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Vertigo-Inducing Trend: Rooftopping
By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 12, 2011
Modified Aug 12, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 12, 2011
Modified Aug 12, 2011
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So long planking, and horsemaning—those trends are child's play compared to the new craze: rooftopping. Essentially, you get to a roof, go to the edge, look down, and snap a photo.
It's not really new to everyone; a recent interview with "well-known rooftopper" Tom Ryaboi reveals he's been doing it since 2007, and Jerry Seinfeld was an early adopter, rooftopping over Central Park back in 1990!
As for Ryaboi, he says he "got a rush from getting on these roofs, especially the first moments as I came out of the hatch (of a skyscraper). Looking out across the plane of the horizon everything becomes unhurried, it's almost like you see the world in slow motion, fully visceral." But it just gives us a bad case of vertigo. You can check out more photos of rooftopping in the Flickr pool.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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