Skating in the hood

[paulhartman4prez]

I've seen random jumpings and general "hood rat stuff" happen at Whitehall in Philly. It was getting kind of bad for a little while over there.
Some friends have had stuff stolen by kids at this park in deep West Philly, too.
It sucks, but there's not much you can do about it.

[The Nose Face]

Left Chelsea Piers skate park once to go get some pizza in the neighborhoods nearby. Passed a housing project with ambulances and cops all over - saw two guys holding up another guy who got stabbed in the stomach. The stabbing victim could barely stand and had a towel full of blood wrapped around him. This was broad daylight on a hot summer day around like 2PM or so. I remember the cops interrogating the victim, and his friend holding him says something tot he effect of "I don't know man, he's been fucking stabbed - move!" trying to get him into the ambulance.

Another time going into Bed Sty Brooklyn to skate, me and my friend park the car and start to see people all over the street looking around, everyone's on their stoop, cops all over. There was a shooting that just happened and cops were canvassing the area...I think we skated a friends ramp for a half hour, then it rained and we went home.

[pica]

recently some friends of mine had been ripped of while skating in a parking garage where usually no one is around.
3 chavs walk by, 10 minutes later 8 guys come back with masks and knives, full loaded camera backpack, mobile phones wallets it's all gone...
if you ever come to vienna WU garage is the place to be.

[BraveUlysses]

I'm black and 6'3. Ain't no nigga trying to run up on me or at least by themselves they're not. A bunch of black dudes in my neighborhood did jump this dude on a longboard though.  But even when you're in a sketchy neighborhood sometimes all you have to do is skate somewhat fast and nobody will even have a chance to do much.

[HATE!]

I'm black and 6'3. Ain't no nigga trying to run up on me or at least by themselves they're not. A bunch of black dudes in my neighborhood did jump this dude on a longboard though.  But even when you're in a sketchy neighborhood sometimes all you have to do is skate somewhat fast and nobody will even have a chance to do much.

For some reason this really makes me hope your actual name is Ulysses.  It's just a bad ass sounding name for a huge black dude.

[BraveUlysses]

Shit now I wish my name was Ulysses instead of Aaron. Not many intimidating dudes named Aaron if any.

[Baron Samedi]

^^ Yeah dude, you'd definitely be way more intimidating if you were a Ulysses.

I got hit up at knifepoint by a couple of the most retarded Norte�os alive while I was skating by myself in actually a somewhat suburban area.  It was so random, I wanted to ask if they were lost or something.

All I had was my cell phone because I lived within skating distance and I gave it to them.  Right as I handed one of them my phone, a friend called me and the guy picked it up.  My friend was like "Who the fuck is this?"  The guy glanced at me, and just gave a look like it wasn't worth it, said "Fuck you" to my friend that was on the phone, and hung up and gave me my phone back.  After realizing I had absolutely nothing to give them, they started to look kind of nervous and tried to bro down with me and introduced themselves and told me I should have defended myself by hitting them with my board.  "Next time," I said, and then they left.  

[ticklefingers]

A friend had an AR-15 pulled on him at the Richmond, CA park. The guy ran up on him as he was leaving and pulled a assault rifle out of his baggy jeans. He claims that the gun was so ridiculous that he had no idea he was being robbed and said "Whoa, cool gun!". Eventually he got the drift, showed the guy he had no money and got let go.

[HATE!]

Oh, I forgot about this one time that's pretty funny.  I was at a gas station in a sketchy part of town filling my car up and this shady ass lurker came up and I'd just been robbed not too long previously so I was a little twitchy.  I pulled the gas pump out and pulled out my lighter and held them out, looked at him, and said, "Back the fuck up, I AM this retarded."  He backed up and just said, "Shit, I was just gonna ask if you had the time."  I apologized and told him and he told me to ease up.

[escapistfool]

Oh, I forgot about this one time that's pretty funny.  I was at a gas station in a sketchy part of town filling my car up and this shady ass lurker came up and I'd just been robbed not too long previously so I was a little twitchy.  I pulled the gas pump out and pulled out my lighter and held them out, looked at him, and said, "Back the fuck up, I AM this retarded."  He backed up and just said, "Shit, I was just gonna ask if you had the time."  I apologized and told him and he told me to ease up.

