…” – Blading.info.” Full articles at Blading.info.

Austin Paz about the Brooklyn Banks What does this spot mean to you?
This is one of the few spots I’ve seen people skating since before i started in the mid-90s. Every time I see or think of the banks, I see history. The Brooklyn Banks is the Madison Square Garden of skating. If you go to MSG, all over the place you can see huge pictures, portraits, and plaques of historical moments in sports that have happened in that arena throughout its existence, I always felt you could do the same thing at the banks.

Here’s Angelo Ferrer (The Art of Rolling) about the Brooklyn Banks. Best memories from the Banks?

One of my personal favorite moments at the Brooklyn Banks occurred when I was young and there was a huge NISS skate competition at south street seaport. I was very young at the time and was lucky to be unsupervised by my parent and joined the mob of skaters that flocked the Brooklyn Banks.
I remember at the time there being skaters from all over the world there. It was my grommet period in skating and I adored how all the pros I looked up to happen to be in one spot at the same time. For whatever reason the Brooklyn banks session stood out more to me than the competition that took place shortly before because everyone was putting in so much energy. It was great to see what normally I would only see on television take place right before my eyes.

Brooklyn Banks Present day. Photo: Ryan Loewy

Would you say it had an influence on your development as a rollerblader? (Franco Cammayo)
I think so. Provided the rugged layout, dirty unforgiving floors and raw obstacles in a place where it was easy to meet bladers from all over the five boroughs I think it embodied NY blading in a nutshell and it shaped my blading in terms of working with what the spot has, making old things into something new, creativity etc.

Would you say it had an influence on your development as a rollerblader? (I Roll NY)
The Brooklyn Banks definitely had an influence on my development as a rollerblader and I think it influenced almost everyone that was lucky enough to skate it. The Banks was one of the premiere spots in New York City to try out new tricks and perfect the ones you already had in your vocabulary. Not to mention it was the spot where all of the big tricks went down during most of NYC’s biggest competitions. The down rail was the perfect setup to get people juiced to try new tricks and when the bigger stair rails were put in, it was time to step it up and see what you could really do. The Brooklyn Banks was about 4-5 different spots all in one location and I think it helped a lot of bladers with their tricks and influenced them to try new ones.

Read the full articles here and here.

Source: http://blading.info

Isn’t It Funny? Falling and You!

Isn’t it funny? How you always whined up hearing about friends, family, and idiots in general breaking bones, tearing ligaments, and generally eating shit on the stupidest of things? You’ll hear something like, “Your cousin Susie,” or “Guadalupe” if you’re Hispanic, (Don’t worry, it’s cool. I’m Puerto Rican. I can be stereo typical…or at least that’s what the assholes I skate with tell me.) “…She just broke her back in 10 different places walking down 3 stairs. Ay dios mio!” And you’re all like, “What the fuck? I just jumped 20 stairs, and all I got were these scratches on my palms.” Side note: That quote might be pretty awesome on a tee.

Ryan Loewy is Better Than You / A Real Supporter

“If there is one person that I believe busts his ass the most in the New York blade scene and gets more shit for it than praise, it has to be Craig B. Craig has been running I ROLL NY for over 5 years now, and he provides something that, despite the criticism, is crucial to the development of the NY Scene. Craig gave me my first photo entry for I ROLL NY over 5 years ago and was essentially my start in blade photography. Furthermore, he hooked it up with my first press pass at Bittercold. What Craig provides that others don’t is a platform, a website that is, for kids of all levels to show their blade skills, and will continue to do so and not give a shit what others have to say, whether it be some random hero hiding behind an online moniker or some established pro; in simple, haters are gonna hate but Craig will keep doing what he does because he loves blading. He provides an environment where a NY blader can go and see what’s up, who’s got the newest edit, who’s repping NY, who’s doing this, who’s doing that, and so forth.

Craig also is up on the design tip and, throughout the existence of I ROLL NY, he has put out little nifty, one run products that always seem to catch hella hype. Over the summer, Craig told me he was working on a new deal for Billy O’Neill’s NYC invite, and I was kind of worried about what it was. Worried? Yeah, worried, because Craig’s I ROLL NY tee was such a success that I didn’t know if he could top it. On top of that, everyone tries to jump on the handout tip, and as we all know, this is especially common in blading. Well, hints came here and there, and then finally Craig dropped the bomb. Going on the snap back trend, Craig commissioned one of the dopest pieces to be had at the Invite, and like a champ, sold them all out that day. He even got offers from distro companies to make a second run, you know, after all that hype. But Craig declined, which is something I respect about Craig. He could of made a good deal money from it. But he didn’t. Because it isn’t about the money. To be cliché as all hell, it’s about the love, which is what I ROLL NY, I believe, embodies, and, through these small products that Craig makes, well, a piece of that mentality lives in each one. Cheers Craig.” – Ryan Loewy.

