The Whole Night Skate Blog
Another Reverse Silverlake Route
September 13th's skate took us through midtown, up and over Sunset, past Silverlake, and down the LA River. We had a decent turnout, and with the exception of a mixed interdiction from the police was more or less uneventful. (First they told us to skate on the sidewalk, then in the bike lane, then to only take one traffic lane... i don't think they know where we're supposed to skate.)
The highlight of the skate was definitely the LA River Path in the moonlight. It's such a great thing to be able to enjoy the sounds of the gently falling river complimented by the whizzing of wheels as the soft moonlight brings out the subtle colors of night.
We totaled up almost 15 miles and we finished in a little under two hours. Travis came in from NoHo for the skate (woot!), and a few of us skated from my place in BH to downtown and back afterwards. Thanks skaters, hope we see you next week!
West Adams Skate
Tuesday, September the 6th was exceptionally warm, so much so that everyone mentioned it as we gathered at the start. We were a tight group, so we headed out for some virgin streets west of USC, into the area known as the West Adams district. In the earliest part of the 20th century this area was one of the city's richest, and we cruised many of the grand homes of the area, including the Rindge House where the family that owned Malibu in those days (that's right, owned, as in all of it) stayed when they had to venture into town.
We eventually cut north into mid-Wilshire and made our way back downtown via 11th. It was 13+ miles in just under 2 hours, and was judged an excellent flat&fast route. Definitely one to do again.
East Side Reverse Rail Skate
Good crowd this week. We made the trip out through Boyle Heights, Hazard, and wound up @ the Atlantic Station on the Gold Line. The guide took us offtrack for an unexpectedly adreanal downhill, which was nice. Otherwise, it was a basic good time, capped off with a few beers @ Senior Fish @ 1st & Alameda.
Next week, we're gonna take it out to the ball game!
Downtown Roll-Around
This week we covered Pickletown, the river road, the Church of Money, the "vernacular" railroad and 2nd St.. It was a decent sized group, with one new skater, and we covered about 12 miles in 2 hours. W00t!
Dodger Stadium!
This week's skate took us up on top of the hill. We skated up to the east entrance off Broadway, rolled around the stadium, then did a loop around EchoPark Lake (closed!) before heading back.
There was much braking, and many wheels were made un-new.
USC Skate
Good times!
Linkin Park
This week we got our skate on east of downtown. We cruised over the river on 4th street, through the Utah Pass, and then out past the switching yards to Lincoln Park. No not that Linkin Park (which is in Santa Monica), this is the other one, right across the tracks from juevy, with yet another nice little lake and a bunch of locked bathrooms.
SilverLake Skate!
We wound up a small group, but since we were all strong street skaters, we decided to scout a new route, and we came up with the "SilverLake Skate". You can catch a map of the route here.
This skate takes in the LA River Path, a relaxing skate past Silverlake, a somewhat sketchy bit past the 110 freeway, followed by a basically downhill roll through Koreatown,
Rain-ish Skate
This skate was extremely well attended, as these photos can attest. Our mob descended upon the streets, leaving the local gentry agast and strewn asunder. Not only were they dazzled by the sheer volume of our humanity but similarly they were humbled and enamoured with our kind demeanor and grand benevolence.
NoHo to DTLA skate
This week we voted to do a rail skate... at the start. That's right, we just up and decided to do it, in the parking lot, 'cause that's how we roll.
There was a decent turnout, including a couple of new skaters and a skateboard! Ian showed up with his deck, and hung with the inline crowd without suffering any noticable depreciation in his cool rating. We were impressed; he ate up the 17+ mile skate like starvin' dog at a cookout.
Another Chilly Skate
We had a decent turnout in spite of another week of chilly temps, and we wound up the night with another fine meal at Wurstküche. Cold beer is a better apres skate reward when it's warm out, but we did our duty nonetheless. (Please forgive the obligatory skating Xmas critter. It's the law.)
The order of the day was a big loop around
Turkey Skate!
NOTICE: This week is Thanksgiving, so we are required by law to post a Turkey Skate. This post is provided as a public service, and may or may not represent the views of these skaters, their parents, cats, backyards and/or bodyguards.
Rail Skate Review
The 2nd of our new "Rail Skates" was a killa-good time. I hope we didn't scare anybody off with the long route, but it was super nice and surely something we'll do again in the future. We had a matched crew of skilled skaters last night, and managed to cover the whole 17 miles in less than two hours. This is in spite of the slack that we were keeping a leisurely pace and stopping every mile or two. We capped the night with a some late-night grub at Señior Fish; barley-based rehydration combined with post-execise carbo-loading! Good times, baby, good times.
DT 2 NoHo: TNS goes LARP-ing
- Bring shoes or thick socks!
- Bring $1.50
- Lights are a (really) good idea but not required
- Spread the word
- We skate @ 8!
- 2nd & San Pedro
This route will probably be fresh pavement for most of you, and, if you've never had a reason to ride the entire LA Metro Red Line, you will this time. There's a map and other skatey info after the jump (permalink - http://jennix.com/-/19 )
Far, Flat and Wide
Last night's skate was a bit of a trek, ranging all the way down to USC. In spite of the nippy conditions (55º at start, brrr!) we managed to work up a decent sweat, sticking mainly to the long, flat and smooth options available in downtown LA. We wound up the night at Villian's Tavern, one of our favorite skate-friendly purveyors of adult beverages.
