Disclaimer: The information contained within may not be 100% actual or factual. Please use your own judgment.

Last Man: Bronx Edition was ehh, okay. It definitely was not worth all the traveling or confusion and shitty spots that just refused to give in to the swarm of skaters present. Somewhere off of the D train between Fordham and Kingsbridge stops, about 10 blocks down the hill, pass Fordham Plaza and on Washington St. is where I embarked upon another session-like competition. This was the school grounds of a ledge and some rails that have graced our eye’s in Nature Skate Video’s ‘One’, b-unique’s ‘1131’, and other local videos as well as the 3rd Rejects DVD featuring NYC.

The ledge is long, Bi-angled (not sharp), just below knee height and curves ever so slightly. As one of the Bronx’s best ledge on any given day that Saturday must not have existed because the ledge was the most atrocious ever. Anyway, I arrived late as time would see fit for me to compete in the last of 5 heats. After I was done falling and watching others fall I gathered a head count which turned out to be close to, if not exactly 70 attendees. Some of whom were skaters, posers, friends, veterans and supportive family members who waited patiently in the shade of another NY summer scorcher.

Just a blink away was spot 2, a challengingly long, single-kinked, handicapped ramp-rail that was average height with little run-up space on the sides. The rail was perfect if you were jumping Head-On and applying it directly to the forehead. It also didn’t have the Optimus Prime amount of slide necessary for pimping out soul tricks but groove Tricks did make a lot of money on the narrow strip. Eventually, folks either surfed from up top or they just attacked the rail further down stream. In the beginning NY was responsible for a bs farv- royale, a mizou- royale, a bs farv- tru fish and a negative sweaty by Jeff Scott who also tried to 1-up himself with a negative fish. A few minutes into the drama and a NJ native came hard with a bs farv- acid- royale, quieting the crowd and at the same time making the event a little bit louder. Other tricks that I observed in between not giving a shit, were Anthony Chen’s porn- soyale, Yannes Sootes’ topsoul- bs backslide- tru soul, and Rafael Herrera’s more than 69% bs torque from deep. Ohh and Tim Franken made it look good but was just shy of clearing spot 2 with a bs royale- tru porn- inspin farv, sick-o!

Off to the last and final spot some 10-13 blocks away, in what appeared to be the ghetto’s bastard child, we find a horrifying bank to ledge. The spot is the structural design of an apartment building built atop a hill. This ledge was also bi-angled but was quite high, and the steep slippery bank didn’t help either. At first it seemed like the competition was over but this spot was exactly the kind of shit that New York was lacking. Sure, it wasn’t the sexy bank to ledge we’ve seen Stockwell skating but it was new meat in a city that’s been fiend out and starving.

A few minutes passed and folks began to feel this dirty erotic but NEW bastard bitch and they all slowly got her open. Eventually people were ski-ski-skating and approaching like this was their P-rail but they all found out hard and fast that this bitch wasn’t much of a freak. Those that did get it in got it in with farvs and royales. Those that were a bit lucky got in a switch up or two. Notable mention goes to Jesus Medina, Yannes Sootes and Tim Franken who skated hard and could’ve placed with more tricks and better consistency. Honorable mention goes to those that gave a lot and probably should’ve placed including NYC’s Evan (kind grind, ao top porn, royale- ao topsoul- 360, royale 630 out) & Anthony Soto (switch topsoul, steezy bs farv, pimp diesel unity). Now the winners are as follows:

3rd Place, NJ’s Anthony Chen (porn- bs savanna & a really long makio with the grab…)
2nd Place, Bx’s Jose (soul- 540 out, unity- soul, ao- top porn…)
1st Place, Bronx’s Rafael Herrera (mizou, bs farv, porn, tru mistrial…)

Bklyn Banks for the final chapter of the 2007 Last Man Standing Comp Sept. 8th

Writer- Adonis Taylor (myspace.com/adonistnt)
Publisher- EvoTek Media (myspace.com/evofilm)
Photos- Craig Benabu (myspace.com/3095059)

Disclaimer: The information contained within may not be 100% actual or factual. Please use your own judgment and always, EVOLVE RESPONSIBLY.