The skate mind never stops running. Anything we think we can skate, we will try to. So if you live in an area that gets snow, of course you're going to look at previously unskateable spots with a new eye. That handrail in the park with no runway that lands on cobblestones? What would it feel like to boardslide that bad boy? Well, years before John Shanahan, Morgan DT and those actually impressive Ambition Snowskates videos, some OGs in New York City were putting boardslides and noseslides on untouched rails.
Enter this new video sent over from Eli Morgan Gesner, one of the Shut and Zoo York OGs. He, his homies Jamil Toure and Kevin Kessler (RIP) hit Riverside Park in the winter of 1990 and were the first to strap on snowboards and live out the fantasy of riding these fresh rails. Eli sent over this great memoir that breaks it all down:
"i was born and raised in Manhattan and didn’t know a thing about skiing growing up. I was a street kid and all I knew was how to skateboard. Snowboarding wasn’t even a thing yet. It was the stuff of legend. Then, in 1985, I got kicked out of every high school in New York City and got sent to boarding school. It was there in the woods that I met rich kids who had early Burton snowboards. I taught myself how to snowboard and got pretty good at it. Now, to be clear, back then, ski Mountains wouldn’t even ALLOW a snowboard on the chairlift. You had to hike up hills to get a ride. But by 1987 most mountains in the North East were allowing snowboarders. Everyone hated us. Snowboarders were reject punk kids from the wrong side of the tracks.
Through skateboarding, I got flowed a Sims ‘Switchblade’ - Kind of the first ‘trick style’ snowboard. Nobody really knew what they were doing back then. At least where I was. Snowboarding was like the wild West. I had a skateboarding background so I had an advantage over everybody else. In skateboarding, I was already doing handrails, jump-ramps, and wall rides, but there were zero ski mountains that had anything close to a modern snowboard park. No boxes. No rails. No jibs. Nothing. So I never learned any of that on the mountain.
I graduated in 1988 and moved back to New York City, where my snowboard basically sat in my closet. Then, a year later, in January 1990, this big snowstorm hit New York City. I was 19 and was with Jamil Toure and Kevin Kessler (RIP). Jamil and Kevin were OG NYC skateboarders but they never snowboarded. Snowboarding was so foreign back then that they were stoked to just try.
We hiked through the snow storm to Riverside Park. The hills behind the Sailor and Soldier Monument at 89th Street (shout out to Greg Navarro). Thankfully, for whatever reason, I took my video camera from SVA Film School. I did a couple of runs and then to everyone’s surprise - a fucking off-road Jeep came driving through Riverside Park. Right through the snow drifts. Up and down the hills. Totally illegal. They actually stopped at the bottom of the hill to watch me snowboard because it was THAT STRANGE back then. We all had a good laugh, made sure the cops weren’t around, and then waved the Jeep out of the park.
After that, we were walking around the monument and I got the idea to try and hit the hand railing. Jamil filmed my attempts. That was my first time ever trying to do a hand railing and the results speak for themselves. Regardless, back then it was just humbling to know that you were probably the only person snowboarding in New York City right then and there. We all took turns going down the hill and then marched home, freezing and sopping wet. We cleaned ourselves off and then went out to the club. It’s just how we did things back then.
A couple weeks later, Jamil and I went back to the same Hill—Suicide Hill we called it. Jamil went so fast that he crashed into the fence surrounding the playground at the bottom and dislocated his arm. It was dangling out of the socket. It was gruesome and we had to take him to the hospital.
Growing up in New York City is the absolute best."
Want some more OG NYC history from Eli? Look no further:
As an addendum, Eli sent over the IG video below, "it's the exact same location and shows 35 years of change:
View on Instagram
Bummed out on a snow day? Run through the vids below then get out there and slush it up.
