Go to any skate industry event and you’ll realize how surprisingly out of touch many skate biz folk are with the younger generation of skaters. A couple of beers deep and you’ll hear a group of grown men reminiscing over dinosaurs like Tom Penny and Brian Lotti, comparing VHS collections and sharing tour stories from the 90s. Despite the fact that the average age of the skateboarder is older than ever before, skateboarding is and always will be fueled by the youngins.
But kids are dumb, and their opinions should be taken with a grain of salt and a shot of tequila, right?
Wrong, you old geezer! Like it or not, the kids we scoff at today will be like us – the jaded generations of the future, so their tastes are just as valid as your own. And instead of just sitting around stalking Instagram and hypothesizing who the younger kids are hyped on, we went to three of Manhattan’s busiest skateparks and asked them ourselves.
ISAIAH EDWARD
Age: 16
First skate video: Ryan Sheckler’s first Plan B part on Youtube
Favorite skaters: Ryan Sheckler, Andrew Reynolds, Luan Oliveira, Louie Lopez, Trevor Colden
Favorite company: Organika
Luke Rinay
Age: 13
First skate video: Pretty Sweet – Girl
Favorite skaters: Grant Taylor, Nakel Smith, Ben Raybourne, Ben Kadow, Jesse Alba
Favorite company: Anti-Hero
Ethan Garcia
Age: 15
First skate video: Nick Mullins’s video on the Berrics
Favorite skaters: P-Rod, Luan Oliveria, Shane O’Neil, Carlos Riberio, Brian Peacock
Favorite Company: Nike SB and Plan B
Mecca Morris
Age: 15
First skate video: Some local skate video, but Baker 3 was the first real skate video I saw.
Favorite skaters: Brandon Westgate, Ishod Wair, Shane O’Neil, and I don’t have any more…
Favorite Company: Real Skateboards and Vans
Shane Gordon
Age: 15
First skate video: the first online part of the Brunner twins
Favorite skaters: Marc Suciu, Louie Lopez, Kevin Bradley, Ishod Wair, Trevor Colden
Favorite company: Real, Emerica, Thunder, Spitfire, Skate Mental
Carlos Wilson
Age: 16
First skate video: Parental Advisory – DGK
Favorite skaters: Jimmy Carlin, Theotis Beasley, P-Rod, Keelan Dadd, Tom Asta
Favorite company: DGK or Real
Mickey Bellam
Age: 14
First skate video: Pretty Sweet – Girl
Favorite skaters: Luan Oliveria, Trevor Colden, Curren Caples, Manny Santiago, Torey Pudwill
Favorite company: Plan B
Tal Radke
Age: 13
First skate video: Pretty Sweet – Girl
Favorite skaters: Chris Joslin, Chris Cole, Mike Mo, Torey Pudwill, Youness Amrani
Favorite company: Any Kayo company for boards
“Chris”
Age: 14
First skate video: Pretty Sweet – Girl
Favorite skaters: Ryan Sheckler, Trevor Colden, Aaron “Jaws” Homoki, Torey Pudwill, Nick Tucker
Favorite company: Trophy Griptape and Plan B
Julian Aprende
Age: 15
First skate video: Alien Workshop’s Memory Screen on Youtube, it was one of the suggested videos to watch…
Favorite skaters: Daewon Song, Curren Caples, Ryan Sheckler, Trevor Colden, Chris Joslin
Favorite company: Real Skateboards
Investigative reporting & photos: Russell “the Intern” Dolan
Original Illustration by Michael Giurato (@badhairlife)
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June 16, 2015 12:59 am
ay son listen im fucken12 my favorite fucken skater is gonz alex olson that fucken cunt from supreme and anyone else who fucken sucks and does the same shit, also nyjah shane oneiel there so cool they do tricks and it looks so fun man
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June 16, 2015 1:03 am
yo my first vid had to be yeah right ? or sorry one of them or one of the old zeros really got into skaten 2004 ish i was skating b4 but i was like 10 had no balance, fave skaters cant choose but ill name some that i always watch, koston, cole, grant taylor, raybourn, jaws, louie lopez david gonzalez mat berger curren capples basicaly whole flip team lol, geoff too, brandon biebel, cyrill been killing it, pat rummney nice bc hes from my hood, ave just made me a fan with his new vans part, willy santos, jeremy klien, jim grecco, i could go on but im drunk and tired
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June 16, 2015 9:22 am
This made me want to go skate and roll around like I used to when I was a kid!
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June 17, 2015 2:20 am
Hell yeah me too ! These kids just loved talking about skating !
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June 16, 2015 7:55 pm
Shorock is a fuckin’ joker worst style, shit house company with terrible graphics. He’s basically exploiting kids that don’t know any better to buy his heinous products. I can’t stand that guy he’s the type of kook that only kids under 12 would like. Every time I see a Shitcock video on my YouTube feed makes wanna belt my mac book up. He’s the worst thing in skateboarding right now.
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