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

Jordan Baez Unused Footage Edit

Small compilation of extra and unused footage filmed while creating Jordan’s I Roll NY Online Profile. Filmed by Joey Rojas. Edited by Jordan Baez.

Shop & Swap 2 Edit

Freeze Fame: Sam DeAnglies #2

“As the long winter comes to a close and Spring rears it’s head, the NY street sessions begin. All throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC the streets were once again moved by the sounds of rolling urethane and sliding plastic.

On a warm Spring weekend, some NJ bladers and myself headed out to Staten Island to meet up with Franco Cammayo and the crew. We started off at the infamous curved red ledges to warm up and snap the first two photos. After a quick session I grabbed the camera shot Steve Nichols with this sweet Tru Mistrial. With the strong sun my single flash wasnt doing enough to fill shadows so I had to use my reflector, gripped by myself, to ensure a well lit shot.”

WRS King of Queens Competition 2012 Promo

New York City’s first competition of the year is here! The King of Queens street competition is going down Saturday, June 2nd, 2012. With the World Rolling Series and over 20 sponsors supporting the comp, it’s sure to be one of the biggest events in NYC with plenty of prizes and giveaways!

UPDATE: The fountain at the globe ledges may be turned on after Memorial Day so the first spot may be moved to the ledge at the Maloof skatepark. We’ll be able to confirm the move after May 28th. Youtube link after the jump.

First Look at The Canarsie Skatepark

Brooklyn has a new skatepark located in the Canarsie area. The Canarsie skatepark is setup very differently than any other NYC park by surrounding the main area with a pathway filled with obstacles. Check out all the photos below and make sure to bring wax when you visit. The aluminum square copping on most of the obstacles will need extra wax when doing soul tricks.

Trevor Johnson King of Queens Be-Mag Interview

Photo, intro, and interview by Ryan Loewy.

It is known, without question, that New York is one of the most celebrated and active scenes in rollerblading. It has produced a plethora of companies, talented skaters, and competitions that have left a major impact on the rollerblading community. Competitions, in particular, are the one catalyst that I believe really brings people out and draws the blade community closer together people come out to show what they’ve got and, at times, unconsciously, to support each other, which in turn, unifies the scene as a whole. Young guns and old timers, all age ranges, colors and creeds come out, all for the love of rollerblading. So when I heard that Trevor Johnson was putting together a new street competition in Queens, I was inclined to ask him a few questions and help spread the word. I sat down with Trevor to talk about the need for another street competition, how he got the idea, who he’s working with, and more, all resulting in a testament to the fact that New York truly is one of the greatest scenes in the world. Full interview on Be-Mag.

Who’s involved?

The concept of throwing a comp was originally my idea, and who better to help me out then IROLLNY’s own Craig Benabu? So I hit him up and he seemed down, we discussed it for a while and decided, “Hey lets just go ahead and do it”. Jon Morciglio ended up calling me and was very into the idea of it all, so I said, “I’d love for you to be part of it too”, and basically it all just sprung from there.

How did the whole idea come about? Would you say it is in response to a fear that we might not have events such as Last Man Standing and Billy’s NYC Street Invite? I mention this only because, inevitably, that is what I first saw this as, as it has been a concern of a few people about whether or not Victor would have another LMS, or if Billy would be able to pull off another Invite (with last year’s having such a large magnitude of an attendance, as well as pulling the various permits to run the event).

Well it all came from me not hearing or seeing any comps or anything real street related happening or in the works thus far this year in NYC, or the surrounding areas, and I’ve always wanted to throw a street only competetion of my own. I have no fear that we may not have any other comps i mean the more the better as far as im concerned,I just wanted there to be atleast one good street comp; NYC deserves it and its such a good time and atmosphere to do it.

This is your first time doing your own comp, how has the process been so far? After going through it all (although it certainly hasn’t even begun, but just out of curiousity), do you want to make this an annual event?

No, I don’t have any plans on making it an annual event but things may or may not turn out that way. So far it has been a really fun process, Craig has really taken this and blown it up like I knew he could, I wouldn’t be able to throw it without him; market it,get all these sponsers, etc, as well as Jon Morciglio he helped out a great deal too.

Source: http://be-mag.com

Eulogy X King of Queens 2012

A big thank you to Eulogy for being extremely generous and sending over 20 sets of wheels. Wheels will go out at random to participants of the King of Queens competition.

Roachies Montage

Featuring Taylor Kobryn, Tyler Deraffele, Jimmy Kobryn, and Joey Lunger. Filmed by James and Taylor Kobryn. Additional filming by Zeke Kubinski.

Dillon Cooper Shadows Part II

Behind the scenes video after the jump.