The mayor of New York City shares how contests and community events shaped the Brooklyn Banks and in turn the spot’s influence on its city’s skate scene.
Trevon Wade backside smith grinds the Brooklyn Banks 13-stair with quintessential New York documentarian RB Umali behind the camera at Red Bull Origin 2026 | Jonathan Mehring
STORY BY FARRAN GOLDING
PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLE GIORDANO, JONATHAN MEHRING,
EFFIE LIU & ANTHONY ACOSTA
ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN MEHRING, BEN COLEN,
GIOVANNI REDA, BRYAN UYEDA & STEVE STRATTON
If you build it, they will come.
During the final stretch of bricklaying to restore the Brooklyn Banks it was clear even then that New York’s most spectacular site for a skateboarding event could still draw the crowds of its heyday.
After 15 years dormant the Brooklyn Banks formally reopened to the public on Go Skateboarding Day 2025 with the completion of the ‘Big Banks’. Construction on the ‘Small Banks’ immediately followed and the spot returned true to its original form exactly a year later. Both occasions drew vast audiences in person and vicariously through skate media. It was reminiscent of annual events at the Brooklyn Banks which were a staple of coverage in skateboarding magazines throughout the 2000s.
Nick Michel, frontside blunt and Gilbert Crockett, kickflip at reopening of the Small Banks | Vans Go Skateboarding Day 2026 | Anthony Acosta
The earliest notable appearance of the spot in skateboarding media writ large was in Powell Peralta’s 1985 video Future Primitive in 1985. Then, in 1993, the first issue of 411 video magazine showcased a gathering at the Banks — a precedent for professionals and everyday skaters converging at skateboarding events held at a public space — broadcast at not only a national, but global scale. “At the time you didn’t know it was going to be some publicized event and people were going to see it,” says Steve Rodriguez, recalling that very day. “You were getting a taste of what you thought ‘real’ contests were but it was much better because it was at the Banks, it was at the street spot. Every contest was at a skate park. The Banks was dope because it’s at this place that’s not made for skateboarding but was really good for skateboarding.”
Steve Rodriguez flicks on bricks at Big Banks in 2009, a year before the closure of the Brooklyn Banks to the public | Jonathan Mehring
Rodriguez is the foremost advocate of the Brooklyn Banks who has stewarded the space for the best part of 30 years from events and contests throughout the 2000s to leading the fight for the spot’s restoration. The history of the Brooklyn Banks as a key location for gatherings and competitions begins in the 1980s, according to Rodriguez. He recalls that the first events he attended were held by Benji Garced, the owner of nearby skate shop Ultimate Journey Skates. Towards the end of the ‘80s the Eastern Skateboarding Association (ESA) emerged as a regional response to the National Skateboarding Association (NSA) which catered solely to skateboarding’s sponsored ranks. Photographer T. Eric Monroe described the ESA competitions at the Banks as more “inclusive” due to being open to amateurs and sponsored skaters alike.
The organization’s 1988 competition at the Banks was the first ESA contest to have a woman competing as Kathy Zatko took fourth place for freestyle. Natalie Porter, Closer columnist, author and the founder of Womxn Skate History, reports that a photograph of Zatko with her trophy was Monroe’s first published image which ran in the January 1999 Thrasher Magazine. Monroe soon became the ESA’s “unofficial photographer” thereafter and helped organize events in New Jersey and at the Brooklyn Banks. About a decade later, he launched an amateur skateboarding league, the United Skateboarding Association which organised events at the Banks from the late 1990s and into the mid-2000s.
Lorena Lima, melon, Back to the Banks, 2006 | Hailing from Brazil, Lima later moved to New Jersey early and came to ride for ride for Rodriguez’s company, 5Boro Skateboards, etnies and the NJ Skateshop team during the mid-2000s | Steve Stratton
Rodriguez took the reins in 2005 with the first ‘Back to the Banks’ event which ran yearly until the spot was closed to the public in 2010. After a long and hard won fight for restoration, covered everywhere from Quartersnacks to The New York Times — the Banks formally reopened to the public on Go Skateboarding Day 2025. Taking place every June 21st, the globally recognized day for skateboarding itself has roots in pivotal events in New York City where the Brooklyn Banks was a destination.
