Lipslide Skatepark - Los Angeles

R.I.P. Lipslide skatepark was a tiny hole in the wall inside a little warehouse in Los Angeles. It was basically a really cool skateshop that had a couple mini-ramps inside to session.

The big mini-ramp was 20 feet wide and about 5 feet tall. It had an extension that was 4 or 5 feet across that was perfect for ollie grab airs and other technical liptricks that were raging in those days. The small mini-ramp was moved in from Alec Schroeders garage and placed only a few feet from the display cases in the shop. We referred to it as the ashtray bowl, because it was a rad little 2 foot deep bowl with pool coping.

I think there were a few CASL contests on the mini-ramp at the time, then came it's big climax in skate history. Lance Mountains vert ramp was disassembled by us semi-locals and hauled down the street to Lipslide where we spent day and night re-assembling for a CASL vert contest. We finally got it ridable the day before the event and went home for the night. I remeber driving in the next morning to a crowd of seriously bummed skaters all standing and looking at 1/2 of a vert ramp with the other half burnt to the ground. It seems the local vatos didn't like all the attention the skatepark was getting and burned it down.

It was then decided we'd rebuild the burnt half. Once that was completed the ramp was never quite the same as the original in Lances back yard. I think the burned ramp and constant parking congestion led the landlord to shut the operation down. Lipslide looked to re-open in a new location but a new site was never found.

Some of the heads I remember skating with there are Rich Sanchez, the Schroeders, Lance, a little Chad Fernandez, and Pat & Ron. - J.ed