Andy Kessler (skateboarder)

Andrew Kessler, born on 11 June 1961 and died on 10 August 2009, was a Greek-born American skateboarder and skatepark builder and a prominent member of the Soul Artists of Zoo York, a loose-knit collective of skateboarders and graffiti artists. He was born with his twin sister in Athens, Greece, adopted by an American family and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He started skateboarding in the early 1970s in Central Park, near the West 69th Street entrance, and joined the group of inner city kids around the bandshell at Rumsey Playfield. As urethane wheels and purpose built trucks replaced makeshift rollerskate trucks, he helped other New York kids develop new forms and styles of skating, including the use of plywood ramps. He is featured in the documentary Deathbowl to Downtown.