HATE, I love you. hahaha that's an amazing story

[Dontkickshitfoot]

Not too exciting, but a while back me and some buddies were crossing the street from the skatepark to the parking lot, Like middle of the street no crosswalk or anything and some hick in a big ass ford comes around the corner and speeds up as soon as he see's us crossing the street. He swerves around us and i yell "What the Fuck" to him, so dude slams on his breaks gets out of his car and starts calling us Skater Fags. one of my bigger friends kinda gets in his face and tells him to get back in his car and after some arguing complied. never had a knife pulled on me or anything like that but just an example of some of the shit that tends to always happen.

[BURRRPRINT]

2 days ago there was a 3 against 1 stabbing/beatdown at the Paul Rodriguez park in Pacoima; over a cellphone. I always keep an eye on my surroundings when I skate places like that, but you kinda don't expect these things to happen. Anybody ever run into trouble skating in bad areas?

Surprisingly this has never happened to me. I've been living in different parts of Oakland for the past two years and will often trek to other parts that are considered more "sketchy". Things like getting jacked or confronted have never happened to me. The most i get is people yelling at you to do a trick or something.

 I just skated the Richmond Plaza in Richmond,CA earlier today which has a gnarly reputation to it and nothing happened today as well as the many other time's I have skated there. I got family in the San Fernando Valley and I visit them time to time and will skate that plaza and have never had any shady encounters.

If anything in my experience I have had the most negative encounters in middle/upper class neighborhoods, retail plazas, schools, churches, etc where people will come at you in such a negative and aggressive manner because their area doesn't tolerate shit like that.

Good aura I'd say.

One time I was skating skatepark that is built between project buildings. I was the only one skating there because it was early noon. Some dude who probably was living nearby hung out there. At one moment he asks to borrow my skateboard to which I reply negatively. Then he offers me his prada jacket. I just tell him that it's my skateboard and I don't give it to others. The he mumbles something about my board being cheaper than his jacket and walks off. Moments later he is pushing through the park on some kids scooter. He had dress shoes on and skinny jeresey shore type of jeans.

One other time me and my friends went there and as we arrived we left, because about 10 chav types were hanging there out and we felt the bad vibes.

[GarglesCmen]

Wasn't there a similar thread? Anyways, there was this one time me and a couple of my homies were skating in these one apartments  and we were just sitting on this one curb since we were tired. It was all good times. In my peripheral vision I see these cars lights turn on. Now, I don't know why I am like this but I am always aware of my surroundings to a paranoid level so I knew that no one has gone in or out of that car for the past like hour we were there. Once I saw the lights come on, I just yelled to my friends, "We need to fucking haul ass out right fucking now." We get up and start to book it and I can hear the tires skidding out from them reversing so fast. We go behind these storage garages trying to lose them but I could hear the car close at all times. We eventually get to this one fence that was broken so we all go through. Problem is, these guys looked to have known about the apartments so everyone who knew of the apartments knew about the fucked fences and shit so we kept running into the woods. We probably ran for about 3 or 4 minutes and we dipped down into some secluded ass bushes. We heard gunshots not too far away. We were ducked down for maybe 30 minutes before sneaking to the back of my friends apartment 20 minutes away and entering through the back door. We never went back there.

[ice nine]

I like the lack of canadians posting in here, way to be honest. Our 'ghetto' is mostly just harmless crackheads and junkies, not too many confrontations.

One time a big bulky man came to the park, attempted these 'jump off your board, grab it throw it around and try to jump back on', like a mix of doug brown/tom green and mike vallelly. He dissapeared for a while, came back and his board had been stolen. So he walks around announcing how he didn't know any of us, (10-15 strangers) but that he would kill all of us if we didn't give him his board/rat out who did it. Went on and on, to the point of shouting in anyone's face who was nearby. He left eventually and an hour later a 8 year old kid walks up with the man's board. Said he borrowed it because he didn't have one and it was just sitting there. The dude came back, and ended up stabbing the small child to death or something, I was over it and wasn't really paying attention anymore.

Also our city built a really awesome park in the worst part of cracktown. So now beside the 13 year olds smoking weed, there's always 5 or so adults smoking crack/soliciting/tweaking in the bushes.

