Skateboarding’s New Rules
Do You Know How to Skate?Are You Sure?
How to get around, dress, relate to others, and skate in society today.
By Ian Browning, Max Harrison-Caldwell, Christian Kerr and Village Psychic
Artwork by Martin Malvar
Plenty of skateboarding etiquette is intuitive. Don’t snake anybody on the session, don’t one-up strangers’ tricks, stop asking if I want to play SKATE, (and if I do, no pressure flips) and so forth. Some rules and taboos are more subtle though, and they’re changing all the time. The last few years saw granular but pervasive changes to the fabric of general society (as cataloged by New York Magazine in their list of modern etiquette rules, which we are respectfully biting,) and skateboarding was not immune — it wasn’t that long ago that selfie filming a trick in public was shameful, all decks cost $55, and Blue Park just consisted of three cursed concrete obstacles.
What else has changed? And what’s stayed the same? We tapped in with pros, shop employees, media moguls, and a bunch of people in New York to find out. Here’s our inexhaustive list of skateboarding’s new rules — at least until next year rolls around and things change again.
Gear
It’s okay not to worry about wheelbase.
Despite having been around as long as skateboards themselves, wheelbase only truly snuck into the collective consciousness of skaters a few years back. If you’ve ever nodded along to someone’s ramblings about different wheelbases on different setups without really understanding more than that they skate transition on an Anti Hero board, it’s fine not to look into the rabbit hole.
The addition of a third (often unmarked) dimension to skateboard sizing has created a portal that can send a person endlessly searching for answers, an eighth of an inch at a time. “When I was working at the skate shop (Labor -ed), we would call them wheelbase warriors. There was a small group of guys who would come in and ask for a specific size and a specific wheelbase,” said Elise Hedge, who works at Supreme in Brooklyn. “We would just hand them the tape measure.”
Even casual exposure to wheelbase discourse can have lasting effects. “I didn't give a fuck about wheelbase either,” Hedge admits. “But then I started working at the skate shop and paying more attention, and now I low-key kind of care.”
It’s great to tell people what make and size your pants are, and it’s cool to ask others, too.
It’s a universal truth that searching for the perfect pair of pants is like searching for enlightenment — endlessly frustrating and rewarding in equal parts. Why not make it easier on yourself and others and openly share the lessons of your journey?
If you’re replacing more than one component, your truck modifications have gone too far.
Gear madness is okay in moderation, but it’s easy for it to get in the way of a good time. Truck enthusiasts are the most affected by this, and as soon as you find yourself looking at schematics and after-market axle nuts, it’s time to buy some Tensor Mag Lights and call it a day.
Baggies are for getting tech; skinnies are for hucking.
There’s a science to perfecting your skate silhouette, and it all depends on the type of skating you’re doing. Here’s a chart from our guide to skate outfits to help you figure out your fit:
Tricks
Don't waste your time with ride-ons.
Unless you have a debilitating condition that prevents you from bending your ankles, there's no reason to handicap yourself by riding onto your grinds or slides. Coming to terms with your aging body's diminishing athletic abilities doesn't mean you have to give up popping your board altogether. No matter your age, you still want your tricks to be impactful. A ride-on is no impact; all friction.
If you put this category of trick into a historical context, seeing it come to prominence just after Tiago Lemos started taking ledges to astonishing new heights, ride-ons can be categorized as a reactionary trend popularized by lazy professional skaters afraid of getting outperformed by the next generation. This "when they go high, we go low" mentality was a defensive marketing ploy for out-of-practice industry guys to maintain their relevance, and the normal, non-sponsored skater shouldn't limit themselves to such bitter, low-hanging fruit. - Christian Kerr
Wax the ledge, and go faster.
These are often presented as either/or options when a ledge is sticking, but that kind of binary thinking serves nobody. While it’s true that wax can too often be a substitute for speed, anti-waxers slide only by the grace and pocket grease of others, so maybe both camps have a point.
Mob flips aren’t “cute.”
It’s condescending to describe them as such.
If you find yourself dominating the session, ask yourself: “When was the last time I watched someone else try a trick?”
You don’t need to become the judge, jury, and executioner of established order or anything, but take a breath between your marathon runs to see if someone else wants a turn. You never know what you might learn from their attempt.
Getting Around
Skating in a borough other than Manhattan? You might want a bike.
