Last full day in New York! I had set my alarm for 6:30 so I could get out and skate before the family woke up. When the alarm went off I hit snooze and thought I might just bail on skating altogether. I had thought about all the ledges I skated the day before and wanted revenge. But when I started waking up I wasn’t feeling that anymore and decided on a different spot. Thanks to Quartersnacks for mapping out this spot. So there I go skating for over two miles through some crazy jewish neighborhood where all the men wore traditional outfits. There was seriously like 20 men on the sidewalk at any given time looking like this. I arrived at the park before 8am. There was a couple dudes sleeping nearby which I felt bad about, but it’s right by an interstate and it’s NYC so it’s super loud. I started out SUCKING. I should expect that considering I skated or walked over 13 miles the day before (at least that’s what my iphone says). I eventually pieced a line together of f/s halfcab on flat, noseslide to fakie the granite ledge against the fence, switch john brandow the little ledge, then boardslide the end of the long ledge. Then I went for another line of f/s halfcab flip, crooks the ledge and ollie the stairs. Darn near did it first try, but shot out on the 4 stair. Took me awhile to get back to the 4 stair, but when I did the ollie felt rad and I topped it off with a sloppy 360 flip on flat. I ollied down a set that Brad Cromer kickflipped up. Ha. Lets also not forget that this is a PJ spot too! I started trying another line of halfcab flip then front 50 on the little ledge then something on the granite ledge. But the front 50 proved troublesome. Again? Ugh. I moved on to fakie bigflips and managed one bad front 5-0 that was supposed to be a 50. I then moved on to starting with 360 flip. I landed quite a few 360 flips and still struggled with the front 50. If I didn’t land the 360 flip I would try a varial heel in the exact same spot as PJ. I got a couple over-40 makes. It hyped me up to do another ‘same trick at the same spot’ as PJ and I am fully aware of how big of a nerd I am. I would eventually get a 360 flip and then a front 50 shove out that felt so easy it bummed me out it took that long. I was going to try another line hopefully involving a front 180 down the stairs, but I got a text from Liz that they were up and moving. I decided to check out a nearby spot that Rob had told me about.

This spot was only a couple blocks away. It’s also got a bunch of 3 stairs and a gap to rail that is gnarly. Pretty much all four sides of the statue are waxed on every stair. I started with some long 50s because it was fun grinding granite. I eventually did a rather fun line of ollie down the 3 (yeah I started from the top), slappy crooks, back 50, front 5-0. I also manualled the low step, ollied onto the low step and front 50’d the second step. Then I took the long haul back to our apt.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533)

The rest of the family had already bought tickets to go on a boat tour with India’s ballet class members. I was supposed to go skate with Rob, but he opted out leaving me on a solo mission. I woke up not feeling great after having a couple drinks and everyone was tired and had to rush to get out of the house. I went towards the financial district. I walked around a ton through crowds of tourists for awhile and felt kind of hyped to see the stock exchange and stuff. I ended up at this spot across from where the slanted granite ledge in Battery Park apparently used to be. I didn’t think I would last long at all and I felt super nervous about getting busted for some reason. I did a few different stall tricks and would ride down the double set of two stairs. After about 15 minutes a lady came out resembling security so I just skated off. Went down the park on the water for awhile which had some decent looking spots, but too crowded for me. I was definitely getting sick of the crowds of people EVERYWHERE and the constant honking.

I ended up at these ledges. They are perfect. I am not. It was a battle to get started. I got a few crooks, a few noseslides, one front 50 in about 30 tries, close to back 50. Horrible right? I saw a penny sitting on the ground and somehow immediately knew it was from 1973, the year I was born. Pretty cool. I thought my day would get better, but it didn’t really. I did manage a line of noseslide then crooks.

So much marble, so little pop.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 2:56pm PDT

Some people sat down on the far bench to eat so I went about 30 feet to this spot. The cracks between each brick is kind of annoying, but really this is beyond perfect spot. Well, except the fresh dog shit that I constantly watched people unknowingly step in as they passed through. I really was not skating well. I took a lot of tries to noseslide across the grate in the front of the photo. I wanted to front 50 going back, but I never committed. Either the ledges out here are taller (I really think they are) or I’m getting older (duh) or my legs are super tired from walking so much (totally broh). I did get remotely close to manualling it though. I know I’ve seen footage of people manualling around them. So cool.

I didn’t get the boot at the angled bench spot, but I could see this ledge less then a block away and wanted to check it out. There are actually tons of these ledges. Most are knobbed. All were mobbed with tourists walking to their boat rides to the Statue Of Liberty or whatever dumb stuff they were doing. The crowds really got to me. I tried to front 50 a different one for awhile and didn’t have the pop. UGH. Then I found this one. Look familiar?

So hyped. I did some boardslides, noseslides, noseslide to fakie, crook and then a family sat on it and I left.

More #skatetourist action. This spot has stood out for me ever since Markovich bigflipped down it in a line in third eye vision. Got the boot before I landed any lines. Doh.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 10:12am PDT

So I walked back up the little hill to this spot. I got a yummy smoothie on the way. I was all set to give this spot a go, but there was a security guard camped out about the stairs. Ugh. I walked around the building a couple times.

I saw this thing around the corner that PJ back 180’s all easy in his Brick Harbor edit. The hill is steeper then it looks in the footage or the photo and the switch front shove he does is gnarly. I decided to just skate the stairs anyway. I locked up. I don’t know why I was so anxious to skate there. I wanted to do front 180 up, halfcab flip, ollie the 5. But the front 180 weirded me out. It seriously took me like 5 tries to get the 180 up. Got the halfcab flip, posed an ollie and realized it should be pretty easy to ollie the stairs. Did a horrible front 180 up, even worse halfcab flip and was going to turn around, but saw the security guard coming down the upper set of stairs to kick me out. I knew it was my last try so I committed to the ollie. I misjudged how steep the landing is and shot out, but I was still pretty excited that I committed. I begged for one more try, but they weren’t having it. 3 other security guards swarmed in to make sure of that. They were nice at least. I sat there and instagrammed the photo. Neat.

Then I went site seeing for awhile. Saw Brooklyn Banks and was super bummed it’s unskateable for now. Saw the courthouse drop. It’s crazy. The drop wasn’t as high as I thought, but everything else about it was gnarlier then I thought it was. I was able to go up above it and can’t believe what quick foot Suciu did there.

Seeing all the sites today

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

I dropped in on the black hubba. There were tons of people around. I bailed out and somehow still almost collided with an adult on a scooter. Ha.

I finally found a place to skate without a crowd. It was nice while it lasted. I just did some flatground for awhile. I didn’t skate it very well, but it was nice to get a few flippers under me. I didn’t get very far in my list before a large group of people came in and sat on several of the benches. Obviously I could have kept skating, but I figured it was a sign to move on to another spot. I headed toward midtown and found nothing. Seriously walked/skated like 5 miles and found nothing to skate. Found the Pier 62 skatepark. Without a doubt this is the worst skatepark I have ever seen. Well, I guess the bowl looked decent, but the rest of the area looked beyond stupid. I went back to the apt after that. What a long day. It was frustrating mainly because I skated horribly, but also because I wasted a lot of time skating/walking with no idea of where to go. I wish I had stayed in the financial district. Oh well, maybe next time. I was hyped to almost get that line on the 2 up 5 down spot at least.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights (I have to admit I’ve been obsessing over low trucks again doh) thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)