Let's roll NY Wrap Up

Tags: ben schwab, billy, harlem, i roll ny, queens

Do you like this? Share it with your friends and help Be-Mag to spread the word about Rollerblading. Like us on Facebook, add us on Google+ or follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates from the Blading world!

We teamed up with the founders of Let's Roll NY to bring you a behind the scenes look of the Let's roll NY sessions.

The weekly sessions dubbed, Lets Roll NY, is Victor Callender’s and New York City's answer to uniting the five boroughs. Though our city has a strong and increasing scene, where you can catch anyone from the ages of ten to thirty on blades, we are still separated by our transit system. It can take you two hours to get from Brooklyn to the Bronx via the MTA and getting to Staten Island from Manhattan? Well that’s a whole other adventure. Now that New York has an online presence, thanks to www.irollny.com, we have set up a solid foundation and source for our local community and lifestyle.

- Ben Schwab at the session

- group shot from the session in Harlem

Each week a flyer is presented online where a meeting spot is chosen in a different borough of NYC. This allows skaters from any part of our area to venture out into the city and have a place to skate where it’s a guarantee that they’ll be people to skate along with. With the fourth and fifth Lets Roll NY session having huge turn outs, ranging from 50-80 skaters in attendance, it’s only reasonable to think that our sixth will only bring out even more skaters. With no sponsorship backing these sessions and no money involved, these sessions are truly for the raw love of rollerblading. Not to mention that we are forcing our city to take notice to our sport and gaining more recognition for what we love doing. It truly is an event to be apart of the session. We stop traffic, take up street lanes, have people follow us in amazement, and stop their plans for the day just to watch our city skate.

- hitting the streets in Harlem

- The turnout at session nr 4.

Lets Roll NY allows skaters that typically do not travel to certain neighborhoods, due to the distance and unfamiliarity with the area, to skate new places with new people and make new friends. I have seen so many kids instantly start friendships with others they’ve never met before, just because of our weekly sessions. Along with all the new people and new spots you’ll be skating, you’ll also catch many of New York City’s biggest names in rollerblading such as, Billy O’Neil, Franco Cammayo, Ramelle Knight, and Alex Nunez (Not to mention outside New Yorker’s like Ben Schwab and Julian Bah) partaking in the good times. You’ll also be photographed by one of our many talented photographers from NYC. The group picture during every session, which has become an event all on it’s own, is reason enough to make it out to a session. I encourage everyone, even people outside of the New York area, to come out and enjoy our community. We are welcoming and always growing and would love to see more people come out and enjoy themselves. As I typically end all of the Lets Roll NY coverage, come out and show your support by skating new spots with new people and making new friends. We hope to see you there.

Craig Benabu