Much has changed in skateboarding over the past two decades, not least the decline and re-emergence of events. From the aforementioned Go Skateboarding Days supported by Vans, to contests like ‘Back to the Banks’ and Red Bull’s ‘Origin’, the Brooklyn Banks can pull as much of an audience as they did in their prime. As the year of the spot’s fully realized return winds down, Closer spoke to Rodriguez to take stock of how gatherings at the Brooklyn Banks contributed to its folklore and New York City’s place in contemporary skateboarding culture.
Shiloh Catori, kickflip, Brooklyn Banks, NY | Red Bull Origin, 2026 | Jonathan Mehring
Farran Golding: Granted, information traveled much slower in the 1990s compared to today. But did that spotlight on the Brooklyn Banks in the first 411 noticeably bring more people to the spot?
Steve Rodriguez: Definitely, 1993 was this pivotal time in New York City. Zoo York started in ’93, Supreme opened in ’94. It was streetwear, it was a great time for hip hop, Peter Bici is a model for Calvin Klein — New York was getting a lot of shine. It’s one of the things that catapulted New York City to the next level in skateboard culture. All this is going on and 411 just showed the Brooklyn Banks.
Growing up skating in New York, seeing that validated our city and scene. Everybody always says this, and it sounds like a crybaby thing, but there wasn’t a lot of coverage of the East Coast. But when you saw that you were like, “Oh yeah, we’re part of [skateboarding].” Even though you knew you were a part of it and you kind of didn’t care, at the same time there was that validation seeing it in that 411.
A lot has been written about how skateboarding changed in New York after 9/11. From that point in 2001, it essentially shrinks and becomes less social, right? Security is heightened meaning the chances of getting kicked out are higher so people skate in smaller groups. How was that dynamic felt at a place like the Banks which is fairly secluded?
As someone who lived through it I would say “yes” and “no”. Yes, 9/11 obviously changed the landscape and the culture of skateboarding in New York City. A place like the Brooklyn Banks became a parking lot and it was hard to skate in there. Places were on lockdown. I lived on 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street and you weren’t allowed to go below Houston Street which was one block away from me. It was like checkpoints. I remember having to show my ID when going below 14th Street. We would skate uptown because Midtown was a little bit better. It changed where you could skate and how you could skate in New York City. At the same time, it made it evolve.
There were new spots popping up in Downtown. Basically, the electric grid was destroyed and so all these auxiliary power lines were needed. Instead of digging down into the road, because it was temporary, the city built these things above ground. Skateboarders will always do this: if there’s something put in your way then you’ll turn and go the other way and you’ll find something else. These additional spots popped up. Temporary, but there were jersey barriers everywhere and stuff to skate that wasn’t there before.
There were go-to spots — the Banks, Battery Park, West Side Highway and Downtown — and you could try skate there but there was a lot of security. They closed down Police Plaza which was next to the Banks and it turned into a parking lot for police. Park Row was closed after 9/11, which is the road that goes right next to the Banks, and only police could go there. It was literally police cars and vans parking on the Small and Big Banks.
Did they care if you tried to skate there?
Every day it would change what you were able to skate because there are no parking lines. They would park there in a way that meant today you can skate the Banks, you can’t skate the Banks, or you could skate this part of the banks. I don’t want to say it was “cool” because it sucked but it made you skate differently. We would skate the bumpers on the back of the police vans because you could grind them. Sometimes cops would roll through or they would be eating lunch and be like, “Get out of here. You can’t be here.” Other times you could skate there all day.
An early adopter of the internet for skateboarding, Bryan Chin’s metrospective.com organised the All City Skate Jam events in New York, a forerunner to the globally celebrated Go Skateboarding Day, and influenced the creation of hyperlocal skateboarding sites including Quartersnacks, notably. “On [Metrospective], you could wait patiently as your 56k modem loaded an eight-second clip from the Brooklyn Banks, map out a midtown mission if you were a tourist, or see who was who from Sunday’s Newport session,” wrote Quartersnacks in an interview with Chin for Go Skateboarding Day 2013.
