New York City - The Freeride Park

by Concorde

Naomi, May 2003

Whip whap, its official. Drinking champagne at 60,000 ft has a way to go before it compares to riding the NYC way. Though maybe I’ll reconsider when we hit Mach2…

Have you ever been to Manhattan? Have you seen the nasty cut up roads? Are you wondering if all those hours tying my feet in knots around kiddies’ plastic cups have gone to my head? Probably, but then so did the NY freeriding.

Manhattan has a traffic system like none in the UK. Its grid structure, one way system and predictability open up a much greater capacity for looking very very cool indeed. And cool we were… Though to be fair, I was riding more on the New Yorkers’ intimate knowledge and experience of the city & vibe than my own insanity, although I can quote “Hey, we can’t let her go back without getting at least arrested – lets do Grand Central!”

Although this was foiled by police presence, and we all crashed & burned on the huge flight of Chase Manhattan steps, we ruled the night with downhills (OK, so they were faster than me), stairs (OK, so they were smoother than me), sprinting up the Brooklyn Bridge (whipped their butts real good), skitching (drivers are either more chilled out over there, or less alert), general roaming, messing around and…er…iced tea.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to sample the New York City WNS, as I had a rather fortuitous meeting with the above featured skaters approximately 15 minutes before the start and instead spent the evening happily trading moves, and failing miserably to either breakdance, handplant, or slide backwards in a toe-block (pretty much the coolest thing ever).

Despite the great scope for freeride, like every major city, it has numerous tales of ex-street furniture beginning “over there there used to be an amazing…” and finishing “but then…” The fallout from September 2001 has certainly taken its toll on skate restrictions as security rose, but so many toys still remain in the cot, and who are we to throw them out?

Well, we’ve just hit Mach2 and do I reconsider? No, but I’d still pay the price for this if only for the pleasure of making people jealous.

If you’re travelling to New York, don’t expect to see anyone skating outside of Central Park, the west side bike path, or purpose built skateparks. It just isn’t done. But somehow the pedestrians seem a lot less shocked and more accepting than I was used to, and there’s plenty of room to skate on the wide roads.

Many thanks to Evan and Shaun with their insane acrobatics and slides, and the Air Hostess who merely laughed when I ripped the window facia off during takeoff, and well done to me for writing my first ever straight article.

About Naomi (by Mike)

Naomi is an experienced skater, having been involved in ice hockey and numerous other types of skating over the years.  She recently won the French Cup Ladies Freestyle Slalom in Paris (see this awesome video: http://styleslalom.free.fr/naomi.mpg ).

She's also an IISA Level II instructor with skatefresh skate school here in London, and is highly respected in the London skating community.  In case you wondered about the "serious article" comment, she's also known for her satire and was nicknamed "skateb*tch" by her boyfriend.

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