Saw a new video on 48 Blocks (embedded at the bottom of this post) and got hyped enough to go looking for some lifestyle-y SF photos from the nineties.
Somehow wound up on Flickr and spotted this Ramondetta photo (yes, obviously, it’s not from the nineties) from Travis Jensen’s Flickr page, with this write-up below:
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“My office is located on the 6th Floor of one of the Embarcadero Center Towers in downtown San Francisco. The view overlooks world renowned skate spot “Hubba Hideout.”
Located in Ferry Park, in the heart of The City’s Financial District, Hubba Hideout consists of two waist-high ledges that align the stairs of the elevated walkway connecting Ferry Park and One Maritime Plaza. Hubba, if you don’t know, is slang for crack. The spot, which sits on a slight hill surrounded by large trees, earned its nickname in the early ‘90s, as it was a popular incognito place for individuals to congregate and smoke crack, high-level execs in tailor-made suits included.
Now a popular afternoon drinking and weed smoking spot, throughout the 90s and into the early millennium, Hubba Hideout to street skateboarding was like Maverick’s or Pipeline is to surfing, meaning you didn’t skate there unless you knew what the hell you were doing. Many a skaters have gotten their asses handed to them on a platter messing around at Hubba.
In the early millennium, the city and many businesses were able to curb skateboarding with the induction of skate-stoppers (steel knobs affixed to ledges, handrails and other surfaces to prevent skateboarding). Hubba was one of the first spots to go. The spot has since been de-knobbed by local vigilante skateboarders at least ten times.
Although there are currently no skate stoppers on the ledges, the city has removed a good chunk of the landing area and replaced it with gravel, making the spot virtually unskateable without lying down a sheet of plywood, masonite or metal.
Occasionally, from the 6th floor of my office, I’ll see skaters — tourists mostly, sizing up the ledges. Very few actually skate them. They mostly go there to pay homage. However, on the day this particular photo was taken, I heard the clickety-clack of skateboards and looked down to see professional skateboarders Peter Ramondetta and Brian Anderson, photographer Gabe Morford, and a couple other cats that I couldn’t make out. Peter and Brian were gearing up to get down on the ledges. I took this as a que to get my camera.
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