Next Skate is Taco Tuesday!
What beer pairs best with free tacos?
Jack in the Box® restaurants aims to change the date's obscurity and make November 16 the most memorable day of 2010 by giving away TWO free tacos that day to every guest who wants them. The give-away is from 2:00 p.m. until Midnight and no purchase is necessary. Unfortunately, there is a limit of two free tacos per guest.
Downtown Meetup Location
We most often meet at the location shown below. Occassionally we'll meet in other parts of town, so check the Twitter Feed, the Mailing List and of course, the this Blog if you're not sure where we're going to meet this week.
View Meet spots in a larger map
Mystery Skate!
The skate for 11/2/2010 was warm and fine, with the crew covering a slightly unusual route. We ranged from 10th & Pico in the south to Broadway & 20th on the north, covering Chinatown, downtown and the fashion district.
We were also able to convince Daniel to try out the magic, self-washing public toilet by Pershing Square. His report was, "It was nice." Thanks, Daniel, we always learn a lot from your investigations.
We closed out the night with a scrubbed run into Elysian Park (dark and uphill), then went to Senior Fish on 1st St. to wash away the thirsty. Garlic fries and cheap eats go good with cheap PBR's. See you next week!
October's Adventure Skate
For September we tried something a little new as our little group set descended on the LA Metro, rode in our sock feet to Hollywood and then skated back to Downtown. It was quite interesting to see the gang trying to figure out the system. Reading the instructions and buying tickets was interesting to watch, as was watching the fellahs try to figure out how to activate the turnstiles. I think we had a few folks on the metro train for their first trip ever.
We know that Don from DC hadn't been on the train before. He dropped in to skate with us while he was in town on business, and we did enjoy his company. Come on back anytime.
Hot Night in the City
This week's downtown skate was super nice; warm, no wind, and a good crew to romp around with. It was almost like summer skating in Atlanta.
We started with a photo-shoot on top of one of the Little Tokyo garages. Dario broke out the pro gear and snapped a bunch of shots, not so much to record us for posterity as to kind of test the waters. It's a tricky thing, getting a good shot of skaters. If I see any product from him, I'll post it here somewhere.
Another Grand TNS
This week's Night Skate was fabulous fun, as you can see from this photo, we had all kinda skatin' goin' on.
Sorry you weren't there! Maybe next week :)
Police Lead the Way
We got a special treat this week, enjoying a police escort around downtown. The "National Night Out" celebration, started in the 80's as a community outreach program and supported by local law enforcement agencies. They have it every year in a differnt neighborhood, and this year it was in Chinatown. Pasadena Night Skate
Our Traveling Night Skate trip to Pasadena was big fun. We had a huge crowd, half of which were new peeps! Woo-woo. Welcome to and Laura, Kim and Phil!
Joel took us across the Colorado St. Bridge (not too scary! :) down to and around the Rose Bowl (nice hills!) and up to the Gamble House.
2009.07.14 - first skate
Our little route took about 90 minutes, and we only found one place where we were unwelcome (a city park, go figure). We started right on time, and by 10:15 skaters were boarding trains and heading home.
Traveling Night Skate - Pasadena
The Traveling Night Skate for July 2010 is in Pasadena! Do you know Pasadena? You will after you see it on skates :) Famous for parades, roses and being the gateway to the San Gabriel mountains, you'll probably see none of that crap on this skate.
Speed Skate Route
View TNS SPEED SKATE in a larger map
We have settled on our initial speed skate route, and we'll be doing the first official speed skate this Thursday, 5/27/2010.
Live to skate
Downtown to Hollywood Reverse Rail Skate
We got a phat turnout this week, and we cut a line up to Hollyweird from downtown. There was some time killed while we waited on the belated, and we got a chance to skate the new 2 mile bike lanes/road diet the LA DOT put on 7th Street. (Very nice indeed, DOT-folks, we'd like to see that done more.)
One new skater (hey Jose!) and a train-ride back to downtown. Not a bad week for @thenightskate !
A Classic Downtown Route
Last night we were a smallish but skilled group, and we wound up on a "tour of shoots" (not shots); St. Vincent's, Church of Money, Convention Center were all stocked with movie trailers and security guards. We got up on the hill, and met with some real fun:
"Hey! HEY! Do you need help?
"No, thanks though."
"You can't skate here."
"Au contraire, my good man, this is a fantastic place for skating."
Start Time Update!
Spread the word!
Twitter Feed for TNS
the TNS twitter feed... when we stop, I'll tweet where we are... and i'll try to 'member to tweet when we rollout too
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Reviews and Maps Article Count: 59
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Lots of our skating routes take in places in Los Angeles which have various signifcances. Buildings old and new, bridges, neighborhoods, rivers and parks all have history, and many of the places people on TNS get familiar with have a rich history.
Many times skaters on TNS will tell us, "I've lived here for (XX years) and I never knew this was here." What will you discover on TNS?