Richie Banks Returns With His Most Ambitious DIY Skatepark Build Yet
Banks brought Chad Caruso, Eli Reed and more to the desert surrounding Reno, NV for his “Most American” skate park
With skateboarding’s inclusion in the (postponed) Olympic Games and top-flight skaters becoming household names instead of remaining subcultural heroes, skateboarding may boast more mainstream visibility in 2020 than ever before, but individuals like Richie Banks are keeping its DIY spirit alive. A master of hand-built skate spots that are sometimes here today, gone tomorrow and sometimes last for months, Banks and his crew have built a whopping five parks in the Nevada desert over the course of 2020. These range from the the “Great American Dirt Farm” — an abandoned mine turned park — to a spot on the Las Vegas outskirts, but Banks’ fifth park, the “Most American” is his boldest undertaking yet, and the process behind it was recently captured in a new mini-documentary that premiered at The Berrics.
Working in tandem with Reno, Nevada’s Classic Skate Shop, native New Yorker Banks brought pro skater friends like Chad Caruso out from the East Coast, and also tapped into Reno’s skate scene to garner a crew worthy of such an undertaking. Over the course of the nearly 17-minute long video above, Banks and friends fabricate metal for the park’s rails, have a casual run-in with the Reno Police Department — though no Reno 911- level hijinks ensure — and at the end, build a fully-fledged skatepark, transforming an abandoned ditch into a communal hub for desert skaters.
Check out the video in its entirety above, and for more skateboarding-related content be sure to head over to The Berrics. Elsewhere, check out the patent leather-covered Air Jordan 1 “Black/Metallic Gold.”
