Spots: New Jersey — Jersey City
**Update – Spring 2010: Hamilton Park has been renovated and re-opened. There is nothing to skate here anymore.
*Update – Fall 2009: The entire park was closed off in late-2008 and is under construction with a tentative re-opening date in the summer of 2010. A lot of the documents from the Neighborhood Association indicate that the meetings included discussions of “discouraging skateboarders” by not having too much pavement in the park (the final vote for path material is supposedly cobblestone, so there goes the spot), and certain parts of it indicate that having a designated skateboard area would mean it would not be used when it was hot, and thus encourage drug use. (“Good grief! So noisy and too specific! We have a population that has a very wide age range – I know of a skatepark in another town and it is very noisy; not used when hot and requires more sanitation and police care [drugs].” Right.) Anyways, there isn’t anything to skate here anymore, and there probably won’t be anything aside from flatground in the tennis courts once the park re-opens.
Spot: Hamilton Park is the home of the famous Jersey City pyramid. It has infinite runway and a solid landing, but be aware of the fact that it is a lot steeper than it looks in videos or in these pictures. There is also a much smaller version of it about fifty feet away, but it can only be skated from one end because there is a crack at the bottom the other side. Another thing you may have noticed in videos at this spot is an oversized five set leading down from a gazebo. It is equivalent to a ten set, with a short, but workable runway and an asphalt landing. Part of the same structure is a steep basement door-type bank that you will need to ollie onto. All throughout the park you can also find painted concrete ledges/manual pads.
If you head one block north on Jersey Avenue, there is a steep four-stair mini hubba ledge and another ledge running down the opposite end of the handicap ramp that is used as an approach for the hubba. All of the stuff is smooth concrete on a sidewalk surface.
Bust — ♦ / Rare: You will not get kicked out of here, but it may be crowded on warmer days.
Location: 8th Street and Jersey Avenue in Downtown Jersey City, NJ. If you’re coming from Uptown or Queens, take the B, D, F, V, N, Q, R or W to 34th Street — Herald Square and transfer to a Journal Square bound PATH train, and take it to Pavonia-Newport (first stop in New Jersey, less than a ten minute ride from Manhattan.) If you’re coming from Downtown or Brooklyn, take the A, C, E, 2, or 3 to World Trade Center and take a Newark or Hoboken bound PATH train to Pavonia-Newport. Once you get out, make a left on Washington Boulevard and go south until you reach Thomas Gangemi Drive. Make a right on Thomas Gangemi Drive and head west on it (it ultimately turns into 6th Street), until you reach Jersey Avenue. Make a right on Jersey Avenue and skate north for two blocks.
Pictures (Click to Enlarge):
