The concrete jungle that is New York City has been a hotbed of skateboarding for a long time now. Many a shredder has taken on the endless miles of concrete, asphalt, and iron in order to forge their own individual paths. Countless numbers of skaters have weaved in and out of its traffic—auto, human, and otherwise—so as to tap into the chi and flow that is at the heart of riding a skateboard. The Broadway Bomb and the days surrounding it are an ode to the unique adventure that is skateboarding in NYC. Wheelbase was there, and we had a blast!

Day two of our NYC trip was similar to day one; we skated all over Manhattan while the sun was shining, shredded well into the moonbeam hours, and enjoyed every minute of it.

We sawed some serious logs at our homie’s house in Brooklyn that first night, which set us up for a revitalized day of shredding through the streets of New York City. We got up at the crack-of-breakfast, slipped into some fresh skivvies, hit the grocery store in order to fill up Dave’s Hobo bag with some edible arrangements, and then we proceeded to get our skate on.

Quote of the Dave:

“Multi-terrain skating from rugged Manhattan streets to bulging bridges and bunk Brooklyn pavement—mini-ramp time, wheel change to smith massacre—gotta love hobo-baggin’. AA award to Marcus and Kody for puttin’ in work on the wooden toys! Tons of love to Solomon the smooth, Bustin and the Longboard Loft for inspiration, Uncle Funky’s for motivation, and homeboy’s mini-ramp jammer for fresh sauce and a change of pace . . . “

Day two of our trip was another perfect October day in New York City—warm and sunny. We decided to start things off by heading over to Broadway to roll around and get a feel for what we would be skating the day of the actual Bomb. There was a grip of people and a whole lot of cars, buses, bikes, trucks, cops, motorcycles, tricycles, and whathaveyous; but we kept our composure and whipped and zipped through all of it for the better part of the morning and afternoon. luckily we survived it, but barely.

Later in the day we headed over to the Bustin’s Longboard Loft skate shop. We hooked up with Bustin Rider and NYC/Brooklyn local, Solomon Lang. We chilled at the shop for a while just checking out all the rad boards and stuff they carry, met some of the other Bustin homies, and rapped with the local skaters that rolled in. We were ultimately headed over to Brooklyn to chill for a bit and then meet up with the Arbor and SkateHouse dudes later in the evening, so Solomon offered to skate with us up and over the Williamsburg Bridge on our way back over to Brooklyn. The Bridge crosses over the East River, from Manhattan into Brooklyn and is a hot spot for local riders looking for some speed. We left the shop, headed over to the bridge, and walked up to the top. And by “we”, I mean Dave and I—Solomon was so hyped he just skated up the entire thing. I think he was racing some fixies up to the top? Damn! When we reached the top we peeped the epic views of the river, Manhattan, and of Brooklyn, and then proceeded to bomb down the bridge. It was definitely a fun run. It’s fast enough for sure, but what makes it extra exquisite is all the bikes, walkers, and dogs you have to weave through; as well as the metal gaps in the road you have to barge over intermittently on the way down. The gaps are not big enough to buck you off your board, but they do force you to keep your weight balanced and eyes peeled.

We chillaxed at the bottom of the bridge in this little park for a while afterwards, just shooting the shit and skating stuff. Solomon had to meet up with some other dudes that just arrived in town for the Bomb, so we slapped some fives and parted ways.

Later in the evening, we met up with Brooklyn locals Adam Crigler and his lovely lady-friend Pricilla, as well as the recently arrived Arbor squad. Adam had worked out a miniramp session for us that night, so we picked up some libations and other offerings and proceeded to the jam. We arrived to find that the ramp was in a collaborative artist loft-space on the second story of a giant warehouse. It was definitely a surreal experience to skate up there. It ended up being a pretty big party as well. A bunch of NYC skaters showed up and we skated and generally lurked till the wee hours of the morning.

I think we got back to Jasper’s house and fell asleep somewhere around 3 or 4am. It was another epic day of skateboarding in NYC, and although we were extremely tired, we were well aware that in ten or so hours from that moment we’d be taking over all of Broadway along with a thousand-plus fellow skateboarders . . .

A big thanks to the sponsors of this particular trip: Riviera Skateboards & Caliber Trucks.