WHO DO THE KIDS EVEN LIKE THESE DAYS?

Jenkem_Babies_Kids_Giurato_Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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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Comments

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Juan Vargas
June 12, 2015 1:49 pm

What you guess, kids don’t know shit…just as I did. Love it.

Reply
NYSkateboarding
June 12, 2015 1:52 pm

Would be interesting to see what kids out skating the street spots would say and compare the two. Keep it up Jenkem!

Reply
Ben Kinetic
June 12, 2015 1:54 pm

This is great I think doing it in different places is a an awesome idea. See how the kids in the burbs are different from city kids see how it varies geographically.

Reply
Cameron
June 12, 2015 1:55 pm

While companies need to take city kids into consideration there are probably way more kids that live in small towns that are completely fucked. I go to small town skateparks and kids have the worst attitude ever these days. Make an article talking about why exactly does almost every kid who skates have this jock attitude now. What exactly in skateboarding (or even if it’s maybe just the way kids are raised today) is encouraging cocky behavior so much. Any obscure redneck town skatepark you go to anybody there that’s kind of good thinks they’re amazing. And why in the fuck do people ask strangers to play skate? I mean battle of my ass is the reason but still kids need to stop that

Reply
- F u
  June 15, 2015 3:28 am
  
  Maybe you just suck so bad and are so self centered that any kid who’s even remotely better than you, you take it as a personal slight? And what’s so bad about playing skate…. Skate was a thing long before Berra put his greasy mitts all over it, and just because he made it organized it automatically means kids have to stop doing it? I think it’s still cool to play skate with strangers, it’s a good way to learn new tricks and make friends, sorry skateboarding stopped being “your” thing you fucking degenerate, you sound like the absolute worst fucking hipster with a board, which you undoubtedly started to ride after seeing Bam in early 00’s, a fact which you will vehemently deny and instead act like some obscure VHS video you saw last week which got you into it. If kids with jock mentality is your concern, then odds are you haven’t gone far enough, because people like you get clowned on and get all their expensive gear taken where I skate.
  
  Reply
  - Pattycaaakes
    June 15, 2015 3:14 pm
    
    Bam was sick in Jump off a Building
- Ghost of Ronnie Bertino
  June 15, 2015 5:11 pm
  
  tbh it was even worse in the 1990s street skating. you basically had to wear a uniform of baggy jeans, white t-shirt and absurd puffy tech shoes or you’d get hated on or even beat up by the spot locals.
  
  Reply
  - ronnie bertino will never die
    June 17, 2015 4:38 am
    
    yeah! beat up, board/weed stolen the whole package. those were the days haha