“DON’T DO IT!”
Article – Keith Rebhorn Video – Michael Braun Pics – Max Dubler
On October 10th, 2009, over 250 skateboarders of all types descended upon what may be the most treacherous race course in history. The obstacles ranged from cross traffic, to pedestrians, to busses stopping short, to cracks/gaps in the pavement, to road construction, to the occasional skater that didn’t quite know not to step on his/her wheels. The saying that organizers of this event like to use is “You may die” and in fact, this saying holds true.
The Broadway Bomb was quite the experience, all starting on a Saturday morning. We departed Hoboken by Path train and ran into a skater or two on the path train, then after meeting up with some friends, we hopped on the subway, and took the 1 train uptown to 116th St. Me, Pat Schep, Daniel McDonald, and Chris Buono all got to street level 5 minutes before it was go time. We met up with the rest of the group and said our hellos to old and new friends alike.
Then, the race began, and a testosterone driven pack of 200+ skateboarders ran/skated up a hill to get onto Broadway, and once there, the race began. Pushing through New York City was something unimaginable. We held up traffic, cut off pedestrians, almost got ran over a few times, and a few people got their boards broken. Some people took this race seriously while others were just hanging out, having fun skating down Broadway.
We blew through intersections yelling at pedestrians and cars “Don’t do it!” We didn’t want them to cross and hit us, or us hit them. (Trust me, hitting vehicles is just as bad as a vehicle hitting you). It was awesome to feel the power of 200+ people barreling through NYC on longboards. This race is as much about winning as it is making a point of alternative form of transportation.
After the race ended, we got kicked out from hanging around the bull because they were shooting a movie/tv show and we were “in the shot” so we all decided to head over to the East Side park where the burgers were being made. After hanging out there, and seeing the skogging samoan do his thing, we decided to peace out, grab some delicious pizza, and then skate around looking for Pat Scheps car. He forgot where he parked, so we skated through lower manhattan guessing which way his car was. It was awesome.
After spending the hour looking for Pat’s car, we drove across the Brooklyn Bridge and skated watchtower until about dark. After that, we piled back into pat’s car, and made our way to one of the after-parties at Ned’s house. At Ned’s, we were hanging out, drinking some beer, and trying to have 6 people skate a 4 foot wide mini ramp at once. This was the epitome of skateboarding for me, and it was beautiful. A bunch of people with 1 thing in common, were all in one random place, doing the one thing they love. There should be some pictures/video coming from the mini-ramp.
We eventually made it back to Hoboken, where we watched some TV until about 2am, then caught 4 hours of shuteye. We got up at 6am to make it over to the style session up near Cloisters. It was awesome waking up that early and skating from 7am until 10 for the style session. People were laying down big tricks, and it was awesome. I managed to land a few big drop knee standers. Unfortunately my wheels don’t love me, and it seems that I have almost destroyed another set. After the style session, a few of us headed out of the city, and skated some gnar in white-plains, and then in another spot in NY state. I had tons of fun, and recommend that everyone get to the bomb at least once.
