The annual event is called the Broadway Bomb.
Last year, around 1,000 people participated in the mad dash down the Great White Way, skating from a spot near Columbia University all the way to Wall Street.
But after 1,800 people signed up for this year's event, the city got a judge to issue an order blocking it as unsafe.
Still, some groups of skateboarders avoided the police barricades Saturday and began rolling south on streets near Broadway at around noon.
Police officials say there were patrols up and down Broadway to break up any large groups.
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