Upland Skate Series Finals

…let me just fill you in…it’s gnarly. Don’t get me wrong, the pipe is perfect and the bowl at the end is clean.

The relatively new Upland, CA skatepark…have you been there? Have you skated it? If you haven’t, let me just fill you in…it’s gnarly. Don’t get me wrong, the pipe is perfect and the bowl at the end is clean. It’s the pipelike section before the pipe with the waterfall and channel that offers up the big challenge…and the big payoff.

Bambam and I had attended some of the qualifiers for the contest and it was obvious that the big day was going to be just that, big! The locals destroy the place. While they are friendly Badlanders their domination of the park makes you feel like an outsider. Drop in, grind, channel-smith, 10 O’clock, and on and on. While the domination was certainly in effect on the night of the contest, sometimes the outsiders come in to a new scene with a fresh set of knees and lines. That is kind of how it went down, kind of. Check the results (whisper: “do we have the results? good, okay then.”) below.

I watched the warm-ups and the girls division…in between sodas. The turn out was amazing, from the skaters to the spectators, you always had someone to shoot-the-shit with, good times. The Serna’s and staff did a killer job and we were all stoked. There was a load of skaters and if I hadn’t had so many sodas, I would probably remember more of the details…damn sugar! I do recall Serna Jr. flying at mach something-or-another through the pipe, Chris Kelly destroying with enthusiasm and the ladies pushing their own skate boundaries. Upland can kick your ass or make your day. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Here’s the list of the finalists: