Anyway, this is the letters and we're in beautiful Al Toloma, California, Al Tolomo,
Rancho Cucamonga.
We're in the Badlands and the protests coming back because another year has gone by and
to create some synergy for the Vans people.
We thought we'd do a piece on the Badlands.
So we've got the godfather here, Mr. Steve Alba, to talk to us about skateboarding in
the Inland Empire.
When did you start skateboarding?
How did it all go down?
What's your earliest childhood memory?
I remember I started skating when I was about 10, I know that much, and just had some crappy
little plastic-y, cheapy board, clay wheel crap.
I was like the one dude who was like a new guy that didn't surf, had no surf background
at all, that really came in and fucked their world up, you know what I mean?
Because that's kind of how they looked at it, they were like, who the fuck is this Inlander
fucking us up, and I was like, what?
Look at that edger, that's a 15-foot ball, probably 79-80.
What was the year, the pipeline open?
77.
The number is 77.
And that was its claim to fame, was it was the first vertical?
It was the first vertical skate park built, plus they had a full pipe.
So the flagship for the park in its original form would have been the 15.
Because the commie didn't exist yet, that was big freestyle, oh how brutal.
The crazy thing is Stan and his son, Don, came into Elphul and came to Baldy Pike and
watched us skate.
We had taken like a refrigerator, some kind of thing, and just flipped it on the side,
but right in out of the pool up onto the refrigerator and wheeling it, it was like two or three feet
out of the den.
The pool was 12 feet deep in the deep end, so Stan was like, whoa, three feet, 15-foot
ball.
That's how the 15-foot ball happened, you know what I mean?
So we learned to skate in the 15-foot ball, 12-foot ball, and the pipe.
So for the first summer, 77, 78, there was no commie.
So what were the original dimensions supposed to be?
Well, we wanted a 12-feet deep like Elphul, it was like always our magic number because
Elphul was 12 feet deep, we had to have a 12-feet deep.
So it was supposed to be like eight and four?
Well, originally I think it was going to be like 10 and two, but we're going, that's
not an advert because we were just clues at that time frame, and 10-foot trains were really
bigger, so it ended up being like eight and three.
Once they built the pool, they didn't really like have coping plot, they hand poured the
coping, and that's what was so annoying too.
I mean, the thing is back in those days, because Stan didn't have the money to pay for the
park, to pay for the pool, all the pros put up money to pay for the pool.
I used to tease the shit out of Mickey, I used to just make that little guy cry sometimes,
like.
Oh, the brother tattoo.
So he just followed what I did, basically that was like 5th grade, 6th grade.
Yeah, a long time ago, I was only in 2nd and 3rd grade, and that's the point of your life
when you look up to your brother all the time.
I can say he was way better than me, you know, he was like one of the best skaters in the
world at one point.
It's like Combie now is not the same as old upland, you know, old upland shallow is way
better than new Combie, you know what I mean, but Combie is still rabid because it's still
one of the biggest things there is to skate right now, so there's that legacy still, it's
still gnarly, but not as gnarly as it was, you know what I mean.
It's apples, it's apples and oranges, talking about the block compared to the original one.
The original one is gnarly as it was, and as deadly as it was, it was way better than
the one that we have there.
I agree, the old one was better, better shape, better lines.
I agree that's because whatever we're old and we're fond of our youth and all that,
like the memories of it all, but because the new pool is excellent, it's built, it's
a fantastic pool.
The Combie is so good now, it's like you don't have any of that stuff you used to have, and
it's so much friendlier now, and that kind of makes it easier to skate, and it's still
gnarly, because it will still fuck you up really bad, so yeah, that's it, the Badlands,
love letters, Chris Miller, Tay Hunt, and all the Badlands boys, John the comma, Chris
Robertson, we miss you man, rest in peace, and we're out.
The way I look at the Hoppin family is like if I didn't have the Hoppin family in my life,
I wouldn't be who I am today, I think, I really think that, you know what I mean, just growing
up a pipeline and having an access to skate there, and all the whole deal there and not
having to pay and all that crud, so yeah, I mean, to me, I'm totally indebted to the
Hoppin family.
Thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you guys in the next video, bye!
