1.27.2011

crack rock incident #591: smokin' that shit

























sidewalk closed.

34 comments:

chops said...

chrome ball will return on Tuesday.

happy birthday, beats.

Old School Sammy said...

EPIC post Chops!!!--thanks for making the week end on a sweet note!

dj twit said...

amazing pictures

The Chez said...

R.I.P. Hubba. I remember rolling up in that place in 95 and thinking "I gots no hops". Shoulda shared some ready rock with the bike messengers in their g-strings.

handsclapanin said...

poor hubba. if i lived up there i'd try to get a chunk of it while they are destroying it. sell that shit on ebay like a piece of the berlin wall.
didn't the butcher have an indy ad doing his kf bs ts?
i finally went to sf & went to hubba a few years ago. when that wallenburg contest went on. i tried one noseslide, landed in the gravel & got a heelbruise. it was rad.
it was pretty big.
i feel like if another hubba hideout appeared, a ledge with the exact dimensions, all the madness would start from the beginning. like a tailslide would be legit. its only because it was hubba and so much had been done on it, that so much more got done on it. if that makes any sense.

Anonymous said...

Sick post. so many good tricks went down at that spot. I remember Lavar McBride killing it in Trilogy.

great post chops.

Keith said...

I never got to see it nor skate it. So many sick tricks went down on it.

I like the angle of the Carroll bs smith...

Dill sw fs krooked grind... was there ever footage of that?

And the SJ Think ad. Look at those wheels!

Carroll cover in Pumas looks amazing.

That on video clip is the best. Lennie Kirk with the sw bs 180 fakie nose grind is off the charts.

Dennis McGrath said...

THE END OF AN ERA!!!

HACKMAN209 said...

R.I.P. hubba! been there a few times that place was no joke...

Anonymous said...

If the city is tearing it down because of the skating, I wonder if they are aware of how many of those little skate rats turned into successful entrepreneurs.

I remember when I seen Carroll hitting it in the Fully Flared vid thinking that shit was art. Kind of like going full circle. Starting there, then coming back with all blessings skateboarding gave him in between.

Keep it up chops!

flannelflannel said...

glad i got to visit hubba this past year. gnarly height.

as i walked up the stairs, satva leung walked down.

didnt even realize until a second after he pasted.

dedleg said...

Awesome shots, all of them, but I'm really feeling that Carroll bs smith. Never saw that one before, really cool photo.

Check out that style on SJ's nosegrind too, damn.

K said...

Greatest trick ever done at Hubba? Random dude ollie over a board to manual, manual the whole joint pop off the ledge. Sure, it's no Lavar in Trilogy, or even Koston. But shit was so SMOOTH, son.

platinumseagulls said...

K, I met the dude that manualed down about a decade ago in SF...Joe something, he had some clips in Thrasher videos from around that time doing similarly wonky tricks. I gotta quibble with the "All Hubba Teams" because Lennie Kirk should be on there. Props to my friend Chad for switch tailsliding it in '95, shortly after Dyrdek. Timely post.

Anonymous said...

Hey K and Platinum. The guy that manualed hubba was Joe Valdez.
Here is his part from thrasher Timebomb. http://www.thrashermagazine.com/component/option,com_hwdvideoshare/Itemid,93/task,viewvideo/video_id,238/

If you youtube search his name you will also find some other good clips

ciaran said...

Joe Valdez, right?

@ handsclapanin, the footage of the kf bs ts was in the Think video Dedication IIRC. Pretty sure Paul Shier kf bs 50-50d for a 411 part (no. 22??)

Only those who've been there will know how much heftier and more intimidating it is in real life. It's properly large and the drop on the other side rarely shows well on video.

Always bemused with Carl Shipman's straight legged fs blunt, largely as his body is 90 degrees to his right leg, proper geometric shapes!

That Scott Johnson Think ad was on my wall as a young fella - copied the light bulb tag and scrawled it all over my school books for years.

