Here's vert legend Mike Dominguez in the Pipe Bowl at Pipeline skatepark in 1985. This was the contest he uncorked the no-footed can-can.
I've been pushing the old school BMX world to support Don Hoffman's Kickstarter campaign to make the "Badlands" documentary, which would tell the story of Baldy Pipe, Pipeline skatepark, and the influence it had. It's primarily a skate story, but BMX vert is part of the story. The campaign ended a couple days ago, and it found 115 backers pledging $16, 843 (43!) towards the $150,000 goal. Don isn't giving up. He's going to regroup and keep working on getting this done.
For me personally, Pipeline was a place I first read about in BMX Plus in 1982 or 1983, as a high school kid in Idaho. The skatepark, and its riders, instantly became legendary to our little Idaho riding crew. It seemed like a magical place a million miles away then.
As the years passed, I ended up riding Pipeline a few times right before it closed. In fact, I had my front tire crab in the pipe while oververt the last night it was open. That sent me into a Superman dive straight down 11 feet onto it's hard, hard concrete. I ended up going to the emergency room, thinking my wrist was broken. I was actually stoked that I might have the last broken bone from Pipeline. It turned out to be a really bad palm bruise, and I couldn't hang onto my grip for a month afterward.
Since I worked under Don Hoffman at Unreel Productions then, I got to go up and shoot video, and ride, several times after the park closed. The fences were getting torn down, which opened up a whole bunch of lines not possible before. I was jumping out of the four foot bowl and doing a little nose wheelie into the ditch, among other things. During those sessions, Fiola, Blyther, Steve Alba, Micke Alba, and several Vision skaters had some epic sessions. It was great being able to ride without little kids yelling "Next after after next" before rolling in. I chipped about eight blue tiles out of the shallow part of the Combi right after Malba and Salba got themselves some. I didn't bother going up the weekend in got demolished for the last session, I think there was a freestyle event that weekend.
I really hope Don manages to get this movie made, because it's a big part of the history of everyone who's ridden vert in ANY sport.
I have three other blogs I'm doing now:
The Big Freakin' Transition- about the future and the economy
Crazy California 43- about weird and cool locations in California
Full Circle- about writing and the writing life
