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 26, 2015 12:40 am
Good content Jenkem.
July 1, 2015 11:41 am
luke is going places.
July 4, 2015 1:22 am
Anybody the older people back- the kids will back. The industry is fucked, but not that fucked. It isn’t bottom up yet. When that happens and cgi scooby-doo and Ronald McDonald are there favourite skaters we can complain
July 4, 2015 1:29 am
The whole individuality and fun aspect of skating when arguing old vs new era is so flawed and completely old. I don’t know about any of you guys but I have a full time job and skating is harder and harder to find the time to do. I consider myself a “skater” but I skate way less.
That being the case skating has to adapt, I can hardly push the envelope anymore, I don’t “go big” because I can’t. I’m not a healty 14 year old kid anymore. There are kids boys. Natural athletes. They’re hungry and have the time to push themselves to go bigger. Why would you expect their favorite skater to be a 40 year old man. there isn’t any connective tissue besides skating, they’re closer to nyjah, than Mark. just like you were closer to Mark than to Alva.