Pro skateboarder Rob Campbell skating the Brooklyn Banks
Roughly 1200 skaters attended last Thursday’s Go Skateboarding Day.
A skater looking in at the park from a roomier position.
Pro skateboarder Rob Campbell signing boards
The large crowd at the Manhattan Skate Park made it hard to skate.
Except for some minor hassling the police kept mostly to themselves.
Skating against traffic through the streets of Manhattan.
If you happened to be one of the many confused New Yorkers who watched roughly 1200 skateboarders skate through the streets of lower Manhattan followed by a fair amount of cops it was because this past Thursday, June 21st, was Go Skateboarding Day (GSD), a four-year-old annual holiday created for the celebration and promotion of skateboarding.
According to www.goskateboardingday.org, “GSD originated as the day for skateboarders to have fun, to raise awareness about the issues we face, to show the world what skateboarding is really all about, to reclaim our culture and to define skateboarding as the rebellious, creative celebration of independence it continues to be.” Thousands of events in more than 35 countries took place on June 21 this year.
New York’s Go Skateboarding Day event was run by 5boro and Official Skateboards, two local board companies, and began at the Brooklyn Banks, a famous skate spot located under the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side. From the Brooklyn Banks everyone headed to the Manhattan Skate Park, a relatively new park under the Manhattan Bridge followed by Houston Park, Tompkins Square Park, and finally skating across the Williamsburg Bridge all the way to KCDC Skate Shop for free food.
Being ticketed or having your board taken away by the police is common and being arrested for a skateboarding related offense is not unheard of. While there were no tickets given out directly relating to Go Skateboarding Day there was a large police presence. When the skateboarders moved from the south side of Houston Park to the north side in order to skate the steps the police quickly moved in to block the steps with their scooters.
Unlike Critical Mass, which has no route, no leaders, and no corporate sponsorship, at the New York GSD event postcard sized maps were passed out listing six spots to hit and the exact route to be taken. Additionally, about 13 major skateboard companies sponsored the New York event. For a variety of reasons almost all skateboarding events have some level of corporate sponsorship. However, GSD is a pro-skateboard celebration in much the same way that Critical Mass is a pro-bike celebration, but it is certainly not a protest.
Issues that have occurred with Critical Mass like following traffic lights and one way streets didn’t crop up even though there was no attention paid to red lights or what side of the street people were skating on and the police spent most of their time keeping skateboarders off of the sidewalks. According to the KCDC Skate Shop there were no permits and the police weren’t officially involved and while other Go Skateboarding Day events have in the past ended with tickets and arrests in New York the only major problem to occur was the rain, which cut short the KCDC event.
If the goal of Go Skateboarding Day was to promote skateboarding by showing the community that there is a large skateboarding presence it may not have succeeded in New York. In smaller towns where there is more communication between residents and politicians the message may have been more effective. Ideally, the sight of a large group of skaters would force towns to realize that skateboarding should get the same support and facilities that things like soccer or swimming do and eventually lead to fewer tickets and more skateparks.
According to www.goskateboardingday.org, “GSD originated as the day for skateboarders to have fun, to raise awareness about the issues we face, to show the world what skateboarding is really all about, to reclaim our culture and to define skateboarding as the rebellious, creative celebration of independence it continues to be.” Thousands of events in more than 35 countries took place on June 21 this year.
New York’s Go Skateboarding Day event was run by 5boro and Official Skateboards, two local board companies, and began at the Brooklyn Banks, a famous skate spot located under the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side. From the Brooklyn Banks everyone headed to the Manhattan Skate Park, a relatively new park under the Manhattan Bridge followed by Houston Park, Tompkins Square Park, and finally skating across the Williamsburg Bridge all the way to KCDC Skate Shop for free food.
Being ticketed or having your board taken away by the police is common and being arrested for a skateboarding related offense is not unheard of. While there were no tickets given out directly relating to Go Skateboarding Day there was a large police presence. When the skateboarders moved from the south side of Houston Park to the north side in order to skate the steps the police quickly moved in to block the steps with their scooters.
Unlike Critical Mass, which has no route, no leaders, and no corporate sponsorship, at the New York GSD event postcard sized maps were passed out listing six spots to hit and the exact route to be taken. Additionally, about 13 major skateboard companies sponsored the New York event. For a variety of reasons almost all skateboarding events have some level of corporate sponsorship. However, GSD is a pro-skateboard celebration in much the same way that Critical Mass is a pro-bike celebration, but it is certainly not a protest.
Issues that have occurred with Critical Mass like following traffic lights and one way streets didn’t crop up even though there was no attention paid to red lights or what side of the street people were skating on and the police spent most of their time keeping skateboarders off of the sidewalks. According to the KCDC Skate Shop there were no permits and the police weren’t officially involved and while other Go Skateboarding Day events have in the past ended with tickets and arrests in New York the only major problem to occur was the rain, which cut short the KCDC event.
If the goal of Go Skateboarding Day was to promote skateboarding by showing the community that there is a large skateboarding presence it may not have succeeded in New York. In smaller towns where there is more communication between residents and politicians the message may have been more effective. Ideally, the sight of a large group of skaters would force towns to realize that skateboarding should get the same support and facilities that things like soccer or swimming do and eventually lead to fewer tickets and more skateparks.
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