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Boarders Crossing
TimeOut New York – OutThere - Issue 475: November 4–11, 2004
Guerrilla skateboarders risk life and limb in the Broadway Bomb
On Saturday October 23, Kaspar Heinrici made it from 110th Street to Bowling Green in 29 minutes and 10 seconds—faster than a taxi, a subway and 27 other skaters in the New York Longboarding Association's annual race down Broadway, the Broadway Bomb. (A longboard is a really long skateboard.)
The Broadway Bomb, conceived three years ago by Fred Mahe, a 33-year-old salesman, and School of Visual Arts student Ian Nichols, 34, is actually an offshoot of the pair's springtime Central Park longboard race, now in its sixth year. The Bomb, however, appeals to those thrill seekers who've become bored with merely risking their lives skating through traffic. "After living in the city for a few years, riding in traffic is like spreading peanut butter on bread," Mahe says. "The race aspect heats it up and makes it fun again."
Jitters—and helmets—are noticeably absent from the competition. Heinrici, a 25-year-old T-shirt designer, sums up his race-winning strategy simply: "You don't stop—you just go and yell."
The rules for the eight-and-a-half-mile sprint are few and simple: no hanging on to vehicles, no explanations to cops, and contestants must touch the Wall Street bull sculpture, the official finish line. The second rule came into play for the first time this year, when Heinrici had a "close call" with a bus at Union Square, resulting in "lots of squealing tires, honking horns and cops yelling."
At the conclusion, the winner and other survivors enjoyed celebratory beers (along with a joint or two) at the Pearl Street bar Ulysses. Prizes included trophies and a Gravity skateboard with Randall trucks (the metal parts the wheels are attached to), donated by their respective companies. Third-place finisher Rocky Graziose, 18, a freshman at Connecticut College, summed up the day: "This is crazy, real fun."—Sara Pepitone