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.