They’re hardcore warriors, challenging the elements with just their bodies and a long piece of wood that dances in the air.
At Lackawanna Park, across from the Hoboken train terminal, dozens of teens meet after school and during the weekends when the weather permits for long hours of skateboarding.
Iven Smith, 14, is one of the skaters at the park. He lives in Hoboken with his family and after school takes a quick walk to the park to embrace what has become his passion.
“It’s not a sport,” he said last week. “It’s art. I like to work on four tricks at a time. I keep working on a trick, and do a trick that satisfies me.”
A self-proclaimed slacker, Smith is currently working on pivot grind 180-outs, Ollie down drops, and front side 180-over gaps. But more importantly than skateboarding, Smith meets peers who share the same love for the board.
“Skating is fun. You do what you want and you have total freedom,” Smith said. “All my boys hurt their ankles and break stuff, but it’s fun.”
Stephen Nichols, 14, met Smith recently one warm afternoon coming home from school. He was working on his repertoire and started talking to Smith, who was having the same problem landing one jump.
“We aim to help each other. Root for each other,” Nichols said.
Nichols takes a train from North Jersey during the week to go to school in Hoboken. And in addition to Smith, he has made friends with all the skaters in the park simply by skating with them.
For Nichols, skateboarding came with ease. After years of watching his older brother skateboard, he picked it up quickly. Now, he admits, he takes it more seriously than his older brother did.
“I got more into it with time,” he said.
Wearing sneakers, baggy pants and t-shirts, the skaters say they spend an average of 25 to 30 hours a week in Hoboken or at parks in New York City.
“It’s so universal everyone can do it,” Smith said. “It’s becoming so much bigger that you meet people from all around the world.”
Music is very important, according to Nichols, who said the majority of them enjoy the music of “underground rap” artists like Big L, Arsonists, People Under the Stairs, DJ Shadow and Hieroglyphics.
“We get their stuff in record stores in the city or in Hoboken,” Nichols said.
Jacob Kafka, 12, and Philippe Penson, 13, from Jersey City and Kosta Satchek, 12, from West New York also skate at the park often. They have known Smith and Nichols for some time.
“This place is heaven,” Kafka said of Lackawanna Park.
In his spare time, Satchek developed a web site, www.5050skateboarding.com, which chronicles local skateboarding activity in the area.
“I did it so we could put our stuff on-line,” Satchek said.
Once in a while, an occasional police officer comes by the park to make sure they are not damaging any property, according to the boys.
“We respect our place,” Smith said. “Skateboarding is not a crime.”
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