Bryan Chin’s ‘All City Skate Jam’ emerged from this in 2002, kickstarting this timeline of events in the 21st century we’re talking about. The idea was to skate the city en masse as people had done throughout the ‘90s, re-popularizing a sense of a community that had been lost. What led to you getting involved with All City Showdown for the following year?
The vibe, everybody meeting up and skating together, that’s awesome because when you’re skateboarding with a group of people you feel this empowerment and ownership of the area. It was the preamble to Go Skateboarding Day in a way where all these people are showing up and throwing down tricks.
I saw potential where it could be supported more. I always look at it from a logistical standpoint, like, “How could this be better?” and when I say “better” I don’t mean bigger. Skateboarding: you don’t want to control it, you want to enable it. You don’t ever want to try to control skateboarding because you can’t. A lot of people try. Sponsors want to come in and change things but to me it’s like “How can I enable this to be better by itself?” That’s how I came into it. Then I got involved with [Emerica] Wild in the Streets. After that, Go Skateboarding Day. It was the natural evolution of all of that.
Steve Rodriguez on the megaphone at Back To The Banks 2008 | Skateboarder Magazine, December 2008 | Photography by Jonathan Mehring | Words by Chris Nieratko
The ‘80s and early ‘90s was a jumping off point for skateboarding in New York City but I think the most people were skateboarding in New York City between 2003 and 2010. In 2005 I did ‘Back to the Banks’ and there were what felt like thousands of people there. You wouldn’t believe it was real. So, 2003 you felt this energy, it was like a resurgence. Things were opening up. It was a critical and pinnacle time in skateboarding in New York City. You had the low of 9/11, then you had these limbo years a little bit after that.
By 2004 there was a lot of support from sponsors. I can’t tell you how huge that is. Everybody always says that the ‘90s was peak skateboarding in New York. I guess culturally you can say it was but I think peak skateboarding in New York was the mid-to-late 2000s because at the same time there was a resurgence after 9/11 there was also support from brands that you never had in the ‘90s. You never had big money like that. You never had the likes of Red Bull and Nike’s involvement. It was different.
Back to the Banks from the above Skateboarder Magazine article (December 2008). Jimmy McDonald (wallride to rick, top left) won the ‘Best Trick’ event with a kickflip wallride, bagging $2000. Photography by Jonathan Mehring and words by Chris Nieratko.
Is that the beginning of New York becoming an “industry city”, a viable place for skateboarders to have careers, which then flourishes throughout the 2010s?
Yeah but I think it was delayed. Brands like Zoo York and 5Boro started in the mid-‘90s and became successful. Zoo York got bought out, things like that. But [endemic brands] became bigger and supported an industry in New York more so than other brands.
When I reached out to Spitfire and asked if we could make a wheel for the Brooklyn Banks and the proceeds will go towards cleaning up the spot and they said “sure”, it was never like that before. A West Coast brand doing this thing in New York, supporting it, flying out their riders, it all leads into what you’re talking about.
There are two things that are interesting too: the banks closed in 2010 and didn’t open up for 15 years but at the same time L.E.S. Skatepark was made. This was another perfect storm. L.E.S. opened in 2012 and it became normal to be in New York and have a career in New York now that they have got this dope skate park. Everybody would go down there. That was de-facto for a long time, at least a decade. That was the spot. And then there are skate parks being made in all the different boroughs. There’s probably thirty skateparks or more now.
L.E.S. was so New York. This loud-ass bridge. Graffiti everywhere. In my opinion it’s a world class park. I mean, I’m biased because I designed it. But it couldn’t have been more perfect too because it has those bleachers where everybody can sit and hang out. It’s very New York because it’s not only a spot where you can skate but you can hang out at.
