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School 11 Retrospective

7 photos from the past decade at an iconic spot...

24 Dec 2014

SCHOOL11 NJ BMX HAMLIN TURNDOWN2 RD

New Jersey resident Tony Hamlin, golden hour (not shower) turndown at the Animal/ Tiseo's/ The Bike Shop jam a few weeks ago.

Words and photos by Rob Dolecki

  Following the other weekend’s Animal/ Tiseo’s/ The Bike Shop jam at the infamous School 11 spot, which is located in one of the grimier cities of New Jersey, I thought about all the years I’ve been riding there. Lots of memories flooded back, like the time a group of us almost got jumped by some nefarious locals (despite riding there about 15 bikes deep), or when the first Mean Streets video had "School Once`" as one of the designated locations. Or this past summer, when I heard those beautiful red brick banks were no more (turned out the construction was just some cosmetic upgrades to the school area, including painting the ledges on one side, which made them now better than ever to grind).
If you’re not familiar with where I’m talking about, just peep Bob Scerbo’s second clip in his 'Can I Eat?' part, which was the first time it appeared in a BMX video (George Dossantos also had some of the first moves documented there, on the bank to rail in his 'Standpoint 4' interview, which was released shortly after). Or check out Shawn MacIntosh’s insane nose manual in 'Holy Fit'. Over the past decade, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness some great riding go down at such a legendary spot. Here’s a compilation of six more joints I’ve snapped in that time; hope you enjoy: