"I always loved the Pipeline because it
separated the men from the boys. And we
know who the mon are, don't we?"-Salba
THE SEVENTH WONDER OF THE WORLD
The Pipeline skatepark in Upland, Califor-
nia, was the pride of the Badlands, the result,
of a boiling pot of open minds, skaters fan-
tasies and one man's dream. Though it could
be described as a paradise, Pipeline defini
tely wasn't a mirage. This was the real thing,
the three P's all rolled into one. Pipeline had
the first 20' manmade pipe, the first monster
bowl measuring a whopping 15' deep, and
one of the first pools in skatepark history. No
other skatepark in the nation could top its
design. You could say that Pipeline kind of
set the standard for all other parks to follow
Believe it or not.
"Upland is pure guts to me.". Mike Smith
EVERYBODY LOVES TO HATE YOU
"Why did Stan close the park?" everyone
asks. Broken bones, bloody Band-Aids,
paramedics, ambulances, membership
forms, step-parents, babysitting little kids,
high insurance costs, lawsuits, money, frac-
tures, troublemakers, police and thieves,
bored of doing the same thing for 11 years,
upset parents, rain, draining water, sweep-
ing, cleaning up messes, scrubbing toilets,
graffiti, skate nazis, video games, pinball
machines, M.R.Y., change, bogus tags,
stitches, employees, Charlle Ransom, smart-
ass kids, Mike Brown, video shoots, photo-
graphers, phone-calls, vacation requests,
schedule changes, fights, drunks, sex, drugs,
rental pads, lighting costs, jukeboxes,
scratched records, punk rock, loud music,
mohawks, creepers, 'bondage pants, Joe
Jacksons' "Sunday Papers," ghetto blasters,
the PA. system, people sneaking in, pros,
selling equipment, the park team, stealing
stickers, lemon groves, contests, crowds,
bleachers, no more than one person in a
bowl at a time, bikes, playing tag in the snake-
runs, kids yelling "next" and "after, after"
OMETHING
and finally the park itself. And that's not the
half of it.
banks and these four bowls Needless to say,
qualifying was an easy task in which you had
"Jeannie Hoffman is Lord!" - Jeff Grosso to make it through the snakerun and get a
WAR AND REMEMBRANCE
Mr. Hoffman walked softly and carried a
big stick. He used to smash it up-big time
When the pack opened in 1977, there was a
huge gravel parking lot next to the pipe. The
parking lot had its share of sex, drugs and
tock-n-roll where the local populace would
get their thrills and feel the chills. Sometimes
things got out of hand, eg. fights, beer drink
ing, hellraising and cars spinning donuts and
raising huge dust clouds over the entire skate
area. Stan just loved this part because when
the dust flew, his stick grew Windshields
were shattered, car paint was scratched, and
heavy metal was dented. Do unto others
before they do unto you was the law. I guess
you had to be there. For the first couple of
summers this was a nightly ritual. I enjoyed
the show immensely.
"Stan didn't and wouldn't take shit from
anyone. Period."-Pipeline local
I DON'T LIKE SPIDERS
AND SNAKES
Like most skateparks of
the seventies, Upland had
four long, winding snake-
runs leading into four dif-
ferent bowls. Each bowl
had a different difficulty fac-
tor along with it's own cor-
responding snakerun. Two
of the bowls were for begin-
ners, one was affectionately
known as the eight-foot
bowl and the last one was
the qualifying bowl. In order
to skate the "whole" park
you had to qualify. If you
didn't qualify, you couldn't
skate anything but the
wheeler in the "qual" bowl without falling
down. But they didn't tell you that the quali-
built, complete with kinks and lumpy cement.
fying bowl was probably the worst thing ever
There were park attendants in charge of this
little escapade and what power they had! The
fact that these guys were in control of your
whole skateboard future was stupefying. To
make a long story short, the snakeruns didn't
last long. 4 years max, because people lost
interest in them and they weren't too enjoy.
able to most skaters. The locals loved them,
though, and we used to play tag and OUT
Previous Page: Double trouble in the big bowl by the
brothers Alba. Above: Salba, Tim Galvin, et al lament
the loss of a lip Lett Park employee Rick Kenner per
forms repairs at the scene of the crime. Stan offered
$1,000 reward for the apprehension of the coping
thieves, but nobody stepped forward. Below: An
aerial view of a true skate mecca. Right: Longtime
Pipeline local Chris Miller cuts a high frontside are
in the infamous pipe. Far Right: Lift and drift, Chris
Robison out of the pipe and into the pool.