In Brooklyn, the trains run on two axes: east & west through Williamsburg and Bushwick, and north & south everywhere else in the borough. Both configurations have their merits, but getting between them means the G train if you’re lucky, and a trip into the city if you’re not. Or you could ride a bike and get most anywhere in under half an hour. Don’t own one? Fear not. It only takes ten minutes to download an app, unlock a Citibike, and join the ranks of skaters cycling between Reggaeton Ledges and Borough Hall.
Some are more inclined to throw their deck into a pannier rack than others. “I'm a very safe skateboarder. I skate ledges and curbs, you know? I'm in my mid-30s. Right now I’m not trying to get hurt," Boerum Hill resident Gabe Tennen explains. The risk of injury in traffic is enough to deter him from riding a bike, especially with access to the entire city via the train. “Whenever I go into Manhattan, I'm like ‘the best part of skating in New York is pushing in these streets.’ And you miss that when you're only skating in the outer boroughs. It's kind of a drag.” Tennen says the train gets him where he needs to go, but admits he has missed out on sessions because he's bikeless. He estimates 85% of his crew (which includes contributors to and editors of this piece) are usually biking from spot to spot, though like a real New Yorker, he points out the best way to cover ground between spots outside of Manhattan is in a car.
Driving to the spot? Carpool.
Six skaters rolling up in six cars is crazy, but all too common. How do you think we got to this stage of the environmental crisis? Carpooling cuts back on emissions and brings the homies together, a win-win.
Never give up on the Brooklyn Banks.
“Have you ever been to Copenhagen?” Steve Rodriguez asks me. He’s talking to me about how the Scandinavian city has repurposed outdated civic infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, five minutes into explaining his vision for the future of a long, narrow patch of land underneath the Brooklyn Bridge that will be known as Gotham Park. It’s a logical next step for Rodriguez, whose nearly twenty years of advocacy for the Brooklyn Banks have led to the construction of multiple skateparks within the city. While the Banks have been held under the joint jurisdiction of city, state, and federal DOTs since 2010, all three agencies are slated to relinquish the space (including what’s left of the spots) to Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan, a nonprofit Rodriguez founded with an architectural designer. While ‘flow’ was defined as how parts of a skatepark connect together in Rodriguez’s past work, he now uses the term to talk about retrofitting Park Row to include cycling infrastructure. It’s all part of a plan to restore a pedestrian conduit that previously ran from Chinatown to the Seaport until being closed off after 9/11 — while preserving skate spots along the way.
So far, there's no date on the calendar to break ground, but with four million dollars secured from the state government and other funds slated to arrive from the city and private donors, the project is gaining steam. Rodriguez has also leaned on Tony Hawk's The Skatepark Project for expertise in navigating politics for the park. If all goes according to plan, The Banks will be flanked by pedestrian walkways, greenery, benches for people to eat lunch, and Murry Bergtraum High School kids playing basketball on the restored courts up top. Eventually, Rodriguez's nonprofit hopes to extend the park all the way to the FDR.
Lush gardens at the base of the bridge that look out onto the East River are a best-case scenario for the future, but the return of Big Banks, Small Banks, and the Nine Stair area is guaranteed. Rodriguez says the project’s overarching goal is to reconnect the neighborhoods around The Banks with a multi-use public space. “People have always used the Banks for things other than skateboarding,” he said. “You [had] people dancing down there. And people doing art. It's always been this community space. To me, it's the same, or it still should be. I’m fighting for a larger community space, because having space is so difficult in New York City”- Ian Browning
The teenage skate diet is timeless.
A DM conversation with Marcel Sclafani, an Art and Design High School freshman from Crown Heights.
VP: Yo, what up, Marcel? Wondering if you might be interested in talking about some go-to teenage skate meals?
MS: So basically my friends and I go to the deli, get an Arizona (iced tea -ed,) and since dollar noodles are cheap, we get that and we’re good. Or we go to Dollar Tree and get some random candy. Sometimes we spend a little bit of money and we go to McDonalds or Wendy's and get a $5 Biggie Bag. We usually just eat a lot of junk food and fast food and pizza.
VP: Are there any food spots skaters your age go to a lot? Vanessa’s Dumplings used to do $1.50 for four dumplings back in the day, and I feel like they fueled thousands of teenage skate missions.
MS: We like to go to a dumpling spot near LES skatepark, it’s like $4 for 10 and it’s really good.
VP: What’s it called?
MS: North Dumpling
You can buy a joint at the deli now.
