Skate Brooklyn: A Park Slope Skate Shop

If you walk under an unassuming garage door, follow an arrow painted on the wall and open another door on St. Marks Place, you’ll find a room full of longhaired, lanky kids dropping into a mini ramp on their skateboards.

Welcome to Skate Brooklyn, a skateboard shop that sells decks, trucks, wheels, clothes and shoes. But, it also has the only indoor mini-ramp in Brooklyn and their own skateboarding team of nine local thrashers. And on the first Saturday of the month they throw parties with free booze, live music and mini-ramp skating contests.

On a Monday afternoon, a group of kids were hanging out with the store’s managers, Chris Liu and Chopper Sosnoski, who are veteran skaters themselves.

“We have a ton of kids in the 'hood who come to skate and chill,” Liu said, explaining that Skate Brooklyn moved to their new location just off Fourth Avenue last summer from Flatbush and Bergen. “Park Slope is actually receptive to young skaters, so we decided to move in and create a spot where not only could they get gear, but also be part of our community."

So, after transforming an old lumberyard into a skate shop, they built a mini half-pipe with a vert wall (two concave ramps with a 90 degree vertical wall, which helps you catch some major air) inside the back of the shop. The ramp is open to kids, adults and skateheads of all ages to drop-in anytime.

“We wanted to create a spot where the neighborhood skaters could hang out and skate everyday,” Liu said. “And once we did that we knew we’d need to make a legit ramp. So, that’s exactly what we did.”

And the skaters of Brooklyn dig it.

Park Slope resident, Marcial Rasado has been skating for three years and dropping into the mini-ramp for the past year.

"I come here almost everyday. It’s a cool vibe here—everyone is chill and just wants to skate," said Rasado, a 15-year-old skater who lives on 19th Street, while practicing a varial kickflip in the store.

Another kid in Skate Brooklyn said he also comes everyday.

"When I wake up, I know I'm coming here," said Davion Smalls, a 14-year-old who has been skating for two years. Chopper taught Smalls how to do a fakie flip, which is now his favorite. "I like chilling here. It's a nice environment."

One of their customers who has been with them since their Flatbush location is Rahem Whitehurst, also 14, who comes out from Brownsville.

For Whitehurst, skateboarding is not just a thing to do for fun:

"Skateboarding means that I stay out of trouble and have something productive to do," Whitehurst said while landing a 360 flip in the store.

A member of the Skate Brooklyn Team, Nelson Darden from the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, expanded on Whitehurst’s thought.

"Skateboarding means a lot to me, ever since I started it changed my life completely. I was into basketball, but skateboarding coming from the projects people would say, ‘What are you doing? This is a white boy sport,’” Darden said, a 23-year-old who has been skating for six years. “But once they saw I was consistent and good at it, they would say, ‘Oh, I remember when he was this tall skating!’”

Darden, who is also a rapper by the name Loui_D, said that skateboarding has opened up his world and physically took him outside of the projects he grew up in.

"Skating takes you outside those four corners, the box which is the ‘hood and it’s hard to leave. But fortunately I had the opportunity to leave the ‘hood and see the world beyond the box,” Darden explained, who also rides for the skate company Shut. “It changed me for the better. But, I had to get over the thought that I shouldn't be skateboarding because I'm not white. But once I ignored them, the doors opened up. Now, I meet people from all walks of life who come together for the board."

But, Skate Brooklyn is not just for the experienced thrasher.

For the more inexperienced riders, Liu and Sosnoski teach private skating lessons. For $45, you can get an hour-and-a-half lesson on the ramp or the street.  

“We teach all ages how to skate the mini-ramp and basics like how to kick turn and skate around the city, Liu said. “We welcome all ages, even adults come and learn how to commute to work.”

On July 6, Skate Brooklyn is throwing their First Saturday Party. There will be free beer and liquor, live music by The Love Club and a mini-ramp contest. 78 St. Marks Place, between Fourth and Fifth avenues.