Santa Monica Triple Set- ABD List

Hello ladies and gentlemen.

Did you know that Ryan Gallant did a kickflip backside noseblunt down the clipper ledge? Because I didn't until quite recently, and when I came across it, I stumbled onto the ABDarchives page for the famous clipper ledge.

Before I continue, just reflect on how awesome Ryan Gallant is, both for doing that trick and every other trick he's ever blessed our eyeballs with. Are we done reflecting? Good.

Anyway, I began to wonder what other famous spots had such pages, only to realize that very few seem to exist. Of course, a couple of famous spots are pretty well cataloged in other ways, so the most famous spot I could think of next was the Santa Monica triple set. When I began, I really didn't realize how much stuff had gone down at Santa Monica, but the spot always interested me. It's very distinct in videos, as it sits right on the beach and has a long history of crazy tricks going down there. It's a gap that is big enough that nobody really steps to it unless they're serious, but yet it's still manageable enough to be open to all kinds of possibilities- as we will see.

What I have here is (I think) a good start of a list of all the notable tricks that have happened at the Santa Monica triple set. I do acknowledge, however, that I almost certainly missed a few and for that reason, I'm asking for your help! If you know of another trick that has gone down at the set, let me know in the comments. I'll be updating the list as I discover new tricks.


NOTE: I apologize for the speed of the GIF's being kind of messed up. I couldn't find a better way to make them that didn't speed up the clip by almost double, so I tried to use slow motion video clips where possible so that they wouldn't quite have that weird hummingbird effect. Since this page is kind of heavy, the speed might also change depending on your internet connection, but I tried to be good about saying where each clip comes from so you could go see it for yourself if you choose.

For now, let's dive deep into skateboarding history and really appreciate some of the incredible feats that have gone down at this historic skate spot.

It was way back in 1993 that New World Order came out and Kareem Campbell opened up his part with an ollie down the triple set. Kareem's style is still great to watch today.

It took several years for anyone to step up to the plate next, and who would it be but Donny Barley in Welcome to Hell  (1996)? It's a weird trick to obsess over, but Donny always had some of my favorite frontside 180's, and this one sure is pretty.

Fast forward to 1998, we have none other than Kris Markovich with a kickflip. Element's Third Eye View.

 Of course, that same year, Andrew Reynolds had his part in The End. The Boss pulled his always iconic frontside flip down the iconic gap. It's no wonder that guy is a legend.

Soon after, the always- amazing Jeremy Wray backside heelflipped it and pulled a burly front 3. That dude was way ahead of his time.  I finally tracked down these clips in the Element World Tour from 1999. These tricks definitely seemed to open up the gates for people to try pretty much anything down this gap.

It wasn't too long after that that we saw Arto Saari hit it with a switch backside 180 in Menikmati (2000), which was a pretty heavy step-up from the other stuff that had been done at this point.

And then the triple set got destroyed for the sake of the Sorry video in 2002. Perhaps nobody hit it harder than Geoff Rowley, with a pop shuvit, backside 360 and varial heelflip.

And of course, Arto Saari got a couple hammers in that video as well, with a backside flip and then an epic switch flip. Even more incredible is that Arto also tried (and almost landed) a switch backside flip, which would be amazing today and extremely next-level back then. You can watch the switch backside flip attempts here.

Pretty shortly after Sorry, Girl put out Yeah Right! (2003), and Koston put down a sick switch heel.

Then Paul Rodriguez dropped an unbelievable switch 360 flip right in front of Lance Mountain in a Nike ad in 2009. Pretty heavy for an ad if you ask me, but this IS P-Rod we're talking about.

Now, what we have here is proof that Woody Woelfel is just woefully underrated... Or perhaps, Woelfelly underrated (I am... so sorry). You see, Woody doesn't appear to be sponsored by any major companies, but he is still the kind of guy that switch hardflips the Santa Monica triple set. I found this  clip in a random youtube video that came out in 2010. If Paul Rodriguez is doing switch tre's down the same spot that this kid is doing switch hardflips down (within a year of each other), I think it's  safe to say the kid deserves some recognition. I've been saying it ever since I posted his 2013 video part as a "Why Haven't I Seen This?" entry. Educate yourselves, people.

Also in 2010, we saw Derrick Wilson do an incredible switch big heel in an independent video called Ta Ha. Cory Kennedy had an ad doing the same trick, but the trick didn't wind up in any of Cory's video parts (from what I can see). This was probably because Derrick had already done it, and for that reason, I'm going to post the GIF of him doing it since he got it first.

Even more recently than that, Kevin Romar put down my absolute favorite trick down the Santa Monica triple: a nollie back heel in Blind's This Is Not A Test (2011). He makes it look way too easy.

As nice as it would be to end this article on something as beautiful as that Kevin Romar trick, there have been other tricks done down the gap more recently that most certainly deserve a mention.

As usual, Paul Hart was willing to tear up the spot. For whatever reason, he's made himself rather comfortable with fakie 360 shuvits, and I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed by the fact that he put this one down. Props, Paul. This is from a Filmbot15 video that came out in spring of 2014.

Here we have Carlos Vega with a pretty solid frontside heelflip. Carlos has really solid style- I definitely recommend checking him out on Youtube. I'm not sure when this was filmed exactly, but the video was posted in the spring of 2014, so we're gonna roll with that for now.

In 2015, we've seen a couple more notable tricks thrown down the legendary set. First, there was Cody McEntire with an epicly steezy nollie backside bigspin heelflip:
 

Then there was what I feel comfortable calling the best trick yet: Shane O'Neill's switch 360 double flip:

Wow.