Hollenbeck Skate Plaza

Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights has a new skate plaza that we've been hitting up lately. I wonder what John Edward Hollenbeck would of thought of the psuedo urban obstacles placed on top of his hill. Ledges, rails and stairs built so that young people rolling on pieces of wood can huck their corpses around.

Just a quick history lesson taken from here: http://www.urbanedpartnership.org/access/change/histbh/index.html
"John E. Hollenbeck was a very wealthy man who had lived in Nicaragua. One day while Mr. Hollenbeck was visiting Los Angeles, he too got enchanted by all the beautiful land that the area east of the Los Angeles River had to offer. So he decided to permanently move here to Boyle Heights by buying land from his old friend, William H. Workman. Mr. and Mrs. Hollenbeck built their home on what today is near the intersection of Boyle and Fourth. As a matter of fact, this structure still stands today but it is now called the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged. The Hollenbeck mansion is now directly

John E. Hollenbeck’s house

across from Hollenbeck Park. The park was built by Mayor Workman sometime after Hollenbeck’s death. In honor of his beloved friend, Mayor Workman named the park and a street after John E. Hollenbeck. In those days, Hollenbeck Park was twice the size that it is today; the park was cut in half when the Santa Monica Freeway was built."



This postcard was mailed in 1911. Check out this page for a whole bunch of old postcards of Hollenbeck Park. Pretty trippy.

Alright, on to the skating.

Whitey's kickflips have been looking super proper lately. He did this a few times, and I'm sure I could of captured a better catch if I had bothered to keep shooting.


Pretty sure I've seen some edit where Ellington nollie flips this thing and they play it over and over again. Don't worry, I only got one photo of Josh Campos doing it. I don't think he's capable of bailing a nollie flip.


Tyler Kindred was only at the session for a short while before he had to go to class, but he definitely made the most of it by seriously throwing down on the rail. Switch Blunt.


A horizontal version.


Tyler only gave this nollie heel noseslide a couple tries before heading out. He almost had it though, and took a pretty good slam. Watch for that in the video below.


Justin Cefai having fun grinding the short, high rail.


The session moved over to the three block, and everyone started throwing down. Alec Beck floating a frontside half cab.


Colin Cook catching a proper kickflip.


Graham Harrington cruising a nollie front shuv.


Graham switching up with a switch front shuv.


Campos did a proper nollie frontside flip.


You'll see it in the video below.




Check out this edit of the session from the one and only Jesus Grajeda.


Another day at Hollenbeck. Josh warming up with a front board.


Campos switch flipping the set in a line.


Josh did this fakie flip way too easily.


Another little edit from Grajeda Films. Good times.

Typical

The usual stuff.


Skated this awesome homemade spot in Rosemead. This the only photo I shot, but look for some Blog Footy's from this session in the future. Justin Cefai back noseblunting the middle.


After Rosemead we hit up this park in Glendale again. Alec Beck warms up with a half cab.


Tyler Kindred warming up, front boarding the sort of gap to rail.


Jesus missing out on Tyler's nollie boardslide haha.


Believe it or not this was a warm up too. Michael Guffey back lipping with ease.


Josh Campos getting in on the action. Warm up switch ollie over the rail.


Alec got a super nice tre down the set.


Back with some more reflection shots at this spot haha. Jesus touching down into manny.


Cefai flipping into a switch flip nose manny.


Jesus, kickflip manny.


Campos, frontside flip switch manny.


Cefai, nollie heel nose manny.


Campos, switch heel manny.


Back at this spot again. This time the light was totally different. Justin floating out of a back nosegrind.


More traditional timing on this back nosegrind.


And another front nosegrind. I wish I could nosegrind every try like Cefai, looks like so much fun.


Not sure what this guys name is, but he was doing some steezy back lips. Hey Tislam, this guy said he knows you. Whats his name?


Later that night we hit up this gap in UCLA. We messed around with my flashes while waiting to skate it. Don't take these portraits seriously.


Hahaha, the under lighting makes Justin look super Straahnge.

Footy!

I still have a ton of little video bits that getting kinda old now. This is an attempt to reduce the back log.


Blog Footy #5. Dan the Man recently moved back to Michigan, so I was stoked to get this clip of him having fun at the beach a couple weeks before he left.


I really like how instead of installing your typical skate stopping device, this building put up a cute little fence around this manny pad. It's as if there is a precious little garden to protect, but instead there is just a slab of cement. The fence obviously didn't stop Josh, but the guy yelling "hello" from a window above was more sucessful. I guess his baby was trying to sleep. Pretty sure his yelling had a better chance of waking his baby up than our skating.


Blog Footy #6 with buttery filmer Jesus Grajeda. Getting all Jason Dill on the beach.


Blog Footy #7. Josh Campos shredding some of that local homemade. Big shout out to the Old Star guys for building this.


Blog Footy #8. I guess Justin Cefai is too cool to say it.


Blog Footy #9. Back at the Old Star spot again. Josh killing it again.


Blog Footy #10. More Campos from that day. I dunno how he was doing those flatground tricks, that ground is a lot more rough than it looks.


Suraj and Josh smoking this pole together.


A few posts back I posted a photo of Campos front crooking a curb. Here's the footage to back it up haha.


This up ledge is decently steep. Josh and Justin double up on it with tailslides.


Justin Cefai coming through right as two security guards come and kick us out of an abandoned alley on the side of a parking lot. We were disturbing lots of people.


Ray Maldonado going down hard.


Ray has a pretty buttery front blunt.


Josh Campos is always rocking a hat.


Ray having fun at a park in Pasadena.


Cefai spinning a proper one.

Thats all the footage I've got for now. Check back real soon for a post filled with photos.

The Usual

The usual stuff from me. Random skate photos from random sessions.


Jesus was looking real good in these sweet roll up shades we found in Justin's car.


Graham Harrington warming up, launching a wallie.


Graham and Justin skating back to the car.


Found myself out in Pasadena another day, Justin Cefai was starting off some flowing lines with this front boardslide on a rubber bench.


Ray warming up, skidding a front tail over this famous ledge over gap.


Josh Campos working his switch back tail.


Josh came close, but couldn't get the trick he wanted.


Then we hit up this park in Glendale with this famous set. Campos warmed up by snapping over the rail.


Ray was feeling it, and got a trick I can't show you.


Josh looks like he's struggin' here, but he got his trick as well.


Ray messing around after getting his trick. He threw out a few tres, but didn't feel like sticking it.


Another day and we started it off by spending a few minutes skating this random white wall transition. It's definitely sketchier to skate than it looks. The surface crumples a bit and is far from smooth. Josh pumping the tranny backside.


Another backside kickturn.


Campos getting his ollie to fakie on.


Josh frontside ollieing.


This frontside ollie just went up on Tagsters Mag as the new cover.


After that we hit up this kinda short run up 10. Graham Harrington's got a really steezy snap. Warming up before getting a banger.


Suraj handled at the spot too, snapping over this unsuspecting fire hydrant.


Ended up back at this spot again. Only got to skate it for a few minutes before the boot came. Josh warming up with a front tail.


Crooked grind.


Stopped by the famous gap to ledge before heading out. Josh hucking his corpse.

A lot of backlogged video stuff coming soon.