Maybe this is an overly New York-centric opinion — or maybe it doesn’t matter because the following statement is so fucking stupid — but it is possible that the ride-on rail behind Stuyvesant High School in Battery Park is the most consequential ride-on rail in history.
In paying homage to Alien Workshop’s heritage by switch 5050ing the rail that Lennie Kink had grinded across in the nineties (Jerry Fisher grinded it in EE3, too), Jake Johnson ignited a road to acceptance for ride-on grinds in pro skateboarding videography. They had existed before as a mere novelty, but Jake’s Mind Field part rustled awake the world’s third eye towards their possibilities, just as it had for other much-discussed facets of post-Jake-in-Mind–Field skateboarding. Ride-on grinds have been everywhere in the ~15-plus years since.
And now, it’s gone. Or at least slated to be any day now as part of a wave of climate resiliency renovations alongside many waterfront parks in Lower Manhattan. Those token ride-on grind deniers in the comments of any modern video can rejoice: their original enemy has been vanquished. But a million clones have, and will continue to follow in its wake.
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