I always tell everybody that the world is like a giant canvas.
Skateboarders are the artists and we're going to go out there and see the world through
a different perspective.
If I had to describe street skateboarding to a non-skateboarder, I would say two things.
It's the skateboarding that you see when someone's in the street and I would also say it's the
skateboarding that you don't see.
It's them utilizing the environment, utilizing the existing architecture here in New York
City or wherever they live as sort of like a playground, you know, and it's like a public
playground for the skateboarders.
You want to get out into the streets, you want to skate unique spots, you want to skate
not only unique spots, spots that other people have skated, they did this trick there, you
went and did another trick, you know, it's like you keep upping it.
It truly is just, it is an art because you're utilizing that in your environment and you're
almost like interpreting it and then you're interacting with it and then what comes out
of it is sort of the art.
Well first of all, it's the way us skateboarders look at things.
We kind of can look, go walking around and see something in a certain way that normal
people or the average person wouldn't look at it.
The spot right here is a perfect example of a set of stairs that I guess used to go to
a building that clearly isn't here anymore and now it's just kind of chilling and has
that much of a function.
Maybe someone will come sit down on it and hang out or whatever like loiter as people
say or a skater will come, wax it up a little bit.
This is like awesome material and now it grinds perfect and now it's a skate spot.
The appeal of street skating I'd say is something that is more challenging for the skateboarder.
You know, I'd say simply that's it and something that's considered more real.
It progresses things.
It progresses you as a skateboarder and it progresses the whole culture of skateboarding.
It's not just like a random deserted set of stairs to a skater.
It's kind of like an obstacle.
It's like a platform for having fun.
I want to skate this shit right now.
Yep.
Despite skateboarding's immense popularity and mainstream culture, its true nature is
rarely accepted by the public at large and conflicts arise between the two.
More often than not, it isn't the skateboarder who is the aggressor.
What if you were treated as skateboarder?
You could be how you want, you know, but there's a reason why that sign's there because people
who live here and buy property here man decided that they want to come running and they don't
want your skateboards flying at them.
So if you want to be disobedient, just to be disobedient, then just be disobedient.
And I mean certain times I don't know if it's discrimination or if it's just someone like
me, don't do that because you're a skateboarder, get out of here.
Hey guys.
I'm sorry, you can't do this in front of business.
What's that?
You can't do this in front of someone's business.
No, we can't.
This is the business.
All right.
I don't know.
I think it's the situations where before you even do anything because you're holding
a skateboard you're discriminated against.
To me because at that point you're not skateboarding, you know, and you haven't even done it yet,
but before anything happens someone's like coming up to you and saying, oh, wait a minute,
you can't even come in here.
And it's like, what, what are you talking about?
There's a tall cut across the street.
They're not saying anything.
They're a little sweaty.
He don't want to hear from some snot-nosed kid telling him and then he's got to be like,
so he comes down with the authority like, I'm the man and you got to listen to me.
So it's just clash of the titans to two people battling, you know, like one doesn't want
to get punked down and the other one doesn't want to get punked down.
So you just button heads.
So it's just constantly, you know, it's always going to be a friction thing.
In an attempt to deter skateboarders from riding in certain areas, their opposition
began installing makeshift anti-skateboarding devices of all shapes and sizes.
Although varied in style and material, all versions are referred to by one label, skates
stoppers.
Right now we're in Bushwick or East Williamsburg or whatever it's called nowadays and we're
at this pretty famous spot.
It's been in a lot of skate videos.
Dustin Dolan in the Baker 3 video came off this bank and he did a giant kick flip and
then he landed all the way onto this wall and he came back in.
Unfortunately, I guess, you know, the bank, what is this, a Chase bank or it's something
they didn't like, you know, what was happening here.
They came here and they put these giant railings on it, which is like near impossible to remove
for a skateboarder.
So you can't skate here anymore.
And it's also like what I just noticed right now that's kind of funny is they didn't even
clean the wall or paint it from the skate marks.
They just straight up blocked it, which kind of shows that like they spent more money on
these skate stoppers than like even making this look presentable.
Here's a spot up ahead right here where it was, the architecture was so like crazy and
out of his mind that he built this giant ramp as part of this building and we're rolling
up on it right now.
And basically, I want to say a few months at least, maybe like five months, four months,
you could come here and skate this ramp and do all kinds of tricks.
They didn't have these like very dangerous like spiky skate stoppers that are on it now,
like metal and you can ride right up, pop a trick, you come flying down and then you'd
be like, I hope not, I'm not trying to get a fucking ticket right now, do you?
The cops just showed up and we're not even skating here, we're just kind of checking
it out, but I don't really want to risk a summons or whatever the hell they do to you
nowadays for skateboarding, so let's head out.
Skateboarders have historically done their best to persevere amidst the backlash and
progress the culture while weathering the hostile environment, occasionally even making
a game of it.
But the reality is the danger of physical harm sometimes comes less from the practice itself
and more from those who would look to suppress it.
