2-Hip Meet the Street: Brooklyn Banks 1989 - Part 3

Dennis McCoy is crazy.  Let's just start with that.  That's a big part of why we love him as a rider.  It's probably a big part of why he's still riding at age 52, and still ripping.  Or maybe he just REALLY wants to avoid getting an office job.  The riding from the clip above is all from two or more years after the Brooklyn Banks contest, as far as I can tell.

When I ended the last post about the 1989, 2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the Brooklyn Banks, (on this blog), it was the Thursday evening before the Saturday contest.  In the room Vision Street Wear Rich Bartlett and I were sharing, Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, up-and-comer Rick Thorne, and two other Kansas city guys, were picking their spots to sleep on the floor that night.  they were also doing a little bike tuning.  A few of us headed down to the street, without bikes, looking for food.  There was a mini-mart close by, and I wound up with a big hunk of cornbread, a Coke, and some other snacks.

After munching in the room, we all headed back out to go street riding.  Out of nowhere, I was roaming Manhattan with the two top riders on the planet, Dennis and Mat, and five other high caliber riders.  Keep in mind, I had a room paid for as the Vision video cameraman, not as a rider.  Also, I had sprained my ankle pretty bad about three weeks earlier.  It was nearly back to normal, but a little sore and weak.  I knew if I got sketchy and rolled it, even a little, I'd be heading back to the room.  I had to spend two more days with a 35 pound betacam on my shoulder, which would suck with a bad ankle.  So that stuff was in the back of my head. I also knew that if our posse got chased by security, cops, thugs, or a cop on a horse (the fastest threat), I was the slow kid in the pack.

All that mental baggage in my head, we headed out.  Our hotel was in Midtown Manhattan, around 36th or 37th street, as I remember.  We headed in the general direction of Greenwich Village, and the locals showed us where Washington Square Park was.  That became our base, if one of us wandered away from the posse or locals, and got kind of lost, we'd head back to Washington Square and meet up later.  Our spot for New York City pizza slices was near there, as well. 

Here's the crazy thing.  I can't really remember those rides.  I know how crazy that sounds.  I was riding with some of the best riders ever, on street, and I can't remember much.  You know how when you go on a really fun vacation, or maybe spring break, and so much crazy stuff happens, that it all blends together?  Things that on a normal day would seem epic, get forgotten, because even crazier things happen.  That's how that New York trip was.  Plus, it was 30 years ago, so that doesn't help.

In 1989, wall rides were happening, but we weren't grinding ledges much yet, and handrail slides hadn't been invented.  Tailwhip jumps hadn't happened yet either, though I was doing clunky footplant tailwhips.  But I was just weird then, no one else did them.  Most of what we were doing could best be called "applied street riding."  We were a pack of riders, just roaming, the kind of stuff Dennis and his Kansas City "street rogues" were known for.  We didn't casually pedal to a spot, and then try a gap or a grind.  Oh, the term "gap" wasn't part of our lexicon yet, either.  More than anything, we were a pack of BMXers, riding at a good pace, hitting things on the fly.  If it was in the way, we'd bunnyhop it, if there was a lip or curb jump, jump it and get some style in the air.  Hop up and down curves, swerve in and out of moving traffic, bump jump little curbs, tire grind a curb or step.  That's the kind of stuff we did, just non-stop.

Banks were big then, and bank to walls for wall rides.  So if we found one, we'd stop and session it, doing nosepicks, abubacas, blunts (back wheel stall, an abubaca without vert), or a 360 flyout if that was possible.  We'd do 180 bunnyhops, roll backwards in traffic, freak out drivers, then whip a 180 out and haul ass again.  Nollies were a favorite of mine at that point, a nosewheelie at speed into a speed bump, low curb, or random 2x4 on the ground.  It was just noon-stop rolling session without any real destination.  That's probably why I don't specifically remember much.  It was pure, hauling ass, in the moment, street riding.

When we got thirsty or hungry, we'd ride back to Washington Square Park, get a drink, maybe a slice of pepperoni, and eat.  There were two weird asphalt humps there, too far apart to really double jump, and we'd do little tricks on those.   We'd get flatland jam circles going with other pros, ams, and NYC locals at the Park.  That's what we did Thursday night, most of Friday and Friday night, and Saturday after the contest.  It was like all the basic bike skills, pedaling fast, foot out carved turns on pavement, bunnyhopping, all happening at warp speed.  It was so much freakin' fun.

Around 10:00 pm or so, we gathered again, and headed back to our hotel room.  More food and snacks were consumed.  A couple local guys followed us up to our room.  Bikes were tuned, and Dennis, crazy freakin' DMC, asked the locals, "Where's the worst place in New York City?"  They threw neighborhood names around, but decided it had to be Hell's Kitchen.  Dennis McCoy said, "Take me there."  The locals said, "No way."  Dennis kept on them.  Eventually Dennis found a couple crazy locals, and they headed off to take him to ride Hell's Kitchen.  We honestly weren't sure if we'd see Dennis McCoy again, that's how scary it was to the locals in those days.  New York City was gnarly enough, and we were in Manhattan, the rich borough.  Going to the worst place in New York seemed like suicide.  But then, it was Dennis McCoy who wanted to go.  How bad was Hell's Kitchen in 1989?  Here's a video of it about crack addicts there from 1988.  If you're an addict, this is a serious trigger, so pass this up and keep reading.  If you want to see it, here's Hell's Kitchen (NSFW).

After Dennis and the locals left, the rest of the posse, Mat, Steve Swope, Rich, Rick Thorne, and the K.C. guys, got ready for the late night session.  Like I said before, I knew I was the slow kid in the crowd, mostly because of my sore ankle.  So I sat  that session out, and hung out in the room and watched TV.  Those guys came back at maybe 2 am or so, with stories of dodging security guards, and police, crazy tricks, and off the hook, high speed street riding.  One security guard tried to corner Rich, who was a body  builder and a pro racer, and Rich gave him a pro elbow so he could escape.  I knew I made a smart move by not going, a couple guys almost got caught by security.

Dennis McCoy wandered in around 5:00 or 6:00 am.  We all woke up, and he had stories of Hell's Kitchen that even he thought were crazy.  So we listened a while, then all crashed out again.  We had two more days of New York City riding ahead, sleep was needed.