Any time you bring up Lurker Lou, people have opinions. He has no shortage of his own takes on pretty much every subject imaginable. For example: sycamore trees (bad), skate stoppers (okay, if artfully done). I reached out to see if he wanted to talk about hunting for spots and sharing them, and he suggested we have the conversation in his car so he’d be warmed up and flowing on the subject.

Over the course of an afternoon we skated one of the dozens of spots in his spot folder, walked around some housing projects in search of anything skateable, and found Taylor Nawrocki’s spirit animal. In the grand scheme of skate days there wasn’t a ton of yield: nobody got clips, and the one potential spot that we found would require hours of rub bricking to be skated at all. This didn’t seem to bother Lou. He’ll be the first to tell you that his approach to spot finding isn’t for everyone, and will also tell you what he thinks about sharing the fruits of that labor.

- Ian Browning on spending the afternoon with Louis “Lurker Lou” Sarowsky for the latest installment of The Rules of Skateboarding.

What was the most egregious time somebody has asked you for a pin, or the most egregious request for one?

People that I'm actually friends with that want to come skate but are too lazy to come and skate, they’ll see it on Instagram that night and then they ask me after they flaked on skating with me earlier in the day. That right there pisses me off. I'm cool with you, you asked me to come skate, I said yes. You flaked multiple times. And now you're asking me where the spot is? Now you're never going to get in the car, and I'm never giving you the spot. No. Ain't happening. Got it?

That makes sense. We've been talking about this all day, but can you try and sum up your spot hunting process?

The spot hunting process starts with thinking about something that I’ve already skated that I might be able to get something on, and then looking to see what else is in that neighborhood. Feeling it out and seeing if that neighborhood is worth going to for that thing, because if that first thing fails, we’ll have three other things to go to. So it's more like this: If I haven't been to the neighborhood in a year, I’ll cluster out three to four spots in a neighborhood that I want to go to. And then from there we'll look for other spots.

Then we're like, “You know what, let's go to this neighborhood. It's going to take us 45 minutes to get there. But let's just go because I’ve got something really cool.” On the way there we look and we search, and we find something and never end up making it to that [first] thing. So a lot of spot hunting comes out of sometimes being desperate and not having anything to go to and just being lost. But mostly it's going to something you think you might have a trick on from the past, and something else will pop up. It’s usually a dice roll, and sometimes we don't even go to that spot, you know what I mean? Then I try to get some type of good food into that day somewhere. Like, thinking about a neighborhood where there's a restaurant that we've wanted to go to as well.

Or if I'm in a zone on a school mission, I'm just on schools. Like, James Madison High, what's up? You got a roller coaster here? What's the architecture looking like? I drive by schools slow. I creep. I like to get out sometimes. Sometimes they have the shipping things. Oh, we got a manny. That's a granite manny right there. Don't be mad at that.

And the other way, if you're specifically looking for things to skate, then just go and Google what you want to look for. You're not going to find bump-to-bars that way. But if you want to skate schools and look for school spots, just Google every single school in that cluster. Neighborhood cluster skating is ideal.

The old saying is like, “It's not the destination, it's the road that gets you there.” That has a lot to do with finding spots and the path to get there. We try to take the phone off the maps as much as we can and go a different route. But, you know, you pretty much have to have a car (unless you want to crush your legs on a bike) and then spend a day looking for spots. There's just days where we're like, “I don't really have anything in mind.” Then we just drive around, and we pick a neighborhood that we haven't driven around in before.

Yeah, it sounds like prime rainy day material.

Sometimes it's more the hot days that we just kind of try to kill time.

How quickly after filming a trick do you think you should use it?

It depends on what grade it is: if it's for (Instagram) story, hard post, or to keep for a video part. As long as there's no signage in the background and it's filmed from the right angle. If it's mediocre, post it on your story. If it's good enough for you that you're questioning whether to keep it for a video part, hold on for a few weeks, and then hard post it. And if it's a really good trick on a spot that I don't want anyone to know about for a while, like a playground spot, I'll hold off and post the footage or put out the footage when it's warm out. Because when they want to go they're not going to go, because it's going to be wet and filled with kids. And by the time it's cold, no one's going to want to mission out because it gets dark at 4:30, and everyone sleeps until fucking 11:30 and doesn't meet up at Cooper Park or Blue until 2:30 or 3:00.

