Skating in the
BIG
CITY
REDISCOVERING
DOWNTOWN
Street skating is not something that is
new to the realms of the four wheeled. The
street skater was the first and will be the
last to shred upon this paved planet called
Earth. The inner city, urban street rat
skater is the epitomy of this skate heritage.
He skates because he's got a board with
wheels under his feet and a whole jungle of
possibilities to work out on. He doesn't
skate with promises of money or recogni-
tion waving in front of his face. Fun,
enjoyment and pure thrill are both
motivators and pay off for this untimely
breed.
The urban skater can talk of a specific
curb or asphalt swell with the same
attention to detail that you'd hear from a
similarly stoked verticalist talking about a
pool or a surfer about da kine wave. Sure
the urban skater craves to skate a park. He
craves the perfect pool or pipe and the
ditch and the bank just like any true blood
skater should. The point is, often times the
street is all the big city skater has. Most of
the time this is all he needs.
Skate architecture is a phrase that has
been appropriately used to describe the
vastly unlimited forms that man has
surrounded himself with. Nowhere is this
giant skatepark of possibilities more in
evidence than in the core of the big city.
Radical Rainbow Riders, Ron and Adam,
sidewalk slide in downtown NYC.
SAFETY IN NUMBERS
On the streets of San Francisco, Jak's
skate team reigns supreme. Created out of
camaraderie of friends that always skated
together, the Jak's loosely unwritten code
of honor states only that you have your
board with you at all times. After that, come
what may.
In Central Park in New York City, you're
likely to see the Radical Rainbow Riders
hanging out when they're not skating to
and from different thrashable city skate
spots. In the mean streets of NYC these
city skaters have learned to incorporate
self-defense tactics that come in handy
when dealing with cabbies, who try to cut
them off. In a city clogged with overpower-
ing congestion most of the time, the skater
is faster on his board than any bus, train, or
person. The only qualification is the ability
to get rad.
The proliferation of street teams in the
big city centers is just another example of
the stick-together, skate-together attitude
of skaters today. Rat Pack, Skate Rats,
Jerks (S.F.); Skatecore, McShred (Philly);
B.T.U. (Berkeley); all are part of the
Publicly skating: Craig Johnson skips the lip of growing list of skate teams that are
2 public transition underneath the Downtown
Dallas skyline. Photo: Newtron.
popping up in urban city centers every-
where.
HI
Skate Architecture:
Andy Kessler sweeps the
lip of a walk-side wall in
New York City.
Photo: Wesley Boxce.
IDCNY
Best
Western
Team RRR takes a
street break.