Skateboarders and cops have always battled it out over turf and the right to ride, but
a group of young skaters celebrating Go Skateboarding Day ended up behind bars and under house
arrest.
Caught on tape by Baltimore cops has been denied for crossing the line.
This YouTube video shows the officer yelling at a 14 year old skateboarder then putting
him in a choke hold and he's riding a skateboard, what are you doing man, why are you doing
it man, 13, please let go of my arm, I'm leaving, you're trespassing, ow, what happened?
What, it's my fucking board, alright I always put it back, that's tough shit, alright, you're
gonna get the cops, if you know something, put me 50 fucking dollars, chill out, chill
fuck you all man, okay, there's a million, I mean it's just like, you know, there's
so many stories.
The truth is, there are far more war stories out there than there are skateboarders and
if you ever want to hear one, all you have to do is ask.
For me and my friends one night, we were out super late just skating.
Back in the mid to late 90s, this spot down on Water Street, it's like this white ledge,
I was skating at Astor Place, so we're skating there, it's a perfect spot, especially for
little kids.
It got to the point where cops would eventually start raiding the place, it was pretty ridiculous,
like cops would just show up, everybody was scattered.
And then the guard keeps coming, he keeps kicking us out.
And this one cop, like all aggressive, gets out of the car, the guard keeps coming out
and yelling at us, we go around the corner, you know, we come back 10 minutes later.
And I'm like, yo, we're leaving with the cop.
And he's like, yo, pack up your bag, you know, I'm gonna take you in.
This cop car, two cop cars, just like roll up to the spot and we're just like, oh shit,
like we're not even trying to talk to these cops.
Turned over to me and was like, if you run, if you even move, you're gonna go to prison
for a long time.
And we just skated away and like, yeah, you've run from security, you've done that, but like
running from the police on your skateboard, like that's serious, you know, and like we
got away.
And I'm like, fuck.
We booked it and they were in their car chasing us and we got away from them and that was
like pretty awesome.
Then we were scared to go back to the spot that night, we're like, all right, let's go
to midtown now, you know, that was downtown, let's get the hell out of this area.
These cops are probably looking for us, you know.
And I got taken in for skateboarding.
It's like, that's a rush.
I ended up going to jail for a fucking one day, 24 hours in a fucking prison cell with
people who were in there for like, pissing on the corner, like 16 maybe or something.
I was so young and it was like, really, you're gonna do this to me right now?
Because I was riding a skateboard on the, on like a sidewalk.
I think one of the main issues with these businesses and police and whoever not wanting
you to skate there is like, this is America and everyone sues, it's like your board's
gonna shoot out and hit someone, like you're gonna get sued, the building's gonna get sued,
the owner's gonna get sued.
Their whole main thing is they don't want a kid breaking their arm on their property
because mom back at home is gonna be like, I can't believe they let you skate there,
sue.
You know, like everybody's quick to get a quick buck.
The main reasons, you know, everybody knows or everybody thinks or whatever it is, is damage
or injury, whether it's because of insurance, for personal injury or damage to property
or just not wanting to deal with it.
Dude, we're just trying to have fun, man.
That's basically it.
We're trying to like, enjoy our life, you know, the security guard or whoever is not that
psyched on his life.
And we're just out there trying to have fun and make the best of the situation.
Granted, we give those dudes a job, you know, we're the reason they have a job.
You know, why skateboarding with its increase in popularity has become more regulated in
a way, you know, is just because of that.
Again, because things aren't thought out well enough, you know, there is a solution that's
not the solution that, you know, the majority of people that are in charge think is the
solution.
You know, because it, think about how many public plazas right now are totally empty,
where you could, and no one's ever going to use them.
It's like telling someone they can't ride their bike in a city.
That's how I see it, because it's something is like, to me, it's almost as normal as riding
my bike.
If you think about it, if you really think about it socially, like why does that happen?
Until the people making the decisions realize what's, you know, really realize the way
urban planning is done, was done better, then you could have everybody skating as much as
they want, wherever they, wherever they could skate, and then you could have everybody sitting
and eating their lunch and chilling in certain spots too.
It's just not thought about at the same time, but it's all part of a bigger, you know, a
bigger discussion that should be had, but it's probably not happening.
It's preventing people from being like productive, progressive, you know, and doing something
positive.
It doesn't need designated areas, it's just like if someone wants to go ride a skateboard,
they should just be allowed to go out and ride a skateboard, bottom line.
How can something that's so, now in society so normal be something that's illegal?
You know, it's just, I don't know, it's just, it's weird.
I think it's just like a very multi-layered process and thing to do for people that both
have fun through, occupy their time with, share with other people.
Once you're a real, you know, skateboarder, you're always a skateboarder.
You still do it, because I mean, you do a lot of things you're not allowed to do.
They're fun.
This is our decision to think fast and die young, think about the vision, and now let it out of the sun.
Woo! That was sick, you saw that?
