The Wallenberg Set, also known as the Wallenberg Four or simply Wallenberg, is a popular location in the

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

community. Located at the Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, it consists of four tiers of pavement and

curb A curb (American English) or kerb (British English) is the edge where a raised sidewalk/pavement or road median/central reservation meets a street/other roadway. History Although curbs have been used throughout modern history, and indeed ...

ing, adjacent to a stairway and next to a parking area. The section notable for skateboarding measures in height and in length. Since becoming notable, the school has re-profiled the "run up" to the set, and it is no longer possible to use adjacent Vega Street to gain speed in order to jump the entire set; speed has to be obtained from a ramp, roll in, or by some other form. The address of the school is 40 Vega Street, San Francisco, California 94118. The GPS coordinates of the Wallenberg Set are .

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 Skateboards released in 1991, which is often credited as the most important skate video of all time. ''Video Days'' is the second movie/video directed by Spike Jonze and stars Mark Gonzales, Guy ...

," 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 Footedness, regular footed the board spins clockwise if viewed from the fro ...

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 phe ...

'' 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 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 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 kickflipped the set. The trick appeared on the cover of the May 2007 issue of ''Thrasher'' 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 Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

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 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), and 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 stairs; there are photographs of the feat in the April 2013 issue of ''Thrasher'', 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 had never been done (NBD) at this location. On November 9, 2019, Miles Silvas switch back heelflipped the set after five trips to the spot spanning over four years of attempts.

Never Been Done (NBD's)

References

External links

Thrasher Wallenberg contestWallenberg at Subpublic
*{{usurped,
Wallenberg at iSKATEhere.com
} Skateboarding spots