Spots: Downtown Manhattan — Financial District

Update — Spring 2011: Everything here, except maybe a few of the higher ledges, has been knobbed.

Spot: It is pointless to go on about everything here, considering you’ll get kicked out of half of it immediately. You could only skate the sides of the building, because there is a security booth at the front that renders everything immediately in front of the building an immediate bust. On the north side, there’s an assortment of concrete ledges for grinding, manualing or doing tricks over, painted with numerous coats of white paint, making them grind and slide perfectly without any need for intensive re-waxing. Portions of the ledges create a gap, with a really narrow, two-foot wide runway, probably 25 or so feet in length off one ledge, over three feet of space and over another ledge, down a four foot drop. The problem is there’s a bench ten feet after you land so you’ll have to dodge it to avoid face-planting into it. There’s a foot-and-a-half high, seven-foot long metal pipe off a curb height ledge in the middle of one of the pools, unskateable whenever the fountain is filled, so its only skateable in mid-fall through early-spring.

The south side has two ledges, both a little over a foot in height, running alongside a five stair. They’re both around four feet long, with a four-and-half foot drop at the end. The runway is only 30 or so feet, but good enough given that it’s not the type of obstacle that you want to be going mach ten at. There’s also a ledge that’s backside for regular footers/ frontside for goofy right next to this one, only it’s over a two set, and has just about the same height, although half the drop.

Bust — ♦♦♦♦ / Very Likely: If you stay at the sides of the building, it may take anywhere from five to thirty minutes to get kicked out, depending on your luck. The guard is in a booth, so usually he cannot hear your board snapping immediately. If you skate the front of the building, you will get kicked out in fifteen seconds.

Location: Old Slip and Water Street, across the street from the Pyramid Ledges. Take the 4 or 5 to Wall Street and skate east on Wall Street until you hit Water Street. Make a right on Water Street and skate south for two blocks. The spot is on the east side of the street, just past the Duane Reade.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge):