Wallenberg Set
Wallenberg, also known as the Wallenberg Four, is located at the Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, California.[1]
It is a popular gap among the skateboarding community and measures 6 feet high and 22 feet and 6 inches long.[1]
While the stair set is still there the school has re-profiled the "run up" to the set so it is no longer possible to use Vega St to gain speed, it has to be obtained from a ramp or roll in, or by gaining speed in some other form.[2]
Coverage in skateboarding media
The Wallenberg gap first appeared in Mark Gonzales's part in "Video Days," a 1991 skateboarding video released by Blind Skateboards.[3]
In 1999, Danny Gonzalez performed a Kickflip to Melon grab as seen in Transworld's "The Reason".[4][5]
In 2004, Thrasher skateboard magazine hosted "High Noon at the Big Four" at the famous spot. Unlike traditional skateboarding competitions, there were no rankings or standings; the event was billed as a "big tricks contest." In order to encourage skaters to attempt difficult tricks, cash prizes were offered for landing specific ones. Andrew Reynolds was the first skateboarder to successfully perform a frontside flip. Darrell Stanton performed a switch backside 180. Lindsey Robertson landed a heelflip over the set.[6]
On 30 May 2009, Thrasher Magazine's Back to the Berg contest was held at Wallenberg, in which another set of difficult tricks were landed. Jordan Hoffart's Varial Heelflip, Nick Merlino's Switch Heelflip, Chris Cole's backside 360 and Switch Frontside Flip, Cody McEntire's backside BigSpin, Andrew Pott's Hardflip, and Lizard King's 180 Ollie North, Ollie Disaster, and Scarewalk.[6]
Andrew Reynolds backside flipped the set. The trick appeared on the cover of the May 2007 [7] issue of Thrasher and was also added to Reynold's part in Emerica's Stay Gold [8] released in 2010.
Chris Cole was the first one to 360 flip it in New Blood a skateboarding video by Zero Skateboards. Some of the most popular skateboarding tricks that have been performed include Frank Gerwer's kickflip over the set. Lindsey Robertson performed a backside heelflip over the gap at the Thrasher contest. Cameron Zvejnieks did a bertleman slide down each of the stairs in 2008's "Smut" for some reason. Some other tricks include a backside 180 (Diego Buccheri), a pop-shove it (by Steve Nesser - 411VM #66), a “the Bam trick”(pop shove to tail grab to shove it out)(by Eduardo Guerrero - montage in The Highest Point from Harris Oates Media) a switch ollie, a switch frontside 180 (by Tony Manfre - montage in Free Your Mind from Transworld Skateboarding), a pop-shove it to melon grab (Jeremy Reeves, from footage featured on Thrasher Magazine's website). [citation needed]
Forrest Edwards landed a Switch Kickflip down the massive stairs, adding yet one more amazing feat to this massive stair set. There are photographs of the feat in the April 2013 issue of Thrasher Magazine, and a 'magnified' clip of the trick on Thrasher's YouTube channel.[9] On the same day DJ Gaudin landed a Switch Backside Kickflip.[10]
Chris Joslin performed two tricks down the set for his Etnies Album part. The first was a hardflip backside 180 which was only captured from one angle since he landed it on his first attempt. The second was an inward heelflip. Both tricks were NBD's.
On November 9, 2019 Miles Silvas switch back heeled the set after five trips to the spot spanning over four years of attempts. [11]
References
- ^ a b "WE CHARTED SOME OF SKATEBOARDING'S MOST ICONIC SPOTS". Jenkem Magazine. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
- ^ "The Wallenberg Four Stairs". Retrieved 2020-07-03.
- ^ Colberg, Tait (2013-06-21). The Skateboarding Art. Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-300-09709-9.
- ^ "Video". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ "WHAT HAPPENED TO DANNY GONZALEZ?". July 20, 2011.
- ^ a b "Junk Drawer". Thrasher Magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ "Video". www.youtube.com.
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meepxVVGvYk - ^ Miner, Jon (Director) (2010). Stay Gold (Motion picture). Emerica.
- ^ "Video". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ "Video". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ "My War: Miles Silvas" – via www.thrashermagazine.com.