22 foot full pipe, 12 foot bowl, a street course, right in the heart of the Badlands.

It was a childhood dream come true; the original pipeline closed down in May of 1988. Fourteen years have passed and today Uplands new pipeline skate park opens to the public, only thing is, nothing like this has ever been built so perfect for skateboarders in Southern California.

It's a precision park, so you need to skate perfect. No flat bottom here folks, you have to really be dialed in, or die, this is serious business.

From L to R: Don Hamilton, Richard White, Brad Robarge. Holding original pipeline membership cards

Growing up in the 70's, and 80's as a skateboarder in California, was like living, and breathing. It was an absolute necessity. Part of that lifestyle besides pools, was full pipes , and being a member of the original Upland Pipeline from 1977, to 1988 was also an absolute necessity. But, as luck would have it, back in those days, skate park design was so new, that the construction of skatepark's were usually flawed. With the exception of Cherry Hill, and Uplands Pipeline. With cement skateparks, there is always a weird bump here, or a nasty kink there, But, the new Upland skate park for 2002, is perfect.

We've had the last 25 years to experiment with different skate park designs, materials, and ways to construct them. It has been an on going process of trial, and error, for many years among the skaters, and skate park owners. I'd say that Uplands new skate park seals the deal, for the skate park industry, and construction company's.

Salba played a big part in making sure it was built to spec. He did an amazing job. No one could have done it better, including the folks that constructed this awesome Pipeline skate park.

-- Big-fat-steel-bull-nose coping, set perfect on the lip, in the bowl, at the mouth of the south end of the full pipe. Perfect transitions, huge 22 foot full pipe, massive wall extensions at the north end of the full pipe, with a disappearing bottom from 4 feet, to about 10 feet, a channel to love seat, with a perfect, slight down hill tilt, for maximum speed, through the full pipe, and into the 12 foot bowl. It's a skaters dream.

The first session was for pro's only. For a good hour and a half, it went off. The street course was empty. It was a complete full pipe photo session, Teamgoon, Skate Scene Media, L.A.Access video, Ted Terrebone, Ray Allen, Dan Levy of Juice magazine, and Dave Swift of Transworld, were snapping the photos, and filming the session.

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