Wallenberg, also known as the Wallenberg Four, is located at the

Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School is a high school in San Francisco, California, USA. It was founded in 1981 in honor of the Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg. In recognition of its namesake, the sc ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It is a popular gap among the

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a ...

community and measures to a height of 4 feet 4.8 inches and a length of 16 feet 6 inches. 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 Street to gain speed; it has to be obtained from a ramp, roll in or by gaining speed in some other form. Its exact location is 40 Vega Street,

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

94118. Its GPS Coordinates are 37*46'48.86"N, 122*26'46.82"W.

Coverage in skateboarding media

The Wallenberg gap first appeared in Mark Gonzales's part in "

Video Days ''Video Days'' is a skateboarding video by Blind (company), Blind Skateboards released in 1991. It is considered one of the most influential skate videos, as director Spike Jonze's format is frequently cited as its definitive filming template. '' ...

," a 1991 skateboarding video released by Blind Skateboards. In 1999, Danny Gonzalez performed a

Kickflip The kickflip is a skateboarding trick, in which the rider flips their skateboard 360° along the axis that extends from the nose to the tail of the deck. When the rider is regular footed the board spins counter-clockwise if viewed from the side. I ...

to Melon grab as seen in Transworld's "The Reason". In 2004, ''

Thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera. These do not form a clade but are a ph ...

'' 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. 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. Andrew Reynolds backside flipped the set. The trick appeared on the cover of the May 2007 issue of

and was also added to Reynold's part in Emerica's ''Stay Gold'' released in 2010. Chris Cole was the first one to 360 flip it in ''New Blood'' a skateboarding

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

Zero Skateboards Zero Skateboards is a skateboard company located in Carlsbad, California, United States. The brand was founded by professional skateboarder and entrepreneur Jamie Thomas, and distributed by his Black Box Distribution company. In late June 2014 ...

. 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 A flip trick is a type of skateboarding trick in which the skateboard rotates around its vertical axis, or its vertical axis and its horizontal axis simultaneously. The first flip trick, called a kickflip but originally known as a "magic flip", w ...

over the gap at the Thrasher contest. Some other tricks include a backside 180 (Diego Bucchieri), 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 ''Thrasher'' is a skateboarding magazine founded in January 1981 by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello. The publication consists primarily of skateboard- and music-related articles, photography, interviews and skatepark reviews. The magazine also ...

, and a 'magnified' clip of the trick on Thrasher's YouTube channel. On the same day DJ Gaudin landed a Switch Backside Kickflip. Chris Joslin performed two tricks down the set for his Etnies Album part. The first was a hardflip backside 180 which was only captured from one angle since he landed it on his third attempt. The second was an inward heelflip. Both tricks were NBD's. On November 9, 2019 Miles Silvas switch back heeled the set after five trips to the spot spanning over four years of attempts.

Never Been Done (NBD's)

References

{{reflist

External links

Thrasher Wallenberg contestWallenberg at SubpublicWallenberg at iSKATEhere.com
Skateboarding spots