Another piece of coverage in the ongoing series of articles by Jeff "JT" Tatum. This time he sends us a scene report covering massive, legendary pipes that were skated by only a few and known at the time as "The Amerons" or, even better: "Nukeland Pipes". Take yourself back to the Cold War, to the second heydey of skateboarding... Some of these photos are being published for the very first time.
NUKELAND:
The Ameron Pipes
In late 1978, on the way to Mission Viejo indoor skate park, Sonny Miller, Art (Rat) Mingeaud and I saw the Nukeland Pipes located just off the 5 Freeway, for the first time. We soon became locals of those pipes, located on the camp Pendleton Marine base. My dad was a retired Jarhead and I had a military ID which would get us onto the base. Then we would drive down a dirt road, cross a small creek and stash the car in some bushes, before sneaking up to the pipes.
The pipes were made by a pipe company called Ameron somewhere up in northern California. That’s why they were called the “Amerons”. They were located across from the San Onofre Nuclear power plant. This was on top secret government land which was highly illegal to trespass on. The area was guarded by jeep-driving jarheads, toting loaded M-16s.
New York City is famous as a melting pot of cultures and ideas. Yet with all this diversity, for years only one type of skating ruled supreme: street, and as anyone who hasn’t been living in a van down by the river knows, longboarding and roots skateboarding is on the rise all across the US and the world. Though late to the party the longboarding scene in New York is now growing by leaps and bounds, with more events and participants each season. In this report I’d like to give you all an overview of the kinds of events, places, and folks we have here in the NYC longboarding scene.
Here's one we just received from a group of Florida Longboard Hillbillies...
Yes we've been busy with putting up a website, and getting plenty of footage for our second DVD. Located on the Florida/Georgia border we spend many hours driving old county roads in search of that perfect drop. Below is a link to Youtube where you can see a small clip of our sk8ing! Cheers, AaronK
You've heard about the legendary Maryhill Road, right? It's mile after mile of perfect pavement, on a closed road in Washington State. The scene of many a bombing run, several bigtime races and popular for "destination skating", it was the location of choice for a big group of locals and Coast Longboarding skaters. David Price reports, with photos by Jon Huey:
"With all the rain and cold weather this winter in the Northwest, it was time for
the longboarders to come out and play in the brief periods of dryness. The Maryhill Ratz and the Coast Longboarding crew put together an epic session on the perfect run: Maryhill. We hosted over 60 riders, coming to Washington state from all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada including Salem, Spokane, Seattle, Olympia, Vancouver BC and even as far away as Calgary Alberta, (a 12 hour drive each way), and converged on the Historic Maryhill Loops Road for the First Annual F@*k the Rain Tour."
Fresh to you from the urban playgrounds of France, we have this scene/ride report from Max Sorin. He's "Brigadier" on the 'Fish, and we look forward to more from him in the near future...including the pending slalom/slide contest in Paris!
Sunday 26th February, 11 AM. My cell-phone rings. It was so hard to open my eyes and pick up the phone! I had been fast asleep in bed with the woman in my life, she was naked and warm. The phone broke this marvellous instant! It was Yoann, aka
Scene Reports 
