New York Gritty

Last week I got an unexpected phone call from a friend informing me he and crew were heading to NYC in a few hours and I should come along. With options to bound I decided to charge it.

We drove all night avoiding toll roads, roaming through back roads, scoping the sides of highways for marks left behind by youthful wanderers.

DC was dead at night.

We neared NYC as the sun rose. The toll avoidance took us through the countryside, it was beautiful.

Tunnels to burrow through.

Less trees and more concrete, more chaos, more dirty feet. Nice spot Skame. Pretty sure Dr. Sex held that down years ago.

JA holds NYC down. Heard he was in a movie, Karate Kid maybe?

Climbing roofs are city kids equivalent to country kids climbing trees.

My friend brought this old board with him but never managed to get his trucks on right.

It really is a jungle, an urban playground for those who see differently.

Sketch your life away.

Writers wet dream. Come up kids, or kings?

Krink is the best.

Midnight devils.

The 24 hour Long Island Express.

Piece of the puzzle.

I had a nightmare a few months ago I got shot in the chest in NYC while walking into a basement. Oddly enough my friend wanted to carry some of his furniture into his basement while we were in town. But we nixed that idea and instead I decided to go onto the roof and shoot this photo. Immediately after taking the photo gun shots rang out below and I looked down to see a man running through the streets blasting at a car going in reverse the wrong way. It was pretty gnarly. After the gunfire the streets returned to normal like nothing had happened. Brooklyn goes hard.

I skated alone most of the time through the city, my comrades were on the paint tip while I was on the skate. I ran into some old friends in the city and made new ones along the way. These were the Brooklyn kids. They were so stoked on skating and we gave them an old coffee table. They took the legs off and had their first manual pad. The future is bright.

We escaped to Jersey to an abandoned water park where a gang fight had ensued years ago. People just started firing at each other while kids swam in pools and lifeguards blew whistles. This drawing was quite suggestive.

Why not?

Rails invents tricks on the regular. I think he 360ed out of this one.

In Jersey we were hunting down an abandoned train bridge, the Paulinskill Viaduct. We weren’t really sure which way to go from this area but some kids showed up. The were skaters and they gladly pointed us in the right direction.

We found the viaduct and had to climb down these sewers into it. The crew came prepared with headlamps and flashlights.

As you towered 10 stories or so high you could climb through each level. It was amazing. Something you can’t find in any mall or product, a free priceless treat for the restless youth.

We brought some crayons. Wear your respirators.

Whatever is inside, let it out.

Artists lose sense of time.

This made me laugh.

As did this.

Young hearts be free tonight.

This reminded me of a girl I know.

We departed the viaduct and as we returned to the surface of the bridge the fog had rolled in giving us an eery feel. It was incredible. Nothing else mattered. Our time was perfect as we dodged Johnny Laws inspection of the road. I mean I love people, but sometimes its just much nicer to do your thing without explanation. This text is quite irrelevant to the photo above. The next day we wandered into a ship graveyard in all its glory in a Staten Island.

Wreckage without use.

A pirates life for me.

I grew fond of NYC. Yea, its dirty, grimey, violent, raw, uncut, harsh, crowded, polluted… but something about having so much to skate and explore is so great. Every morning I woke up and told myself I was too tired to go skate, but pushing around to the Manhatten bridge park, the Brooklyn Banks, Billy Rohans school yard spot, and just skating through traffic was so rewarding. The city never sleeps, and it is a fucken jungle.