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Spot Check
A Tribute to Wallows
April 20, 1999
Where do you want to go next...?
Wallows. Ever since the Animal Chin video, Wallows has become like a landmark for skateboarders of the world. Anyone who has been skateboarding for more than ten years knows about Wallows. Whenever people from out of town come here and I hook up with them they always ask me to take them to Wallows. They read about it, saw it in a video and they just want a piece of it. They know how rough it is and how fucking gnarly it is to eat shit there, but they still 'have' to go.
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Since the boom of street skating in the early 90's Wallows has become underground and even more since the recent "Hey let's put a driveway in there" episode. A few years back they put a driveway in Wallows so that you do not have to hop the fence and walk all the way up. Now you can just drive in, drive your car up the ditch, park, and skate (although if you try this, don't say you heard it from us). We actually don't know why they put a driveway there. Most likely so they can drive dump trucks to PANICS (top of Wallows) to load all the boulders that collect after a flood or something. Maybe they had extra funds from some budget that they needed to spend or something. Who cares? They fucked up Wallows and it will never be the same as it was in Animal Chin. |
But Wallows is still skateable. Rough as hell and still even more choppy with today's advanced technology in wheel design. We skate there whenever we can, You can still speed down the lines and even still hit AIR BOWL to TUBE BOWL to 88 BOWL. You can still get lines and if you are lucky you can start from the top of Wallows (PANICS) and fly down hit Wallows and keep going. There are still some bowls that are hitable when it's dry, and you would be surprised how often it's dry.
| "You take away gliding and turning, and you take away the essence of the sport..."
Here Kevin Buchli opts for Daniel Gessmer's definition of skatebording and refuses to air through Air Bowl.
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We took the Kastel Team when they were here and they were stoked to be there. It's fun to skate there when you are with people who are stoked as hell to be at Wallows. Nevertheless, they fucking killed it. Paez skying backside ollies and grabs on 88 Bowl and Menscer and Gonzales taking the feel of it. You can see some of this in the recent Issue of 411v.32. If you watch that video you can see Ricky Oyola, Ryan Kenrich and Kale they are skating the top of Wallows.
The next time you plan a trip to Hawaii (or if you live here already) set Wallows as a destination stop. Almost any respectable skateboarder here can give you directions.
Wallows Lives, that's what I meant.
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