Nightime madness at Upland. Tim Galvin in the spotlight
Rich Rose
ripping the banka. Ty slides, 360s
and two-footed high-speed nose
wheelies were routine. Because of
the secret nature of this spot, the
locals requested that we not blow
their scone by advertising its loca-
tion, so all you fanatics that at this
very minute are craving, well suck
off. If you think you're happening
just check ON BOARD for clues
Fuji's Mexican Food in North Long
Beach was the mandatory food
stop after our outlaw session with
avotacios, egg rolls and fried rice
being the order of the day. I picked
up the action on the next day with
burly huevos rancheros a la Rich
Rose, after which we headed out
for Lakewood Center and a session
at everybody's favorite half-pipe.
Lakewood's been around for a
few years and was once the home
for Olson, Strople and other top
pros. The double bowls, although
showing heavy wear, are still hap
pening, but the place where it
really flows is the half-pipe. Two
years ago this structure was the
site of a now legendary contest
and just a few months back it
showed it was still the place to
flow when it was host to another
pro encounter (THRASHER, #2)
The park is presently going
through an expansion program
with a freestyle-roler rink area
having just been completed and
a clam-shaped bowl also under
construction by pool designer
builder Wally Holiday. Before
spitting
and heading out to
Upland we paid a visit to the one
and only Dave Middleman, who
Just happens to operate the
complete pro-shop. He has every
conceivable skateboard product
and an assortment of tools to
assemble boards in seconds
At Upland we found Micke Alba
and his pals ripping the combi
poot within minutes BB. and Olson
joined the gathered skaters for a
ittle "expression session" In my
opinion, the combi pool ranks with
Winchester's bowl as the two most
radical spots in the world. After
sessioning the pool, the 15-foot
bowl grabbed the attention of our
squace who committed them-
selves, to two-wheel edge carves
en masse. We couldn't convince
DH to take us out to dinner
(something about us not being
suited to his "preppie ifestyle), but
fortunately Micke suggested that
we drive around Upland and
skate some street terrain. We
ended up skating an intense
Being the most radical park, makes Upland the natural choice of TV producers
Chris Miller fakie grinds the pipe's edge
Off the hip acid-drop, Steve Alba