Second Annual Boschi Pope Skate Off

The second annual Boschi Pope Skate off has been announced. Sunday August 27th, 2017 at Hamilton Bridge Skate Park. $1,000 First Place, $500 Second Place, and $250 Third Place. Make sure to RSVP via the Facebook event page. All competitors must sign the digital waiver to enter.

Date: Sunday August 27th, 2017.
Time: Registration & Warm-ups 11:00AM / Competition 12:00PM
Location: Hamilton Bridge Skatepark (181st Street and Highbridge Park)
Entrance Fee: Free
Competitor Waiver: BPSO 2017 Waiver
Directions:Google Maps Location

Caprice By Sean Grossman

Sean Grossman drops his newest online video featuring some of NYC’s finest. Caprice features profiles on Taylor Kobryn, Joey Lunger, Brian Tokin, Augusto Castillo, Sean Grossman, and Sal Zaso. Also featuring skating from Steve Nichols, Chris Murphy, Dave Hartnett, Pat Ridder, Matt Luda, Jon Fromm, Anthony Marasa, Ryan Loewy, Mikey Roman, Json Adriani, Austin Kardashian, Pablo Munoz, Franco Cammayo, CBoogie, Stefan Brandow, Tadd Labozzetta, & Tato.

See each section individually below

Boschi Pope Skate Off This Sunday August 28th

Click to enlarge

As the Summer slowly comes to an end and the NYSS Summer 16 wraps up there’s one more competition to end the season. Boschi Pope presents: The Boschi Pope Skate Off and BBQ. With guest Judges Mike “Murda” Johnson, Billy “Fish” O’Neill and Boschi Pope. First place winner will get a $1,000 cash prize. No entrance fee! Official partners: New York Skate Series and Butter TV.

Date: Sunday August 28, 2016.
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Hamilton Bridge Skatepark (181st Street and Highbridge Park)
Entrance Fee: Free.
Google Maps Location

Ryan Loewy Interview

Ryan Loewy has been a great contributor to I Roll NY and throughout the years has expanded his photography coverage to most of rollerblading’s most popular websites. Not one to shy away from openly addressing controversial topics, I not only wanted to give a look into Ryan’s photography work, but also take a look into his thoughts on the current status of rollerblading and the way it is portrayed within the rollerblading media. View the mobile version here.

Freeze Fame: Ryan Loewy #3

“Recently relocating to Queens, I have started to connect with bladers in the area. One of those bladers happens to be Joey Lunger, an 18 year old New Yorker with 6 years of blading under his belt. Joey caught my eye back in September at one of the box comps at LES, and again when I saw him in the Roachies edit. Intrigued and eager to shoot more blade photos, I hit Joey up to see what his schedule was like, and after learning he was a resident of Queens, we decided to meet at the Astoria Park under the bridge a few days later. After warming up a bit and grabbing a quick portrait, we began hitting the streets along the shoreline, stumbling upon this ledge. I fumbled around a bit, shooting a few different angles before settling on a dead on view of the ledge, positioning my flash accordingly. Joey began hitting the top ledge with some back royales, eventually upgrading to a smooth cross grab back torque, which you see above. We moved onto some rails and shot a bit more before calling it quits, but I was sufficiently pleased with the results and really look forward to working with Joey again, as well as exploring the various hidden gems of Queens that I know are out there” – Ryan Loewy.

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

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

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

Freeze Fame: Ryan Loewy #2

“On a rather warm night back in February, I headed downtown towards the infamous marble ledges to meet up with friends Dave Ngo, Joey Rojas, and a few others. As typical NYC sessions go, the numbers would soon rise and I found myself in a larger group of rollerbladers, some of which I didn’t know. After being kicked out of marble we headed over to the Chase ledge, where one of the unfamiliar faces in the group caught my eye by trying a back royale to pole bonk out. I soon learned that it was Dan Bradham of Long Island. He had a few more goes at it before getting tired of it and headed over to these smaller rails. I decided to set up my flash at camera left so that the reflections on the steps would lead you right to him, and using a slower shutter speed to create more of a blur. Dan started off with a royale for warm up, then a backslide to stir the pot, and then ended it with a nice front savannah that you see here” – Ryan Loewy.

Billy O’Neill on the NYC Street Invite 2011

“Announced just a few weeks ago, the upcoming NYC Street Invite is set to leave a lasting impression. Our contributor Ryan Loewy talked with Billy O’Neill about the new real street competition the best bladers in the industry have been invited to compete in” – Be-Mag. See the full interview by Ryan Loewy on Be-Mag.

What inspired you to take on doing a comp like this? Who is working with you on this project? When was the idea born?
Well, I’ve had been wanting to do a competition for a few years now. Since the IMYTA series, I felt like blading was missing that powerful energy that comps used to have, so I wanted to try and bring that feeling back. There’s a lot of people working on this with me… Mainly Daniel Kinney, Ray Mendez, Kyle Sola, Brian Lewis and all of the contributing sponsors.

There are 40 competitors that have been invited as well as 5 wild cards. How will the wild cards be determined?
We’ve been discussing a few ideas regarding that and will be releasing that information later on in the month.

How will the comp be judged?
Whoever skates the best will win.

What do you expect from the contest tick-wise? Does the location with its added obstacles cater to a diverse competition where not only grinds are the main focus?
The obstacles and the format of the comp will make this event stand alone. It will be like a street skating session on new and different obstacles, with the best street skaters in the world trying to skate their best on it. It’s going to go off.

Source: http://www.be-mag.com