[Seamus_McShamebag]

One of my more recent encounters wasn't necessarily sketchy in terms of the area but was kind of sketchy conditions because it's essentially some curb cuts and a bench tucked into a pretty low lit and isolated parking lot.  I like it simply because it's isolated and nobody has any real reason or desire to be there unless they are a shit head with a skateboard and an appreciation for the nuances of simple concrete forms.  

Anyways I am minding my own business skating solo when an SUV drives by and starts spotlighting me from across a field.  I just thought it was somebody trying to be cute because the light was really erratic and clearly not a cop checking things out but they drove by slow and then turned up a nearby street and then disappeared.  About 5 minutes later they emerged out of the same street they had turned down but were driving like total fuck sticks.  Floor it, turn squealing the tires, floor it, next turn squeal the tires etc.  They pulled into the lot that I was in and were clearly trying to intimidate me by driving like maniacs through the parking lot towards me.  They had to navigate a few turns so while this was happening I casually walked to my truck and grabbed the handiest weapon that I had which at the time was a big fucking knife.  Dudes swerved around me as they passed and then turned around and stopped because they couldn't navigate the turn.  As soon as they stop I am right up on the drivers side window asking what the fuck their problem is.  

Mind you I have this hanging out of my pocket and my board in my other hand...


...I am fucking pissed and my 95 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback is starting to lurk out of the shadows in the grass field where he was chilling while I skated.  These dudes appear to be shitting their pants and I saw the guy in the passenger seat trying to hide the mag light that he had in his hands.  They start explaining how they were looking for their friend and shit and their voices are cracking and they just sound ridiculous because it didn't really add up.  I am no psychologist but it was pretty clear to me whom was more scared of whom at this point.  I started laughing and told them they should probably slow their roll a little next time.  I think, from a distance, they were expecting some little emo dude that was going to be easy pickings and realized they bit off a little more than they could chew once they got to me. They tucked tail and left and I had a memorable remainder of my session because I had all sorts of adrenaline running through my body.  

I think wannabe tough guys sometimes forget how unstable skateboard dancers can be.

[vegan*shawn]

I live in the "hood" here are some tips for skating spots in sketchy areas.

1. People live here, calling a place ghetto, or making fun or the way people live is a sure way to get your ass kicked.

2. Leave important items at home like your phone, camera, if you must film due it early in the day.

3. Don't brag about what you have

4. Be respectful of people, act like you belong, don't act scared

5. Don't scream, act crazy, throw your board, yell at people etc..that draws attention to you

6. Someone tells you to leave, fucking leave you are a visitor, your life is not worth a fucking skate spot.

7. Don't act scared

[cookieboy]

One of my more recent encounters wasn't necessarily sketchy in terms of the area but was kind of sketchy conditions because it's essentially some curb cuts and a bench tucked into a pretty low lit and isolated parking lot.  I like it simply because it's isolated and nobody has any real reason or desire to be there unless they are a shit head with a skateboard and an appreciation for the nuances of simple concrete forms.  

Anyways I am minding my own business skating solo when an SUV drives by and starts spotlighting me from across a field.  I just thought it was somebody trying to be cute because the light was really erratic and clearly not a cop checking things out but they drove by slow and then turned up a nearby street and then disappeared.  About 5 minutes later they emerged out of the same street they had turned down but were driving like total fuck sticks.  Floor it, turn squealing the tires, floor it, next turn squeal the tires etc.  They pulled into the lot that I was in and were clearly trying to intimidate me by driving like maniacs through the parking lot towards me.  They had to navigate a few turns so while this was happening I casually walked to my truck and grabbed the handiest weapon that I had which at the time was a big fucking knife.  Dudes swerved around me as they passed and then turned around and stopped because they couldn't navigate the turn.  As soon as they stop I am right up on the drivers side window asking what the fuck their problem is.  

Mind you I have this hanging out of my pocket and my board in my other hand...


