Spots: Downtown Manhattan — Financial District

Spot: Battery Park City started as a mid-level security having location that opened up from renovations in the nineties and remained a permanent stop that you could at least have a solid thirty to fourty-five minute session at, even on a mid-summer afternoon, and turned into one of the biggest busts in the city after the September 11th attacks, which happened quite literally above the park, as the shortcut through the Trade Center was a common route to hop between sides of the Westside Highway.

The spot itself has remained largely the same. One of the ledge-to-flatbar set ups got knobbed in 2006, the HUF gaps/ledges near Stuyvesant High School (the one’s at the end of Gino’s ollie up, nollie back heel down three, switch 180 and back tail line in The Chocolate Tour) at the northernmost end of the park were blocked off with planters, and the bump to seven stair rail featured prominently in Mixtape 2 and various early-2000s New York coverage was slightly modified, but the plethora of ledges, rails, bumps, gaps, and everything in between is still in tact.

Nowadays, the majority of the video coverage here centers around the long ledge to flatbar that descends alongside a minor slope. It is about twenty-five feet long, and approximatley a foot-and-a-half in height, round, and only approachable as backside for regular / frontside for goofy.

The entire plaza is literally covered with marble ledges, with some sitting on the ground level and others on top of the three-stair platform that encompasses two gigantic corners of the spot. Several run over a three stair, or a double set, but otherwise, there is always an endless row of things to grind on. The park has steps in quite literally every shape and form, including the aforementioned overload of threes, and ideal sets of four, five, six, seven, and nine. Best of all, unlike a lot of more recently designed parks, the tiles have stayed relativley flat over the years and not lifted up and formed all sorts of bumps and cracks in front of everything after a few bad winters. It is quite literally one of the few spots in New York City that does not have anything wrong with it (aside from a bunch of jerks in green jackets with ticket books, obviously.)

Given that it is a very well-maintained park, and sessions here are not nearly as frequent as they were pre-9/11, you will need to bring wax with you to ensure that whatever you want to skate will actually grind and slide. The material used throughout the entire park is very good, and not too rough or soft to a point that would require extensive re-waxing.

Bust — ♦♦♦♦ / Very Likely: Like every great spot in New York, this place is a huge bust. Maybe not in the immediate sense that grants you two attempts at whatever you are trying, even if it is a warm up 5050, but your chances of getting comfortable here and enjoying a session are slim. The parks department literally never leaves. They drive around in go carts from one end of the park to another, and when they see you, they will either tell you to leave, or attempt to ask you for ID and issue you a summons if they are feeling particularly feisty. Even past the legal New York City parks closing time of 1 A.M., there is a handful of them around cruising by and doing maintence work. Worst of all, if you actually are trying to sneak in late at night to minimize your chances of seeing them, it is one of the quietest parts of all Manhattan, so the clickety-clank of your board will inevitably draw attention if you are within earshot. They are not allowed to use force to subdue you (although some of them think they work for the NYPD and still try to grab you), so if you happen to run into them, it is best to leave before they get the chance to ask for your ID.

Location: Alongside the Hudson River promenade behind the World Financial Center, but essentially spanning from Rector Street to Chambers Street, so it covers quite a bit of ground. The dominantly skated portion of it is directly behind the World Financial Center underneath the glass dome that was formerly nestled between the Twin Towers. Take the A, C, E, 2 or 3 to World Trade Center, skate west over the Westside Highway, and go towards the water.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge):