Despite what you might be thinking, feeling, or reading, there’s plenty of life flowing around New York these days. Sure, people are leaving left and right, and businesses are still operating at limited capacity, but you’d be a fool to actually believe the “New York is dead” bullshit that’s floating around out there.

We’ve all had to adapt and switch up to make it through this pandemic, but things are starting to trend upwards again for us here. We’re all back in at Jenkem HQ more regularly, Autumn weather is lagging and giving us a few extra weeks of good skating weather, and we’re cooking up some special projects to hit you guys with starting in early 2021.

But don’t take our word for it, scroll down to see some of the things we’ve been doing behind the scenes as NY slowly starts to open back up.

Our longtime friend and collaborator Richard Quintero did what a lot of New Yorkers have done in the face of the pandemic: got the fuck outta here and moved upstate. We took a trip to visit and got to catch up with him at a watering hole, just like I assume they did in ye olden days of yore before you could digitally send a picture of your dick to someone.

If you missed our filming mission with Christian Henry and Naquan Rollings, check it out here. We spent a full day in Midtown Manhattan trying to get a clip at a spot Christian has been eyeing and killed some time skating these perfect benches in Times Square. If you’re in NYC, make sure to skate this spot before tourists make a full return and spill their ice cream drippings and hot dog mustard all over it.

OK, we lied. We actually started our day skating around Union Square. Here’s Christian popping a quick boardslide at this fully adjustable spot. Just hop on the shipping control deck and you can change the rail’s height to your taste. ATTN: suits at Woodward, you need one of these.

Here we are at a cutty little party going on at the end of an empty block in Bushwick. That’s how we’re doing it these days: pick a dead end in Brooklyn, bring speakers and tell a couple of heads to pull up in space gear.

Our video editor Rob Fraebel also migrated out of NYC in recent months, heading out to San Francisco. Here he is uploading one last project to our trusty Lacie hard drive before the big move. But don’t worry, he’ll continue to work on Jenk TV and Google Earthers episodes from the other side of the country thanks to the wonders of #thecloud.

It ain’t a hang with Raspa if there isn’t some sketchy drug situation going on–and we mean that in the best possible way. We’re talking about the fun drugs, you know?

Raspa legitimately has a superpower: getting people to do crazy stuff they wouldn’t normally do, on camera. Sorry if we’re blowing up your trip, BA!

Here’s our friend German Nieves at a skate jam in Tompkins celebrating the new collaboration between his brand Paterson and DC (as seen on his feet). We’re pretty excited about the resurgence of DC shoes after finding out they are prime shoes for stepping in dog shit with. The bigwigs at DC are seriously blowing it if they don’t run with that info for their next marketing push.

Some fellow spectators from the Paterson x DC celebration. Here’s Mike Heikkila, photographer extraordinaire, and Lee Smith of Menace, DQM, and now The Mission Statement podcast fame. Whoever can identify the third homie in the comments section gets a free box of purified office air from Jenkem HQ delivered straight to their front door!

A couple of years ago we made these Front Blunt hats (as seen on our friend Miles’s head above) as an ode to Owen Wilson’s monologue in Yeah Right. After printing them we tried to find someone who knew him to maybe snatch a photo of him wearing the hat, but it never really panned out. If you’re friends with Owen Wilson or just a weird stalker and think you could help us get in touch with him, please, hit us up!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a brief glance inside my sometimes fun-filled life. Most of the time I’m just sitting at Jenk HQ trying to keep this thing afloat but what’s the point of living in NYC unless you actually go and experience what’s out there. Remember, jerking off alone at home only will get you so far.

Photos: Ian Michna
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