Tuesday Night Skate

Strap on your skates and wrist guards, grab your helmet and blinky and hit the streets!

What?
Empire's Tuesday Night Skate (TNS) is a weekly night skate around New York City. We skate to (and back from) destinations in Manhattan (e.g., Fort Tryon and the Cloisters), as well as points in Brooklyn (Prospect Park and/or Red Hook), the Bronx (Jerome Park Reservoir or Fordham University), Queens (the Unisphere), and just over the GW Bridge to New Jersey.

When?
We think you can guess what night of the week we skate. We start meeting up at 7:45 p.m. and roll out at 8:00 or a bit later. We skate year-round provided that the streets are dry and the temperature isn't much below above freezing. Well, okay, we may stay home if it's cold and exceptionally windy.

In the event that skating on Tuesday evening is called off due to weather, TNS might roll on a different night of the week, but only during November through March. Announcement of any cancellation and re-scheduling should appear on the Empire Facebook page. From April through October, skaters can instead attend the Wednesday Night Skate (FB).

Who?
Intermediate and advanced skaters. We really, really, really recommend that you be comfortable skating both at night and in city traffic. If you are not comfortable skating on NYC streets after dark, you will not be happy or safe skating TNS.

TNS is not as big as it was in the 1990s, but as of summer 2024 the group was about 25 or 30 skaters. But again, TNS is year-round, so on a cold (but not too cold) January Tuesday night, the count can drop to just five.

Where?
TNS meets by the statue of General Sherman at Manhattan's Grand Army Plaza, Fifth Ave. & East 60th St. (map). This is also the southeast corner (Scholars Gate) entrance to Central Park.

We mentioned some some possible destinations above, but as of summer 2024, TNS has a rotating leader, so routes and destinations are more varied than they were five or seven years ago. Total skate distance can range from 15 to 27 miles (25-40 km), with routes of 20+ miles likely to occur on fair summer nights.

(Please note: If you skated TNS in the past but haven't done so in, oh, the past 10 years, we no longer meet on West 72nd St. because the Blades skate shop there closed in 2016. Time rolls on, alas.)

How?
Because we care about the safety of the people we skate with, we want you to take appropriate precautions for your own safety, and for ours. Please wear a helmet, wrist guards, and some sort of illumination such as a blinky or even a helmet light. A high-vis or reflective jacket is also not a bad idea.

We do our best to signal stops and turns; call out potholes, street crud, and traffic; and also obey traffic rules. If you do not know how to do any of that, please ask!

Why?
If you have to ask…

What? There's more?
Some of the TNS crew may stay together for extra socializing after the skate is (officially) over. Depending on the week's route, this may mean that we'll get an adult beverage and hear some music at a skate-friendly establishment in the West 80s or East 50s. Sometimes, we may just get a slice of pizza at a place near the Queensboro Bridge.

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