Weed is legal in New York. With the country's most welcoming public consumption laws, New Yorkers can legally smoke a joint anywhere they can smoke a cigarette — it’s pretty cool. But if you’re going to legally blow weed smoke in the face of an NYPD officer, you have to buy weed first.
These days, it feels like most storefronts in the city sell weed. From dedicated dispensaries and Rick & Morty obsessed bong shops to corner bodegas, weed trucks, and vendors at folding tables posted up in parks, finding bud in the big city has never been easier. It’s also easier than ever to get scammed. If you want to avoid buying hemp, Delta 8 or just some really bammer mids it is best to have some friends. Like the pre-legalization days, good weed travels by word of mouth and the good homies should be able to point you in the right direction.
If you don’t have friends or locals you trust to be smoking good, you can still find decent weed (reader, I cannot guarantee you will find anything above mids, sorry.) Make sure you ask to see and smell the bud before you buy. Especially if it’s a deli or smoke shop, confirm repeatedly that it is not CBD or any of those fake weed alternatives — don’t trust a shiny bag or a brand name, trust your eyes and your nose.” -Zach Harris, professional stoner
Speaking of your nose, if you’re buying other drugs, get a fentanyl test strip
Skaters & Skating
If you don't know someone's pronouns, just ask them.
A DM conversation with Jessyka Bailey, THERE Skateboards pro
VP: For skaters at a spot who are unsure how to handle asking about (or using) someone’s pronouns, what’s the best way to handle that situation without offending anyone?
JB: In my experience, no one has ever gotten upset about me asking for their pronouns. I ask in all settings. If I meet someone in a group and then speak to them later, or one on one, I will ask them for their pronouns.
I’ve asked cis men as well…and one said to me, “Wow, I’ve never been asked that before. He/him.” Maybe that was the first time he thought about how he identifies apart from his name. Maybe it’s not that deep. But it definitely made him think.
You and Mike Plumb may go way back to childhood, but to everyone else, he’s Lizard King.
The same goes for Kevin Long, Pat Pasquale, or Anthony Scalemere; (Spanky, Sinner, and Ragdoll, respectively.)
Tompkins is neither street nor skatepark?
A text conversation with Kyota Umeki, TF local and founder of Star Team
VP: Does Tompkins footage count as park footage, or street?
KU: Tompkins clips are not street footage for sure, definitely can’t call a Tompkins clip a “street clip.” But I do think it’s way cooler than skatepark footage. Tompkins is just a training facility where you learn and build. TF stands for ‘training facility’, people should know that and respect the place for what it is. There are also spots within the park, for example the ping pong table TJ skated, there’s also 7 stair in the back of the park.
You should be selfie filming, not making your friend do it.
If ‘Hey, can you film me trying this?’ sounds like an innocent question to you, congrats on having never been subjected to capturing hundreds of tail scrapes while your homie attempts a manual. Your social media feeds are probably back to normal after the deluge of self-filmed clips during early lockdown, but if you aren’t going to land something in under ten tries, or it isn’t going into a part you’re working on, let your water bottle handle filming duty.
“If you’re learning a trick that you're not getting close to, but you want the clip on the off chance a miracle happens, you should not be putting your friends through [filming] that,” says Thrasher web editor and selfie filming enthusiast Ted Schmitz. “If you're above 22, or if you have jobs, you should not be putting your friend through that.”
Regular-footed skaters should always refer to skaters of the opposite stance as "goofy-footed," not just "goofy."
Left-foot-forward skaters should recognize the privilege of being labeled ‘regular’ and not run the risk of offending their other-footed friends by calling them a synonym for stupid.
It’s okay to ask for a pin, as long as you can share.
Whether you stared at a yellowing page of Skateboarder taped to your wall in the nineties, or screencapped an Instagram clip to try and make out an address to run through Google Maps, hunting for a dream spot is a time-honored skateboarding tradition. But seasoned spot hunters put work into making things skateable, and often treat them like commodities. If you don’t have another spot to trade someone, is it a faux pas to just slide into the DMs and ask for a pin?
DLX team manager Tim Fulton first came to the company as a filmer, and knows where you can find some shit to skate. Most of the time, he’s down to share the wealth. “I'm kind of always down to put the feelers out there and see if [people are] down to share,” he said. “I’m always down to give them out. I’m all for sharing. Unless it's a super top-secret spot or only one trick is possible there.” That said, there’s one thing he avoids. “Don't hit people up right when their part drops. Even though that's when you will want to know, it's not necessarily the right time.”
