Coby
Date
Time
Place
Slug
May 20, 2025
6:30am
Manhattan, New York
“Pickle”
Kick, Push, Kick, Push… Slug.
Sk8.
I admire many things. Things I can do, things that others do, things that I have absolutely no business doing. One of those things I greatly admire, but haven’t really gotten the hang of, is skateboarding. To me skateboarding is one of the coolest sports, activities, cultures, lifestyles, one can be a part of. In skating, you can’t fake it. You either learn the trick or you don’t. Skaters may try a trick 50-60 times just to land it once. Skaters, filmers, photographers, the homies that just like being around: I admire skateboarding greatly and I always knew I wanted to showcase someone skating and sluggin’. This is the the Slug Story of skater and friend, Coby.
Look Up: “Fully Flared” Intro on Youtube.
Coby and I met up in Miami once when I was in architecture school designing a project of skate bowls within the Miami River. Imagine putting a fruit bowl in a bathtub and skating a tech-deck inside. We went out in Downtown Miami to do some research hitting up various skateparks. Coby is a great dude: chill, relaxed, open minded. He has been skating much of his life and continues to do so whenever he can. He told me about the “Fully Flared” video directed by Spike Jones. I don’t know if I ever told him, but I presented that video to a lecture hall filled with over 100 architecture students when I was a teacher's assistant. The kids went crazy. Anyways, I asked Coby to be a part of this film and he agreed, so we decided to wake up and meet around 6:30am in Soho.
Florescent Tiles.
We linked up at a Starbucks and walked and talked. After about 10 minutes, I saw a set of spinning chairs and decided to start the video there. I told Coby to set up, put on his Slug, and change his sneakers. I spun the seats. 3, 2, 1 Action! He pulled up to the seats, sat down, flicked his board up, took out his wrench from the Slug, changed his wheels, and we were off. I jumped on a Citi bike and began following him through lower Manhattan. We dodged taxis and morning traffic, flowing from lane to lane. It was awesome. We arrived by the West Side Highway, and stopped in front of this giant building. It was completely concrete with cool fluorescent tiles. This building was where Manhattan keeps all its salt for snowy winter days. No windows. Just concrete. I love when you arrive at a perfect backdrop; something that’s flat with texture and even without the subject, it’s beautiful on its own. I guess that’s what good architecture does.
Win the Day.
We took photos and continued onto the Westside Highway. At this point we were flying. The Freedom Tower looked over us as we rode. After a couple minutes of riding down the highway we made a right and went into a very cool and low-key skate park on the water. It was just us. Coby skating, I trying to find angles to capture him. He landed almost every trick he attempted. We wrapped up the day and walked back to a coffee shop by my office to get some breakfast burritos. It was only 9:00am. We’d already won the day (WTD). That’s sluggin’ it.