Stan Hoffman, who with his wife Jeanne, defied, or otherwise found a way to wiggle around, the governmental standards and regulations being imposed in the 1970s by the officials of his generation on the innovations of that era’s youth to make possible a major cultural and athletic progression by the next generation, has died.
In 1976, the 45-year-old Hoffman was too old to himself take part as a direct participant in the transformation of skateboarding that was then occurring. It was his then-16-year-old son, Don, who was first gripped by the quintessential California phenomenon. Nevertheless, it was Stan who would turn the page so that in terms of skateboarding coming into its Golden Age, the rubber could meet the road, or, more accurately, the polyurethane could meet the elaborately-contoured concrete.
In the very early 1950s, while Stan Hoffman was in his early 20s, the skateboard – a small wood plank to which traditional metal roller skate wheels were attached – had just come into being, allowing the rider to “sidewalk surf.” In the early 1960s, the metal wheels gave way to ones composed of clay. Both metal and clay wheels, however, had the drawback of locking up or ceasing to roll fluidly if, with the weight of the rider pressing down upon the board, they encountered a pebble or gravel on the surface they were gliding over. In 1973, clay wheels were eclipsed by Frank Nasworthy’s introduction of polyurethane wheels, which were superior on multiple score, including traction, resistance to obstruction and a smoother ride. With the near simultaneous advancements in the assemblage that connects the wheels to the board, including the axles and baseplates, hangers, trucks and the fastening kingpin, which allowed the wheels to swivel and turn, skateboards became far more maneuverable than they had been previously.
Riders were becoming more daring and adventurous and were looking for ever more challenging courses upon which to glide.
The then-13-year-old Don Hoffman counted among his friends Steve Alba, who would in a few years establish himself as the premier vertical skateboarder in the world, as well as Chris Miller, who would go on to fame as one of the more riders when skateboarding matured as a sport.
At that point, skateboarders were utilizing emptied out backyard swimming pools for something they had never been intended for: skateboarding.
The contour of pools made them perfect for vert skating and doing aerial flips.
In 1977, young Hoffman told his father, an electric utility construction designer, about Skateboard City, which opened in Port Orange Florida and Carlsbad Skatepark in Carlsbad in northern San Diego County. They were good, he said, but too tame for truly skilled riders. At first, he wanted his father and mother to invest in some land in Florida, where the powers-that-be were a little more forward-looking than their counterparts in California, so he could build a skateboarding attraction to outclass Skateboard City, and thereby test the envelope and create a truly challenging course. To that, Stan Hoffman said, “Go all the way to Florida? Why not build it here?”
That is what they did. They contacted Upland-based Stone Construction and utilizing property Stan and Jeanne tied up at 1777 West Arrow Highway, which lay just west of the Upland City Limits and just east of the Montclair City Limits, they created, in just under seven weeks, a skating venue that was purposefully designed to take skateboarding to the end of what is possible.
All of the cards, all of the odds, all of the normal way of doing things militated against the concept. At that point, skateboarders, or at least that subset of skateboarders who were daringly jumping fences to ride in swimming pools that were empty because of the drought California was experiencing, were being declared outlaws as pool skating was being banned and even criminalized in one jurisdiction in California after another. No governmental agency, city or county, was likely to allow its planning division to ratify a land use policy approving swimming pools or structures indistinguishable from swimming pools to be used as a skateboarding venue. No insurance company would offer coverage to an owner of such a facility. And a skatepark of the type and scale that Don Hoffman and his friends were proposing had no precedence in California, or anywhere in the world for that matter.
Remarkably, Stan and Jeanne Hoffman were daunted by none of that. Taking advantage of the consideration that laxer land use regulations would apply to the narrow piece of unincorporated county area where their property was located, they went full speed ahead, creating the legendary Pipeline Skatepark.
The skatepark’s initial primary feature was the world’s first 20 foot high and 40 foot long fullpipe. That would be followed by the Combi Pool, a vertical double bowl consisting of a steep square pool connected to a shallow ramp which led toward and spilled into a round pool. Thereafter, what was referred to as the “Monster Bowl,” a 15-foot deep crater, was excavated and covered in concrete at the terminus of a banked slalom course, the first 50 feet of which was at a modest 2 percent grade and which thereafter sloped into a 42 percent grade at the mouth of the bowl.
In addition, the park contained four smaller “beginner bowls” that were the ends of little snake runs.
