Rollerblading in New York

Hi All,

Apart from the Aviation Photography... I'm a massive Rollerblading freak. I participate in a weekly skate here in Sydney called "City Skate". We leave from the cathedral in Sydney's centre, and skate either through the city (what you would call downtown) - sometimes to suburbs or the beaches.

Is there a similar group in New York? From all accounts, New York is far more Rollerblading friendly than Sydney. The guy that leads our skate is New York born and bred, so I trust his view on this point. Mind you, he's lived here for about 12 years now, so his memory might be slipping.

On this point, if there is anyone visiting down this way who is also into rollerblading, give me a yell. The Sydney skating group is roughly 20% ex pat Americans anyway, so any US visitors will find it either very comfortable or be completely freaked out.

I would check out Yahoo! groups or other online communities to see if there's something like this. I would have to believe that a rollerblading group would exist, but I'm not sure.

NYC is very rollerblader friendly. New projects along the Hudson and East rivers were recently completed, so that you can either skate/ride along Manhattan's entire perimeter, or you can come damn near close to.

Also, all three Lower Manhattan Bridge Crossings (Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge), have special lanes for bikes and skaters.

I also know that thousands of people ride/skate along the Hudson River from about 34th Street all the way south to the South Ferry. Very scenic and very nice!

In the past five years, NYC has made a tremendous effort, and progress, to make the streets more biker (and in your case skater) friendly.

You might want to check http://www.nyc.gov or other online sites to get more detail about good places to go and the like.

Glenn, some years ago I recall there was a rollerblading group and they had gotten access to blading INSIDE one ofthe major museums in Manhattan. It was a one a year event.

Would be cool if it coincided with your visit since I do recall it was in the fall.



I havent rollerbladed since we got married (Our rollerblades just disappeared! weirdest thing!) So we have to pick up another pair each.

But one of most fun thigns ot do in Manhattan is to find a UPS truck and just hitch a ride behind it. I did that a few times some years ago. A dangerous but fun thrill!