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Washington Heights Skate Shop Serves Burgeoning Uptown Community

By Lindsay Armstrong | July 2, 2015 1:20pm | Updated on July 6, 2015 8:41am
 One8one skate shop opened on Amsterdam Avenue this winter, blocks from a new skate park.
Uptown Skate Shop Finds Home Near 181st Street
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WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — A skate shop that slid through a few locations before finally settling in Washington Heights is thriving in its new home — thanks in part to being neighbors with the city's largest skate park.

One8one opened at 2440 Amsterdam Ave. in November 2014, and since then co-owner German Deriel, 32, said business has grown by about 85 percent.

One8one is Deriel’s third attempt to start a shop catering to the Uptown skate community, with previous locations on Dyckman Street in Inwood and 231st Street in The Bronx.

He said interest in skateboarding has been growing in the area in the past few years, especially since the city opened a new skate park — the largest in the five boroughs — in Highbridge Park this past November.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Deriel said of the park. “You don’t expect something like that to be built in this area. You normally find that more Downtown or in Brooklyn.”

It’s a big change from the options Deriel had when he was a teenager skateboarding in Washington Heights.

“We’d skate in the street and look for local spots, obstacles like a bench or wall,” he said. “Or we’d have to go all the way to Mullaly Skate Park near Yankee Stadium.”

When Deriel heard about the new park, he decided to move his Bronx shop, which was housed within a residential building, to a site near the park.

Deriel likes having a storefront in part because it helps attract new people to the sport. He said he sees between 30 and 40 customers a week who are new to skateboarding or BMX, the shop’s other specialty.

“I definitely like it when people come in and want to get into the sport,” he said. “We try to help them out the best we can. It’s a cool thing to keep kids out of doing bad stuff.”

Julio Colon, 15, had just started getting into freestyle biking when he spotted One8one this winter.

“I was like, ‘This is cool. I live a few blocks away, and this is something different I can do,’” he said.

Colon was one of the shop’s first customers, and he recently started working part-time there.

“I learned my way around the bike, how to un-build and rebuild it,” he said of the skills he’s picked up in the shop. “Before I only knew how to change a flat.”

Deriel said he plans to step up the store’s outreach later this summer. He is working with sponsors to organize a series of skate jams and contests in the new skate park.

“Basically, we want to be that shop for the community,” Deriel said. “That place where a mom and her son can come in and buy his first skateboard.”