UNM Spot #3: Angled 8-Stair Rail

Daniel Lutheran, switch heelflip. Ph: Anthony Acosta

Now this 8-stair angled rail was the only spot from Albuquerque that I actually knew about. (I had no idea about UNM until this summer though.) I remember seeing Daniel Lutheran's New Jack interview in The Skateboard Mag a while back which included a photo of a 360 flip over this very rail. There was something about going over a rail for me at that time that was extremely appealing, so the trick stuck in my memory. The trick later appeared in Daniel's Mag Minute, again instantly sticking out to me as the Albuquerque spot. Since the Lutheran family is from Albuquerque, it makes sense that Daniel can consider this a local spot. And at local spot, you can get multiple tricks. So a bit later, Daniel comes through with a buttery switch heelflip (photo from The Skateboard Mag's Contenders Interview) that appears in his Brainwash part.

With Daniel and the Lutherans as the Albuquerque tour guides, there've been some solid posses coming through the city over the years. On one such visit, Jamie Tancowny came through and landed a pair of tricks himself as he was filming for Stay Gold. First a frontside pop shove it and then an upgrade to the varial heelflip (photo below by Anthony Acosta).

Jamie Tancowny, varial heelflip. Ph: Anthony Acosta

These are the only 4 tricks I know that have gone down at this spot, but please comment below if there are any I missed!

The spot itself is pretty awesome for someone craving some jumping. The set itself is a pretty sizeable 8-stair with decent height and probably slightly longer than a standard 8-stair.

The rail is knobbed obtrusively enough so there's no real chance at an angled grind, except maybe for the adventurous and clinically insane.

 But it is placed at a pretty ideal angle for popping tricks over.

There's enough room for run-up, but a little turning to get the right launching angle is needed. It's beneficial in this case to approach with the proper carve to go over the angled rail. And there's the standard crack at the very top stair, so a trick would probably have to be popped about 6 inches before the top stair.

Overall, with really nice ground to ride up with and land on, the spot is a must visit for anyone in the UNM area. If you have the testicular fortitude to chase a trick or two at this spot, there are definitely a few opportunities here!

And the guide for the spot-hunters: (If you go up the stairs at this spot and skate along to the right, you'll end up right at Johnny Layton's Wallride Spot. How sick is that?!)

UPDATE: Looks like Josh Hawkins also wanted some of that varial heelflip action over the rail, as seen in his latest Happy Medium 3 part.

Next Week: Clipper Ledge

Next week is going to be a good one. We'll be taking a look at a bunch of the tricks that have gone down at the Clipper Ledge in San Francisco, California. This topic was primarily inspired by Jamie Thomas's latest addition to the history of tricks with his gnarly ender in Cold War. Just to be safe and not spoil anything further, I'll just say that while the trick itself may be used a bit too frequently these days, actually thinking about doing it down something as big as Clipper makes you realize just how gnarly that trick was. The fact that it was The Chief doing it too just adds to the quality of the history at the spot.

To keep some standards for this week, I'll only be highlighting the grinds/slides done down the ledge. That isn't to say there have been some crazy tricks done OVER the ledge too. Cody Mac's switch flip from Business as Usual (2:48), Jamie Tancowny's backside flip from Strange World (1:25) which just so happens to follow a sweet kickflip front board down the ledge, and one of the highest ollies probably ever done: Milton Martinez goes over the top and down the TWO sets at Clipper! Then there's Eli Reed and Richie Jackson getting creative and doing some footplants, Eli in his Real Street part (0:52) and Richie in this older Pig Wheels ad.
Now for some mention-worthy grind/slide tricks done down Clipper. There's James Hardy in Since Day One with his scary front 180 to switch 50-50 the hard way, Nyjah Huston's hammer of a hardflip back 5-0 from his Last Call part from last year (0:30), Greg Lutzka's really awesome frontside big spin noseslide from Forward Slash, Vincent Alvarez with a crazy switch backside bluntslide back to switch from Pretty Sweet, Ishod Wair with the stylish frontside version, and then Mark Appleyard with three beautiful tricks from Sorry: switch front tail (1:28), kickflip back 5-0 (4:35), and following that with the gnarly nollie flip back 50.

I hope I'm not missing any super gnarly tricks done at Clipper, but these ones mentioned here and the ones coming this week are the ones that stick out most.

Update 6/8/15: Even though Transworld pretty much fully documented the ABD Archives at Clipper, and Thrasher helped unleash a myriad of NBDs on the spot through The Ripper at Clipper to forever cement this spot as one of the greatest in skateboarding history (RIP Clipper), I don't think Daniel Dubois' frontside 360 from his 19th Ave part was fully appreciated, or Sam Baker's crazy ledge combo on the gnarly hubba while under construction. And I almost forgot Alex Conn's gnarly nollie boardslide to fakie!