The Brooklyn Banks 9-Stair before and after their restoration circa 2010s and 2023 | Johnathan Mehring and Ben Colen, respectively | Closer Skateboarding Issue #5
Although the Banks closed in 2010 that transition of energy for events and gatherings moving to L.E.S. sounds like it would have been inevitable. Do you wonder what that decade for the Banks would have been like had the spot stayed open? Could you see it having fallen out of vogue regardless?
It totally fell out of vogue. Jimmy McDonald once said “No one wanted to skate the Banks until they closed” and that was true. There were a lot of parks happening and there were a lot of events happening. The Maloof Money Cup park opened in Queens in 2011 [Flushing Meadows Corona Park]. It was this evolution of skateboarding where the Brooklyn Banks was your skate park, that’s where you went. If you weren’t skating in the streets, if you wanted this other environment that was skate park-ish, you’d go to the Brooklyn Banks. Once they closed a lot of skate parks opened so then New York became a [place of] normal skate park culture. It splintered the scene a lot. People would go to L.E.S. but they wouldn’t go to L.E.S. everyday if they got a new skate park in their zone.
Shiloh Catori, frontside boardslide | Red Bull Origin, 2026 | Cole Giordano
Go Skateboarding Day has roots in New York thanks to the blueprint set by All City Skate Jam which we touched on earlier. There’s a great deal of circularity in Banks being the focus point for the last two Go Skateboard Day events in New York. Most recently that took the form of a contest. Once the spot’s return was in sight, was that high on the agenda?
When the Banks reopened every single person I know was like, “When are you going to do a Back to the Banks?” In my mind it was so important because it was two things: the heritage of what used to be with the events at the Banks and then culturally, if you look at Street League or such things it’s these ‘Best Trick’ events done on recreations of famous obstacles. A quintessential thing is to go there for a contest and experience seeing someone doing something that’s never been done. I was ecstatic seeing Shiloh Catori doing a frontside boardslide down the 10-stair rail. No female has ever done that. [Editor’s note: the famous photo of Jaime Reyes’ frontside boardslide down a handrail at the Brooklyn Banks is shot on the 9-Stair.]
These events push skateboarding. At Back to the Banks in 2007 Nick Dompierre backside nosebluntslid the 10-Stair, the same rail that Shiloh skated. Nobody was doing those tricks.. A lot of these events are when progression happens and skateboarding, in my mind, is all about progression. To see that and to enable that to happen by having these events, I couldn’t imagine there not being an event like that at Brooklyn Banks because where is there the space? It’s such a huge space. It’s so unique. Everybody wants to pull up. It’s dope.
Nick Dompierre, backside noseblunt | Back to the Banks, 2007 | Bryan Uyeda
Jaime Reyes, frontside boardslide | 2001 | Giovanni Reda for Skateboarder Maagzine
The Dime Glory Challenge brought about a much goofier take on what a skateboarding competition can be. That has seeped into events broadly though things like adding obstacles to spots in a fun-house kind of way, making it possible to skate parts that might not be accessible otherwise. Are you a purist or are you into that?
I like it. A lot of people are like, “You have the Banks, you don’t need that” but making the space skateable in a way that it wasn’t skateable before, why not? If you think about Back to the Banks and those kinds of events there were always obstacles made. I was involved with the recent Red Bull event from the conception. They made that huge quarter-pipe. Honestly, it was a spectacle. It was right in the middle of the Big Banks with plenty of room. I like that it changes it up a little. They did that bank and hip on the ten stair. Jake Wooten does those crazy frontside 360 ollies and when they set up that bank, he did that a frontside 270 to [switch frontside] boardslide on the rail. He’s skating it going uphill! He’s utilizing some obstacles to do something that you would never do, unlocking sections of the Banks and being able to skate things in a way you never could.
Jake Wooten, frontside 270 to boardslide (lipslide?) | Red Bull Origin, 2026 | Cole Giordano
Jake Ilardi (left) and Secret Lynn (right) reach new heights and untapped surfaces | Effie Liu
Antonia Duaro, switch 360 flip | Jonathan Mehring
I remember going to events when I was young and it would be the earliest instances of seeing skateboarding that was a few notches above what I was used to seeing in person. Antonio Durao’s switch 360 flip at the Origin event you’re referring to stands out in that regard.