We'll flex post shit, or I'll post it right off the bat if it's an okay trick. But if it's really good, I'm holding on to it and waiting it out. And spot-wise, if it's a new spot that's in the hot zone that you think could get discovered, just wait. Wait till your video part and then put in the effort and try to get a legit enough trick that you're happy with and want to save. You know?

So the example I have is that spot in the Bronx that got redone from years ago, it’s in Jerry's Jenkem article where he drove around. Two banks with a manual in the middle, it used to be brick. Now it's blue rubber, skateable rubber, though. People know where that spot is, but they didn't know it was renovated. They thought it was gone. So I held off on posting that footage till it was hot out, because I know no one's going to want to go up there in the summer and get shit thrown out the project windows at them. You get eyed up a little crazy at that spot. So yeah, that's why I held off till the season was right.

You’d think you do the opposite: you’d post it in the winter, because everyone puts out their videos in the winter on the East Coast. And then, oh, no one's going to go skate that, it's cold out. But that's when I feel like the skate spots are most skateable. I get more done in the winter than I do in the summer, skate-wise.

You’ve got to make sure that whoever's filming you at your spots that you think that you found, or you discovered, or you hunted out or whatever, just make sure you don't got a fucking Caribbean Nails sign in the background. Especially not one displaying that the address is 862 Utica Ave. Any kid over the age of 14 knows just to go zoom in on the back and go “Oh, they skated that in the 917 video. I need to find that.” Just make sure that no matter who’s filming you, that the angles are right. Sometimes you’re just like, “Fuck, I don’t care who knows that." Everyone's too lazy. I think a lot of times people are just lazy in New York. I don't even worry about it. They’re not even going to go skate that thing because it sucks.

You said you don't really skate house spots, but you had any good stories from skating spots in the projects? Or dealing with residents and civilians?

The story with the cops and the guys that had the traphouse: I only skated this house because it was a trap house, and it had a crazy ass handrail. So I went there fully knowing we just had to roll up and be cool. It was definitely a drug house, but I knew that if we played our cards right, we'll probably be able to skate it. I 360 flipped off the porch, smoked weed, probably popped the tag, fixed their driveway, and they still thought I was a cop. They were like, “Yo, he's a cop.” and called me “NYP Lou.” As we were leaving they yelled out again, “Hey Lou, one more thing,” and I said “What’s that?” “You a cop.”

Got a clip, smoked weed, popped the tag, fixed their driveway

I don't know, I'm not a homeowner and I respect homeowners so much, because unless it’s passed down generation to generation, it's hard to buy a house. Yeah, I would love to own a home. So the last thing I want to do is destroy someone's fucking house, dude. I don't own a house. And our generation is a little bit fucked in that sense.

It goes the same with graffiti: you're not tagging someone's fucking house or car. That house is abandoned? Shit’s a go. I can apply graffiti rules. I told you how to get up to that spot and paint that spot because you said you were going go paint it by yourself. Okay. You went and took that whole crew of writers I don't fuck with? Same shit with skating. You said you were going go skate that spot by yourself, then you took that whole crew of fuckboys I don't like to that spot? We ain't cool no more.

Skate spots that aren't even really skateable that just look like a spot, that gets me excited sometimes. It's good to keep every day different. I'm with that. It's so easy to get caught in a routine. Like I was saying, when I’m staying with my mom on Cape Cod I have a schedule, like a pretty normal routine. And here it's always different—this day here and this day there. I love that. That's kind of why I worked in set design for so long, because every photoshoot was different. It was always a different day—nothing ever really felt the same. And, like, skating, if you go to a spot in the winter and you go in the summer, it's a totally different feeling.

What do you think about the spot map apps that sell spots?

That's some dumb shit that this dude wanted to do: sell our playground spots. I thought he was a fucking idiot for that. What are you trying to do? Trying to make money off of shit that's not yours? What are you, a mobster? Is this organized crime, dude? Just keep it to yourself. People need to just stop having skate spot apps and Instagrams. I just want to know what you’re getting out of it. I know people who would buy a skate spot. It happens to me. People offer me cheap change. Short change. Ten dollars.

So what, you sell the spot to one person, then they give it out to everybody? Yep. That's how it goes. You're going to monetize New York City skate spots? Good. Now I actually want to cut your cell phone plan off. And your dick. I want no part of that. What are you going to pay? I actually have never heard of anyone doing it, though. Like, “Yo, we paid like 20 bucks to this guy.”

