Falling in line with Quartersnacks’ “Exception when it’s about Jersey” policy, we’re going to take some time to veer off and discuss an indoor skatepark. An important one. Even if you’re, like, the “street-est” dude out, by living in New York, your existence succumbs to one of three options in the wintertime: 1. You have a lot of money, resources, a mistress, etc. that enables a living situation in a warm(er) climate like Miami, Los Angeles, or Barcelona (yes, obviously it’s not summer there, but still.) 2. You put your skateboard in a corner, spend the next three months hibernating, and vicariously experience skateboarding on the internet. 3. You rent/borrow/own a car and go to Drop-In.
Not that there is anything wrong with Drop-In (They released a Jersey Dave “Bro Model” skateboard a few years back, so you sound like an idiot if you have anything negative to say about their institution), but it’s 40 miles away from Manhattan. And speaking from experience, that’s 40 miles worth of chances for Switch Mike to almost crash into a highway divider upon realizing he’s in the wrong lane at the start of a blizzard.
After a year or so of rumors hinting at a concrete, indoor skatepark in Bayonne, Below The Bridge Skatepark, located on 9 Gertrude Street under the Bayonne Bridge is scheduled to open on December 27th. (Source: The park’s Facebook page.) That’s twelve miles from Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel, or just over the Bayonne Bridge if you’re coming from Brooklyn or Queens, as you can cut through Staten Island over the Verrazano Bridge. Based off the park’s Facebook, helmets are required for those under eighteen, but there is no specific information on cost, hours, or things of that sort.
The park is part wood, part concrete, with a Berrics-esque design plus half of a mini-bowl. It’ll probably be packed beyond breathability in the first few opening weeks, but will hopefully mellow out once the real hand of winter sets in mid-January. In the end, it’s a indoor park twelve miles from the city, and while it will have no bearing on your life from April to November, it’s definitely a good thing that it came to fruition this early into the winter.
Check for more pictures after the jump.