Epic post chops, much appreciated!

Croupier said...

I almost always made it a point to see what was going down at hubba during SF visits. I remember my first time there was shortly after I'd seen pictures of Steve Olson slaughtering it. Thinking about the tricks, and then looking at this massive thing... it just seemed absurd at the time.
The memory of my friend Ano's fs 5-0 down it will stay with me forever.

chops said...

Thanks guys.

I just want to chime in also about the first time I saw Hubba, I really couldn't get over how big it was either.

This was '96 and my first time to California. We went to LA first and I immediately realized how much smaller everything seemed there... this was during the elementary school gold rush where everything was miniature. I became so suspect of the things I'd seen in the magazines that I figured by the time we got to SF and Hubba, it would be a joke.

I was wrong. That thing is just an awkward mammoth pillar. And that was before it was widely known about the drop on the other side. I couldn't believe it.

Plus, I remember there were kids just sitting there. Camped out. All day. Just waiting for someone to come and skate it. I know cause I tried waiting them out so I could attempt to kill myself without such an audience but they were there everyday I was there, all day.

And Plat, I agree. That list is suspect. No Lennie or MC? And how is Gershon in the starting 5? I only remember a switch noseslide.

ciaran said...

Last trick in his The Reason part - flip fs noseslide. Pretty savage too.

Giles said...

Gershon switch front smithed it.

rob e beats said...

I found Hubba Hideout using a map you emailed me. The same map you used some 12 years earlier. Then my soon to be fiance tagged "Happy Birthday Robby" underneath one of the ledges.

I have to add, I was very suprised at the size of it.

Thanks, Chops.

t.a. said...

Say what you will about Steve Olson, the dude had flair and could rotate his bs 180 nosegrind 180 all the way around. Pony up, young bucks!

Anonymous said...

what about karl watson's frontside noseslide, FRONTSIDE 270 out! shit was absolutely bonkers, and he did it clean, too.

Anonymous said...

brian anderson killed it too.

pupape said...

Peter Smolik, handling the spot all switch, in "Fulfill the Dream" has to be my favorite...all while wearing a Real sweatshirt, so tight!

STFU said...

That Carroll Thrasher cover is one of the worst cover photos Thrasher ever ran. Not showing or cropping the steps is the equivalent of the newspaper photographer who shoots a photo of someone doing an air on a vert ramp and not showing the coping.

: ) said...

i liked it

Anonymous said...

Anyone understand the Crailtap comment, "Don't you hate it when someone turns the Hubba calendar a day early in the boys' bathroom?"

Anonymous said...

They mean Hubba wheels. The psuedo smutboarding company calendar, no relation to the famous ledge.

QUINN AVERY DAVIS said...

That list is pretty lame. Lavar should be at the top. Stand outs to me (video, not ads unfortunately) were Dill's nollie 180 switch bs 50-50, Marcus' heelflip bs 50-50, Cairo's nollie nosegrind, and Garcia's nollie flip ns.

First time I gawked the ledge was the same trip I saw Wallenberg for the first time, in '98. It was a sobering trip.

Drake told me that Kalis did that SS-BS-TS on 2 separate occasions. Unreal.

QUINN AVERY DAVIS said...

Oh, forgot to say AMAZING POST CHOPS!!! Thanks once again.

Chip Van Ham said...

Oh shit, this is pretty damn epic! BA and Steve Olson will always be the two rulers of this place...

Once skated here with Ed Templeton, Brian Anderson, Chico and Pat Duffy-had to be one of the randomest sessions I've ever seen/been at! Great times for sure, thanks Chops for reigniting old memories!

chops said...

damn quinn, i didn't even notice Lavar WASN'T on that list. Pretty much voids that thing.

And is that really Chip Van Ham? Whoa.

TK said...

I love this post. How do you feel about an update with any additional pics you come across in your treasure trove of old skate mags? I know its been torn down and all, but I still love seeing pictures of this place.