PALMDALE
Former numero uno verticalist, Eddie Elquera is back on the board. Here he
launches, boneless, over the ragged Palmdale ramp on its last day.
LAST SHOTS
PALMDALE RAMP: THE FINAL CHAPTER
By Billy Runaway
legend (lej'end)n. Any story coming out of the past, based on
history but not verifiable; the inscription on a monument; any skate
structure that carves out a niche in skate history.....
...And when it came time to remember, the Palmdale ramp fit the
above definition. Both rumour and fact still surround its existence. It
is a fact that THRASHER sponsored the first major backyard contest
on this very ramp. The event also received major sponsorhsip and
coverage from factions outside of the skate industry. A major
amateur contest was also held there. These are the facts. Then there
were the rumors.... Why did it close? Someone bought it and moved
it. It was still ridden. It burned down. What really happened to the
Palmdale ramp? Read on, if it really matters.....
My phone rang rather early on a cold Saturday morning. On the
other end of the device was someone who would make what turned
out to be the final ramp session the most legendary of any that had
preceded it. After brief conversation with this person we set up a
meeting place at a m,utually agreeable spot that would also double
as a breakfast stop. As I walked through the bean smeared glass
doors of the local Del Taco I came face to face with "the Man." Or
should I say "the Cat"? Yes, the person in question here was Eddie.
Elguera. It was a rather simple task to locate them among all the
others in the place. They were the only ones without cowboy boots
on. Over a breakfast of burritos and coke we exchanged some
information. Eddie had found out about the ramp through K.T. K.T.
told him to get some film and document the following occurrences for
the sake of posterity. Made sense to me. I wanted to know the usual
things about the guy. Why did he quit? Why was he here? What he
was doing now? etc. etc. He patiently answered the barrage of
questions. Then it was my turn to be drilled. Would we be able to
skate the ramp? Where the @C✶ is it? I told them that I hadn't
even seen the ramp for months and being able to skate the ramp was
in doubt, due to the now nasty disposition of the landowner and the
condition of the ramp. Not to be deterred, I transferred all my gear to
their vehicle and we set out to do the impossible; session the ramp
one final time.
Our first stop was to get a camera and some film. We borrowed a
camera from a friend who also had a ramp in his backyard. Elguera
decided to skate it just in case our other ride fell through. So the first
session began. It was to be the calm before the storm. A backside
boneless caught Elguera's eye. He was doing them 5 minutes later.
His partner Kevin latched onto frontside boneless and soon had them
wired. Keith, who owned the camera and the ramp, kept up with the
pace. Severe lapover stall grinds soon became mandatory. Each
skater added their own style to this classic trick to make them all the
more rad. Neat axle hang-ups occurred every time these guys
slammed their trucks and rails into the coping. In the midst of the
heating session Eddie hit the coping so hard that it came off. Kevin
had just slammed and launched his board into the neighbor's pool
(full) so we figured it was about time to set out for THE ramp.
We picked up two more locals on the way out to the ramp. Ronnie
and Eric informed us that they had in fact skated it once recently with
the aid of large quantities of beer forwarded to the owner. Our last
stop was the liquor store. Upon our arrival to the ramp site I was
rather undemocratically elected to give Mr. Owner the case of beer
and ask all the important questions. Fortunately, he was much
impressed with the beer since the NFL playoffs were just coming on
the tube. He gave us the go ahead to skate. We jumped the fence
while Eddie drove his car into the back and checked out the condition
of the ramp. It was weathered yet still rideable. Splinters everywhere,
waiting to eat you alive. Some of the platform and surface area were
missing. A heavy price would be extracted from those who weren't
aware. No one cared. A little blood would no doubt be spilled in the
next couple of hours but that was not important now. Sessioning the
ramp with little or no regard for personal safety seemed to be the
order of the day. You could feel that kind of energy in the air. The
skaters donned varying amounts of pads and discussed past lines
that were drawn here. With everyone worried these days about who
is getting sponsored by what and someone grinding longer than
someone else, it's a rare sight to see five skaters gathered together
who don't even know or care who won the latest contest. Their minds
were locked in to tearing up this wooden super-structure the best way
they knew how. All those present sensed this would be the last
session and prepared accordingly. Elguera turned his stereo up to full
power and the next sound to be heard was wheels hitting the wood.
Instantly the session was at full tilt. The canyon was retested and
conquered in short order. Wood splinters were flying everywhere.
Elguera again tore an already sketch length of coping from its
foundation. The ramp shook with the power of high-intensity skating.
The locals drew some lines that were long ago locked into memory
from past sessions. Ronnie Mahaffey and Eric Volmer deserve a
quick mention here. These guys have never skated competitively yet
tear harder than a lot of well known skaters. They skate because they
like it and it shows. They know they rip hard and that's enough for
them. Eddie Elguera was in classic form with full-length grinds,
hyper-extended layback roll-outs, ollie canyons, and other stylish
moves too numerous to mentiopn. Boneless ones were being thrown
everywhere. Eddie and Keith put together a quick doubles routine
with simultaneous back to back grinds. Eddie's friend Kevin was
dominating airs off the 12' onto the 8. The session kept on going at
full tilt right up to the end. As the sun set each skater took his last ride
and then watched the others do the same. The locals looked at each
other and didn't say a thing. They knew that the last session on their
ramp had just been laid down. The only ocnsolation to them being the
pictures of the final session and countless memories of good times
and rad skating....
On the way home a though struck me that was so absurd that I had
to laugh. The owner of the ramp, and the other 40 odd million people
who were watching the football game that day, had no idea that
something immeasurably more intense was going on right in one of
their own backyards. They couldn't know. And I'm sure that we didn't
care....
(Postscript): The following day the Palmdale ramp was torn apart.
Rumor has it that it was used as a pre-ply for Palmdale Ramp II. To
avoid a similar fate to that of its predecessor, Palmdale Ramp II's
location is being kept a highly guarded local secret. It may even be
skated on as you're reading this very page....B.R.
SKATE AT
W
Σ
Keith Stephenson and Eddie match grinds. Below, last respects