Remembering Andy Kessler, Original Zoo Yorker (June 11, 1961 – August 10, 2009)

ZOO YORK IS MORE THAN THE TAG IN YOUR DAMN JEANS. SKATEBOARDING IS MORE THAN TONY HAWK VIDEO GAMES AND BAM MARGERA BLOOPER REELS. AND NEW YORK CITY IS LARRY CLARK'S KIDS. R.I.P. HAROLD HUNTER. R.I.P. ANDY KESSLER.


[Andy Kessler, West 30th Street, Manhattan, 2005; photo by Ivory Serra]

Excerpted from "The End of Falling" by Bret Anthony Johnston, published in The New York Times on August 13, 2009.

Born in Greece and raised on West 71st Street in Manhattan, Kessler started skateboarding when he was 11. This was in the 1970s, a time when skateboarding was so alien to New York City that he had to mail-order his gear from California. Significance-wise, think: Prometheus and fire. When other kids saw Kessler carving around the Upper West Side on his board — which would’ve been three inches wide with metal wheels — they followed, and just like that, the East Coast skate scene was born. It was gritty, dirty, and beautiful, the shadow-version of the breezy West Coast surf-style. It still is.



Click here to read more of the Bret Anthony Johnston opinion piece. Click here for Andy's New York Times obituary. Click here for a VERY personal blog post from hip hop mainstay Dante Ross.