Rincon bleachers

The Rincon Big Four is a famous skate spot in Escondido, California, USA that has shown up numerous times in skateboard media outlets, such as videos and magazines. It is located at Rincon Middle School, which has been a popular landmark for skateboarding for over a decade. In 1997, Jamie Thomas found a newly built bleacher set for shaded basketball.

The spot

Rincon consists of a shaded bleacher set, with smooth concrete for skating. There are four sets of bleachers (four levels from top to bottom), as well as a tall rail has been used as a skateboarding obstacle.

Difficulty

Rincon is considered a difficult spot to skateboard at, with both height and length. Being a bleacher set, each tier is the size of three average-sized steps (there are two steps connecting each level), making it as tall as an average flight of twelve stairs. If a skateboarder chooses to do something over the railing, the height, and therefore the impact on the skater, is even greater. Renowned skateboarder Chris Cole describes it as "the most scared I've ever been skating...No matter what, you're going all the way down".

Skateboarding on the rail is considered difficult for a few reasons:

1. Getting on to the rail, because you must go over the first tier, and up onto the rail to perform a maneuver on it.
2. Sliding/grinding across the rail is difficult because the rail is very steep and short; much different from what skateboarders normally skate.
3. The impact of landing after a trick on the rail is high, because from the end of the rail to the ground, it is about a six foot drop.

Notable tricks

These are in rough order of happening:

• Jamie Thomas: Gap-over-railing Ollie (1997)
• Jamie Thomas: Gap-to-rail Lipslide (1998)
• Jamie Thomas: Gap-over-railing Backside 180 ollie(In Zero's "Misled Youth") (1999)
• Steve Berra: Gap-to-rail BS 50-50 (1998) (In Birdhouse's The End) (1998)
• Steve Berra: Guest skater Gap-to-rail Backside lipslide (In Girl Skateboard's "Yeah Right") (2003)
• Kanten Russell: Gap-down-set Fakie Ollie
• Kanten Russell: Gap-down-set Backside 180 ollie
• Kanten Russell: Gap-down-set Switch frontside 180 ollie
• John Ratray: Gap-down-set Nollie
• Ryan Smith: Gap-down-set Kickflip (In Zero's Dying To Live) (2002)
• Ryan Smith: Gap-down-set FS Flip (In Zero's Dying To Live) (2002)
• Chris Cole: Gap-down-set 360 Flip (In Zero's Dying To Live) (2002)
• Jamie Thomas: Gap-down-set Switch FS 180 (In Zero's Dying To Live) (2002)
• Steve Berra: Gap-to-rail BS lipslide (In Girl's Yeah Right!) (2002)
• Jon Allie: Gap-over-railing Kickflip
• Brandon Turner: Gap-to-rail switch BS boardslide to fakie (In Osiris Shoes's "Subject to Change"
• Andrew Russel: Gap-down-set Nollie BS Kickflip (artOFFICIAL skate video)
• Josh Harmony: Gap-to-rail F/S Nosegrind
• Austin Stephens: Gap-over-railing Kickflip
• Jon Allie: Gap-over-railing FS Flip
• Tommy Sandoval: Gap-over-railing Switch Ollie
• Andrew Reynolds: Gap-down-set Shifty Flip (In Baker's Baker 3) (2005)
• Chris Cole: Gap-to-rail FS Nosebluntslide (In Zero's New Blood) (2005)
• Slash: Gap-to-rail FS Boardslide (In Pig Wood's Slaughterhouse)
• Caine Gayle: Gap-to-rail frontside boardslide (In City Stars "Street Cinema" video)
• Ryan Zammant: Gap-to-rail backside feeble grind (In Zero's "Dying to Live") (2002)
• Diego Buchierri: 12 stair rail (removed?) frontside lipslide to fakie (In TWS "I.E.")
• Ryan Bobier: Gap-to-set ollie (In TWS magazine '94?)
• Lindsay Robertson: Gap-over-railing stalefish (In Mystery Skateboards' Ad)
• Corey Duffel: Switch Ollie (In Foundation's Thats Life)
• Ramiro "Furby" Salcedo: Backside Kickflip Gap-over-railing (Deathwish Ad)
• Johnny Layton: Gap-over-railing Tuck-Knee
• Kevin Romar: Switch Frontside 180 Heelflip
• Jacob Walder: Switch Inward Heelflip (The Skateboard Mag: Mag Minute)
• Greg Myers: Nollie Backside Kickflip (TransWorld SKATEboarding: Nine Frames Per Second)
• Steve Fauser: Gap-to-rail crook (Middlewestern)

References

Chris Cole - Gap-to-rail Frontside Bluntside(Thrasher cover) Dane Burman - Switch Flip over railing (Zero's Strange world