Words and Photos by Sean Coates

Interview with John Cruz

I don’t think anyone assumed much after the first couple of bags of concrete were poured. A steep wallride and a camel hump made from two rusty barrels with just enough concrete to connect them. They called it SHORTYS after the nice lady who frequented the Newark, NJ abandoned building.

As pours continued, the project became one of the dopest DIY spots on the East Coast. Despite the city turning a blind eye to this full-blown skate park, there was nothing actually legal about it. After about five and a half years, SHORTYS met the same fate as many of these spots do, torn down by some corpo landowner dude.

It wasn’t long before the guys started building new spots around Newark, some more brazen than others. They built Train Spot on a random foundation in the Ironbound. An entire alleyway was taken over by quarterpipes near Weequahic Park. The wallride up to the NJ Transit bridge off Frelinghuysen and the Philly step on the Route 21 on ramp. They never knew which spots would last more than a few months, yet they kept at it.

The City of Newark eventually became familiar with the crew and their work popping up around town. In an attempt to curb the guerilla-style builds, someone down at city hall offered to give the guys a sanctioned piece of land to build on. Now you can find the boys Barbequing near Branch Brook Park at The Hole Bowl, their permanent home (for now).

Q&A w John Cruz

Do you think Newark is still a go for building new spots?
Every Saturday and Sunday morning I drive around drinking coffee and looking around the city. I’m always looking for a spot where you could put a little piece of concrete and see if it stays. I tried to do that recently over by the Popeyes on Frelinghuysen and it lasted for a little bit and then, I don’t know, it got a little too much heat and they tore that out. 

Do you think anything could be the scale of Shortys again?
No, nothing will ever be like that. It was kind of lawless down there. It was three blocks from the warehouse we all lived at and we would just wake up early, go get bags of concrete, and whoever was around would just come and help. It was real, it was just different. I think it was just all situational too, that spot was indoors. You could work all day in the summer with no sun, so you weren’t getting smoked. At the Hole Bowl, we just get so tired because we’re in the sun all day. But yeah, I think that was just kind of a perfect storm, with everyone together. We were younger and our rent was like 300 bucks. So all our money went to concrete, beers, and barbecue.

How did you think about sinking money into these spots?
I don’t know, it was just money. I didn’t think about money at the time, we didn’t have real bills. We paid our cell phones, our rent, and we just were making shit. We’d work for like a month straight and then take two or three weeks off and have these big spurts of building stuff.

How did the Hole Bowl come about?
The city initially offered us these properties, and we didn’t really take them seriously. After Train Spot got torn down, Gnu hit us up and was like “yo, they’re asking if you’re ever gonna do anything with any of these properties.” We were like, oh shit. They actually want us to do something. So we just checked the place out and started digging. That’s why it’s called the Hole Bowl because we just started digging a hole with no plan.

Any words for some random teenager who wants to build their own spots?
Oh, man, don’t do it for anybody else. Do it for yourself and your friends. People are going to hate it, people are going to talk shit. People are going to tell you that your concrete sucks, and that you don’t know what you’re doing.

“I think it’s cool when kids start building without knowing what they’re doing. Just save that lunch money, go buy a bag of concrete, and see what happens.”