As I said before these events push the evolution of skateboarding. People who are competing whether they’re pro or really good, sponsored ams, they’re pushing themselves. They’re living up to their potential. Everybody has a skill and when you have that crowd cheering for you and you’re in the spotlight with other professional skateboarders it’s crazy. There was a point where I was standing there and it was like Mike Carroll, Brian Anderson and Arto Saari watching this happen, being involved in it.
Bringing together legends tied to skateboarding creates memories for people. They’re talking about that, they’re taking a photo with these guys, plus they’re seeing up and comers skate who are definitely skating harder because all these people are there. I’ll never forget so many things that I saw at events. I mentioned Nick Dompierre’s backside noseblunt, I think that’s the first time I ever saw someone noseblunt a rail in front of me. I saw it in videos but seeing it in my hometown with my boys? You’ll never forget that.
Multiple generations brought together courtesy of a vintage shape from SHUT, New York’s first skateboarding company. From centre to right: Shiloh Catori, TJ Rogers, Brandon Turner and Sofie Valle Morris who placed first in the 10-Stair competition | Red Bull Origin, 2026 | Cole Giordano
TJ Rogers and Sofie Valle Moris take those SHUT boards for a spin: kickflip frontside and to fakie, respectively | Cole Giordano
Marisol Concha joins the SHUT board session with her signature backside heeflip | Jonathan Mehring
A lot of skaters might not be for competition or even organized skateboarding in whatever form. However, there’s a case for holding an event in a public space that is lively and draws out a crowd because that spectacle translates to the everyday person. Could you speak on how that factors into advocating for skateboarding in a city more broadly?
Nothing helps me more than talking to someone at a city council or a community board meeting who says, “Oh, my friend saw that event at the Brooklyn Banks and they loved it.” They loved the kids pushing each other. They loved that there were 50-year-olds and 8-year-olds who were both skating. They never see that world and events show that world. Literally, there were kids who were, like, 10-years-old skating with me who’s 55-years-old. Very few sports are like that. You can’t go play a basketball pick-up game with guys who are 40 playing against 10-year-olds. It just doesn’t work but skateboarding is good because everybody can do it. The kid that’s 10 could be better than the guy that’s 50 — probably is!
From my point of view as an advocate, yes it helps that the normal public has exposure to skateboarding through events. It’s something that they might happen upon. Martin Maher is the borough commissioner of Brooklyn Parks and there are more skateboard parks in Brooklyn than any other borough in New York City. He always says “Skateboarding is a spectator sport.” I never think of it that way because I am a skateboarder but there are people that like to watch skateboarding that might not skateboard. He’s thinking about that in the design of parks.
People are very drawn to it in person. I find it hard to picture anybody who doesn’t skate watching televised skateboarding, like they would a football game, but out in the world it’s eye-catching, maybe more than seeing something like soccer or basketball.
It’s because most of the time skateboarding is happening within the environment that you are in. I’d say most people’s exposure to skateboarding isn’t seeing it in a skate park, it’s seeing it in the streets, right? It’s like the football or basketball game is happening where you’re walking, in a plaza. That’s weird but unique. What else is like that? Off the top of my head, like, parkour? It’s done in these places that aren’t made for it. Then when they see it in this more formal environment, like a skatepark or the Brooklyn Banks, it’s a whole other thing.
East Coast trailblazer, Rookie and Real alumni, one of the few women to appear on the cover of a skateboarding magazine in the 1990s and Brooklyn Banks OG: Jaime Reyes receives an honorary ‘Queen of New York’ plaque | Red Bull Origin, 2026 | Cole Giordano
Farran Golding is Closer‘s associate editor, a freelance journalist and occasional lecturer in journalism, the multimedia features editor for Quartersnacks and the founding editor of Skate Bylines. He has written for Free Skate Mag and Simple Magic and has covered skateboarding for the British Film Institute and GQ. He collaborates with arts and civic institutions and grassroots groups on events focused on skateboarding, media and accessibility to creative industries.