That said, even the most thoughtfully unlocked spots sometimes get blown out quickly. “Gage [Boyle] and I unknobbed this handrail in The Valley,” Fulton said. “It was super hectic. We went there at 4pm and there were so many people there that we waited until 9pm to unknob it. It took like 30 minutes, it was super loud, and there's houses right there. It was just sketchy. We finished up, it was dark and late, so we were going to come back. The next morning I go on Instagram, and Mikey Taylor is in selfie mode at the top of the rail and he's like, ‘Wow, someone unknobbed this rail! It's so good! I’ve been looking at this thing every day for the past five years! @nyjah @tyevans @alexmidler, you have to come check this out!’”
You can recover from asking someone "Was that regular?" but it's harder to come back from asking, "Was that switch?"
Until we move entirely into a Skategoat-style, post-stance society, the question of whether something was switch or regular will be a sensitive subject. However, it’s really just all a matter of framing. If, for some reason, you have to know whether something was switch or not, flipping the script and asking if it was regular ensures that the skater will only be exceeding your expectations. (Of course, if you’re trying to deflate someone’s ego, the “was that switch?” to something that was clearly regular is still as sharp an insult as ever.)
if you see someone being misstanced, say something.
A simple, “[Name] actually skates [regular/goofy]” will do. Or, if you want to let the whole spot know, you can yell it out like the MC in the Dime Glory Challenge and scream, "[Your current location], that was switch!!!"
Want to introduce yourself to a pro? Make it a quick one.
In New York City, sometimes you turn the corner while running errands in your neighborhood and run into your favorite skater from across the world on a filming mission. Don’t freak out.
“Just treat pros like normal people. If you're nervous, don't talk to them. But also, why are you nervous? Pros are probably way lamer than you. So they're good at skateboarding. You're probably way better off than they are. They're way more insecure than you are. Say what's up and be like, ‘Hey, I'm a fan. What's up?’ and then just break out. That's what every pro appreciates: a quick one.” - Jerry Hsu
You don’t have to watch everyone’s video.
Life is short, and there’s only so much content we can cram into it. Between Thrasher, Free, Pedro Delfino’s YouTube, and Skate Jawn, it might be hard to fit in that one homie you never skate with’s hour-and-a-half-long iPhone video he just uploaded. That’s fine, just make sure you like it on the ‘gram.
Stop saying the full-length is dead.
You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all been hearing it for years: “The full-length skate video is dead.” Josh Stewart, who made the Static videos and runs Theories of Atlantis, says it was around 2010 when he first heard people ringing the death knell. There had been a slew of solo web parts — some complete with intros and credits — and aging skaters murmured about shrinking attention spans and DVD sales.
Thirteen years later, full length videos are alive and well — but they’re a little different. Most are published online, sometimes in addition to being sold as .mp4s. Many are 15 or 20 minutes long, as opposed to their near-hour long predecessors. And DVDs now serve largely as collectors’ items, meant to be displayed rather than watched and rewinded. For Stewart, web-only videos are less enduring: “I feel like if there's a physical copy of something, it lasts in the memory of greater skateboarding for a little bit longer. Because there's that little reminder on your shelf.” He says he’s talked with TOA customers who buy DVDs as mementos or “as a sign of respect” despite not owning a DVD player. “It’s like a little treasure,” he adds.
But is that collectors’ market big enough to sustain skate video DVD sales? Stewart answers right away: “Oh, no, no. Definitely not… the DVD as a business model is probably dead.” That’s not to say DVDs don’t still sell on the TOA site, but Stewart says filmers these days are lucky if they break even on production costs. It’s another reason people just upload the videos they’ve spent months or years laboring over to YouTube.
This doesn’t mean the full-length video has passed on as a form. For one thing, there are alternatives for videographers who want to sell physical copies of their videos; Pass~Port sold Kitsch as an artfully packaged USB drive and Ian Ostrowski is selling copies of the new Genesis 3 video on SD cards. But more importantly, full-length videos continue to garner dozens of thousands of views online, showing that there’s still an appetite for longform skateboarding. So Stewart isn’t worried about the future of skate films: “The art of the video, the full-length video — I think it's always going to be here.” -Max Harrison-Caldwell
If you’re a skating adult, you should own wax.
It doesn’t even have to be the Village Psychic x Hopps barrier wax, either. A piece of a candle or Gulf Wax will do.