When I first skated Baldy Pipe we were skating on clay wheels.
Everyone has an early story of Baldy Pipe. These are my first memories. When I first visited Baldy Pipe in 1972 there were no signs of anyone having been there. It was about 6 months before there were any indications of other skaters.
As a sophomore in high school, a class assignment was to make a 3-minute film on any topic. Two classmates made an 8mm film of themselves playing in Baldy Pipe. They were throwing rocks, walking up the pipe, etc., not skating. It was immediately obvious that it would be a perfect surf/skate spot. They told me how to find it, and I rode my bike to the pipe. I took my clay wheeled, pintail skateboard and carved it top to bottom, barefoot with swim trunks, pretending I was surfing. Initially I’d carve only one wall, mimicking surfing either frontside or backside.
Eventually I got Cadillac urethane wheels, at first only on the back trucks. They were expensive and it took a while to save up for a set of four. I began carving both walls to see how high I could go.
I skated Baldy often, always trying to better my previous runs, which were well preserved in the dusty pipe. Each time I visited I’d see only my previous tracks and use them for motivation to carve higher and higher. Carving over halfway was the ultimate achievement. The tracks were like well-preserved trophies.
This was before I had ever seen a kick turn.
For a few precious months I saw no evidence of other skaters, which was obvious due to the lack of wheel prints and footprints other than our own. One day I arrived to see a dust mask near the opening and several new wheel tracks. Soon trash and graffiti appeared. Eventually there were lots of skaters, some with photographers in tow…It became well known and crowded, which should be expected with such a perfect skate spot.
Eventually I got a skateboard with good trucks and wheels and began kick turning. It became dangerous to carve Baldy when other people were around. You’d be going too fast to get off and collide with people walking up the pipe.
Riding Baldy evolved from a long carve run the entire length of the pipe, approx. 200’, to a short kick turn area at the mouth of the pipe. The level of skating went through the roof and the scene became a wonderful mix of skaters from everywhere all sharing the high energy madness.
And to think 30 years later I’d be skating Baldy Pipe with my son Willis…
- – Curt Kimbel
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