Go Skate Weekend, the Closing of Motor City, and a Brotherhood

Almost two weeks after the fact, here is my write up of Go Skateboarding Weekend in NYC, which started Friday June 21st.  Not all good things are necessarily timely, but since it’s long gone history I’ll keep this short and spicy. I planned to go to the official events at Flushing Meadows, L.E.S skate park, and the Nike barge.  I did not make it to any of those instead I showed up at Astor at 2 pm.

I thought I’d meet my friends, Simon and Sam, and maybe a few others of the crew. Instead there was a battalion of skaters. I saw quickly that it was the Shut crew, and in total more that twenty skaters.  We skated slowly down a few streets, and they ripped a few random spots.  One was a flat rail, and the other was a construction site with a jersey barrier and a stacked platform. Lastly in front of Epstein’s, a skater friendly bar, they had a bench out. Instead of trying to recreate the awesomeness of their session and tricks I put the link to their edit at the bottom of this entry. I’m lurking in the background at one spot.

In the afternoon, it ended up being Simon, Sam and I skating our favorite little park spot on Christie Street. Simon wasn’t feeling well, and volunteered to film instead of skate.  Sam is creating creative with old school tricks. He did a layback hands down wall ride, and an assortment of stuff.  I tried the impossible to fakie over and over, and for it we set the camera on a post, and it was a good 5 minutes into the filming before I got it. I’m planning to play with my tripod some at parks in the early morning by myself. Tripods and oneself are not imposing on others when trying to get a hard trick.

Back to the lecture at hand, in the middle of the session, we went to a café for a long lunch. I’m glad I got to spend a good amount of time with Simon and Sam on Go Skate Day, who are among my best friends. I had sangria with lunch, and we went back to the park. Sam got some more zany stuff, and on flat I got a half-flip to shuv, and a front foot impossible with so much toe drag, I really shouldn’t claim it at a land. I think with the Sangria I was not my best at skating. I decided that anything remotely close to a land counts, sketch is okay.  Sam wallied and basically manhandled a trashed television with no hesitation. Simon really played with the angles and slow motion, so I think that makes it a unique edit. At the bottom of my entry is the edit of this footage and Sunday.

Go Skate Night was ridiculous, and everyone indulged a little too much. I was happy though, from Slappy Sundays this past year, I’ve met so many great energetic skaters that I’m amazed.  Older skaters like myself have a real bond and camaraderie.  I’m glad to have such an a great network of people outside of work. I’ll keep my review of the nightlife short, but Saturday I was hung over.

But it was Go Skateboarding weekend, so I had to skate on Saturday. I skated Flushing Meadows with my good friend Julian. The unisphere really has the perfect ground for skating. I’m surprised it’s not filled with water yet. Perhaps skaters have a month before the parks officially prepare for the tennis U.S. Open and beautify the park including putting water in the fountain. Sometimes when I go there, I don’t even go to the skate park. In a weekend celebrating skating, it’s fitting that I skated Flushing Meadows, as it’s one of my favorite spots.

Slappy Sunday was off the hook that week as usual. Afterwards a few of us went to the usual spot at the park on Christie Street.  This footage wraps up the edit. The highlights are Ian’s huge tre flip, and Luke’s frontside rail on the TV. So for Go Skateboarding Weekend I had a great time and made an edit out of it!

Fast-forward a week to Sunday June 30^th.  The Slappy Sunday turnout was huge, but a little after 3 pm it started to rain. I tried to find dry spots with Julian to no avail. So it was time to go to the last Sloppy Sunday at Motor City. This bar, and more specifically the amazing bar tender, Bridgette, was the hang out each week after Slappy Sunday. For me it was only a little bit over a year, but such an amazing year for me to feel part of something. Sunday was a wild night there, and even though I didn’t close it out, I saw pictures online the next day of everything getting torn off the walls. It’s sad that it’s officially closed and this is another case of landlords raising rent to high for small local businesses. Even though Motor City is gone, it’s the people that made the place, and I hope to continue to see most of them for many Sundays for years in the future.

*Picture on top taken by Eugene Kang

mallisonwhat skate edit!

Shut Go Skate Day,