DEATHBOWL TO DOGTOWN TO BROOKLYN BANKS

KESS cuttin’ it off the lip at the 9’ marker, the Deathbowl in Riverdale, 1978. (Photo by Marc André Edmonds)

Skaters just cant get a break from the Man. Brooklyn Banks, the Manhattan skater haven under the Brooklyn Bridge just got the axe today. The Downtown Express reports that the unofficial city skate park will likely be used as a staging area during the renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Good time to get your hands on a copy of  Deathbowl to Dogtown , a documentary by “Buddy” Nichols and Rick Charnoski that explores the evolution of skateboarding from a NYC perspective, back when kids were still riding hand-cut boards, and the city was mostly open game without all the laws against skateboarding we have today.  The doc focuses on a lost latchkey street tribe from the seventies known as the Soul Artists of Zoo York (no affiliation to the Ecko brand), aloose knit collective of skateboarders and graffiti artists with  sweet warrior-esc names like Puppethead, PaPo, and Haze who created a skating and art style uniquely New York, skating NYC streets and carving a pool at the very end of the 1 train in the Bronx they called the Deathbowl.  There is some pretty cool archival footage of the New York Skate and street art scene here.  Chloë Sevigny narrates and the soundtrack features the Beastie Boys, Minor Threat, Eric B. & Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan and the Talking Heads. You can check out the trailer below or order a copy for yourself here.

Want to check out some more old school skate vids, check out the MOMA’s  exhibition Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years, where Patrick O’Dell has created a compilation of skate videos from the 1980s on.

Check out DSDX for some cool skate decks.