Thanks Ryan for the kind words, acknowledgements, and for being one of, if not the only person, who continues to contribute to the site after I helped get their names out in the rollerblading world. Cheers Ryan.

Source: http://ryanloewy.tumblr.com

Staten Impossibe: Finding A Good Ledge on the Island

Sasha Sergieiev laces a top acid while Sebastian Michalski laces a scorpion handstand

“Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city.” Now that I’ve filled the first sentence with a copy and paste job from Wikipedia I can now start the story about our journey to Staten Island and how we did not find one good ledge the whole day. Sebastian Michalski aka White Murda, Sasha Sergieiev aka Papa Sasha, and myself aka me, drove out to the island to film new spots and forgotten spots.

Filming with Jesus Medina

We all know today sucks. It’s been raining all day and everyone’s bragging about being at Bitter Cold where they’re sitting with a bunch of strange men getting drunk doing borderline homosexual activities they’ll be scared to tell their grandchildren about. But I digress, yesterday was awesome. If you didn’t have any responsibilities or obligations and you had the ability to maneuver your fat feet into your rollerblades then you should’ve been out blading. 60 degree weather in NYC is awesome by itself, but 60 degree weather in the middle of February is even more awesome. It’s something I like to call “awesomore.”

Coleman (L.E.S.) Skatepark 2012 Revamp

“The skate park under the Manhattan Bridge aka Chinatown/LES Skate Park on our block is due for a complete renovation next year! The HAO/Holm Architecture Office won the design bid for the project and the new park will be funded by Architecture for Humanity and a Nike Gamechanger’s grant…the development of the new park that will be known as “Coleman Oval Skate Park.” With the recent loss of the nearby, historic Brooklyn Banks, we feel that this “revamp” is long overdue. In addition to a brand new skate park, the new design includes a dog-run with a view, upgraded baseball field, new playground, an urban gallery (sounds like legal walls), and new board game benches. See the layout plans of the space below:

“New York has more film festivals than any other city in the world. Throughout the summer, independent and established film festivals show screenings under the bridge. Summer concerts includes locals and national bands celebrating the coolest music venue in the city while, on select days, the part and skate park combines to create the Coleman Oval Market for furniture, food and festivities.” This is a great idea but we’re not sure if anyone factored in the constant loud roar of the train overhead during these concerts and screenings” – Klughaus Galley.

Source: http://klughaus.net/

Jon Ortiz “Where Are They Now?” WheelScene Interview

Photo: Jeremy Stephenson.

“New York City has been a hub for street skating since the birth of the sport and early videos like The Hoax showed the strong scene that existed there from the very beginning. Jon Ortiz knows about the city’s proud blading history more than most people. Alongside the first generation of street skaters that included Rawlinson Rivera, Ryan Jacklone, Joe Dedentro and the Dave Ortega, Ortiz helped establish the city’s legacy and paved the way for future icons of the spots like Mike “Murda” Johnson and Billy O’Neill.

During the rapid rise in rollerblading’s popularity in the early nineties, Ortiz competed regularly at the NISS and ASA events that received a lot of television coverage at the time and he could be seen in the majority of skate videos that were being released with rapid succession. He was also one of the first skaters to receive a pro wheel from the Medium, the notorious wheel company owned by Shane Coburn before he went on to found Mindgame.

Despite the fact that Ortiz has been rollerblading for over two decades, he is still skating hard and can be seen in many of Denial’s recent edits. He is one of the few professionals from that era that remain involved in the industry and he has managed to carve a career for himself out of the sport by organising rollerblading lessons in his home city and judging major blading events including The Bittercold Showdown and WRS Finals. There are only a handful of personalities that have witnessed the birth of street skating and stuck around to see it develop into its current state, so we decided to gain a little wisdom from one of the original New York icons” – WheelScene. Full Interview on WheelScene.

