Throwback Thursdays : Hep Greg & Scooyork

Back in the old days, it was really rare to see some real street riding.  Most of the mini videos back then consisted of kids jumping off kicker ramps in their driveways.  Or some fly out tricks at a local skatepark. Among the few street crews back then, Scooyork was one of the most well known.  They were skitching the backs of taxis in Manhattan traffic. Not giving a damn about anything or anyone, riding the city all night till morning. I first met Hep Greg out in San Diego for the SD2 comp back in 2007.  Greg’s one of the few original riders left of Scooyork. Through the Brooklyn Street jams to numerous video parts, Greg has been keeping the street scene alive in NYC.  I went up to Queens last weekend to kick it with Greg and Logan Fuller.  This is what we got into.

Hep Greg - reinforced Razor promodel - 1st Brookyln Banks Jam - 2007

Yoo Greg, How was sandy? Did y'all take a dip in the lakes of

Manhattan?





           

No swimming, but me & Logan went out during the storm, trying

to feel the power of nature haha.





           

Logan & Greg at the Globe

Probably after many buckets and liquor no doubt, I heard it

made some sick spots, did you get to shred them before the

city took them out?





        

            


                       

Sandy destroyed NYC but that didn't stop them scootaasss! - Jaythio Arriagada

There was one spot in particular that I got to ride, it was this tree

that fell and made an A-Frame out of the sidewalk. It was siiiick haha.



it might even still be there, I’m not too sure.




That's crazy, hurricane spots are rad. so tell me a little bit

about Scooyork, how did it get started? Who were the OG's?





Scooyork 2006

Scooyork started with Michael Lee and myself. We met Jon Reyes &

Chris Zackowitz in like 2004, and started riding the city with

them. As time went on, we met Rahmel Lafayette, Elmer Ferreiras,

Steven Sanchez, Brian Murphy, and a whole bunch of other riders.

Once we all discovered SR, we decided to buy a POS canon

handycam, and just started making videos (with no real

knowledge of what the hell we were doing.) We became known

because of the fact that we rode in a city, and started to really

expose urban street style riding into the sport (along with the

philly crew). Most people at the time were just hyped on the razor

wave, and all the videos that razor put out were mostly in

skateparks or just filmed around some so-cal suburban towns. I

think that’s what brought us so much attention at the time, just

the fact that our videos were such a different vibe, and so fresh to

the sport.





                       

Young Elmer Ferreiras

            




I remember this old video when razor came to visit NYC, Jarret

Reid did a backflip up some shit, Were you there when that

went down?





                        




Nah, that was even before we all met each other. I remember that

photo too; off a kicker up the 4 set in Union Square.





            

This shit kinda tallll doe

            




           

Haha soo old, anyway, what's the scene like in NYC now? It

seems like a pretty big hub on the east coast, does that get

you hyped?





           

Hell yeah dude, the Tri-state area scene is getting soooo big. NYC

is definitely the Hub of the street scene though, jersey's got that

whole park flow goin' on. It’s awesome to know that what we

started here is growing everyday.





Hep Greg tall ass frontboard yo

           

Smokin' ehehehhehehe

That’s awesome, so who you mainly ride with these days? Is

there any underrated dudes who've been killing it on the low?





           

            




Logan "gives no fucks" Fuller

           

Well, Logan fuller moved into my house in like April, so I've been

mostly riding with him this year. But there's alot of local

shredders who have been killing it; like Gabe De Asis, Yara Hanes,

& David Martinez. They're all gonna have footage in a video I'm

putting together. It'll probably drop in the spring of next year.





           

            

                                    


                       

Yara NIGGAA - wallride

             

Does this video have a name yet? Any chance of seeing a

promo sometime soon?



        

Yara with a massive railhop

         




No name yet, no promo yet either. Still have a lot of work to do.

I'm sure ill put out some kind of promo within a few months

though. Keep yo' eyes open!





           

            



the "spot keeper"

           

 Oh we willl. So I noticed you guys are starting to get a lot of

park out there, some still with no scooters. Do the skaters and

scoot riders get along out there?





           

            






Usually skaters won't bother me and the other older dudes... it's

the same problem as it is everywhere else, they hate on the

younger kids with no park etiquette & the little ones whos'

parents just bring them to the skatepark because they're fuckin'

clueless. 



Skateparks are a fairly new thing in NYC, we used to have

one in each boro, now there are sooo many.                       

            




Hep Greg leaning through the curve

           

What might you say to a wee little scooter rider standing in

everyone's way? Or should I say, some advice for the rats out

there.





                                    

           

Usually I’m really polite to the little clueless razor kids; I just try to

be nice to them so they actually listen to what I'm telling them.

For the younger kids who ride freestyle scooters, I usually just

keep it a buck, and tell them to watch what the fuck they're doing

or someone’s gonna slam into them.



  Sometimes I talk to kids

parents and whatnot, so that they can understand what they're

bringing their kids into. It’s not a playground, its a skatepark.





           

            




Subway with Logan & Greg

           

Wise words, so real quick, what's the best thing about being

a scooter rider in NYC? And what's the worst?

           

this one for the young niggazz

            




Best thing about being a scooter rider in NYC is the fact that I can

get anywhere on my scooter in less time than it would take to use     

public transit. if you have a group of dudes cruising through the

streets, you can stop traffic, cut through tight places, hop onto

sidewalks, and skitch buses and shit. It’s the funnest thing in the

world cruising with a crew. Scooters are easily the best urban

commuting device. I cant really think of a downside to riding here,

maybe the fact that the weather is so erratic, it's sometimes hard

to find good days to go out and shred.





Fuck yeah, any words you wanna say to all the uk duders out

there?





GET OUT OF THE SKATEPARKS! Go cruise the streets with your blokes, the UK

has tons of sick spots.

the young scoo-yorkers

Good looks for the interview & throwback photos Greg

This was taken from Scoot Nation #9

- McKeen