...I am fucking pissed and my 95 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback is starting to lurk out of the shadows in the grass field where he was chilling while I skated.  These dudes appear to be shitting their pants and I saw the guy in the passenger seat trying to hide the mag light that he had in his hands.  They start explaining how they were looking for their friend and shit and their voices are cracking and they just sound ridiculous because it didn't really add up.  I am no psychologist but it was pretty clear to me whom was more scared of whom at this point.  I started laughing and told them they should probably slow their roll a little next time.  I think, from a distance, they were expecting some little emo dude that was going to be easy pickings and realized they bit off a little more than they could chew once they got to me. They tucked tail and left and I had a memorable remainder of my session because I had all sorts of adrenaline running through my body.  

I think wannabe tough guys sometimes forget how unstable skateboard dancers can be.

Awesome story. I use to carry a knife with me when I would go skate. Stopped after some cops came up to my friend and I when we were skating inside a school. They asked what I carried in my bag and I told them I would carry my shoes and pointed to the pair that I had on the floor. They gave us a quick lecture and told us not to skate here but "understood" that since it was raining that they would let us off with a warning.

[Seamus_McShamebag]

I live in the "hood" here are some tips for skating spots in sketchy areas.

Be respectful of people, act like you belong, don't act scared

This is the golden rule in my opinion.  There are a lot of subconscious cues that people put off when they are sketched out and that leads to mistrust from everybody.  If you aren't comfortable interacting with the people you are sharing space with then you really don't have any business being there.  Humble and confident will win over just about anyone.  

[Made In China]

The dude came back, and ended up stabbing the small child to death or something, I was over it and wasn't really paying attention anymore.

what... please tell me this actually didn't happen

[PBODY]

can't you read? he said he is from canada

[DaSk8D00D]

I've spent plenty of time skating in what most of you sheltered white boys call the hood and i have to say that out of all my lil situations they've either been very funny or at the worst just really annoying.

[McDuff]

Seamus, you are the man, and rhodesian ridgebacks are the shit.

have a few small encounters, all in philly.

skating 3 block with my boy and his girls little brother (3block = broad and gerrard, tim oconners shifty, feel me?) there were 4 kids lurking, couldnt have been older than 16. my boy sensed some shit was about to go down, so he said we should get going. we nonchalantly start heading toward the car, my friend and his girls brother got in the car, but before i could a dude came up behind me, had his arm around my neck with a gun to my back. told me to empty my pockets, i did, and they ended up with $2. i was a broke college kid and was about to grab 2 double cheeseburgers (mcdonalds is right there). i was bummed. broad fucking daylight too.

skating some shitty spot on ridge ave (fuck ridge ave) with 5 of my friends, these kids on bikes no older than 16 were just riding around us. obv we thought they were just watching, didnt pay too much mind... next thing i know i see my boy take off his sweatshirt and give it to this kid. i was just baffled. i didnt put it together. they came up to me, flashed a gun and told me to give them what i had. i had nothing (broke college student), so he took my board. i was sooooo pissed off. it was the frank gerwer scorpion frank out board, and like i said, i had no money to replace it. they didnt get anything from anyone, and actually i saw the kid throw my board in a dumpster, so i just waited 5 min and ran and grabbed it.

i lived in southwest philly, which people say is hood, but it really wasnt too bad. our neighbors were all great. anyways, skating to the store at like 10pm which was like a 30 second skate from my house. skate over, these 2 kids, maybe 12, 13, ask me if i have a dollar they could have. i said nah, i only have this one dollar for a dutch. go in, get the dutch, as im walking out, kid comes up to me and asks if he could get $5, while opening his jacket to show me he had a gun. now, normally, i would have shit bricks, it was pitch black, noone around, but it felt different. im going to sound so dumb right here, but i honestly knew the dude wasnt going to do shit. it was him and his boy, both young, and they were straight shook. it was def their first attempt at something like this. i kind of smiled and said i only had the one dollar, showed him the dutch i just purchased and told him that i was about to smoke so i gotta go. just threw my board down and skated off.... fast.

