Lurker Lou - Happy Lou Year

by Village Psychic

When I moved to NYC in 2004, Vicious Cycle had just released and Lurker Lou was ripping as hard as anyone could ever need be. His 2005 part in Lurkers 2 further cemented his legacy as one of the top NYC shredders during this epicly later’d era, skating with big white tee widows peak steez like long haired Gino. I remember eating at BurritoVille across from Tompkins with Danny Weiss, Daria and Lou, as Lou pontificated upon every possible topic and Daria kept looking at Danny and me like “Who is this guy?” Lou stopped drinking alcohol at some point in the past decade and said in an interview that “drinking is pissing your money away,” a thought I considered on multiple occasions waiting again in the bathroom line at Max Fish. Over recent years, Lou has shown himself a student of textures, with the refined eye for spots that has led to recent footage appearing nearly exclusively on rock formations. Lurker Lou was one of the first skaters I mentioned to my girlfriend last year, after Jason Byoun and I skated the dreamy, windswept peaks & valleys rooftop spot above Pitkin Yard that Lou had hit first. I explained how Lou and his crew are some of the only skaters going on missions in the same methodical deep street way Jason and I do, expect Lou drives a car on session, a fact which shows in the footage, but if Lou has made peace with himself over this then so will I. Furthermore, Lou is a Cape Cod New England native so has a broader swaths of geography to consider and, as a Dobbin Block set designer turned marble artist, also uses vehicles to haul around heavy things. Let’s see what Village Psychic predicts Lou did last year:

White script Village Psychic logo appears on black as a girl’s voice from yesteryear beckons, “Quiet everyone. The entertainment is about to commence.” Black and white photograph pans past a young girl skater, presumably a local who heard wheels barking, wearing facemask standing on chipped board while Lou lurks in a Hardbody shirt. Cut to black and white footage of Lou carving goofy then stance-shift-pushing to pop switch flip boardslide to regs on a bank to ledge behind an outer borough streetball court I’ve seen Bronze dudes skate before. B&W footage continues as Lou frontside flips over a discarded bicycle, switch flips onto a crackerjack island and shoves out of wallride. Nollie heelflip over pyramid sidewalk bump made from fallen tree with his typical shifty stands out. Lou boardslides a dismantled fueling depot at rusting gas station, then weaves through public park pathing to noseslide across a pedestrian bridge, land into manual off a block at a Silas Baxter-Neal intricate spot that looks like Frederick Douglas monument set into a streamside. Lou charts two clips at the once brick, now resurfaced as climbing wall, banked playground with handgrip knobbed hips and platform manual pad that dudes like Mraz have skated, then nollie backside flips and nollie hardflips upon fenced away, foliage rich embankment in Bronze Weed Leaf shirt. He boardslide transfer rides an overturned dinghy then “Love is in the Air” chorus as new father Dave Caddo heralds contributing tricks reminder that it takes a village.

We click our heels and transfer to color footage. Lou front180nosegrinds a second concrete stair placed onto shiny brick quarterpiping revert rollaway. Lou noseslides a timbered phone pole popover like Cory Kennedy and hits new city parks with intricate SK8Mafia trickery. Now we see Lou at the indoor basketball gymnasium with hardwood warped into waves bursting through for faceside switch frontside flip and nollie front heel, then Lou hardflips over the cusp of wave transfer. Observe on the Coney Island seawall, his deftness at managing board maneuvers when spots provide scare opportunities for popping 360 shove as he does. He skates another overturned boat, frontshove nose wheelies a bank to pad, then regular and switch boardslide variations on a number of distinct ledges. He visits the convex railing over children’s park bridge we’ve seen his Iron Claw crew at before, and also spins at the concrete quarterpipe up past the Bronx that they all love. He visits further playgrounds, grinding and sliding upon slides and ledges in combination trickery adults can deploy on these children’s spaces. We’re back to loading dock crust for noseslide transfer 270 shove into bank. He nollie frontside flips a tight white transition pillar like JKwon and nollie back bigspins with the assistance of a small banked commemorative plaque. More rock tricks followed by fish greased alley crust for back noseblunt Philly step to banked dismount. Lou nollie cabs a yellow painted bank at the end of the ATM drive-thru on a snowy day in a red hoodie. He stacks a number of clips in a different colorway of the Adidas 3ST that I had.

For his ender section, Lou gap to noseblunt skis from topside down across the face of a broad polycarbonate slide. He hits it next with a nollie heel like he did at Verizon banks in ‘04, then hippie jumps the waist-high railing at the top to waterfall ride. Fourth trick here is kickflip bluntslide down in a CC Rentals shirt and his distinctive calf wrapping. Last trick shows Lou back at the banked basketball courts from the part’s beginning. He rides upbank and around to the top of this red flat bench placed upon the bank for spectators. Lou tucks his wheels into the 54 mm of space below the bench’s backside and presses onto backnosebluntslide like a mindbent front noseslide rollaway regs into third space crowd.

End of the video shows two color photographs of Lou leading a footrace among spot lurking youngsters. Working on Community Relations is the title of Cincinnati-based Anonymous Skateshop’s 2004 follow-up to 2001’s Self-Proclaimed Legends, which I rewound and rewatched with reverence in Indiana as a high schooler. I thought about moving to Cincinnati based on how their scene seemed, but moved to New York instead. Turns out, many if not most of the Cincinnati skaters moved to Dobbin Block New York too, so I met them that way. They linked up with Lou, combined sensibilities and such is the result, a weathered ship’s journal documenting the fruits of Lurker Lou’s Captain Ahabesque endeavors in pursuit of White Whale spots though top-tier architecture critique skateboarding into middle age, current captain in a line of marine men tempest tossing on dry land.