It's Wednesday, Are You Coming Skating Tonight?
by Olivia LaVecchia
The leader of the social skating group Wednesday Night Skate goes by the alter ego Mocha Superman. “Since this is technically an illegal street event,” he said, “I try to keep my real name out of it.” Last Wednesday evening he arrived in Union Square and ditched his collared shirt in favor of a red WNS tee and added wrist guards and a black bandanna. “It’s part of the double life thing,” he said. “Call me Clark Kent.”
WNS started in May of 1996 as Blade Night Manhattan, and switched to its current name in 2001. Mocha got involved the next year and, “because I’m a control freak” started organizing more and more, until by 2005 he was leading the group. On a clear night, the group can draw up to 100 skaters, looping around the city together on a 9- to 12-mile variable route that starts at Union Square and ends back at Mumbles, a “skater-friendly” bar on 17th Street and Third Avenue that lets the group keep blades on indoors.
The plan the other night was to do a skate through the South Street Seaport, a route that ended up being a full downtown circuit: Down the Hudson River Greenway, the Battery Park Terrace, around the Seaport, through Chinatown, up the LES. Members start gathering around 7:30 p.m., some blading over, others identifiable by skates swinging from their bags, all in fantastic shape. There’s Brielle, who had a hot-pink wrist cast (biking accident! “I don’t fall on skates”) to match her athletic gear. Seth, also known as DJ Rolls, wore a stereo strapped to his waist. He gave the skate its soundtrack (“mostly reggae, rap and rock, but I do take requests”). He’s considering making a website and offering his services for bar/t mitzvahs on wheels.
And Tim was there with Ryoda, who he introduced to WNS after the two met in Japan. There’s Erica, who tries to bring a new friend every week. There was Lars, fresh from a three-hour drive from his home in Delaware, a commute he makes for about 3/4 of the season’s Wednesdays. His eight-year-old, Dalton, was zipping around between park-goers, practicing skating on his knees and filming it all with a camera mounted on his helmet. “I have no clue when I started,” he said. “Three,” his dad said. “He had Scooby Doo quad skates.”
A few minutes after 8 p.m., Mocha got everyone’s attention and ran through the rules: Shout out obstacles! Stay in one lane! Stop for red lights! There are usually between three and eight staff members on a skate. Sonic and Rich are staffing in red shirts; Rich and Mocha met through WNS, and are now, per Mocha, “like brothers!” Rich has been staffing skates for a few years, and said that while the crowds are usually forgiving, cabbies can get angry. “They cut us off, sometimes even swerve at us to try and get us out of their lane — so crazy! Swerving at a group of people. But I think for this many people we need a permit or something — we end up stretching out as long as a few semis — so we try to obey the rules and minimize our traffic presence.”
On New York City streets, skaters are governed by the same set of rules as bikers — they must act like a car, or in places where there are designated bike/skate lanes, stick to them. Skaters’ specific traffic law-inclusion came in January of 1996, and it was a victory: Many states don’t give skaters particular street rights. But for WNS, there is one snag: According to Article 34 of the state traffic law, “Persons… gliding on in-line skates upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast… [and when passing a vehicle shall ride]… single file.” Though the WNSkaters try to stay unobtrusive, when they’re on the street, they frequently take over a full lane. The group has never had a problem with the cops, but as Rich put it, “the less trouble we cause, the better.”
Because the skate’s not totally legal, there’s a tension between how to attract more skaters and still keep it underground. Mocha’s efforts have given the group a strong social media and web presence, and some of the skaters pass out fliers en route, but the consensus is that a lot of extra effort is unnecessary: The skate itself, 50–100 people on inline skates, seizing a right shoulder and following it the length of the city, is the group’s best advertising.
The reactions are incredible: A dog walker, grin on his face and five dogs at his heels, snapped a phone-shot of our blinking red tail lights. Groups of boys ran along with us for a block, handing out high-fives. Along the Battery Park Terrace, a kid jumped up and down on a docked yacht, waving. A few miles later, in Chinatown, two boys did the same on the hood of a car. We got shouts of, “Roller gang, coming through!,” of “What is this?,” “How can I join?,” “Flash mob!,” “Only in New York.”
The skaters love the response, but also say they like the friends, the work-out, the views of the city. One skater, Phil, said, “I’ve learned more about New York doing this than most New Yorkers.” Lars, the Delaware commuter, swears skating’s the best exercise: “Runners at 60? That’s hell on your knees. This is low-impact and great for your butt, legs.” All the skating enthusiasm means that many in the group try to get out on blades as much as possible: Though Wednesday’s event is the biggest and best-organized, there’s some sort of social skate almost every day of the week, from Tuesday’s smaller, more advanced group to Thursday’s Central Park beginner session.
About two hours after we left Union Square, the skate came to an end at Mumbles. Some waited outside for ice water, but the more central crew skated right in and up to the bar, celebrating nine miles with beers and burgers. The bartender, Norma, always has the Wednesday night shift. “I love them,” she said. “They keep me on my toes.”
Once everyone has a few beers down, I ask if they ever feel like hold-outs from the 90s. The group is mixed: There are a few strong nos, but Mocha, for one, votes yes. “I think most people do,” he said. A Times piece on the skate from 1998, when it still was still Blade Night Manhattan, described the skaters as a group of hormonal 20-somethings; now, the majority are over 35, and the store Blades, the skate’s original namesake, is now the only specialty skate shop left in the city.
The conversation broke up when someone slipped on his skates, and, four hours after meeting in Union Square, the skaters started shuffling home. The next day, photos from the night are up on the WNS Facebook page; tonight, they’ll do it again.
Olivia LaVecchia needs some practice.