Saturday I grabbed my skateboard and camera and headed out to catch a little Enarchy. A progressive skate session featuring the Emerica team started at Tompkins Square Park, then moved to Houston Park, and finished up at the Brooklyn Banks underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather was perfect and the sessions were raucous. Tompkins Park is basically a slab of concrete with some launch ramps, grind boxes, and rails. Not too exciting really. Probably the most amazing thing I saw there was a guy ollie over a garbage can like it was nothing. It was a standard 4-foot garbage can and he approached it, popped an ollie, flew over the can and landed smooth as butter.
After an hour at Tompkins a bullhorn came out to announce it was time to move on to the next spot. Simply skating down the street is normally not very exciting, but think about skating down the street with about two hundred other people. Cars had no choice but to yield and skaters were grabbing onto to car bumpers and motorcycle seats to get pulled along.
Houston featured more homegrown street skating – none of the obstacles were made for skating. The session started with ollie variations down stair sets. Ollie sequences you normally see in videos and in magazines were being pulled left and right. I had a hard time seeing though the crowd but I’m pretty sure Andrew Reynolds pulled a nollie 360 kickflip. Here’s a picture of one of the kids to give you an idea of the set up -
The session moved to other spots in the park and the most “organic” award goes to some guys who “borrowed” some construction barriers and put them next to a ledge. This is not something any sane individual would think up. The barriers were tied together and abused with the likes of nose grinds, kick flips to various board slides, and crooked grinds. Here’s a pic of the set up –
The bullhorn made another appearance and it was off to the Brooklyn Bridge. Architects designed some banks underneath the bridge at a time when skateboarding had not been invented. Skateboarding is pretty much about commandeering terrain that was never meant for skateboarding and turning the terrain into a playground. The Brooklyn Banks are a perfect example. The banks were getting worked during the session but the glamour spot was a 10-stair rail. Check out this tail slide pic to see what I am talking about –
Quite insane I must say. Another unique element is bridge abutments that are planted right into the banks. This makes is possible to ollie onto the abutments. A few months back I met a guy who had moved out to New York from the West Coast about the same time I did. He’s from the Seattle area and here he is abusing the abutment –
A while back I also wrote about a T-shirt I saw in Times Square. I thought the shirt was just an attention grabber and that no one would really buy one. Well, leave it to a skater to prove me wrong! I think you can choose the shirt I am talking about out of the line up.
Killer Session! The skaters here in Philly are in an all out war with the city to preserve a legendary skate spot, Love Park. Sponsors are throwing major cash towards opening the park up to comps, but it seems that a wealthy contributor to Philly government lives in a high rise overlooking the park, and doesn’t want to look out his window at skaters. Ahhh, civic government.
Love Park is famous yo! Skaters all over the nation know about it and the city actually opened the park up for the ESPN X-Games Street competition a few years back. So, one wealthy hot shot wants to ruin all the fun huh? Hopefully skaters will unify and overcome. This is an age where are lot of skaters are becoming politically active and contributing a great deal to the public’s understanding of the sport. Skate park funding has come a long way in recent years and kids are taking active roles in getting hooked up with local officials. Power to the little people!
Sick pics by the way.
Actually, the pictures would be much sicker if they were pop ups so you could get a bigger view. I’m still struggling with Word Press at this time, I just don’t want to commit the time to learn when it is sunny outside! It’s much easier to look at code when it’s below freezing.
Thank you though, my little Cannon Powershot takes some ill pics.
this guy is nothing but a big posuer trying to get attention and skaters to like him and if you want attentiopn get some better nicer pictures next time
Anonymous,
You got me pegged dude, I am a poser. I am an old dude posing like I should actually be on a skateboard and I’m a wanna be photographer. I’m crushed that you found me out.
My self esteem should be ruined, but you told me what I already know, so I actually feel pretty good. Thanx for bagging on me!
yo its Mike Cali Callahan wit the big ass fro
Dear Emerica people,
PLEASE change wild in the streets philladelphia because to a weekend i have fucking ——–FINALS//////// that day!! and all of my town does to ,i live in long beach New york, and i go to long beach high school. lAST YEAR I MISSED IT TO BECause my dad punished me for not calling him.
PLEASE CHANGE IT TO A WEEKEND!!
p.s… I know u put it in a magazine already but for the rest of me and my friends life i will buy Emerica clothes,shoes,sweatbands,jeans, and even socks.
I LOVE THIS GUYS SHIRT AND THAT COLOR DECK IS SO HOTT FOR A GUY TO HAVE! KEEP ON SHREDIN YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT TO THE FULLEST!!!!!! LOVE THE ONLY SEMI PRO GIRL SK8ER IN THE FREE WORLD!!!!! ROCK ON!
fuck pigs,stick close to your friends . skate for life .
wats your name?
Hola Chico
He’s young to have a fro like that…
DC Shoes
I’ve seen that T-shirt on sale in London, i’ve noticed it in quite a few places now that I think about it. It’s not the best shirt.
Nice job! I really mean it! It is so hard to catch action shots like that but my guess is you had a great camera that has a feature built in to get those shots without blurring. Looking forward to more!
This is a great post, I bet it was an awsome day!