Dec. 29, 1981 -- My brother Sol lays down a wicked layback at the Ditch in Desert Knolls, right over our "P*Land Blazes" tag. This is one of my favourite skate photos from the P*Land days. Laybacks are definitely not for amateurs and Sol is totally shredding it.
Desert Knolls was one of my favourite skate spots and we went there a lot. It's a drainage ditch that's about a mile long, situated right next to a paved road to make it easy to drop in at any place. It also had a little tunnel under the street where you could get tubed. I still have a scar on my back from scraping my back trying that.
Desert Knolls was one of my favourite skate spots and we went there a lot. It's a drainage ditch that's about a mile long, situated right next to a paved road to make it easy to drop in at any place. It also had a little tunnel under the street where you could get tubed. I still have a scar on my back from scraping my back trying that.
Back in the day, the Ditch wound through an undeveloped housing development. There were lots of paved streets, with curbs and lovely street signs with a bunch of Indian-sounding street names (Siskiyou, Chiwi, Tude, Wato)---but no houses at all. Checking the satellite view, I can see the Ditch is still there (it's the white line near the middle of the picture), but it's now pretty much surrounded by houses. I wonder if it's still skateable?
I still remember the first time we went there. Some of the Apple Valley locals had ramps set up on each side of the ditch to increase the height of the walls. I remember "the guy with the spot on his face" totally ripping it up that day, doing berts and getting some air off of the street side ramp. Those guys were pretty good. Some years later, the same guy invited us to his home ramp in Apple Valley that had about four feet of vertical on it. We only tried it once and never really got it wired.
P*Boyz, I am still waiting for you to send me your pictures. C'mon dudes.
I still remember the first time we went there. Some of the Apple Valley locals had ramps set up on each side of the ditch to increase the height of the walls. I remember "the guy with the spot on his face" totally ripping it up that day, doing berts and getting some air off of the street side ramp. Those guys were pretty good. Some years later, the same guy invited us to his home ramp in Apple Valley that had about four feet of vertical on it. We only tried it once and never really got it wired.
P*Boyz, I am still waiting for you to send me your pictures. C'mon dudes.
I don't know if I qualify as a "dude" but I'm looking for some old skate pictures of you guys which I'll send on..I'm amazed you can see any ground at all in the satelite pic..."they've" built a little LA where once there were jackrabbits and dudes. You'd probably be arrested if you tried to skate your old ditch now...
ReplyDeleteGetting arrested is half the fun!
ReplyDelete...dude!
ReplyDeletewow, flashback time! I remember you guys skating a tube it must have been there? my memory is not what it used to be or ever was lol! I dont know if I was ever with you guys at that ditch though. su madre is correct though, I think it's pretty much illegal to skate anywhere these days...good to see the old tag again! I used to have the school paper with pictures of all of you guys shredding, with Calvin and Vince included. There was that great picture Mickey took of Calvin with his hair flying straight up! Sad to say I have misplaced those old papers or they got lost along the way. I will try to hunt some other pics down tho. peace, Sharon
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