Monday, September 08, 2008

nyc skate jams revisited

this is a collection of my photographs from the years of skate jams and brooklyn banks events

July 14, 2002 - first ever All City Skate Jam, organized by bryan chin of metrospective.com, and east village local ripper kerel roach
it was by far the best skate jam ever, hundreds of kids hitting up spot after spot, all just to skate it together. security guards and police had no idea what to do.


aaron suski - ollie up, kickflip fakie


kerel roach never landed this, but after becoming a hare krishna monk and quitting skateboarding, he came back in 2008 and tried it again.


tina from argentina, tompkins square park









July 12th, 2003 - the first Clean Up The Banks event.
I don't have any photos from it, but there were a lot of push brooms, and full garbage bags being traded for product.

August 24, 2003 - the 2nd annual All City Skate Jam, this time from starting at Tompkins Square Park and ending in Battery Park, hitting everything in between and around.

    
steve rodriguez - ollie
billy rohan - sw. bs nosegrind





June 12, 2004 - this year's skate jam became the first ever Wild In The Streets with Emerica,
every year was more famous pros, more product, more crowd, and stopping at less spots between Tompkins and the Brooklyn Banks




leo romero - backside nosegrind


aaron suski - frontside lipslide





July 31, 2004 - 2nd annual Clean Up The Banks day











June 6, 2005 - Emerica's Wild In The Streets goes Philadelphia

this is also the first year they did the Wild Ride with Harley Davidson Motorcycles










August 27, 2005 - Brooklyn Banks Re-Opening Contest, Steve Rodriguez saved the famoust spot from whatever strange ideas the city had for the space.

brandon westgate - alleyoop backside 270 kickflip wallride





June 21, 2006 - now the event is on International Go Skateboarding Day

no big out of town pros that year, not that i can remember, just a variety of local rippers you've never seen before





August 19, 2006 - this year they started calling the contest Back to the Banks


zered bassett - frontside noseblunt slide



matt miller - nollie halfcab heelflip



brandon westgate - 360 flip



mark gonzales - frontside wallride pull-out



mark gonzales - frontside wallride





June 21, 2007 - I don't remember much from that year's Go Skateboarding Day, i didn't take any photos either, but i'm pretty sure i went skateboarding many days.


August, 2007 - I was out of town for Back to the Banks that year, which may have been one of the biggest ones,
when Nick Dompierre and Jake Duncombe backside noseblunted their way to glory.





June 21, 2008 - Every year Go Skateboarding Day is less intriguing than the first All City Skate Jam,
there were thousands of kids that skated 3 spots, Brooklyn Banks, Manhattan Bridge Skatepark, and Tompkins Square Park.
What happened to all the real street spots? barging them with no permits?











August 16, 2008 - The Back to the Banks crowd continues to grow each year.


steve rodriguez



kerel roach reappears after quitting skateboarding and becoming a hare krishna monk



he tried to heelflip boardslide the rail again, and came damn close to landing a double heelflip over the rail.
if you were around for the first all city skate jams, you'd be psyched to hear the crowd chanting his name, as well as "double heel"


i think this is the best trick done over the rail in all the years