BALDY
PIP
LINE
the
Steve Aba Tums it up' out on the fa
Tom Inouye and Dale Smith at the mouth of the great pipe, circa 1975
A ratnak, mascot of the Badlands, is discovered cruising the runoff and
assumes the striking position
In August 1975 a young avid
skateboarder by the name of Tom
Inouye and a friend, Dale Smith
caught word of a pipe at the
Baldy Dam. Arriving at the
the dam
they could not locate the pipe
They saw a security guard in e
bright yellow truck and asked him
if he knew of the pipe that the i
kids
were r skating in He said sure.
sure
jump in
in and fill take you there."
and drove them i right to i
it. It was
na
totally clean and perfectly smooth
recalls Tom "At first we walked
of the way up the pipe and carved
down. Then % way up and even-
tually all the way to the end where
was dark and slimy. I also have
movies of Baldy when it was it up
gold from the sun. This was boll
bearing days, before pools or
parks. We skated there for five
hours and never saw a soul"
gold f
The Baldy Pipeline remains as
one of the most
most unique skating
terrains in the world today.
Although it's discovery as a prime
skate spot is still a mystery, the
earliest
the walls
graffiti to g grace
of the sacred pipe is credited to
Mucks. Over the years most of
the top vertical skaters have, at
one time or another, sossioned at
is not the
The cylinder. Though
largest pipe ever skated Baldy
was the first to be ridden and
explored skateboarders. Ifs
location in the heart of the Bad-
lands of Southern California
prompted Don Hoffman to
Incor
porate a full pipe into the design
of his Upland skatepark facility
calling it
it "The Pipeline Skatepark
Occasional sessions stil take
place up of Baldy, but the security
guards now take your name and
escort you out of
of the c area rather
than showing you to the mouth of
the pipe. Even if Baldy pipeline is
never skated again it will remain
one of the great legends among
vertical enthusiasts the world over.
Two methods of attack during a recent session Chris Strople (above) cess slides
up into the pocket and freefalls back to the transition, Steve Olson (below)
frontside and airbome out of the end of the cylinder. Some of the maneuvers
pulled off at Baldy during the early days were not discovered by most skaters
until years later when parks were built
MA