Source: http://wheelscene.co.uk

Company Profile: Roc City Skates via Be-Mag

“Blading needs more shops. When’s the last time you tried on a pair of skates at an actual skate shop? Yes, not many have the opportunity to pick up their goods like that. But it isn’t only a matter of over-the-counter experience that may (or may not) include professional advice on what to get; local shops literally “make” scenes. This is only one of the topics that are discussed in this Company Profile with Roc City Skates out of Rochester, NY. Others being dedication and love for the sport, entrepreneurship, permits and a certain unnamed jerk. Read on” – Be-Mag. Read the full interview on Be-Mag.

So, let’s get some background, who are you guys and what the hell are you doing?

Grant: Ha, well, we’re Roc City Skates. RCS is myself, Nate Hall and Emery Kapral. We’ve all been in the blade scene forever, well not really forever, but anything that you started at 13 years old seems like forever. So, collectively we’ve got like 40 years in, haha. We’re at 181 Monroe Ave right outside downtown Rochester, NY. The shop is all about community, we want to see our sport grow and that happens one scene at a time.

So you got your storefront situated, what happened next?

Grant: Next thing was ordering product, way harder than expected. Between actually getting in contact with distributors/companies and deciding what we were going to sell it was easy to get lost. We wanted everything but when you’re looking at multiple page order forms from multiple companies, everything in different sizes and colors you start to realize that there is a ton of product available for us in such a small sport and you have to make choices. It’s sick to know there’s a diversity of products available, and more keep popping up, too.

Nate: We’re also trying to stay as diverse as we can while catering to our local trends: Xsjadobladers and flat setups. Or at least we’re converting the masses, except Grant, he just defected to Karbunz again. I’m definitely forgetting some stuff. Anything else, bloodsport?

Grant: Hmmm, yea, there were lots of permits, permits are the best. We have a wonderful neighbor who had some concerns about what we were doing with our shop, well instead of talking to us he decided to ask the city. And guess where that went! In all fairness we didn’t know exactly what we were doing but thought we were on track and doing good, haha. So we had some issues with the city, had to file for a couple more permits, spend some more money and here we are… all set up. We are in the Center City District, which means more regulations than other parts of the city, certain requirements for storefronts and such. I guess there is a certain image that the city wants to preserve. It has been a huge learning experience, which has been amazing, tiring and stressful but worth it.

Source: http://be-mag.com

The Five W’s with Jordan Baez via SUAS

Jordan Baez – Fishbrain. Photo: Ryan Loewy

“Jordan Baez is a talented young blader who is quickly establishing a name for himself. He is part of the foundation for a solid future in the NYC blading scene. Not only does he kill everything he blades, Jordan also puts together competitions to help grow the NY/NJ scene. In this 5W’s profile he gives us a sneak peek of what he’s about” – SUAS. Read the entire interview on shutupandskate.

I look at you as one of the young up & coming talents that is the future of the NYC blading scene. WHO were some of your earliest influences when you first decided to strap on the blades?
JB: My earliest influences were my boy Suki Davilla and Matt. One of my main influences was and still is dave lang! As for Pros, it was Murda, Julian Bah & Billy O’ Neill.

You make me wish that I could grow my hair back so I can have hair like yours. WHAT kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use to keep your fro so light and fluffy?
JB: Haha, to keep my fro so fluffy I wash my hair with Dove shampoo.

Putting together a rollerblading contest is a lot of work, WHEN did you decide that you wanted to wet your feet in the blading industry by running your own competition series?
JB: It wasn’t me by myself. My cousin Jason Rivera and I wanted to help out the NY/NJ scene by doing little comps to get new kids into blading and into other areas besides the same ones kids blade nowadays. The last turn out was pretty good, I got interviewed by a New Jersey mag and alot of people came and showed love!

Sam DeAngelis ONE Photo Journal #12

“I would never in a million years fathom anyone attempting this trick. Back in April of this year the Valo team came into NYC to film for Valo “Five.” I contacted Jon Julio to see what his plans were and he replied with an invitation to come out for the day and shoot with the team. As I met the guys at LES park they were already scoping the area for tricks.

Erik Bailey was checking out this huge gap to ledge and decided he would charge it at full speed. The first couple of attempts ended with him rolling like a log across the blacktop for ten feet but somehow coming out unscathed each time. Finally, after setting up my flashes, I caught this shot just in time. He flew at this Disaster Mute Grab to Back Royale as Victor Arias caught the clip. This shot was taken with my Canon T2i at 1/160, f6.3, 400, with flashes placed bottom left and top right” – Sam DeAngelis.

Source: http://www.believeinone.com/