Stan Hoffman, together with Jeanne, maneuvered around the pitfalls that would have prevented the Pipeline from being built in the first place and then maneuvered some more to bypass the regulations that would have otherwise prevented it from operating. The Hoffmans early on wisely avoided the trap of having Upland annex the property, located between Benson Avenue and Central Avenue, knowing full well the staid Upland Planning Commission would have never stood for something as radical and outlandish as the Pipeline. They outfoxed the insurance companies by obtaining signed waivers from all of the Pipeline’s riders and/or their legal guardians before they were allowed to skateboard.
Wisely, with regard to the three main features at the park which were intended for advanced boarders, the Hoffmans set aside one-or-two hour time slots for when one of those attractions was open exclusively to the less skilled performers, while restricting use of the pipe, deep pools and the Monster Bowl to what was essentially the professional class during most hours.
To make the Pipeline a going concern, it had a pro shop, carrying a complete line of high-quality skateboarding equipment and accessories, and a snack bar, with fare such as pizza, burritos, ice cream and lemonade and orange juice, freshly squeezed from locally grown citrus.
The Pipeline opened in May 1977. It was wildly popular with skateboarders from the West End of San Bernardino County from the outset and its reputation grew outward into the Inland Empire. But as word spread locally and then regionally, officialdom, which had been only vaguely aware of the Pipeline’s existence, became alarmed. There was pressure being brought upon the Hoffmans to cease and desist, which they resisted, followed by an effort by local officials, most notably those in Upland, to have the county look into finding grounds to shut the facility down.
Simultaneously, the Pipeline’s fame was expanding, first to Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, then up the coast to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz. The Pipeline became known throughout California and then the United States and, ultimately, the world.
Though it was technically located in unincorporated San Bernardino County, the Pipeline had a zip code of 91786 and an Upland mailing address. By 1978, a veritable who’s who in the skateboarding world were making pilgrimages to Upland. The likes of Dave Hilton, Stacey Peralta, Don “Waldo” Autry, Phil Edwards, Doug “Pineapple” Saladeno, Ritchie Carrasco, John Hutson, Desiree Von Essen, George “Wildman” Orton, Eddie Elguera, Steve Olson, Henry “Bad H” Hester, Tom Inouye, Vicki Vickers and Tony Alva came to the Pipeline to join with Steve Alba, Chris Miller and Steve Alba’s little brother, Micke, in exploring what the site had to offer. Then, Jim O’Mahoney, whose promotion of skateboarding as a sport, lifestyle, way of life and phenomenon was finding its way into not just the centerpiece of the country but its nooks and crannies, celebrated the Pipeline as the what was, essentially, the center of the universe.
At that point, the unmovable object of the law, government and officialdom was hit broadside by the irresistible force of skateboarding and its allure. Upland’s mayor and city council and the members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors who knew virtually nothing about skateboarding except that they instinctively hated it, recognized that the Pipeline had in a way they couldn’t quite comprehend put Upland and San Bernardino County on the map. The Pipeline, out of nowhere, had transformed Upland onto co-equal footing with Paris, Stockholm, St. Moritz, Lake Placid, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Helsinki, Innsbruck, Sapporo and Glenoble. Forcing the Pipeline to close was now out of the question. Grudgingly at first and then at last with admiration, among Stan and Jeanne’s peers – adults – the Pipeline found acceptance.
One of the business world’s primary principles is that success breeds onerous competition. By the end of 1978, there were five other classic skateparks in California, two of which shamelessly emulated the Pipeline model. By 1979, there were a dozen skateparks in California. By 1980, there were scores throughout the world, including ones that reached to equal or exceed what Stan and Jeanne Hoffman had created, including the Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida; Turf Skatepark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Rom in London, England.
Subsequently, BMX riders asked the Hoffmans if they would open their venue to bike riders. To the surprise of many, because few Skateboard parks would tolerate crossover use, Stan and Jeanne said yes.
By 1987, the Pipeline had achieved a good run. But land values were escalating. Stan and Jeanne sold the property and in 1988, the Pipeline was closed. In 1989, the Pipeline was gone, replaced by an industrial park.
Jeanne passed in 1999.
Before his passing, Stan lived to see Skateboarding become a competition event in the Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024. Skateboard riders of two separate generations in Upland who watched that competition broadcast via satellite, doubtlessly silently noted that the foundation of what they were seeing was laid by Stan Hoffman.
–Mark Gutglueck