You absolutely will not find this spot by sitting at Blue Park

Yeah, but would you ever admit that?

No, I would never. People are thirsty for skate spots, because they just sit on their phone scrolling, waiting for it to be fed to them. You got to go out there and get it. And hard work doesn't always pay off, dude. We could have stayed in the car all day, we could have only found the gorilla at the playground, and that would have made us psyched. You know what I mean? There are days like that. That doesn't make me give up on spot hunting and go sit at a skatepark or go sit at Borough Hall or Blue Park or whatever.

I would rather drive around and look for something than skate one of those boring spots like Stroud or Chauncey. You ever been down Martens Ave? Me either, I've never actually been down. And then you just take it from there. I just think it's more fun as I get a little older. I can only sit around doing a crooked grind on a box for so long. I’d just rather spend the time finding something that's shitty that I can come back to with a camera, or if I'm motivated. New neighborhood, new feelings.

Just when you think New York's old and you've seen it all, just drive around and you're gonna get sparked up again. You ever been down that street? It looks like Baltimore over there. You know what I mean? That’s more entertaining for me than any day sitting at some washed skate spot. If you worked all day and you just want to go get your rocks off and skate flat, yeah, go do it. I'm not mad at someone who doesn't want to go look for skate spots on their one day off, but on my one day off, yeah, I want to go look for skate spots. Unless it's 28 [degrees]. Or it's 98. I'm going to Chauncey or Borough, other than that we're going out to spots. We're going to find some or go back to some crust because everything's always changing. On the way back to look at a spot you went to two years ago, there could be something new that got built. I didn't skate schools the same way a couple years ago, and I didn't skate playgrounds the same way. So, yeah, we didn't look at playgrounds in Inwood. “Let's go check out this one. It's going have something.” you know? Spots change all the time.

I feel like most of the time you're going to have a cooler conversation with someone outside of the skate park at the skate spot. Just the random who doesn't know anything about skating who's like, “Oh, the Olympics! I like me some Jagger Eaton.” You're like, Okay, I don't know anything about Jagger Eaton, but you like him. That's cool, but like, what's a good restaurant around here?

That's my average day. I'll drag someone like Taylor along, because he doesn't mind the torture. But it's not for everybody. I mean, I don't skate with Zered really anymore because he can’t mentally handle this process. He needs to go to the skatepark and get his rocks off. He'll be biting his nails and sucking his Juul too hard in the car. People just expect there to be skate spots on every mission, like everything's going be sunshine and fuckin’ lollipops or something. I feel more complete when I'm in the car. And then you feel really psyched when you get something. I already feel good just looking for spots, so I feel even greater when I get something on the spot. Sifting through the crust.

The hard work of spot searching really does pay off

What's up with this thing? Have you seen this? (pointing out of the car window) This looks new.

The cellar door is new, actually.

Is that business open?

It is. They're only open at night. So you might be able to get something during the day.

That shit looks kind of fun. See, what I would have done if you weren't in the car is pulled over like a cop, and I would have just jumped out. I kind of wouldn't mind going back around and fucking with that thing.

(giving Lou directions to my apartment)

So I'll make a right over there. And then I'll loop back because we're just going to go back to that cellar door. That's the shot. We're going to go fuck with it and see what happens. Who knows? I may be able to do a little nollie 180 on it or something. Or we get kicked out, but like, that business, they're renting. You know what I mean? You might have put in that cellar door, you renovated, I'm sorry, whatever. But like, your restaurant’s going out of business anyway. We're here. We're giving you a couple nollies and then leaving.

You could leave the address if it was in Bayside. Nobody outside of people in Queens and a handful of people with cars will ever head there.

It's so far out of the way that I'm not too worried about it. And when somebody does find the quarter pipe at Fort Totten, they're usually like, “Oh, Lou, don't worry about it. That spot sucks. No one's going to want to skate that anyways. I'm not telling anybody where it is.” So you know? My spots look fun to skate, but most of the time, they're shitty. And I made them look easy to skate. It's not fun, or easy. It was miserable. But I had a good time doing it. Because I like to self-torture. That's another reason why I like doing all this shit: It's a little self-torture. Because you put yourself through all this, going and trying to find a spot. By the time you do get some it feels so good.

The Rules of Skateboarding #18: Lurker Lou