OT
SHOCK
CHAFFEY
HIGH SCHOOL
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY SEAN PETERSON
riginally an agricultural college, Chaffey High
School was built after the christening of the
Ontario community on March 17, 1883.
George Chaffey had a utopian vision of an agricultural community, in which
the college was the key element to sustain social education and mobility.
Chaffey's father school was the University of Southern California (USC), anoth-
er great skate spot in Los Angeles. The majority of Chaffey's architecture was
built or rebuilt after the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. Thanks to
FDR and his Works Progress Association, the skateboarders of the
1990s have prime obstacles to skate.
Chaffey High School is a mecca for modern skateboarders. It
offers a wide array of possibilities for lines, and blocks to chill and
skate on. The spot began to be frequented in the late 1980s. Street
skating started becoming more and more popular due to the closing
of skateparks like Pipeline, videos like Shackle Me Not, and skaters
like the Gonz. Left without organized skating facilities, skateboard-
ers took to the streets. In the Inland Empire, Chaffey became a hot
spot. Conveniently located near a freeway and down the street
from Pioneer Junior High, another good skate spot, skaters came
from all around.
Skateboarding was "dead" at the time, and the few of us who
didn't give it up to go snowboarding enjoyed countless hours of
surfing concrete. I remember numerous days skateboarding with
only five to ten friends occupying the whole campus, not worrying
about telling kids to get out of the way or running from the police.
Today the city of Ontario would be wise to charge money, like a
skatepark, for the privilege to skate Chaffey. That's what it's
become, a skate/bike/blader-park.
Some of the obstacles include a manual stage (approximately
one foot high and twenty-five feet long), a long block down two
stairs, four L blocks, a big block, a wide array of blocks in all
shapes, lengths, and sizes, blocks that pull your arms out of
socket, parking gates that make fun flat bars, stairs and handrails
near the auditorium, a block down three stairs, a table that's a
little under hip-high, a curved railslide bench with a drop at the
end, and a bump to flat. bar in the back which has seen some
devastating slams
Chaffey has become a training ground for skateboarders of
the 1990s. The primary draw to the school is the courtyard.
This setting offers you endless possibilities for constructing a
86 THRASHER
M
Clockwise from top left: If there are 27 ledges on the
school grounds and Josh Neher nollie 180°s over 30% of
them every weekday afternoon, how many will he ollie in
a month? Luis Cruz passes the switch frontside noseslide
pop quiz with flying colors. Sonny Nigro skips third period
study hall to filet a few frontside feebles.
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