The Rush and Threat of Skateboarding San Francisco’s Hills

Skateboarder Zane Timpson glides down a residential street on one of San Francisco’s famous steep hills. The sun seems to be balancing on the horizon. He stretches a hand back towards the camera that is following him – perhaps to keep his balance or as if he were inviting the audience to come along. Timpson bombs hills – high-speed skating on dizzying tracks – and the latest New Yorker video follows him, his fellow traveler Adam Anorga, and other members of their crew as they sail downhill like a rolling tableau alternating between deep asphalt and asphalt Leaning incredibly high on bends in the road, arms outstretched as if surfing on Christ the Redeemer.

Bombing hills requires a different skill than traditional flat-bottomed street skating or bowl skating. “Essentially, all you have to do is stand there and make sure you don’t fall off,” Anorga told me. Instead of working out technical tricks, bombers rely on serenity in the face of adrenaline. He said that some of the lightest skaters he knows “just know how to hold on and trust yourself and trust their intuition”. He went on, “I mean, if you can do this to bomb a hill, you are sure you could. . . apply that to all other aspects of your life that. . . can be profound if used properly. “

The steep falls, the presence of traffic, and the high speeds – Timpson estimates he is traveling at speeds of 20 to 30 mph on a typical hill – can be a dangerous combination. People have died in hill bombs. “It’s not a joke. It’s not easy to take,” says Timpson in the video. In 2019, the pro-skater Pablo (P-Spliff) Ramirez, who appeared in the videos “Awaysted” and “Fffurther” by Anorga and Timpson, died can be seen while skating in traffic in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. The acclaimed GX1000 skater did not bomb, but pawed when the accident occurred while he was holding onto the bumper of a moving vehicle. Anorga, which occurred the same day how his friend’s accident hit a doctor to undergo reconstructive surgery for a ruptured ACL remembers a turning point. “Wow, I hardly go here and my best friend is no longer here,” he recalled. Seeing it as an opportunity to commit to himself, he said it made him take care of his body so he could keep running for as long as possible. Anorga is philosophical about the risks of extreme skiing: “We use our K body to its absolute limits and to its absolute potential. We don’t just waste our bodies as we get older, ”said Anorga. “Often it means that we cross our threshold and get hurt.”

Timpson and Anorga both moved to San Francisco because of its knotty hills and tight skateboarding community, and they credit that community with the safety. “When you have a full squad,” explains Timpson in the video, drivers will pay more attention and treat the crew more like another vehicle. During the filming, the skaters walk with a group and use spotters at intersections to ensure that cars don’t interrupt the bomber’s path. “Ask yourself … do you have supportive friends who will be there for you when you need them?” Anorga said. “This is something that is very important,” he said, then paused and added: “Although some of the funniest times I’ve ever had without it.” … It’s that risk, that adrenaline rush that drives you in a different direction. But yeah, that’s a whole different story. “