[Borthas]

i doubt any of you slappers will ever come here cuz your average slap poster is not important but if your ever come to the Tampa contests AM or Pro don't go to Lake Vista skatepark in st. pete

if you do dont go after dark,

seen kids get beat up there a few times, heard about kids getting their shit jacked from phones/money to VX cameras and their car.

also street skating in certain places in tampa could catch you like that, just go before all the gangsters wake up or roll deep. all the best spots to skate in tampa are hood as fuck so gotta do what u gotta do.


here the best tip for you shit heads that know a spot to skate super ghetto wherever you are in the states, Skate their in the morning! Real gangsta ninjas dont wake up till like 1 or 2 in the afternoon

[BlackDemonShreds]

Wasn't there a similar thread? Anyways, there was this one time me and a couple of my homies were skating in these one apartments  and we were just sitting on this one curb since we were tired. It was all good times. In my peripheral vision I see these cars lights turn on. Now, I don't know why I am like this but I am always aware of my surroundings to a paranoid level so I knew that no one has gone in or out of that car for the past like hour we were there. Once I saw the lights come on, I just yelled to my friends, "We need to fucking haul ass out right fucking now." We get up and start to book it and I can hear the tires skidding out from them reversing so fast. We go behind these storage garages trying to lose them but I could hear the car close at all times. We eventually get to this one fence that was broken so we all go through. Problem is, these guys looked to have known about the apartments so everyone who knew of the apartments knew about the fucked fences and shit so we kept running into the woods. We probably ran for about 3 or 4 minutes and we dipped down into some secluded ass bushes. We heard gunshots not too far away. We were ducked down for maybe 30 minutes before sneaking to the back of my friends apartment 20 minutes away and entering through the back door. We never went back there.

Damn. what city was this?

[GarglesCmen]

Wasn't there a similar thread? Anyways, there was this one time me and a couple of my homies were skating in these one apartments  and we were just sitting on this one curb since we were tired. It was all good times. In my peripheral vision I see these cars lights turn on. Now, I don't know why I am like this but I am always aware of my surroundings to a paranoid level so I knew that no one has gone in or out of that car for the past like hour we were there. Once I saw the lights come on, I just yelled to my friends, "We need to fucking haul ass out right fucking now." We get up and start to book it and I can hear the tires skidding out from them reversing so fast. We go behind these storage garages trying to lose them but I could hear the car close at all times. We eventually get to this one fence that was broken so we all go through. Problem is, these guys looked to have known about the apartments so everyone who knew of the apartments knew about the fucked fences and shit so we kept running into the woods. We probably ran for about 3 or 4 minutes and we dipped down into some secluded ass bushes. We heard gunshots not too far away. We were ducked down for maybe 30 minutes before sneaking to the back of my friends apartment 20 minutes away and entering through the back door. We never went back there.

Damn. what city was this?

Outskirts of Houston, It is not really bad but this was just crazy and unusual

[happenstance]

i doubt any of you slappers will ever come here cuz your average slap poster is not important but if your ever come to the Tampa contests AM or Pro don't go to Lake Vista skatepark in st. pete

if you do dont go after dark,

seen kids get beat up there a few times, heard about kids getting their shit jacked from phones/money to VX cameras and their car.

also street skating in certain places in tampa could catch you like that, just go before all the gangsters wake up or roll deep. all the best spots to skate in tampa are hood as fuck so gotta do what u gotta do.


here the best tip for you shit heads that know a spot to skate super ghetto wherever you are in the states, Skate their in the morning! Real gangsta ninjas dont wake up till like 1 or 2 in the afternoon

This is so true. Whenever I go to Mexico City we go to the more dangerous spots before 11am or so.

[LowLifeCult]

Born and raised in oakland and berkeley. Been skating for a long ass time. Ive seen it all.
lowlifecult.tumblr.com

[sluggers]

One time when young I was skating in the old town area of Nice, France when all of the sudden this young immigrant kid came out of nowhere and kicked me in the stomach.

My board shoots out and he grabs it and starts running. I gathered myself and started running after him, he jumps on a bus, luckily I got the bus driver to stop and told him that this kid had stolen my board. Grabbed it from him, smacked him, and took off.

Good times.

[crobar]

one time we were skating dorsey school and shit around there in crenshaw. no problem really but as we were leaving a cop rolled up on us and said, "do you want to get shot? this is a heavy gang neighborhood" etc etc

 but we all looked dirty as shit and were in a old mini van so I'm sure nobody thought we had shit in our pockets....

[Joe Pesci]

if you go to a really gnarly ghetto spot roll with a squad