Wallenberg Set

Wallenberg, also known as the Wallenberg Four, is located at the Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, California.

It is a popular gap among the skateboarding community and measures 6 feet high and 22 feet and 6 inches long.

While the stair set is still there the school has re-profiled the "run up" to the set so it is no longer possible to use Vega St to gain speed, it has to be obtained from a ramp or roll in, or by gaining speed in some other form.

Coverage in skateboarding media

The Wallenberg gap first appeared in Mark Gonzales's part in "Video Days," a 1991 skateboarding video released by Blind Skateboards.[1]

In 1999, Danny Gonzalez performed a Kickflip to Melon grab as seen in Transworld's "The Reason".[2][3]

In 2004, Thrasher skateboard magazine hosted "High Noon at the Big Four" at the famous spot. Unlike traditional skateboarding competitions, there were no rankings or standings; the event was billed as a "big tricks contest." In order to encourage skaters to attempt difficult tricks, cash prizes were offered for landing specific ones. Andrew Reynolds was the first skateboarder to successfully perform a frontside flip. Darrell Stanton performed a switch backside 180. Lindsey Robertson landed a heelflip over the set.[4]

On 30 May 2009, Thrasher Magazine's Back to the Berg contest was held at Wallenberg, in which another set of difficult tricks were landed. Jordan Hoffart's Varial Heelflip, Nick Merlino's Switch Heelflip, Chris Cole's backside 360 and Switch Frontside Flip, Cody McEntire's backside BigSpin, Andrew Pott's Hardflip, and Lizard King's 180 Ollie North, Ollie Disaster, and Scarewalk.[5]

Chris Cole was the first one to 360 flip it in New Blood a skateboarding video by Zero Skateboards. Some of the most popular skateboarding tricks that have been performed include Frank Gerwer's kickflip over the set. Lindsey Robertson performed a backside heelflip over the gap at the Thrasher contest. Some other tricks include a backside 180 (Diego Buccheri), a pop-shove it (by Steve Nesser - 411VM #66), a switch ollie, a switch frontside 180 (by Tony Manfre - montage in Free Your Mind from Transworld Skateboarding), a pop-shove it to melon grab (Jeremy Reeves, from footage featured on Thrasher Magazine's website).

Forrest Edwards landed a Switch Kickflip down the massive stairs, adding yet one more amazing feat to this massive stair set. There are photographs of the feat in the April 2013 issue of Thrasher Magazine, and a 'magnified' clip of the trick on Thrasher's YouTube channel.[6] On the same day DJ Gaudin landed a Switch Backside Kickflip.[7]

Cameron Zvejnieks, after 27 consecutive attempts, successfully landed a Sack Tap down this infamous set in December of 2016.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.thrashermagazine.com/component/option,com_hwdvideoshare/Itemid,90/lang,en/task,viewvideo/video_id,92/
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsqGVKJ89s
  3. ↑ http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2011/07/20/what-happened-to-danny-gonzalez/
  4. ↑ http://www.thrashermagazine.com/component/option,com_hwdvideoshare/Itemid,90/lang,en/task,viewvideo/video_id,168/
  5. ↑ http://www.thrashermagazine.com/component/option,com_hwdvideoshare/Itemid,90/lang,en/task,viewvideo/video_id,168/
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn8L4Sb197o
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgvKCP5pYU
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